So, the second Saturday in September was taken up with Sports Coach training. Interesting stuff on Sports Nutrition and Sports Injury. A lot of typical sports stuff isn’t applicable to diving as we are not high intensity, but we did get some good snippets. And there was one Sports Coach who got very little out of the day; he taught chess.
On the Sunday we dived the Empress of Fort William, off Samphire Hoe. Embarrassingly, Medsac had lost an anchor there the week before (but not when we were on her!), and we were hoping to retrieve it. So, we threw our spare anchor (not the backup anchor, that’s a smaller one) over to hold the shotline, and mooched on down for the dive. It was just lovely. Nice visibility, light water and lots of nooks and crannies for lobsters and crabs and blennies to hide in. Chris and I came back up with some good pictures. The spare anchor was safely sent back up to the surface. Andy and Jude spotted the AWOL anchor and sent that safely up to the surface. Steve and Dave discovered a CQR anchor and towed that up to the surface too!
The following weekend we went to Weymouth. Leaving after lunch, we had a good trip down with just one sticky patch outside Winchester, arriving around five. This time we stayed at the Beach House at Portland. Although the standard of hotel was the same as the last place we stayed, we preferred this one. A bit more roomy and the landlord was a bit of a character.
The weather was beautiful for us the entire weekend, and the wrecks were stunning. Using the dive boat Tango, we dove the Elenor R, the BlackHawk bow, and the Binnendijk (or something...) and a drift dive that scooted us along the seabed quite quickly. Lots of conversations on that dive went along the lines of ‘Ooh, look at-! Too late.’
The traffic was waiting for us, and we managed all the way from Weymouth Marina to the bottom of the M3 without ever getting the opportunity to move out of second gear. We snuggled up with a Humvee called Oz, and a car with twin girls in the back, pulling a trailer with t win dinghies marked up with Annie and Katie. Getting very tired, we left our new friends to queue up for the M3 whilst we decided to nip along the A3(M) instead, and that turned out to be a wise move. We stopped at a Little Chef for dinner, hit one set of roadworks, and arrived at the M25 in time to meet up with Oz, Annie and Katie. Bizarre or what.
Last weekend was a girly weekend, which was excellent. I decided on a career change. *furtive look* I’ll let you know how that goes after I’ve tested the waters...
Tuesday was another of those lunchless days where I left work a little early to charge up to Chatham and attend another Sports Coaching course. First Aid this time. I was quite pleased to find myself proficient in Rescue Breaths and Compressions thanks to the drills in the diver training courses. But, uh, if you cut yourself, you might want to find someone else to put a bandage on, unless you have a thing for being bandaged to the chair, or your arm bandaged to your leg.
Wednesday we went to Leybourne to dive. I would have dived too, except I charged up there straight from work and discovered that once again I’d forgotten a key piece of equipment. This time, my dry suit. D’oh!
Friday was an exciting day. Somewhere in France, a couple of weeks ago, a button was pushed and a Puglette with Chris’ name on was born. The order for Puglette specified ‘Peugeot 407 SW Sport 2ltr HDi in Aluminium Silver with JBL sound system’. The last two weeks has been a bit traumatic for Chris, as Puglette managed to wander off shortly after she was born and no one could find her to bring her to England. Eventually she was found, scared but excited in a transport hub somewhere near Coventry awaiting delivery to Chris. After a sleepless night, Chris was ecstatic at around 10.32 and 15 seconds to see her pull up at his place. Love at first sight? Oh yeah. Exactly as specified.
We went out to dinner at the Woolpack Friday night, especially so I could enjoy the brand new passenger side of the car. Saturday, I inspected the driver’s side and drove her all day, down to Folkestone and back via the scenic route. I think I like her. Chris isn’t sure about a name for her yet, but it might be Suki. Chris is very happy with the sound system. Personally I was non-committal. It played music and that was about as much as I appreciated it, as I’m just not that aural. Until Meatloaf came on. One of his big powerful orchestral numbers. Excellent sound system.
We had Mel around to dinner last night and Chris cooked steak. The vampire in me was very happy, and Mel was on form so we had a good evening.
Sunday 30 September 2007
Friday 7 September 2007
Seals (not the Navy type)
The week was spent hamster sitting. Smudge is a very pretty hamster who loves to spend all day in bed, rising at 3am to rummage noisily around, and presents herself for hand feeding in her bedroom, or salon. Perky, on the other hand, is a very fat hamster with beautiful chocolate fur, and who can waddle exceedingly fast through his tubes to the feeding bowl, where he expects a brief petting before going to stuff his cheek pouches.
Saturday, we went to Chris’ mum and dad. Traffic was slow, but moving, which was... okay. We had a lovely afternoon, with good food and good company. And a perfect journey back.
Sunday we went to see mum and dad, and were treated to a Corizo sausage based dinner which was very nice and along with good company, a lovely day was had.
Monday was a very, very long day. I had to leave work early, so I worked through lunch and left at four thirty. After a pit stop at home, feeding the kits etc, I went up to Chatham, and looked for a place to park outside the Rebound centre. None was immediately forthcoming, however, sitting in my car, I was accosted by very mature gentleman who spoke to me as if he knew me, along with my husband Mick and three children, one of whom was named Molly that I was obviously picking up. I just grinned inanely until he went to move his Merc for me. Oh-kaaay.
So, on that note I went in to attend a course of Child Protection and Safeguarding which was very interesting.
We overran past nine, and I dived (no pun intended!) down to the RAFA Club for a meeting with the current Treasurer. I informally accepted taking over the Treasurer position, although I have to be formally voted in at the AGM in November, so that could all go horribly wrong.
Eventually, I pootled on home, and crashed into bed. Sometimes one wonders if one has bit off more than one can chew.
Thursday was fun. It’s very rare that I get a call from BDMLR, as I’m too far from the coast to be top of the call list, but being central, I was a good call for a seal relay. A common seal pup had been rescued at Herne Bay, underweight, alone and struggling to swim, and needed to be transported to the RSPCA at Fairlight outside Hastings.
One of the rescuers was able to bring her as far as Ashford, so we met in the car park at McDonalds (I knew that place had to be good for something!). Unfortunately, they’d managed to borrow a cage that was built for a full grown St Bernards, and the guy brought it down in the back of a pickup, and the cage has no way in hell ever going to fit in the back of my little coupe. So, we convoyed back to my house and transferred the seal to my cat cage, which is in fact a dog cage big enough for three cats.
The seal herself was just gorgeous. She was very tired, but very alert and very well behaved, so long as you didn’t go near her front flippers in which case she snapped. I wish I’d taken a picture, but I was kinda in ‘Rescue’ mode, so at the time, I was only thinking in terms of keeping her wet, cool, aired and comfortable. A passerby had a good look and asked us if the seal was ours, and we both myself and the rescue guy must have looked like stunned goldfish. Er, no. We’re just in the process of rescuing her, ma’am. Oh, said the passerby and carried on her way.
Having got her in the cat cage along with plenty of saturated towels, and transferred her to my car, the guy returned to Herne Bay, while me, my car, Ghostie, and the seal went to Fairlight. We tippy-toed ever so gently. It was a forty five minute drive and we stopped twice en route to check that the seal was staying wet and cool. She snorted when I put the air con on, and snuffled when I decided to open the windows instead, so I guess she preferred the open windows. She dozed whilst I was driving, but when we stopped she blinked sleepily at me and woke up, looking around and nosing the water I sprayed over her.
We arrived at Mallydams RSPCA centre, and Richard who was running the place, helped me get her out of my car and into the centre, and I helped him weigh her and decant her into one of the cubicles. He let me observe during triage, and it seems that she’s about four weeks old, and two thirds the weight she should be. She shouldn’t yet be weaned from mum but with the weight loss had probably been abandoned three or four days. She had bitten front flippers, probably by another seal, one of which was horribly swollen.
They gave her a heavy shot of antibiotics and some painkillers to tide her over until the vet arrived. I had to leave just before they medicated her, but they were optimistic, so long as there was no secondary infection or lugworm. Assuming she does make it, because of her age it’ll be a long time before she’s able to be released back into the wild, but one can hope.
Saturday, we went to Chris’ mum and dad. Traffic was slow, but moving, which was... okay. We had a lovely afternoon, with good food and good company. And a perfect journey back.
Sunday we went to see mum and dad, and were treated to a Corizo sausage based dinner which was very nice and along with good company, a lovely day was had.
Monday was a very, very long day. I had to leave work early, so I worked through lunch and left at four thirty. After a pit stop at home, feeding the kits etc, I went up to Chatham, and looked for a place to park outside the Rebound centre. None was immediately forthcoming, however, sitting in my car, I was accosted by very mature gentleman who spoke to me as if he knew me, along with my husband Mick and three children, one of whom was named Molly that I was obviously picking up. I just grinned inanely until he went to move his Merc for me. Oh-kaaay.
So, on that note I went in to attend a course of Child Protection and Safeguarding which was very interesting.
We overran past nine, and I dived (no pun intended!) down to the RAFA Club for a meeting with the current Treasurer. I informally accepted taking over the Treasurer position, although I have to be formally voted in at the AGM in November, so that could all go horribly wrong.
Eventually, I pootled on home, and crashed into bed. Sometimes one wonders if one has bit off more than one can chew.
Thursday was fun. It’s very rare that I get a call from BDMLR, as I’m too far from the coast to be top of the call list, but being central, I was a good call for a seal relay. A common seal pup had been rescued at Herne Bay, underweight, alone and struggling to swim, and needed to be transported to the RSPCA at Fairlight outside Hastings.
One of the rescuers was able to bring her as far as Ashford, so we met in the car park at McDonalds (I knew that place had to be good for something!). Unfortunately, they’d managed to borrow a cage that was built for a full grown St Bernards, and the guy brought it down in the back of a pickup, and the cage has no way in hell ever going to fit in the back of my little coupe. So, we convoyed back to my house and transferred the seal to my cat cage, which is in fact a dog cage big enough for three cats.
The seal herself was just gorgeous. She was very tired, but very alert and very well behaved, so long as you didn’t go near her front flippers in which case she snapped. I wish I’d taken a picture, but I was kinda in ‘Rescue’ mode, so at the time, I was only thinking in terms of keeping her wet, cool, aired and comfortable. A passerby had a good look and asked us if the seal was ours, and we both myself and the rescue guy must have looked like stunned goldfish. Er, no. We’re just in the process of rescuing her, ma’am. Oh, said the passerby and carried on her way.
Having got her in the cat cage along with plenty of saturated towels, and transferred her to my car, the guy returned to Herne Bay, while me, my car, Ghostie, and the seal went to Fairlight. We tippy-toed ever so gently. It was a forty five minute drive and we stopped twice en route to check that the seal was staying wet and cool. She snorted when I put the air con on, and snuffled when I decided to open the windows instead, so I guess she preferred the open windows. She dozed whilst I was driving, but when we stopped she blinked sleepily at me and woke up, looking around and nosing the water I sprayed over her.
We arrived at Mallydams RSPCA centre, and Richard who was running the place, helped me get her out of my car and into the centre, and I helped him weigh her and decant her into one of the cubicles. He let me observe during triage, and it seems that she’s about four weeks old, and two thirds the weight she should be. She shouldn’t yet be weaned from mum but with the weight loss had probably been abandoned three or four days. She had bitten front flippers, probably by another seal, one of which was horribly swollen.
They gave her a heavy shot of antibiotics and some painkillers to tide her over until the vet arrived. I had to leave just before they medicated her, but they were optimistic, so long as there was no secondary infection or lugworm. Assuming she does make it, because of her age it’ll be a long time before she’s able to be released back into the wild, but one can hope.
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