Egypt succinctly...
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
What to say about Egypt.
On land: it's hot, dry and sandy. Mind you we only spent 24 hours on Egyptian soil as such (and a significant portion of that at Hurgada Airport - nominated for "the world's least efficient" and "most effective passenger delay system" at the Crap Airport awards 2006) so i'm sure there's more to it than that... i think someone mentioned pyramids or something...
Anyways, it was the underwater world that concerned us this trip. And what a trip. Easily some of the best diving i've ever done and in serious style. Check out the M/Y Amelia here... Photos are now posted on my photo site (follow the link to the right) to give you an idea what it was like underwater. Simply beautiful.
Coral ampitheatres, mountains and caves; oceanic white tips (see above...), giant morays and giant sea turtles; prides of lionfish, blizzards of anthias, even a couple of octopus.And some of the best vis i've ever dived in. The photos tell it better than i ever could though. There are 16 up now and i'll be uploading more as the days go by - theres 117 to go up and that's just the highlights! Enjoy.
**A small disclaimer - the photos uploaded have been re-formatted to allow me to upload them in less than a geological timeframe but they are still fairly big files and take some time to load. I think the quality still remains pretty good but if not, (Dan, Alex or Maddy!) let me know and i'll see what i can sort out...
Is this really interesting?
Thursday, January 12, 2006
So on with the story, for those of you who have actually stayed with me.
After a rather stressful departure from Melbourne (courtesy of a flight time miscommunication on my part) i got out of Oz and got to relax... Sortof. Got the news while on my final placement that the aforementioned skiing brother had a bit of an accident and was in a hospital in France. Not fun for anyone really though i imagine even less so for him. With true style though he managed to fall down on his first day skiing and didn't even have the sense to do something simple like break his leg. Instead he fell on his skis and sliced through his knee. Ouch. And to make matters worse he failed to notice the hole in his leg and went skiing for a bit more then up another ski lift before he sensed something was wrong. Suffice to say he now has a bit of reputation with the Oxford varsity ski group as a bit of a 'ard man. However he (and his marginally concerned family) didn't actually really find out what was wrong till he finally got back to the UK due to distinct communication issues at the french hospital - namely, he speaks no french and doctors spoke very little 'anglais'! *sigh*
Once 'home' in the mother country, we met up with a slightly stir crazy David, and after the requisite doctors appointments, some fun with wheelchairs, Davids 'party tricks' and (thankfully) a few beers with friends the now reunited family headed up north to spend the 12 days of Xmas with my grandparents. Was good to get back to Derbyshire but at the same time had the odd feeling that i no longer belonged here. Really felt like a tourist for the first time - obviously Australia is getting under my skin!
Xmas was quiet. With my invalid brother (despite his best efforts to get EVERYWHERE), and our now frailer grandparents in a quiet country town it wasn't the biggest party i've ever had. But good to see G&G again and to have the family together once more. And it snowed. Thought not very much It was bloody cold, though you wouldn't guess it from David's permenant 'Flip-flop, shorts, T-shirt and knee brace attire' (all the rage this year in Milan, Darrrling).
After Xmas, with Davie bearly able to flex his leg that knocked his Eygpt trip out of the picture and mum elected to stay with him back in Oxford so the family hols kinda degenerated. Sadly. Still Dad and i grit our teeth and dragged ourselves off to egypt for six days diving. It was tough. Honest.
Next post... Eygpt and the Red Sea (succinctly)
Incidently... Does anyone actually read this stuff? I have to wonder sometimes whether or not this blog thing is just an egocentric waste of time.
Where to start....
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
From the beginning? But where to begin... Enough procrastination - that's exactly why this page hasn't been updated for the last month. So here i am: back from my holidays and there is much to tell, not to mention the photo updates to come :-)
Last month i passed my exams. Yay. I also happened to be in Mt Gambier for the second time and surprisingly all my plans for the trip actually made it to fruition. A rare event for me.
I went wine tasting (again). Wines were good.Spent too much money. (Try: Majella's "The Musician" Cabernet Shiraz 2004 [$17] - bargain in my humble opinion). Louie joined me for my last week and we sampled some of the best pizza in Australia, saw the 'new' Harry Potter (yes i know old news but i have a lot of catching up to do) and made it to Ewens Ponds, which was even better than expected. Crystal clear water, bubbling natural springs, reed gardens, curious fish and huge yabbies. It was bloody cold though. Sadly we also discovered that a trip to Piccannine Ponds requires a permit and that permits don't get issued on the weekend so we looked at the pond from the surface, which kinda misses the point. But i guess that means i'll just have to come back! As for the clinic, placement was brilliant. The first practice that i've been too where i really felt comfortable. And it makes life so much more fun. Hoping to go back this year (with dive gear in tow :-)
So that takes to me to mid December. Back in Melbourne, the blues came back. Amazing how a week at the distinctly less helpful University clinic can undo all the revitalised spirits in the world *sigh* We were on surgery and the highlight of the week was probably the end. Stupidly quiet in the clinic (a situation not made any easier by the fact that we ended up with 3 more students on rotation than expected) but i guess in the run-up to Xmas day people have more to spend their money on than animals... Interestingly though, i got to follow a surgical case referrred from the clinic in Mt Gambier - good to follow a case though to completion for once as it can get a bit frustrating only getting very brief snippets of a case due to the our short(ish) placements.
And that takes us to the beginning of my actual holiday...
Don't touch that dial.