Friday, September 30, 2005

It Has Been.....

It has been a month since I last stepped onto the Jetty of Pulau Ubin. Missing all the fauna and flora on the island. Especially the creatures on Chek Jawa. (Urgh....call it withdrawal symptom from no field trip and guided walk.)

So....I have decided that no matter what, I will make a trip to Ubin next Saturday. Anyone wants to join me? :o)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Grandmum's Birthday Dinner Tonight.....

Have to be at my Grandmum's place for her birthday dinner tonight. Mum said that I have to be there no matter what.

Guess I have to prepare myself to get bombarded with questions from my uncles and aunties AGAIN like;

- How's working life?
- Any boyfriend yet?
- Why don't you try to lose some weight? Try this method lah...blar...blar...

Sigh...why are they asking the same questions everytime when they already know the answers?

Saturday, September 24, 2005

First Local Water Dive.....

Finally, I got a taste of diving in local water at Pulau Salu today. :o)

What can I say? I think we have good reefs but as usual the problem is the visibility of our water. It's just poor.....only about 1 to 2m today.....sigh....if only we have water without all those sediments and silts. And don't think it is going to get any better with all the reclamation and dredging going on around our water.

Was having some difficulties descending at first. But after second try, finally descended and went to about 12m. It was totally dark and we have to use our torches. Stay close to my buddy fearing that I will lose her in this pit dark surrounding. Managed to see some stuffs like an Icon seastar, tiny shrimps that were on a sea whip, a small flatworm and a sea urchin. After I saw the urchin, I tried to back off but only find myself in zero vis and that when I started to flow up and surface. Very paiseh to my buddy, Ivy, as I felt very bad for she was looking after me all the time that she may not manage to get any decent shots of the marine animals.

Second dive of the day, we decided to try a shallow area when there's still sunlight. Vis was about 1 to 2m. I did not see much except a Tomato Anemonefish beside some Bulb Tentacle anemone. However, there are a lot of hard corals and some are very big. Now if only we have better water, there would be more of them.

Anyway, the dive was better than I have imagined. Now I will need to get myself comfortable with low vis and I will definitely try to dive at Pulau Hantu if there is any trip.

Looking forward to it and also my next weekend trip to Pulau Dayang in Malaysia.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

How To Reduce?.....

From the way that NTUC FairPrice gave away plastic bags to its customers, guess we still have a long way to go in reducing the number of plastic bag usages.

For instance, I was at the supermarket yesterday running some errands. These were the things that I bought; 3 cups of yogurt, 1 can of sardine and 1 bottle of shampoo.

After paying at the counter, I told the cashier that it's OKAY to put all three item together into one bag. But guess what? She put the food items into one big bag and then took a smaller plastic bag to put the shampoo in. That's TWO bags! But....but....I already told her that all three item go into one bag!

Like that how to reduce plastic bag usages???

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Last Pre-dawn Trip For Year 2005.....

Just have my last pre-dawn intertidal trips over the weekends for this year.

Was at Semakau for the guide training but I ended up doing things for the filming.

On Saturday, we reached Semakau in the middle of a thunder storm from West Coast Pier.
Someone in the group must have agitated Mother Nature.

As it was weekend, no transportation was provided to bring us to the entrance of the mangrove. We have to walk 2km from the jetty together with our gears in the light rain.

When we reached the mangrove and proceeded into the forested area to get to shore, along the way, someone in front came across a snake. But the snake was fast and disappeared into the bushes before he could get a second glance at it. All we know was that it was black with yellow spots.

Upon reaching the shore, we set up and set out towards the sandbar and reef areas. Things were pretty quiet until someone spotted a FROGFISH. It was a camera shy black Frogfish about 5cm big. Later, someone spotted another Frogfish again. This one was more active and we got all the shoots that we needed it to do except eating a fish.

I came across a nudibranch (sinuate ceratosoma) on a tape seagrass. It was sitting there like a piece of sponge. It was a first sighting for me of this slug. Later on, also managed to find another nudibranch (chromodoris lineolata) on some seaweeds and a tiny winy baby squid about 0.5cm big. Back at shore, others also found a pair of glossodoris altromarginata, chromodoris lineolata, a squid, a juvenile cardinalfish, flatworms etc.

The first day turned out to be a great day with all the amazing find and we have a clear BLUE sky at the end of the trip.

Unfortunately, the second day at Semakau was not that good. We were half way through the shooting of a seahorse and a flounder when gust of winds and thunders sent us packing. The weather did not make a better turn and we spent our time at the hut waiting and sleeping before the bus came to pick us up back to the jetty. However, we still managed to see some stuff found earlier and that include a heart-shape bivalve and a pair of gymnodoris.

Well.....that’s all for the pre-dawn trip this year. Got to wait for another six months before the new serie starts again next year. Meanwhile, look like I am going to suffer from some withdrawals.

The next trip out will be somewhere in November evening. Looking forwards to all the guiding at Chek Jawa and now Semakau. Also looking forwards for my last diving trip of this year at Pulau Dayang at the end of this month.

Missing.....

I am MISSING someone badly.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

What Was He Thinking?....

As a Manchester United fan, after watching this morning Champion's League, I have only one thing in my mind;

WHAT WAS ROONEY THINKING?

Applauding to the Referee for awarding him a YELLOW Card! It was a STUPID thing to do. He deserved the RED! So what he is only 19. It's right that Ferguson did not defend him this time.

Lucky it did not cause MANU to lose the match which ended 0-0.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Burned But Happy!.....

Just came back from my weekend dive trip to Tioman and now I am totally burned!

Sun-burned that is.... :o] and it hurts on my face and arms.

Regardless of this, I have enjoyed the dive. I did a few of my firsts (First deep dive and NIGHT dive)! It was COOL dispite the initial fears.

In addition, gets to know a lot of peoples who share the same interest. A big thank you to all the Instructors and DMs at 51 Scuba and Gill Divers for making it an enjoyable diving trip and teaching the skills during my Advanced Open Water course.

Yeah! An Advanced Open Water Diver now. :o)

Saw a few things during the trip too. Including Dolphins on our way to dive site at Labas, a BIG Lion's Mane Jellyfish at Marine Park and a ship wreck during my deep dive. But I missed a car wreck at my last dive site.

Happy, happy!!! :o)

For now, I have to bear with the painful skin and hope it will subside before my outing to Semakau next week for my guided walk training.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

T minus 30 Hours To Tioman.....

Yeah!!! Will be going to Tioman for diving tomorrow. LoL

But I have not finish reading the theories. Guess I have to burn midnight oil tonight to get it done. Not to mention that I have yet pack my stuffs.

Have to meet at 7pm and this mean I will have to rush from my workplace as I only knock off at 6.30pm. :o(

Arghhh...there go my money to the taxi driver.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Overtime....

Sigh.....got to do O/T today and it is not even due to unfinished works on my side. Got to stay back until 11pm just to attend some training over the phone by someone in USA.

Yup! That's why....because of the 12hrs time differences. This is even worse than my previous job dealing with the Europeans!!!

Guess I will be spending the next 2 hours waiting.:o(