Sunday, May 15, 2005
another fun weekend.
despite shitty weather, the swell being up (and me being on a diveboat instead of on my surfboard) and crap vis, it was a great weekend.
the bosses had been running a mid-week charter, with school kids, all week. so they said they'd be pretty stuffed and i've have to run things on friday night. at about 1:30am on saturday morning i refused another rum and coke from one of them and excused myself to go and sleep. if he's staying up late tonight, he won't be tomorrow...
saturday was pretty good. found a few nice dive spots. the divers seemed to be having fun. no major hiccups. after lunch i got in and tested out my new fins. very good. my photos on the other hand were very shit. one good one though. well, let me rephrase that. one that i liked. it's probably shit, but i liked it.
strangely, on saturday night the bosses disappeared very early. fortunately most of the divers crashed early too. only the non drinkers who'd been diving on nitrox were showing any staying power at around 12:00. and not too soon after, they went to bed and i tried to catch up on some sleep. my promised nap had evaporated, as some morons bleated meaningless rubbish over the radio.
sunday was nice. frantic as usual, but all good. due to the swell though, we had to try out some areas we don't usually dive. and on the way back to our mooring for lunch we passed by one of the big grey boats (navy). ideal photo opportunity. it wasn't until i looked at them later, the crew by the stern, hats off and heads bowed, that i realised we may have intruded on some ceremony. it's not too long back that we lost some people in a helicopter crash overseas. it could have been some kind of rememberance. i reckon most navy people in our area knew at least one of them, they're a small group. a subduing (is that a word?) thought.
i value my privacy, and felt bad about being near them whilst they were perhaps having a special moment.
life is for the living, and life goes on. today was the birthday party for my nephew's 6th birthday. a lovely kid, really. when i see my brother's kids i glow. also my son's 16th birthday. when i got there he had his girlfriend with him. of course his mom asked me to look at some computer shit for them... you know, i don't think i try hard enough. i've just been thinking. i wouldn't have minded at all if we'd ended up with our own kids. my two are step kids. and i love them lots. and i think that if he was my biological son, (and i was still married to his mother) i'd have been there. so now i feel guilty, because i regard these two as my own. if i'd had the weekend off, i'd have been there. so it's just a matter of better organisation, half a brain, and priorities.
when we get next years roster i'll take that weekend off, for both of them. endure the inevitable discomfort, and do my bit to make sure they know how much they're loved. kids are too special for work to intrude...
but i'm not down. he was grinning like an idiot (his girlie was still there) and both he and his sister gave me a hug.
life is good. i wouldn't be dead for quids.
the onlypicture that worked. the rest were even more crap. it's a juvenile grey banded rockcod, about 4 cm long. never seen one before.
despite shitty weather, the swell being up (and me being on a diveboat instead of on my surfboard) and crap vis, it was a great weekend.
the bosses had been running a mid-week charter, with school kids, all week. so they said they'd be pretty stuffed and i've have to run things on friday night. at about 1:30am on saturday morning i refused another rum and coke from one of them and excused myself to go and sleep. if he's staying up late tonight, he won't be tomorrow...
saturday was pretty good. found a few nice dive spots. the divers seemed to be having fun. no major hiccups. after lunch i got in and tested out my new fins. very good. my photos on the other hand were very shit. one good one though. well, let me rephrase that. one that i liked. it's probably shit, but i liked it.
strangely, on saturday night the bosses disappeared very early. fortunately most of the divers crashed early too. only the non drinkers who'd been diving on nitrox were showing any staying power at around 12:00. and not too soon after, they went to bed and i tried to catch up on some sleep. my promised nap had evaporated, as some morons bleated meaningless rubbish over the radio.
sunday was nice. frantic as usual, but all good. due to the swell though, we had to try out some areas we don't usually dive. and on the way back to our mooring for lunch we passed by one of the big grey boats (navy). ideal photo opportunity. it wasn't until i looked at them later, the crew by the stern, hats off and heads bowed, that i realised we may have intruded on some ceremony. it's not too long back that we lost some people in a helicopter crash overseas. it could have been some kind of rememberance. i reckon most navy people in our area knew at least one of them, they're a small group. a subduing (is that a word?) thought.
i value my privacy, and felt bad about being near them whilst they were perhaps having a special moment.
life is for the living, and life goes on. today was the birthday party for my nephew's 6th birthday. a lovely kid, really. when i see my brother's kids i glow. also my son's 16th birthday. when i got there he had his girlfriend with him. of course his mom asked me to look at some computer shit for them... you know, i don't think i try hard enough. i've just been thinking. i wouldn't have minded at all if we'd ended up with our own kids. my two are step kids. and i love them lots. and i think that if he was my biological son, (and i was still married to his mother) i'd have been there. so now i feel guilty, because i regard these two as my own. if i'd had the weekend off, i'd have been there. so it's just a matter of better organisation, half a brain, and priorities.
when we get next years roster i'll take that weekend off, for both of them. endure the inevitable discomfort, and do my bit to make sure they know how much they're loved. kids are too special for work to intrude...
but i'm not down. he was grinning like an idiot (his girlie was still there) and both he and his sister gave me a hug.
life is good. i wouldn't be dead for quids.
ps
the onlypicture that worked. the rest were even more crap. it's a juvenile grey banded rockcod, about 4 cm long. never seen one before.
