What a difference a day makes

So, the August bank holiday has come and gone.

Traditionally it’s a time to head of for a long weekend break which consists mostly of sitting in traffic jams on the country’s laughable motorway system and then staunchly squatting on the beach at some dismal seaside town, despite the fact it’s 8C, blowing a force 6 gale and pouring with rain.

But, I gave all this malarkey up many years ago. Instead we had quite a busy weekend doing a variety of different things.

It started well. On Friday I spent most of the day (when I should have been working) dashing around on various dive-kit related chores. My replacement dive computer came in, and with our diving holiday but a week away the whole dive kit issue was brought to the fore again. After much searching (both soul and internet), I decided we should get an underwater camera – a proper, diving one, not just one of those “take it in the pool” things. So much research ensued and grinding of teeth and banging of heads. Eventually I decided upon getting a cheap camera and housing rather than risking my own camera. We also needed some torches because there was a real prospect of some good night diving. My need for spangly new kit was finally being fulfilled.

So I toddled off to the dive shop, stopping only to have my ears washed out by a very friendly nurse – well, it was herself really.

Managed to get the dive computer – despite a mix up with the price they’d quoted – it was 60 quid less than the real price, but in the end he gave it to me for the lower price, we fixed the requisite new bits onto my dive kit and there we were. I enquired about cameras, and Carl in the shop told me what I already knew, so I bought the camera he recommended. And a filter. And I got him to knock some money off that too. So I was feeling rather smug and satisfied with myself.

Bit annoying when I got home though. My new dive computer has an IrDA interface for plonking dive logs onto your computer. Since there’s an IR port on my Mac, I’d kinda assumed that I’d be able to use that, but alas no. It’s only a receiver for the remote control, so I had a tough time searching for a Mac compatible IrDA dongle – the cheapest I could find were about 40 quid. Not good. Decided I’d have to think about this.

Went and got all my dive gear down from the loft. We were doing a practice on Sunday. Now it really felt like I was going diving.

Saturday morning consisted of chores and grocery shopping and things like that. After lunch I started to sort all my dive gear sorted out and decided that we needed a dive manual so we could read up about Enriched air (I’ll tell you another time). Off I toddled to the dive shop.

On the way to the dive shop, I decided to go and look for an IrDA interface and some more rechargeable batteries for the dive torches I’d just ordered. I’d resolved to give up on the Mac compatible ones, since they all seemed to cost 40 quid whereas I could get a PC one for a fiver. But, when I got to Maplin – behold, a Mac compatible IrDA dongle for 15 quid – not quite a fiver, but it would do nicely.

Stopped off at the dive shop and got my manual and then home. The IrDA interface didn’t work straight away, but a quick reboot of the Mac and the dive computer application suddenly sprang to life and talked to my new computer. Excellent.

Sunday saw us get up very early for the 90 minute drive to Stoney Cove. It’s not really a cove at all, but an old mining pit which has been flooded in order to provide a diving environment. It’s always packed with all manner of divers – both novices and old hands – trying out new skills or new bits of kit and today would be no exception. We parked up and then had the difficulty of carting dive kit back and forth from the hire shop, the car and the water’s edge, but we got there in the end. Both of us set all the kit up without drama and we ventured into the water, which turned out to be jolly cold and rather murky

The dives were unremarkable, but just reminded us of how things worked, what it felt like and generally what to expect when we go diving again – in considerably warmer and clearer waters – in a week’s time.

We tried out the camera too, and have some amusing pics.

After a stress-free trip home, we hooked up both the camera and the dive computer and both worked fine. It was quite enlightening to see my dives shown in great detail on the computer including depths and tank pressures and all manner of things (if you’re a diver you’re interested in all that stuff).

Monday was a day of odds and ends. I sorted out our holiday details and dive kit also read up on how to use the whizzy features on my dive computer. Herself sprayed the fence with wood preserver – despite being a bit too windy really – as we were to find out.

Later on in the evening there was a ring at the bell and our next door neighbour asked me to go around to their house. He showed me his van and their car (both white) and they were splodged all over with little spots of browny-orange wood preserver – obviously from where herself had sprayed the fence. We then spent 40 minutes helping him (with the help of his 4 boys) clean all the little splodges off the cars. It was tough work as it took lots of rubbing to get the stain off, but they did come off in the end. We rather sheepishly left with promises of being more careful and letting them know to move their cars in the future. Whoops.

And that was the weekend. Seems I’ve managed to pick up a touch of a cold or something as I’ve been feeling rather off. It’d better be cleared up by the weekend, or there’ll be hell to pay.