Nothing like the internet being down for five days when you’re on the far side of the planet to turn me crusty. Although, while I was ‘out’, I managed to finish off all my photo editing. Only to add more and more from diving and get togethers with friends… But at least I’m on top of the situation now. I can edit them as they roll in instead of being hundreds of shots behind. And I best be, considering our upcoming Thai adventures. I’m sure hundreds of photos will come of that which require my utmost editing attention.
We are coming to the end of our time in Male. It is Sunday morning and we leave Thursday night. I can’t believe it. I’m already a few days into my ‘this is the last Friday I’ll be here for’, ‘this is the last Saturday I’ll be here for’ line of thinking. Trying really hard to soak up these experiences for all they’re worth before leaving.
We have finished our Advanced Open Water PADI certifications (the day the internet died a horrible death in our apartment) and are looking forward to diving in Thailand. I celebrated (inside my own head) my 30th dive that day by navigating, underwater, and with a compass, a perfect square. I was pretty proud of myself.
Looking forward, we are anticipating our re-entry to Canada with GREAT excitement. We can’t wait to see our families, our homes, our dogs, and all the places and things that make Canada a fabulous place to live. More on that later.
I am taking two friends of mine on an introductory dive this morning with Sea Explorers (my highly recommended Male dive school) and am excited for their reactions to being underwater, breathing normally, and seeing beautiful things for the first time. I will report back with photos… naturally.
We dove to grab some broken coral that was still alive… loaded it into a speed boat and drove around the island to a spot where there was a dying massive coral with a nice flat top on it. One by one, with a tiny spool of copper wire, we tied down the broken coral to sturdy spots on the massive or dead corals near-by. The current was strong enough to make this job tedious, and with all the people involved, there was much bumping into one another (which is my big excuse for the lack of focus in one of these shots). We are excited to get a report back in a year to see how our coral is doing.
Lee securing a small piece of live coral
The dying massive we are hoping to rejuvinate with the relocated coral bits
The one bit I managed to secure
This morning we dove off the end of the jetty and cleaned up loads of construction materials. The place looks great now! I bet the fish are happy. And if they are happy, I am happy.
Now off to a near-by island for a little look-see… to take more pictures… and get more burnt.
Perhaps the furthest away I have posted on my site (from home in Canada). We are, once again, South of Male in an atoll JUST above the hottest sun in the world. And for all of you in Canada, just waking up from a long winter, I laid on the beach and soaked enough sun up for all of us. I do not take this for granted… remember I did pay my dues in Inuvik for a year and a half of chillyness and FAR more winter than anyone ever had in Southern Ontario. 10 months a year… I shudder. So no hate mail please.
ANYWAY we are doing something really cool this afternoon that I thought I’d share. We are taking a boat out to the house reef here at Hadahaa and are planting some corals. There are a few places around the island that have suffered from it’s historic use - as a place where fishermen could catch bait fish easily in the rocky shallows around the beach. Their boats clunked against the massives, table corals, acropora (all the finger and pointy-looking corals that I THINK resemble bushes). So, as an initiative in underwater gardening, we are heading out this afternoon to do some sea scaping.
I will report back with photos tonight.
Bike leaning on some baskets at the fish market in Negombo, Sri Lanka.
It’s been lovely to dig through the photos I’d written off during the first edit to find gems. More fuel for the ‘delete nothing’ mentality. Especially when I have no idea when I’ll be back to all the neat places I’ve visited recently.
I don’t know what it is about bicycles that I like so much. Perhaps that they represent simple transportation, a healthy lifestyle, plenty of childhood memories; or maybe that the bicycle is a common element in every country I’ve visited. They require no fuel, no fancy parts (unless clickers and streamers are essential to your biking experience) and are a transport option which is cheaply shipped and obtained.
I remember buying a bike at a garage sale when I was a kid, picking the colors I wanted to paint it, and ‘renovating’ the bike with my dad in the basement (YES with colorful clickers on the spokes). I also remember my first bike - it was a dusky pink with a silver-sparkled banana seat (the height of comfort). The moment I looked back to see my dad way in the distance and realizing I was riding it by myself is etched in my mind. So too is the feeling I had shortly after this upon realizing the road would soon run out and I had to sort out a way of stopping without bloodshed.
I am in the middle (a hopeful estimation) of a large amount of sorting, editing, and organizing my photos. Everything I have shot since last winter is included. YIKES. But I have the time (lady of leisure) and the motivation (we are leaving in two weeks) to get this job done so that when I get home, I can make the trek to Costco during a photo sale and get hundreds of shots developed. I really enjoy looking at photo albums. And after all the neat stuff I’ve done this past two years, the photo albums are going to be (I think) way cooler than the average photo album. Also, it is nice to have them so other people can share in my (our) adventures in a personal way (’Oh and I took this one right before I cut my finger on the shaving razor in my bag… everything after this shot was ’shuttered’ with my middle finger’). It feels good to have my shots processed and organized. Satisfying in the same kind of way a newly organized desk is, or a newly stocked refrigerator; ready for business.
I am three major albums down, and currently taking a second glance at my stuff from Sri Lanka. Now that I know a little more about processing my shots with software, I am taking shots I wrote off earlier, and breathing a little life into them. Which is great because now I have more shots I’m proud of from that trip.
Also doing this has allowed me a little reflection time on how far I’ve come since taking my D90 out of the box last November. Also, it’s given me a chance to keep my head busy while I rest up and get rid of this cold.
[Above: Another tilt-shift shot… while I like most of my photos to look pretty untouched, pretty natural, I do, sometimes, like to play (goofy grin).]
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