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I've had a really up and down couple of days this week...it's been so busy and absolutely exhausting - yesterday I got home at 5pm, had a shower, went to have a 2 hour nap and woke up this morning at 7am! I've done loads of stuff for the course...I took and passed my physics and phsyology exams, which is hoofin' as the physics had loads of maths and I was convinced I was going to fail! We had a big night out to celebrate, and didn't get in till 2.30, which explains why I needed 14 hours sleep last night! We've also done the 20 Open Water skills you need to be able to demonstrate, (although I swear each time I do them I get worse and worse), and the rescue scenario.
The rest of the week has been entirely dominated by the Stress Test. This delightlful exercise consists of exchanging kit with your buddy (fins, mask, weight belt and scuba unit) under water whilst buddy breathing (only one regulator between the two of you, so only one person can breathe at a time). If that's not bad enough, the instructor hovers around waiting for you to balls it up in some way (stopping buddy breathing or stopping exchanging kit) and then all hell breaks loose...he free flows a reg in your face, inflates your BCD so you start to go up to the surface, shakes you around so you can't get the reg...and so on. The first time we failed spectacularly...it was pretty impressive just how bad we were. The second time was just as bad...this was yesterday, and by this point I was really beginning to doubt we'd be able to do it at all...but today, we bloody nailed it! And I was the lucky person who had to do it twice, there only being three of us! It was horrible and exhausting and seriously stressful...but more importantly it's sodding well OVER!! Now I only have one more exam to do, and then the course is finished! I can spend the rest of the week assisting, guiding dives and drowning myself in beer!!
I wasn't really been able to do anything last week except read, take exams and worry about the bloody stress test. Three people started and Open Water course today, so hopefully we'll have a few nights out with them...it's been very quiet, with only a few guests staying at the hotel, so when newbies arrive it's pretty exciting! Unfortunately no more Marines are showing up before I leave, but we met some nice English lads who were diving with Reef - they've gone home now though, so we're back to the usual...beer and pool in Tota with Mo and Tom...altrhough Jenny and I are taking Bene, Reef's counter chick, out for a girly dinner tonight - there's only so much pool you can watch before you start to go completely mad!
So, tomorrow I should have the course completely finished...feel free to have a beer to celebrate for me...I myself will be having a bucket - an absolutely disgusting bowl of cocktail from Tota that contains a whole bottle of rum and various fruit juices...as the signs say..."F**k it, have a bucket"!
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