January 26 - Australia: Cairns
Happy Australia Day! On 26 January 1788, 'formal possession was taken of the Colony of New South Wales. On that day, Captain Arthur Phillip became Governor of the Colony, having jurisdiction over the area bounded by latitude 10 37' to latitude 43 49' south and inland to longitude 135 east'. And because of it, all Aussies have Monday off. For a history of Australia Day, visit http://www.adc.nsw.gov.au/history.htm
Running through the Botanical Gardens: Jon's run #51
This getting up two hours later to go run is the greatest! OK, I'm sure I will end up complaining about getting up at 6:15 when I don't have to be at the dive shop until 9am (I think I may have said yesterday that class starts at 10am - I was wrong, if you can believe that) but for right now it is nice. Think about it, this means that I might actually be able to stay awake past 8:30 some nights. Today's run was to and then through and then around the Botanical Gardens. One thing though about getting out to run around 6:30 or 6:45: the sun is already out in full force by then! I mean it was already starting to get hot and the route that I took has one stretch that has no shade for about 2km. Just a nice normal run today but tomorrow should be a 60min. plus run, haven't had too many of those since we got to Australia.Scuba Kits!
We both got up at 6:15 and went for runs this morning. Then we had an appointment at Michael Ball's to pick up our "new" BCDs and regulators. At 9:30, we met Janine - a really nice girl who opened the office just for us to buy the gear. We hooked up each regulator to a tank to test it out, which is good considering that one of them had a leaky hose. So Janine said that she'd get it fixed for us. Then we each picked out a BCD. Both are made by SeaQuest, and both have faded from their original black to a light brown color. Aside from the faded color and the usual wear of a three-year-old BCD, they're both in pretty good shape.
Jon's BCD needed some minor velcro work, so Janine gave us a discount on it so we could take it to a shop and get it fixed. All in all, we got two BCDs and two regulators for AU $730, which is about US $380. That's less than $200 each. A great deal!
Skills Circuit
Then we went to DSDD to meet AnnaMarie. She was doing a skills circuit for her Dive Master class, and suggested we come along to observe and practice. We'll have to present our skills on Tuesday, the first day of the IDC, and we definitely needed to practice.
So we showed up there at 11:00, figuring it would take about an hour and half. Then we'd go get lunch and do some studying at home.
At 4:00, we were still there. We'd been in the pool for five hours, and we each had gone through two tanks of air.
Now, when we did the skills circuit in Koh Tao (see Oct 31), it seemed a bit stressful at the time. But it was NOTHING compared to today! AnnaMarie had these guys repeating their skills over and over and over again until they got them right. The skills had to be perfect.
See, the purpose of the skills circuit isn't to perfect our own skills, but to perfect the demonstration of the skills as if to a class of students. In other words, you can't just remove your mask and put it back on again, you have to do it slowly and calmly, all the while demonstrating the key points of the skill so potential students can understand. This makes sense. And it's important that anyone who's certified as a Dive Master or Instructor can demonstrate these skills well. But it wasn't until today that we realized how laid-back was the training in Thailand.
This is double-edged sword. On the one hand, I'm glad we're going to be certified in Australia because this means we'll have received expert teaching specifically to PADI standards. On the other hand, it means that the next two weeks are going to be a bit hellish with studying and skills circuits. But at least we'll know that we're getting our money's worth. And we'll be better instructors for it, too.
Jon and I need to get some skills practicing in before class on Tuesday.
Back At Home
We were starving by the time we left, so we stopped by Subway for some sandwiches on the way home. I had a steak-and-cheese which was absolutely horrible and which I promptly threw away. I made myself a bean-and-cheese burrito instead.
Then I sat down to do my PADI Knowledge Reviews. Jon had a splitting headache and went to lie down. He thought the headache might have been from his ill-fitting mouthpiece, but it also might have been from dehydration and hunger. I mean, he ran this morning and then sat in pool without drinking water or eating food for five hours today. That would give anyone a headache!
For dinner, we had the rest of the pasta sauce Jon made yesterday over spaghetti.