Who is mans best friend?

The Co-pilot and I had friends over for Dinner last week, the very wise and enlightened Grumpy Goat and Mdm Cyn. During the evenings cordial conversation and witty exchanges The Goat came out with a fantastic one which, with full acknowledgment and credit, I recall here:

Q. Which is mans best friend? His Dog or his wife/girlfriend? [delete as appropriate]

Well there is a simple test: Lock both in the boot of a car and leave them for three hours. Come back and pop the boot open and see which one jumps out still pleased to see you!!

You can't fault this as a fool proof test now can you?

Clearing The Back Log

As you may be able to tell from all the "under construction" posts I have a back log of stuff I really want to write about on the the blog, or pictures I want to upload but I simply don't seem to find the time of late - so much for shorter Ramadan hours meaning I get more spare time.  Fat chance.

Anyway, in order to improve things I've decided to simply upload the pictures for most of the posts in order to get them out there, and if I get time later I'll fill n the blanks around these.  So, if you are interested take a look at:

Barcellona

Early Riser - A Day in the Desert with Mr Bob

Head Banger - Batteries not included

Ramadan Sundowner

Hope they entertain.

YBOD

YBOD3 gets a tidy boot

With the help of a few of the lads over at ME4x4 I have managed to track down a supplier of Quick Fist clips in Dubai and put them to good use tidying up the boot of the YBOD3:




I took the rear door paneling off, drilled holes and bolted the clips through the plastic panel with big washers on the back. Looks tidy, even if I say so myself. Although ignore the cork place mat, its there to act as a spacer and is a temporary measure until I can get a black spacer made up.

No more spades rattling in the boot when I go over graded tracks (yippee).

MAC Add-ict

Now if you have the misfortune of knowing me you'll know I am a MAC addict....I love my Mac byt the way, in case I hadn't mentioned it. Cos its soooooooo good. It works, it jsut owrks, it works all the time, every time I turn it on, and all the way until I turn it off. Its great, and it has loads of cool features like.......

Sorry, where was I, got a bit distractd there. Anyway, I love my Mac and today realised I really am little obsessed....jsut a tad.....when the Co-pilot caught me in the spare room down loading videos. Now I know what you are thinking, and the Co-pilot thought the same "He's downloading pawns!!"


But no, the shame was greater than that, I was watching "Mac Porn".....I was watching the Mac adverts on UTube...........but what can I say, they are pretty cool, take a look:

15 Great MAC adverts

I particularly like the getting out of the box one.





Then I also found a similar one for the Penguin fetishist:
MAC vs Windows Vs Linux
Which was pretty funny, but SO NOT TRUE!!!!




Although Rhubarb, if you are actually reading this, which is unlikley because it isn't written in binary, or hexidecimal or whatever you techispods call all those 1 and 0 this week, where is one for you.

And then I spotted a checky little fun one for the Wii - which I also have one of....but mine isn't nearly that cute ;0):


Mother, I NEED a Wii

and the girl on the right, she soooo makes me want a PS3......


But then the best of the best is when southpark get in on the act:



Southpark Mac vs Windows






Southpark Mac vs windows vs Linux



All very sad I know, but they still amuse me........and its a good distraction from trying to get around the Itisalot proxy to download pictures of girls with........Ooo I wonder, if I try......... that might work, I'll get back to you in a minute....

Ramadan Sundowner

Following the purchase of a shinny new Pajero by a fela at work, and taking advantage of the shorter working hours during Ramadan, we decided to get a party together and head to fosil rock for some off roading followed by an after dark ascent of the rock and a BBQ iftar. The team orders were:

YBOD and the Co-pilot in the YBOD
Grumpy Goat and Mdm Cyn in the Goat Mobile
Matt and Sarah and the Shiny Toy
Colin in the Fat Albert

Only notable stuck was Fat Albert who beach while reversing back down fossil rock following a refusal (don't ask how) and the quote of the day had to be Sarah's pitiful "help" over the radio as Matt drove over the edge of the fossil rock slip face..........bless.

 

And here are some pictures of those marvelous men (and women) and their flying machines
 

 

 

 

 

Head Banger - Batteries not included

Under Construction

Early Riser - A Day in the Desert with Mr Bob

Under Construction

Barcellona - We're all off to sunny spain....to march up and down 10,000 hills

After finishing up in Malta we decided that we hadn;t done quite enought flying so we hopped onto another plan to head off to Barcelona to visit the co-pilots sister and her boyfriend (the sisters boyfriend that is, not the co-pilots.....that would just be too complicated).

The first sight that greeted us as we arrived in Barcellona airport was this charming coffee shop:

May favorate impression of Barcelona was the wide boulevards, plenty of pedestrian access and greenery







They even planted grass for the trams to graze on as they traveled around the city:



contrasting with the hustle and bustle of the narrow streets and alleyways of le Rambles






...and the abundance of balconnies, I had a thing for the balconies, almost as much as cranes.....but not quite.






And even a few fake balconies which were, believe it or not, painted onto the side of buildings:


We also say the main sights of Barcelona:

The Gerkin Building, sorry London but Barcelona beat you to this one, which apparently is like a giant LCD screen and all the windows can change colour to display patterns, images and even films........These Spanish Architects are mad I tell you!!



The Segarda Familia (appologies to Spain if I have spelt that wrong), which is a great example of what can be done when an architect is allowed to take LSD and not required to listen to the reasoning voice of an Engineer!!



Now a lot of people who I have spoken to about the SF have said it will be great when it is finished (believe it or not after years it still isn't finished) and that the cranes spoil the view......but believe me that isn't a complaint you will ever hear from me.

The Gaudi Park with its bizzare architecture and 5 mile, fast pace, quick march up the hill to get there under the strict marching orders of Heir Sister!!





The park was a scarien if bizarre place with lovely gardens and walks interspurced with mad curvey buildings and spites, almost like Disneyland but without the tacky tat feel....which is quite an achievement in my book. I liked the place.

We also visited Mount Olymus - or at least the Spanish version, where the Barcelona Olymics were held.....again with a good swift march up the hill from the nearest car park as we tried to keep up with Heir Sister ;0)

But it was worth it because the views were fantastic:



And then Oscar took us for a day out of the city to the little sea side town of Scaletrix (or something like that, sorry Oscar, I can't remember what it was called) which was lovely with beaches, bars, bustley streets and quiet courtyards:




and best of all a ban on Caravans!!



While in Barcelona we stayed with the co-pilots sister and her boyfriend who were the perfect tour guides - willing to show is around, patient and generally sound fellas, and we were chauffeured around in a top example of Seat's finest - thanks guys

20K Service on your 7 of 9 mate

On the way back from Gozo, and while awaiting the ferry back to Malta I went for a wonder with a with the camera, and while I didn't manage to find any cranes I did come across a great business name for all you Trekkies out there:


It just goes to show while Gozo may only be a small island; its garage owners have great plans for branching out just as soon as the Next Generation arrive.

Out and about around Gozo - An Island in a few hours

As well as all the diving on Gozo we also spent the afternoons looking around the charming land that is Gozo.......which took all of two afternoons. But there was plenty of good views and landscapes to be enjoyed in these afternoons, and if you like beigy yellow rock you'll love Gozo...cos the stuff is everywhere.

Its in the ground, its sticking out of the ground the buildings are made out of it, and so are the churches.

I guess it therefore qualifies as colourful, after all yellow is a colour.

The view to Victoria and the Citadel of the old city.

Panarama of Gozo from he highpoint of he island - Gordon's Light House.

Dive Site 7 - 96 Steps and Cathederal Cave

Under Construction

Dive Site 6 - Xlendi Tunnel

Under Construction

Dive Site 4 Blue Hole - Welcome to Mountain Goat Diving

The Blue Hole. What can you say, this really is mountain goat diving. It is yet another fantastic dive, but getting there is hard work.


You kit up in the car park way off up the hill (next to possibly the oldest but best maintianed buses ever):

and then the path linking down to the Azure Window and Blue hole is navigated in 30 degree heat, in full wet suit and dive gear over rocks and boulders (vanessa, those are REALLY BIG PEBBLES) to what looks like a really nice blue rock pool

However, once in the Blue Hole you realise it is not just a nice blue rock pool but a hole in the top of an old submerged cave and in fact goes down to about 22m. Looking back up through the blue hole and it is just as picturesque as teh view on the surface

We then had a lovely swim aroud, and back up through a chimney and back to the blue hole for a gracless scramble out on to the rocks. Well worth the hard work getting over the rocks.

Dive Site 3 Inand Sea

Inland sea....Mmmmm Yes. If Gozo where part of the UK and under UK law I would push for this to be investigated under trade descriptions. Its more like an inland puddle!! Granted, from teh photos I'd see before I went, taken by other photographers I was expecting great things:



Don't be fooled, the inland part of the inland sea is nowhere near this big, uless I happend to visit on a low tide, during a sevear drought on a neap low tide.....etc.

It is a puddle inland

Don't get me wrong here, the is probably one of my favourate dives I have done, and could happily spend a whole trip diving just this site and be happy, I just needed to get it off my chest about the puddle

Suffice to say that when I got there I was disappointed by what I saw.....or at least of what you can see at the surface. But then I didn't go on a dive holiday for what I could see at the surface, and once you go below the surface you find this is a BRILLIANT dive site, so moaning aside, here is the write up:

You can find the proper write ups elsewhere about how it is a geological feature in the limestone rock etc etc at such fonts of knowledge as wikipedia. But diving wise it is a fantastic dive every bit worth its reputation in the diving magazines and guide books. X X X

You start the dive in the Inland Puddle and swim across to the rock face, avoiding the tour boats zipping back and to. There is apparently a unwritten rule that the boats stay to teh right and the divers to the left in teh cave mouth, and it did seem to work. You then ascend at the tunnel entrance and inter a tunnel which started at about 6 or 7 m depth and sloped off to 27 m at the other side.

The tunnel passes through the rock face and brings you out on the seaward side of the island, where the seabed then drops away to 40ishm. However, we "Hovered" around the 27m depth, sometimes a bit above, soetimes a bit below and went along the rock face and back to the tunnel before swimming back thorugh and back into the puddle.


After de-kitting and packing up in the car park full of baking tourists (I'm glad George brought us here nice and early before the crowds got there) we then went over to feast on great cheese and ham rolls and coffee at the little coffee shop off to the left (as you look at the puddle). Highligh recommended....almost as much as the dive iself.

Dive Site 2 - Karwella Wreck

Our second dive was the Karwella Wreck located off the south coast of the Island near a place called Xatt I-Ahmar (shat la mar). George seemed pretty happy with us as divers and asked how deep we had dived to date (the copilot replied 48m and myself 72m). George smiled and said "ah well, you'll love this afternoons dive. He wasn't wrong.

We then had an hour to kill for lunch so we headed down to the bay thinking this was plenty of time to grab a bite to eat.......how wrong we were. While the laid back and easy going attitude of Gozo is lovely and inviting it can get more than a little frustrating when this infests the local attitude to service and it then take 45minutes to order a pizza, leaving jsut 15 to wolf it down and get back up the hill to the dive centre. Still George was not suprised and was still waiting for us when we got back. But I digress.

The MV Karwella is a ferry that was purposely sunk off hte Xatt L-Ahmar coast as a dive site, and sits close to two other sites whose names I can't remember but were described to us as the "broken up one" and the "really broken up one upside down with propellers". The dive started by crossing a reef at about 16m then the seabed dropped away to about 45m where the Karwella sat. The vis was fantastic and the light even at 40m+ was wonderful.

Great swim through and the highlight has to be swimming across what looks like an old ball room, with the wooden slat floors still in place and the old staircase. Although the co-pilot thought the highlight was the VW Beetle in the rear deck.....had her giggleing in her reg for the rest of the dive.

Nice.

We returned to this site as well later in the week with Dave and 'Cheese and Chicken' Kat and it was just and good then.

Although the highlight of the second dive (and another experience in the learning curve for this newbie rebreather diver) was getting back on to the reef after the dive and upon checking my gas finding I had approximately zero bar of O2 left, give or take a bar. Daves face was a picture when I tapped him on the shoulder, have the single for:

I have a problem

Small one, look at my gauge:

His eyes light up like two saucers and he scrambled for his octopus.......but not to worry, I already had it under control. I breathed the loop down to PPO2 of .25 and then switched to open circuit, which was plenty of time to get across the reef and to the exit point for the dive......whilst chuckling to myself the whole way about the look on Daves face.

Funnily enough Dave didn't leave me to my own devices on the buddy checks for the next few dives, and always took a look at my gauges.........bless.

P.S I always believe in acknowledging stuff "borrowed" from others site. The hand signal images used here are taken from Strobies web page. Thanks Strobie.

P.P.S. Before any rebreather divers start over analysing this story and want to make a huge thing about it, I know the cause, I went in on the dive with about 85 bar of O2 on the gauge and thought this was fine. I suspect that it was in fact much lower but the gauge had stuck. We tested it back at the shop with low pressures and below about 50bar the reading wasn't reliable. Gauge now replaced. And no it wasn't the original AP gauage...yadda yadda yadda.

P.P.P.S. If Steve Gould is reading this, please disregard the whole of this entry, I made it all up and I didn't run out of O2........and I don't need my ar$e kicking for poor kit up drills......and yes, I have learnt my lesson.........Oh crap, I'm dead when he sees me next.

Dive 1 - Test Dive and Shake Down

The first dive we did was in Xlendi Bay (pronounced Shlendy) and is a fantastic dive straight of Xlendi. Dive entry from the quay side in teh bay and then swim out to a maximum of 12m across see grasses and limestone rocks forming a criss cross of gulleys.



The rock and peddle sea bed made for great visibility and the sea grass was home lots of eels and rays, although on the whole i have to say the med generally (not just this site) seems devoid of significant sea life......or maybe I've jsut been spoilt living on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

We went back to the same site towards the end of the trip and did a night dive. But more of that later.

Summer Holidays Part 2 - Gozo

Wel, with Testing working I guess I can now get on with telling you all about my holidays with no excuses that I was away from t'internet.

After a very enjoyable week or so in the UK myself and the co-pilot then moved on for 9 days diving in Gozo. We did our diving with Gozo Aquasports based on Marsalforn (I think thats how you spell it) which is a lovely little bay on the north of the island.



Full credit for the shot of Marslforn goes to 'Chicken and Cheese Kat' who I stole it from because she was staying in the fancy swanky hotel on teh bay with the good views whereas we were in the much simpler and viewless appartments up the hill......although we did pay a fraction of the price ;0)

The dive center at GAS is will organized and well equipped, but you can read all about it on their web page. The main reason chose them was because I sent an email to three or four dive centers on Gozo basically saying "I want to diving in a months time and can't be bothered to do all the internet searching etc myself. Can you arrange diving, transfers and accommodation?"

The very next day Lauren at GAS emailed me back, and within a few days we had eveything sorted.......I still to this day didn't even hear back from the others.

Although there is the option to do either guided or unguided diving with GAS we chose to go for guided diving for the whole week as we were on holiday and really didn't want to have to think about anything - just roll up and dive. We therefore got to dive with three of their guides; George and Dave and Hugh as well their army of devoted trainee instructors/dive masters; 'Hover' Patt, Swiss Martine and 'I can't bloody Hover' Venessa.




But enough about the dive center etc, on with the diving!! I can't remeber exactly what order we dived each site, or for how long etc etc as I'm not a great record keeper but here are the highlights from memory:

TESTING TESTING 123 TESTING

Well campers, I am testing the latest little gismow I've downloaded for Firefox callled Scribefire. If it all works the way I understand it shold then by typing this offline in scribefire I should then be able to upload to my blog next time I'm online.

Well lets see if it works, and we'll add a picture as well to see if that works to:



Yeah yeah, I know, yet another crane.

And I guess we shoudl also test hyperlinks, and what better to test it with than a hyperlink to Scribefire download. After all if the uploading works then it is self deserving of promotion. If it down't work then you won't be reading this and they won't be promoted.

Logic.