Odysseys of George

Boy, 10, gains dive qualification BBC News

A Bristol schoolboy has passed his scuba diving examinations at the youngest age possible.

Patrick Delaney, 10, of St George, has gained his Padi qualifications allowing him to dive to a maximum depth of 12m in open water. Adults can dive to 18m.

Wow! Amazing! Then again many parents would not allow their kids to dive too early. Do we know the effects of diving on growing bones and body? Furthermore, even with many possible injuries occuring with adult divers, is it really safe for children that young to dive?

Then again, 12m is not that deep but it has to be strictly 12m. Nowadays, there are many things young children are able to learn and do.

So what have you to say?

There just too many things I could post for a topic of twos’. So where shall I start?

Well, many things around us comes in twos.

First there are my niece and nephew, the two of them sporting the Malaysian flag as a headgear which was handed out during the Pikom fair.

Then there was this two young dancers in Bali who look almost identical.

Then, during one of my dives, when it was so difficult for me to even see a single cuttlefish, there were two of them ushering my entrance into their depths

Then hiding between the cracks of a huge hard coral, there were this magnificent pair of shrimps doing the cha cha!

Then as I just about to end my dive, these two Nemos came dancing.

As I end this post, I shall serve a choice between black coffee or hot cocoa for my dear beloved bloggers! Cheers!

The weekend getaway to Bali, was exciting. The second day saw us hiring a cab to take us to various locations. We started off with a dance show, The Barong and ended up with a dance show called the Kecak at Batubulan. The one that made an impression till now is the dance show, Kecak. It relates the love story between Rama and Sita backed by about 50 to 70 men in trance singing in rhythm without any musical accompaniment. It is also the event where I made full use of my Canon G7 camera to shoot in the dark at its highest ISO3200 and using a telephoto lens without any aid of the flash internal or external.

The men in trance humming, “cak,cak, kecak, cak” in rhythm.

The beautiful Sita.

Sita and Rama in courtship.

Sita in love and despair

Sita is captured by the evil king and taken away to his abode

Hanuman, comes to the rescue.

The men in trance as the enhance the scene

Sita gives Hanuman her hairpin to pass it to Rama as a sign of her love to him

The battle is over and they unite.

Most of the scenes were very fast action which caused many pictures to be blurred.

We visited at least 9 other areas.

1. Monkey Forest at Ubud where the monkeys posed happily for me

2. The Handicraft Centre.

3. The Coffee Plantation near Tampak Siring

The coffee seed

Roasting the seeds

They served us black coffee and cocoa.

4. Mount and Lake Batur

5. Painting Centre near Batuan

6 & 7. Gold and Silver Centres near Celuk

8. The Bazaar for shopping with so many Orchids

9. The Barong Dance
- a mystical barong (the good)

vs the demon (the bad) story

The musical orchestra

The actors and actresses

The Garuda bird

The men in trance stabbing themselves

Well, something to cool that beating heart!

Enjoy!

Lately, I have been stuck reading a divers blog of his life. His blog name, SeaDemon’s Lair. He freely writes about his life and does well to state his mind to the issue. I have been so stuck to it that I find myself devoid - inability to write. I find myself asking questions about life, happiness, religion, marriage, love,hate, the mind and health.

Many a times, we think that love is all that is needed in a marriage. I must admit, I found out the hard way. Love is important but there are other issues that are equally as important. The saying, “Love will conquer all” to me is utter rubbish after what I had gone through. Love is dynamic. So, dynamic that its’ future is totally based on other variables. And because of this, I can understand when someone tells me that they have lost love or they grew out of love. A good friend of mine, married for 6 years now, told me that she is asking for a divorce because she feels that she loves him no more. She feels she has changed and this changes she underwent has made her feel that despite the obvious fact that he loves her so much, she has lost interest and is depleted of any love towards him.

So, what happened? To really love someone, the variables need to be made constant. These variables once has lost its constant will effect love so greatly. The first of this variable is respect. Respect towards oneself and towards the other is both very important.

If one doesn’t respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.This was a quote by Ayn Rand. Then we have a quote from Sir John Herschel, “Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.“.

Derived from the Latin respicere, which means “to look back at” or “to look again,” respect is a particular mode of apprehending the object: the person who respects something pays attention to it and perceives it differently from someone who does not and responds to it in light of that perception.

So what is respect? According to Wikipedia, respect is an assumption of good faith and competence in another person or in the whole of oneself. It enables people to work together in a complimentary fashion.

To respect the other is the beginning of the formation of love. John Gray said, “When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.” This is then followed by the next variable - care to guess?

John Wooden
Respect a man, and he will do all the more.

To my dearest Ruban,

This song of mine will wind its music around you,
my child, like the fond arms of love.

And when my voice is silenced in death,
my song will speak in your living heart.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Lately, there have been numerous cases of such occuring on our highways. It seems they occur in a similar pattern in which a group of 3 cars will attempt to bring you to a halt and them hijack your car if not also hurting you in the process.

Well, I don’t know much about this just that it had happened to two of my colleagues at the almost the same stretch somewhere along Sungai Buloh, the Curve and Kepong.

Anybody has more info?