Been a while since I was last on my blog. At the end of Feb Cesca and i went to Egypt to bond and become more tolerant of each other. The plan being to learn to dive together. We flew to Edinburgh, then trained to Northallerton (having missed a connection). Spent a lovely evening with Beryl & Tony. Are fish and chips (yum!) and had too much gin. Johns folks are moving soon, so there was a lot fo stuff in boxes.
Up early next morning. Toni drove us to Manchester airport where we had no queuing at all to check in and none through security! Hung around the airport from 7am untill 10.45 when we took off. Bought Cesca a Meg Cabot double book for us to read together. She was very skeptical. Quite a long but confortable flight later we arrived in Taba. We both finished our first diving self assessment . Taba has not changed. We were the only ones heading to Coral Hilton at Nuweiba. Due to the political unrest and the throwing out of their president all other nations cancelled their citizens holidays, except the British. So we are the only holidaying nation - and the hotels are closed or on hugely reduced capacity.
Straightforward check in. Nice clean rooms. Went to dinner.
The next day saw us start our diving. We went through the videos along with the learning modules. We learned our equipment and how to put it on etc. We di our first set of exam questions. We went diving! In the sea! We did confined water drills followed by an open water dive. Was really getting the hang of buoyancy and was specifically praised for this. Very tired and hungry at the end of the day! Fell asleep shortly after reading for a bit.
Next day I had an ear ache so we did a confined water dive and class work in the morning. I spent lunch time looking for pain killers to help versus the rapidly increasing pain and mounting fever. The afternoon was spent on lessons as diving was clearly off for me!
That evening - had to seek medical help as I had pain and swelling behind my ear, couldn't close my jaw and was getting rigors. Mastoiditis the daddy of ear infections! Antibiotic injections & tablets later went to bed exhausted. In the night the pain went and the ear burst forth with pus.
Cesca and I continued our lessons in the class room reviewing the book, the videos and doing the exams. Cesca would then dive both befor and after lunch. She was getting more confident in front of my eyes and needing me, her buddy, less. In the afternoons, once she was finished for the day I would read her book to her. She enjoyed this and would encourage me to get on and read when we were getting near the climax.
I spent my days reading and sunning myself. I did not dare swim, and paddling is not what the Red sea is about. I did get brave enough to enjoy the odd afternoon beer - and discovered my one bit of arabic meant "3 beers please", not "one beer please!!"
Cesca and I sat and passed the exam and Cescas last day of the course was good fun for her - no drills. I booked another fun dive for her the following day - which she loved. On the last 2 days I was well enough to dare to swim - so I snorkeled on the top of the water while Cesca skin dived around the jetty.
Going home worked well, with no hitches. Tony greeted us and we had a quick drive to his house. The following day Cesca and I had the dream trip home.
Good time had (despite illness) and I think we bonded
