I hate bureaucratic nonsense!

I know I used to live in Hong Kong, I know I have travelled extensively in South East Asia, but I don't understand how they can have such long convoluted and bureaucratic processes. Everything we need to do requires someone to produce a written pass - it is a letter that is given from one person in one office to another - probably next door. And even then it does not necessarily mean that it works. So here we sit, in Galle harbour, not able to leave the harbour because someone had to write "a letter". Have they not heard about emails or the telephone. Rant over. We are supposed to be leaving at 6 tomorrow morning, and the plan is to ropes away and go, but I can guarantee that we will get stopped by a patrol boat as we leave - because the driver didn't get a flipping letter.

Club Night

Next club night - 3 March at the Royal Beach Hotel. Let us know if you are coming.
Ta

Love going away, hate packing

It is great to get away and I can't complain because I am going to Sri Lanka to dive with Blue Whales, but ...... why is nothing easy? The list of issues seems to get longer:

• Hong Kong want a bond to release the camera kit .... of £100K. Are they kidding!
• The Exec Producer gets told that neither he nor the sound crew can have visas ..... 3 days before we are due to go.
• Sri Lanka give us a good deal on flights but then we need a second mortgage for excess baggage - I could buy a house for that

On the plus side, the new camera has arrived, I have worked out how to use it, there is enough space for my camera gear and all other problems seem to have been resolved. More news later.

The Blog is Back!

Is it really that long since we did anything with this. When we had the old Triton Scuba website we used this blog to post news and "stuff". The new website has blog style pages incorporated throughout the whole site with different topics being covered, however, lots of you have asked for a general mutterings and ramblings blog page like we used to have. So, we have listened to what you say and given the old one the kiss of life. All of the old posts are still there so feel free to have a browse.

A Busy Club Night

It was another busy club night last night. Around 70 turned up and we actually ran out of food and had to order some more - oops. And .... finally we managed to hold the unwanted Christmas Present raffle. As last year it was a good bit of fun. There were around 34 stunning prizes on offer, everything from bottles of booze to 2009 diaries. We also had the traditional Chinese wall calendars in Spanish (seem to remember they turned up last year) which this year was won by our only Spanish club member Jorge. Now what were the chances of that happening?

So, in spite of being a bit late it was still well supported and many many thanks to everyone who bothered to wrap and bring presents and to everyone who gave so generously to the occasion. The raffle raised £150 which we are going to donate to Sport Aid. Talking of Sport Aid, don't forget to visit our just giving page for that event, and if you do want to join us on 21 March for a mile jog/walk/stagger then please let us know.

IE Success and New Instructors

Many congratulations to our new PADI Instuctors. All candidates passed their 2 day exam after a packed IDC on Saturday. Congratulations as well to our new Staff Instructors, Chris and Noeleen who will be working for Emperor divers in Nuweiba. The guys have now embarked on their Speciality Instructor package. More details and photos to follow when I find a keyboard that doesn't stick.!

Instructors Meeting

We held the first of our instructor meetings during February. With so many changes going on it was important to get together and ensure that all the instructors and DMs were on the ball and up to date. The minutes of the meeting have been published and are available for those who would like a copy.

As always the meeting ended up as a bit of a social event and some of us went on afterwards to the Noble House to consume large amounts of Chinese food. This was followed by some extraordinary activities in a few other local establishments. As quite a few instructors and DMs were unable to attend then we will be running another one hopefully in April to pick up the rest.

Phil Short Presentation

Last nights presentation by Phil Short at the club night was a great success. In spite of around 10 people who had said they would come not turning up, there were still around 90 at the event so a good turn out. It was also nice to see divers from other clubs in the area including Cockleshell Divers and RNSAC. We hope that you enjoyed the evening and we look forward to welcoming you to events in the future.

January 2010 Newsletter

The first newsletter for 2010 is now out and published on the website. There is lots of good stuff in it .... news about charity events, courses for cold months, trip reports, new gear, dive boat schedule information, course dates and club weekends coming up. Click here to have a read.