You’ve seen these ones already: a lionfish at Padang Bai

The definite highlight of the day: a juvenile clown frogfish

Hermit crabs occupy abandoned shells for protection

Cuttlefishes are way cool

If these don’t qualify me to teach Digital Underwater Photography course, I don’t know what will. And it’s so much fun as well!

And that’s not all: we’ll start teaching our first course in two days. This will be interesting!

[a very diving-specific explanation follows, skip if not interested:] For the uninitiated, a new wetsuit is very buoyant indeed, and going diving with a brand new one means you need to take a lot more weight than with an older, dived-in wetsuit. This essentially means that I was wearing both a weight belt and my weight pockets (integrated into the BCD), one of which gave and dropped off. In the blue. Which sucked big time. The buoyancy is a result of having gas bubbles within the neoprene (incidentally, this is the feature that keeps you warm, not the water that gets in your suit), and as gas bubbles have the tendency to be lighter than the surrounding water, buoyancy increases as the thickness of the wetsuit increases and vice versa. That’s also one of the reasons behind our doing a lot of deep dives lately – both me and Heikki have been compressing our respective suits.

Also, a cool feature of my suit is that as it’s deep red in primary colour, it turns dark purple when I go deeper than about 15 metres. This is because water absorbs certain wavelengths of light, and one of the first colours to go is red. So in effect, my suit changes colour! How neat is that?
[end of diving-specific explanation, you can breathe now]

In other news, we’ve been doing instructor specialties for the last two days and have a day or two more to go with that. We will end up with ten specialties each, which in turn means that we have a wider range of courses we can teach. We have now the Wreck, Deep, Drift, Night, Nitrox, Oxygen provider and certain fish identification, coral conservation and the like specialties. We’ll see what the eventual list looks like, but not a bad start at all.

While we were doing the wreck specialties, we bumped into a napoleon wrasse. It is a big fish indeed.

In the photo is our fellow German instructor, Mel (left). On the right, the aforementioned napoleon wrasse with a jack. Gives you some sense of scale, Mel’s a little taller than yours truly.

Also on the same dive we found an octopus barely hiding:

It was nervously flickering colours, which looked very wicked.

All in all, the Liberty wreck is a fabulous dive site, and the dives yesterday were just the thing that was needed to remind me why we do this. On a good day, the diving is spectacular, people are nice and things just roll. On a bad day, it’s just the opposite. We live in the hope that the majority of the days will be good ones.

Here’s a portrait of our colleague Mandy (U.K.) on a good day:

Look at those moves!

And I’ll leave it that. Will upload more later when we have a better internet day.

Yes, we’re going to party tonight.

So, here’s what we got:

That’s mine…

…and this is Eeva’s. Note the slate pocket on the right thigh.

And all this for 700 US dollars. Assuming these last five years, that’s 20 cents per head per day. Just in case you wanted to know.

And our deep throat inside the shop mentioned the IDC course director praising our exam results to other instructors on the course. Seems like he’s pleased with our results on the DM course.

This seems like an excellent starting point for the IDC, which starts tomorrow with some pre-course workshops. Let’s try to keep up the good work.

Oh, we also got the new bike:

Don’t you be messing with me, boy!

There was also an exam to see where we come from, but I didn’t find the results very conclusive. I aced physics, failed equipment and passed all the others, but many of my mistakes had more to do with the English language than actual knowledge. I sure hope the instructor examination (IE) doesn’t have that many trick questions.

Anyway, the IDC should start next week. More on that later.

One of the reasons for yesterday’s productivity was weather. By the time I had finished the swims, it was raining so hard I could spot pikes swimming on shoulder height. At the same time there was a power cut, so all we could do was to study. The rain caused a bit of a problem by reaching our terrace-like outdoor office (regadless of the roof and straw mat walls), so I had to tuck myself in the corner and face the wall in order to keep my paperwork dry. I have to take a photo of the manuals at some point to illustrate what I was dealing with yesterday.

Finally around seven the rain gave up and we could go home. I grabbed us some McD’s, we ate it in candlelight and crashed to bed. It’s been a while since I’ve slept this well.

First, we had some excellent diving in Tulamben, simply brilliant. Sun was shining, we had good bottom times and saw lots upon lots of stuff (barracudas, the usual little fish, moray eels, a white tip shark!! and lots more). Then it was back to Sanur, and party.

In case someone was misinformed, we’re on an island that’s surrounded by beaches. The closest one is five minutes from our place, and is framed with restaurants, bars, scuba/snorkel places and the like. There are also wave-breakers with gazebos on top, like made for having drinks with friends in the evening. Which is exactly what we did. We bought a bag of ice, some beers, some gin and rum (with tonics and cokes), some snacks and a few candles. We also bought some plastic cups and some lime fruit to go with the gin & tonics and rum & cokes. Forgot the Leatherman ™ at the Bedroom, but made do – Divemasters need to be able to improvise with even the non-existent tools we had…

There were a few of us, sharing drinks and laughs and stories and taking silly pictures (several of them are censored and will never appear online, sorry). Lots upon lots of merriment was had by all. Nobody wanted to take off to the discoinferno of Kuta. We stayed out until about twoish in the morning, and slept in the next morning.

On Sunday we had a day off, and that was all good and deserved. We managed to get out of bed for lunch and dinner, but otherwise it was a pretty much horizontal day. And come Monday, we went snorkelling with some guests and had a good training day.

We might be making the outings on the beach a tradition of sorts, methinks.

I could be there socialising with them, but I have something else in mind tonight. While it’s brilliant to have nice people around me, I also need time for myself. This is one of those moments.

The more I think of it, the more I like what I am, what I’ve been and what I’ve accomplished so far. There are not many things I would change from my past, even though several of them may have had been better left undone. All of it has lead me to this place and moment where I find myself on the light side of the Force. Peaceful. Calm. Content.

Life is simple and sometimes rather busy, but I’m way happier than back in my Corporation days. I may not have the wealth, the power or the glory, and for what may be the first time in my life, I don’t care. There may be a time when I do care again, but right now I’m happy with what I have. I’ve found my peace, my safe haven. My happy place.

All that work and stress is finally paying off, and I’m enjoying every moment of it. Life is good.

Tomorrow we’re doing more guiding practise in Tulamben, and Sunday is again a day off. We’ll be having a beach party on Saturday to celebrate Eeva’s birthday and our first anniversary. Feel free to join us

So what’s up? There’s the sun tanning us up, and the rain cooling us down every once in a while. The art shop outside our homestay (a.k.a. Enny’s) has live music every night except Sunday, so we fall asleep to covers of Sting, Bob Marley and lots of others. There’s a coconut palm growing behind our bathroom window, which only has a grille, so we can look at trees while washing. There are too many gekkos to count, but only one of them is pink. (really cute and quick too, so no pictures, sorry).

Our daily commute is 5 minutes on a scooter and then depending on where we dive either 10-60 mins on a boat or 3 hours on in a wheezing minivan (to Tulamben). We get to dive almost every day, and when we don’t dive there’s the centre’s swimming pool to satisfy the need to get wet. All in all, life’s pretty sweet.

Today (that would be Saturday as I’m writing this) on the second dive of the day we saw two turtles swimming off on the reef. Apparently they’re pretty rare hereabouts, judging from the enthusiastic comments later back on board. We rode some pretty strong currents today, and I can feel the effort it took in my muscles.

Also we’ve been taking good care of the random Finns who come to Blue Season to dive. Of course we’re talking with the other customers too, but somehow it’s nice to talk in your mother tongue with people. And I suppose it can’t really hurt the business either…

Long days mean short nights and I have to take what sleep I can. Diving again tomorrow.

edit on Sunday:

We just came back from the boat, this time we’ve been thoroughly bumped on the way back. Saw some manta rays (pictures to follow, keep checking the gallery) and some turtles and I managed to drop my brand new mask into the current. My language was very foul for a while. Will try and replace it as soon as possible. Otherwise things are just peachy. I’ll also try and get some rest, this stuff takes its toll too.

Happy holidays to everyone!

The guys in Bali have decided to operate on a steady currency instead of Indonesian Rupiahs (a wise choice as such), so everything is paid in US dollars. However, while the steadiness of euro has been rock solid, the value of USD just hit its all-time low at .66 euros. I just paid our 5-figure course fees and accommodation, saving several thousand dollars just by living in the this specific part of the world!

So, we have the flights, we have the course payment on its way, and we have accommodation waiting in Helsinki after New Year’s. And it seems like we’re getting to visit Vuohijärvi as well!

The good news is that everything is proceeding like planned. I left my laptop and stuff to the office today, brought some pulla to my colleagues and said goodbye to everyone. Next I have to visit the employment office and we should be good to go.

The bad news, on the other hand, is that due to my non-disclosure agreement I can only say that my name is on the paper and that’s it. Not that there would be a lot to tell, but still.

Anyway, we’ll be staying in Oulu for at least three to four weeks before leaving. Can’t wait to have fish eggs, smoked salmon and ham on Christmas!

Oh, right. Since we’re not going to Bangalore anymore, this blog has a new name.

As the whole island is built around tourism, it felt… artificial. Like a facade. Not only the 100% imported food and sterile environment (the staff cleans fallen leaves from the pathways in the morning), but also the staff itself. Although everyone kept up a friendly face and asked if there was something they could do for us, I could still sense a big difference between them and, say, their Filipino counterparts on Malapascua. If you ask me, it’s all about what motivates people.

You see, when I’m dealing with Filipinos, I get the feeling that they genuinely want to help me out when something is wrong, whereas Indians are only willing to do something if they get money out of it. Sad to say, but for me the Maldivians were closer to Indians than I expected. The atmosphere wasn’t exactly hostile, but there were constant signals from the staff that they are only in it for the money. I guess I’m even more sensitive to that kind of thing after being exposed to its extreme forms here in India.

Or maybe Filipinos have better acting skills, who knows.

Anyway, the trip itself. I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, so here we go:

The villas were built over water and there was a constant selection of fishes swimming around them. The house reef of the island stretched all the way around the construction and you could spot dozens of species just by sitting on the porch.

On a lucky day you could spot a small (around half a metre wide) stingrays near the beach. This one was no more than three meters from the shoreline, digging for food in the sand.

As Maldives is very close to the equator, sunsets were spectacularly quick. From the position above it took less than ten minutes until the whole star was behind horizon. The main thing for us was of course diving, and boy did we see everything imaginable:

I’ve never seen corals like this before, but that’s not all. How about this:

Or this:

And how would you feel about having one of these on your plate?

What’s more, we found some turtles on our explorations:

This was only a small sample of what we saw, the rest can be found behind the small thumbnails and this link.

For one, the Corporation payroll withheld 70% of my salary in taxes this month. Those masala-eating surrendermonkeys have been paying too little taxes so far, so they decided to compensate a bit now that I am leaving soon. Of course, it must be bloody difficult to get the percentage right when there are so many choices (four), and the highest one is chosen when annual income exceeds 7500 euros.

And of course I have a hugely expensive honeymoon trip to pay on top of usual living expenses this month.

On the other hand, we’re off for the said honeymoon in 12 hours. I can’t wait!

We’re travelling back to Finland next month.

Next destination: the sea.

As I didn’t send my office chair here from Finland, I had to get a new one:

One of the buttons has come off already, but I don’t think I want to go through the trouble of hauling the chair back to the shop for that. See, I’m getting more Indian every day?

For the guests I got something in the upstairs:

And of course there has to be a bar with such setup:

The glasses are still missing, but that only gives me one more chance to post a pic of this awesome piece of handicraft. I just think it kicks ass.

And finally it feels like I live here!

And whad’ya know…

I got the SIM card I had been waiting for, so now I can make calls again.

And halfway through the heap I found my pay slip for May. 5 figures.

After a nice lunch, some meetings with people and a good afternoon rest I went downstairs for dinner. I was prepared to wait forever, especially since I ordered a steak, but the chef was fast as lightning today and the whole visit took me less than 40 minutes. Seems like the universe knows when things should go smoothly since I found myself chuckling uncontrollably under my beard.

What the hell just happened?

• having someone look after the house while you’re at work
• finding nice furniture
• loud and visual thunderstorms
• having two more days before holiday
• scoring an empty toilet roll to the trash can on one try

Today I was away so late that the guard called my driver if I’m okay. It’s nice when someone cares, even if it’s for money.