Poor Jack!

Yesterday’s training proved a success. Fran, Anne and Steph, managed to find the P29 and the exit twice using different forms of navigation. Unfortunately for Fran, Anne and Steph also had practice driving Harriet so they could get used to driving a longer vehicle and learn where the big bumps are in the road. They found the best way to test this was to put little Fran in the back and if they heard Fran shout ‘oww!’ they knew it was a bump that should be avoided!

Jack had a worse day than Fran. Viv took him for a walk and he cut his paw on some glass. Probably a bottle smashed by some idiot that was out drinking last night. It was bleeding quite badly so he had to have stitches so he spent yesterday feeling very sorry for himself. So Viv and Jack have the day off today.

And while Jacks away the Maltese cats will play ....

I would also like to introduce, 3 men on a mission:

Nev

Dangerous Dave

And ‘el tonto del pueblo’ (village idiot) known as Pau

Have been building a new frame to hang out the dive gear

Don’t they look professional . . .

Staff Training Day!

Nev had a helping hand from Dangerous Dave yesterday when he was doing some handywork around the dive centre. Luckily he didnt actually use his diving mask when he was cutting up metal pipes! Thou we did all wonder how he managed to spend all day in the sum wearing those overalls!

Today is our staff training day. We have one every month – providing we can fit it in around all the pleasure dives and courses that are going on!

Sarah has her work cut out for her as she is going to teach Fran, Anne and Steph how to navigate to the P29 ship wreck up at Cirkewwa. This is going to be either really stressful or really entertaining for Sarah. Let’s hope Fran is on a good day for her navigation!

In the afternoon Anne and Steph are going to be teaching a Bubblemaker course under Sarah’s guidance so that she can fine tune their teaching methods.

We also have a new/old member of staff with us for the summer. Jason used to work here 5 years ago and has come back for more Maltese diving, because you can never get enough of it!

We Have Sofas!

It was Howards birthday on Wednesday, so yesterday we suprised him with a chocolate and a lemon cake. Everyone was very pleased about this as it meant they all got to have cake when they got back from their long day diving!

We have a nice new lounge area at Divewise today courtesy of Nev so people have somewhere nice to sit while they drink coffee and fill in log books.

We still only have one lone fish for Sarah to look after in the fish tank though!

Anne Japan’s still working hard to get aid for the Japanese, after the earthquake and Tsunami. Don’t worry though she’s still diving. She is taking little William to the Maori this morning for his first ever wreck dive. She is also going back to the Maori to finish off Mori’s Open water course so we should have a new Open Water diver by the end of the day.

Today is also a sad day though. Lolke has just left to go on his last diving adventure with Dave Mallard (the man who spent many years researching the X127 water lighter that was sunk in Valletta harbour) for this holiday as he leaves tomorrow.

However he told me this morning he will be back in 27 weeks, so he’s already counting down the days until we see him again!

Travel safe and see you soon Lolke!

King Fisher!

Once again April has kicked off with Alan being awarded the status of Platinum Course Director. Every year PADI set challenges and targets to make it that bit more difficult to achieve this status. However Alan has continued to succeed at this since he was first awarded the status in 2004. He has also now certified over 1000 instructors – I don’t think I’ve even met that many instructors in my lifetime!

Yesterday someone rescued a King Fisher that he found stunned on the path and brought it to us. Fran immediately stopped what she was doing and adopted the little bird for half an hour making sure it had plenty of water.

Sarah then took it to a bird sanctuary nearby. Hopefully it will be better soon. They person at the sanctuary said it looked like the bird had flown into a window and was just stunned and that this was really common. The birds at the sanctuary apparently do it all the time when she gets the fish out and they try to get to it. Oh dear!

We currently have a whole family out diving with us. Amy and martin are out here doing a rebreather course with Phil Short, while their daughter Zoe and her friend Leonora are finishing off their Open Water course.

The family and Leonora have gone to Cirkewwa today so the girls can finish their Open Water dives 3 and 4, and Amy and Martin can continue their rebreather course with a change of scenery.

The world of diving ... not just for grown-ups!

Lot’s been going on today!

Hannah the van has been getting some cosmetic surgery courtesy of Nev.

Lolke and Stefan went off with Pau to do some pleasure diving up at Cirkewwa.

Viv been working hard as usual

and even jack was helping Oskar and Sverre with their gear

Well at least he had us convinced for a few minutes .....

Anne and Sarah took to the water today with two young new divers which is great news!

Two brothers James 9 and William 13 decided to give diving a go as part of their holiday and with the smiling faces they had at the end of it we can certainly say they enjoyed every minute of it!

Anne got the equipment ready

Then they were straight into their briefing.

The Bubblemaker course which James did is for ages 8 -12. They get to have a go at snorkelling and scuba diving in a confined area with an instructor.

The Discover Scuba Diving course can be done from the age of 10 that William did. He performed some skills in the confined area and then went out for a dive on the reef with Anne.

Looking as chilled as the professionals they went down to the water

After they both pulled off the batman look

James and Sarah went snorkelling

while William practiced his skills with Anne on the surface.

Their dad enjoyed the sun

Then went underwater to do the skills for real

James wasn’t far behind him

After a swim around on the surface

There was no stopping him ....

They even saw a cuttlefish!

Congratulations to both of them, they enjoyed it so much, they said they would rather do this every day than go to school, I think we may have some new diving instructors in the making!

The Return of the Faroud Diver!

Hannah and Thomas have been diving with us practically every day this week. Sometimes doing 3 dives a day! Thomas came here as an Open Water Diver, he qualified yesterday with his Advanced Open Water and Deep Speciality. Unfortunately on the underwater photography dive his camera died but luckily we’d taken a backup for him. Despite having never used this particular camera before he still managed to get some good quality shots using the tips and tricks he’d learnt.

Hannah was already a Rescue diver when she arrived here but this week she had a go at Tech diving and is going home having completed her first Tech course! They are now reay to relax and enjoy the last day of their holiday so they're not tired when they get home!

Lolke, more commonly known as 'The Faroud Diver' gave us a surprise visit on Thursday and is staying in Malta for 10 days. As usual, he went off to the Faroud with Fran and Steph as soon as possible to say hello to what was his first and favourite wreck of all time. Lolke did his Instructor Development Course with us in November last year and now works as an instructor back home in Holland, however whenever he can get time off he’s back here diving with us.