difficult ppl is good

I start to like the facebook application - God's message for you today

It's so true many times, many days.. today message is that difficult ppl is important - they teach us to tolerate and improve. Indeed, human relationship require tolerant, especially when u are new to the person, ie diving industry where u meet all kind of ppl everyday. u've to suit urself to them, which i'm not so good at... Anyway, today i met hans issac and the fat comedian (i keep forgetting his name), and a girl (maybe hans girlfren according to the office geng). So, artist always have that kind of artist attitude that i don't like, haha... but have to love them too, coz they also made by God and all human including myself are fall short of God's glory.

oklar, that's all. hope God will give me love to love difficult ppl which i hardly love especially my roomate, haha...

christmas

a boring christmas spent on island....

sigh...

just not my style of christmas that im looking for, haha... wat to do, every place has their own culture, and i just still not yet fit in this type of drinking celebration culture.

This christmas i receive 2 presents. 1 from winnie, the lady-man. He gave me a cute turtle keychain, pink in color. And another from aktar, perfume. Thanks for the present! I never thought that i still can get a present on this christmas without all my frens out there in kk T___T.

Surely Christmas is so so so different without hope church frenz~~ I missed ya all!!! I missed jenn jenn too... i still remember my first year christmas in kk, we hopekkstudent unit make red stocking keychain for sales to raise fund for church christmas celebration. Then we have children christmas party with the puppet show. The 2nd year i have jenn jenn together join the dinner at wat wat banquet, and jenn jenn got the queen of the nite, hohoho... The 3rd year, we have simple celebration at church and that's just so nice=)

Anyway, missed christmas so much!

mabul 3 days 2 nite

14- 16th dec

Pygmy seahorse workshop at mabul island. I represent mataking island for the workshop. The workshop only at nite time coz it involves all the dive operator around semporna, so day time, boring... nothing to do...like now...

Worshop time, serious serious..

The place we (Nina, gav and me) stay for the pass 2 days are at Lai's Homestay. As the name implies homestay, means the place is really simple, just bed. GOod thing is that 2 person in one room, so more privacy. It's cheap (RM50 per nite include 3 meals and room). The bad thing is that no electricity other than 6pm to 6am (nite time only lor). Damn hot in day time.

This is my second time visit to mabul and first time overnite here. In terms of environment, i would say that i prefer mataking island compare to mabul. Why? There're less ppl in mataking, coz no local community, the most numbers of ppl in mataking maybe about few hundreds only. But in mabul, there're so many locals which includes of those with and without documents (maybe about thousand ppl) and dive operators. Everywhere u turn are ppl, ppl and more ppl, and rubbish rubbish and rubbish. But have to admit that the underwater view is really quite nice here, haha...

Most of the locals here work generation after generation as fisherman = poverty. Again, due to no legal documents, they have no 'right' to do anything, not even going to school. So what the kids do if not at school? have fun swimming, playing kites, basketball, blah blah..

kids jumping off the jetty without any worries or fear
jump jump!
kids showing off the fish they caught! interesting~
Basketball! modification of net, haha

the fisherman came back with their harvest, the fisherman boat in front of our homestay actually fish for shark! and they cover it with coconut leave to avoid attention from public
Lai's homestay, cheap cheap Rm 50 pernite includes 3 meal, but electric only from 6pm to 6am=(
Hammock! I love to hang out here all day long
Sunset view, first time i try to adjust the apperture to set the color
Gavin inspire me to take this, thanks gav!

More pic, really fun try to adjust the lightbalik ke bilik dengan letih

underwater photoshooting

11.12.2009
My first attempt to use my underwater casing with camera! huhu!
Dave Bretheron is my sifu since he's the professional photographer already, hehe...

this is dave

so, we did our first underwater casing waterproof test on the morning before go down with the camera inside. so many knowledge that i don't think i'll be able to get it with my own effort, haha... probably will, but take longer time.=p

this is me, trying to find pygmy seahorse

Actually the deeper we dive, the color loses and the thing we see actually are not of the real color. For example, the gorgonian seafan that im looking at is actually red color! but we see as greyish color. The main purpose for us to go photoshooting is because of the pygmy, but seems like its really quiet challenging to get one nice shot, hehe.. And i dont wanna stress the pygmy with so much shoot on it...

Can u find the pygmy seahorse there? i can't... it suppose to be there... less than 1.5 cm

So, have to play around with the white balance, and so on while photographing. It's actually qutie annoying coz many thing u have to take note.

So lastly, just present some of the pic i took after some editing, haha... Dave say the picture i took is quite good for a first timer, hehehee...

Nudi nudi branchi (actually just nudibranch, about 3cm long)
can u find the crocodile fish camouflage

Porcelain crab among the anemone (about 3cm length)
Nemo nemo... i wonder why so many ppl like to take their pic? because they don't swim away? easy target, haha
Lastly trumpet fish, i think they're couple, wanna figure out why one yellow, one chocolate

Anyway, just some wrap up of wat i tot of underwater photoshooting..
it's fun when u're the one holding the camera and try to get the best shoot possible, and one good picture may need several minutes with tens of picture taken. But it's important for us to be sensitive to our buddy or those who dive with us especially if its a big group. You won't want everyone to wait for u or worried that u may get lost in the deep blue sea, or the dive master or trainee (me) to keep waiting and waiting and waiting. yeah... sensitive to others feeling too, haha... my conclusion after follow so many dive together with diver who took picture all the time.. can't they just enjoy the view/ fish without having to take all the picture? hmmm...


Bah, that's all=p

english class

I started my english class for some of the landscape boy, 5 of them actually. I initiated the class after they're complaining about how they're suffering because they don't read or speak english. And i do agree that they missed a lot of chances because of that. So up till now i've conducted 3 class, one session is 1 and half hour. The class is quiet fun actually, and im glad that they're serious to learn=)

Tonite will be their first spelling test. Hope they do well.

rescue course:scenario

09/11, i've finish 2 session of rescue scenario, that were hard session! have to swim half dead and blow and shout and push and pull and blah blah blah... half dead especially at surface. I'm good underwater but it gets really tough on the surface, haha =_____=

10/11, i have my missing diver scenario (as in real situation) and have to coordinate the entire resort ppl who can help to help. Im so so so so nervous that i wake up at 3 am start to think about wat i should do. Anyway, although it turn out to be quite chaotic but ended up well too.

11/11, the very last session. This time no one help me... i have to swim for 50m on my own and tow a diver, give rescue breath all the way back to the shore, CPR for 6 minutes... i almost pass out half way coz too tired...

conclusion, im really good in water, and terrible on water. need to upgrade my swimming skills, haha =) lazy to write liao, coz busy with work, hehe

just some basic intro about mataking

These are just some photo of it:

The reception outside view

Mataking composed of 2 island, 1 mataking besar and 1 mataking kecil, which are linked by sandy bridge that can passed through only during low tide and totally cover up during high tide.

View of mataking kecil during lowtide

View of mataking kecil during hightide

Ohya!'famous' spider lily flower that can be found in almost every corner u turn in our resort

Place that i like to hang out during early morning or late evening

And lastly, our only transport on this island experience car crash just his evening!!

happening

Today, my rescue course start.

Have half day doing my rescue course 5 chapter knowledge review, and practical 1 & 2 in the afternoon as well as swimming with snorkerling equipment. Today is quite interesting when i looked back. I managed to put the backbones together during my lunch time using double tape, just to secure them before i tie them.

The skull of the dolphin

The ribcage of it

And the backbone (before)

The backbone (after taping them)

Lastly, the beautiful morning view=p

happening on the 04 dec

Should i say that it's a fun day? haha..

Start the day pretty slow mode, as usual, i go and take some picture around,manage to take pic of hermit crab only, as shown:



Yeap! then i start to put my bones together (shown in next post). Then continue for the EFR course in the evening, conducted by Mr. Luke. All the other 8 participants just received the manual in the morning, and expected to finish the whole Emergency First Respond session in just half day, and do the open book final exam for it!! I'm totally ok with the exam, because i have been reading and watching the videos for weeks before this... And considering my english level is quite ok to understand the lesson and question better than the rest... anyway, i think that this class really pissed me off, coz the class is not being delivered as 'ideally' as i thought it would be=(

Everyone seriously discussing the answer

CPR which i failed to deliver rescue breath well... hmmm... how come ya! i'm in st. john and PBSM for my whole secondary life and i've did it pretty well back then..

Anyway, that nite we have celebration with the open water students (our staffs, 9 of them) who successfully passed the course at our restaurant. However, i did not join the whole session, just manage to grab some food, eat and tired go back take shower and sleep (what i like the most!!)

Neo, instructor with Hamdan, our singer present a song for our openwater graduate
Group pic taken with our resort manager, Mr Luke (the only white as u can see here)

The rest of the nite that i didn't follow through. The nite was full of drunken ppl and crazy dance and singing, haha... From the facebook pic i saw, they're really "enjoy" the nite=p

To make the things worst, two woman (the receiption girl and my room mate the japanese girl) has girl fight again last nite... it's the second time they hv face to face encounter. Maybe next time i'll tell the story if there's to-be-continue situation again, haha.. that's all. Bye bye 041209

China group

27th November to 3rd November, disasterous days, haha...

But when i think back now, it's actually a lot of God's blessing behind all the 'suffering', haha..

27th Nov, innitial plan is to stay at WWF's house, where i can have astro and chit chat with nat and gav, while waiting for meeting china group the next morning. Few minutes before departure, Tawau office call and say that there's sudden change and ask me to settle at seafest hotel. First respond: What the heck!

But ended up, i still follow the instruction. Nat and Gav came and picked me and we went for quick shopping after our lunch. Bring them a tour around seafest hotel before i was left all alone.

Lunch with nat!

View inside my comfy hotel

Yeap! that's the hotel i stay in wihtout need to pay a single cents. Hehehehe... It's really cold inside, and actually i quite enjoy the stay cz of astro! haha... watched Jurassic Park and some discovery channel shows =) Dozzed off around 8something and wake up later at 9pm to prepare welcoming the China guest. Super nervous....So they arrived around 10 pm, after checking in their room, i went back to sleep without having dinner with them.

The next morning, taking breakkie with some of the guys who wake up really early at 7am. They're nice, at least ease my nervousness. Long story lar after that, buy beer, check in resort, check in dive centre, test dive, then 3 dives each day, blah blah blah... China people are noisy as usual, playing and drinking every nite, but i never did join them, wahahah.. coz of headache they cause to me in the day time XD

Picture taken with the China guest on the way to resort

So, blah blah, they eventually leave safely and happily on the 3rd. That was a relieve for me, and indeed a good day, coz they give tips for me, my first tips for my 23 years of life - USD 100 and RMB 200. They give me tough time, but when i think back, it's actually a good lesson to learn in each "disaster", haha.. and accident income too..

Anyway, thank you 20 ppl china group for the blessing and memory ^^

i've got my camera!

Hi there! This is amelia with her new camera Oympus SP 560 UZ, and hence decided to start writing something about her life together with her camera name Bu Bu=)

I've started my career as marine biologist and dive master trainee in Mataking The Reef Dive Resort for 2 months now, and still have 16 months to go! I'll be writing about my life here, thus this blog named "18 months in Mataking"!

Let the journey begins~~ Muackk!