I was reminded the other day of an event that happened back in June of 1999 and I thought I would share it with you all.
It was Eddies 40th Birthday and we had been living in Mallorca for around two months. We didn't know too many people, so took it upon myself to arrange a couple of things for us to do in celebration of his milestone. One of those things I arranged was parascending, you are attached to a thin piece of string and a parachute and tied to the back of a speed boat. We did this in Port Alcudia and it was brilliant, it was exhilarating, and along with amazing views across the bay it made for a great outing.
The second treat I lined up was scuba diving. He had been harping on about it pretty much from the moment we arrived in Mallorca, so it seemed the obvious thing to do. We did a try dive in one of the hotel pools and booked up to go.
We set off early for this one as they told us it was the best time to go. We arrived at the dive center in Port Pollensa along with half a dozen or so other people where we were fitted out with wet suits. Everyone had these really cool shorty style wet suites however, the only one they could find to fit little old short arse me resembled something that had been hanging about since the 1970's. I felt very uncool but had no choice but to go with it.
So with everyone else looking the part and me looking like a 70's throw back, we headed off to the boat that would take us out to the bay. While on the boat we were kitted out with tanks, facemasks and all the other gubbins that we would need. We then arrived to our dive point and we had all been shown how to gently roll ourselves in to the water with the tanks on our backs. Sadly it was a maneuver that I just simply couldn't do, a gentle shove from someone behind me and I was in the water.
We were then ready to be shown the next set of instructions that we would need to know before the actual dive itself. Everyone stood up, however, everybody else was in excess of around five and a half feet tall .........except me at my staggering height of 4 foot 11, although I usually round it up to 5 feet. By now I was beginning to lose the will and the desire to progress any further. The top and bottom of the story is that while Eddie and the others dived down a few meters and looked at the wonderful wildlife that the Med has to offer, I simply bobbed around on the top and watched from above.
It wasn't a bad experience and it has by no means put me off going again, in fact quite the opposite I would love to have another go but preferably without looking like a 70's has been.
Cabin fever took hold of me yesterday and I needed to escape the west coast. We just needed a change of scenery and we headed off down south to Los Cristianos. The weather was good, parking was easy as like everywhere else its very quiet. Many places have closed, some sadly for good, however we stopped for a coffee and a sandwich, visited a couple of shops and had a lovely walk along the sea front.
It was just the change we needed and I hope, along with everyone else that Los Cris and the rest of the island will soon be back to being the tourist hub it has always been.
As always until next time, stay safe and ride the storm
H x
No comments:
Post a Comment