Well, you will all have seen the photo of
me diving (above) so I’d better tell you all about it and my other diving
adventures. I have always loved the
ocean and swimming, so it seemed quite natural that when I moved to Australia I
would learn how to dive. It was far too
cold in Ireland and not something I would have liked to try in New York; can
you imagine what, or even who, is in the Hudson River? I shudder to think – I’ve seen Goodfellas!
Anyway, I took myself along to the diving shop close to the University of Queensland (which was where I was working) and booked myself on to a beginner’s course. 10 hours of classroom, 6 hours in a pool, and then 4 dives in the ocean.
The classroom proved to be the hardest thing for me as a non-native. I constantly had to ask “what does that look like?” when they were telling you all about the dangerous fish, sea urchins, sharks etc. Who knew there were so many kinds of sharks and so many dangerous things? But I should have known better: Australia is home to the world’s most dangerous snakes and spiders, so why should the ocean be any different? I had to go the library and get out all the books on marine life in Australia so I could get ready to do battle with all the dangers in the deep.
The pool day was great fun until the evening. As a very fair skinned Irish girl I had to constantly put sun screen on my face, and despite all my best efforts I managed to get the weirdest sun burn ever! My face swelled up, my eyes would not open, yet there was no red anywhere on my skin. It took days to go down, I got read the riot act by my doctor as I had no idea it was sunburn - I thought I was allergic to something, I was, as it turned out: it was the sun.
The following weekend off we went to do our first two open-water dives. I have never prepared for anything in my life like I did for that, as part of the classroom work was telling us of all of the dangers of diving – including never, ever, holding your breath! Thankfully I took to it like a duck to water (!) and within 10 minutes felt confident and not in the least bit afraid. On my first dive we encountered a logger-head turtle and on every subsequent dive I have always looked for one of them. My friends in Australia call me the “Queen of the Turtles”.
When I moved back to Ireland I decided to do some diving here. I was very surprised to see off the west coast we have our own little barrier reef due to the Gulf Stream; I never knew we had so many amazing things underwater around Ireland to look at including a German submarine from WW2 off the coast of Antrim.
Obviously I also did lots of diving every time I went on holiday. It was great pooling my luggage with friends Ben and Ken which meant I was always able to take my own diving gear with me. Whilst on a holiday to Cuba I tried to teach Ben and Ken how to snorkel. Let’s just say the lady will never get her Milk Tray. I am happy and proud to say I went diving in the Bay of Pigs – how many people will ever be able to say that? I’ve been diving off Greece, South Africa, Egypt and Vanuatu (in the south Pacific) and am very lucky to have such great memories that will stay with me for life.
All of my diving experience has quite surprisingly, prepared me for one aspect of Motor Neuron Disease. I’m now on night-time non-invasive ventilation (a machine pumps air into my lungs to assist my chest muscles). This entails wearing a face mask and tube – something that I’m told other M.N.D. sufferers often struggle to come to terms with. Having spent a lot of my life underwater dependent on another form of air always wearing a mask, I’ve fortunately had no problem adjusting to this non-invasive ventilation. Who would have thought?
Don’t forget to join my Facebook Group and the Eimear’s Benefit Night Facebook page, please!
More soon
Ciao
Eimear X
Anyway, I took myself along to the diving shop close to the University of Queensland (which was where I was working) and booked myself on to a beginner’s course. 10 hours of classroom, 6 hours in a pool, and then 4 dives in the ocean.
The classroom proved to be the hardest thing for me as a non-native. I constantly had to ask “what does that look like?” when they were telling you all about the dangerous fish, sea urchins, sharks etc. Who knew there were so many kinds of sharks and so many dangerous things? But I should have known better: Australia is home to the world’s most dangerous snakes and spiders, so why should the ocean be any different? I had to go the library and get out all the books on marine life in Australia so I could get ready to do battle with all the dangers in the deep.
The pool day was great fun until the evening. As a very fair skinned Irish girl I had to constantly put sun screen on my face, and despite all my best efforts I managed to get the weirdest sun burn ever! My face swelled up, my eyes would not open, yet there was no red anywhere on my skin. It took days to go down, I got read the riot act by my doctor as I had no idea it was sunburn - I thought I was allergic to something, I was, as it turned out: it was the sun.
The following weekend off we went to do our first two open-water dives. I have never prepared for anything in my life like I did for that, as part of the classroom work was telling us of all of the dangers of diving – including never, ever, holding your breath! Thankfully I took to it like a duck to water (!) and within 10 minutes felt confident and not in the least bit afraid. On my first dive we encountered a logger-head turtle and on every subsequent dive I have always looked for one of them. My friends in Australia call me the “Queen of the Turtles”.
When I moved back to Ireland I decided to do some diving here. I was very surprised to see off the west coast we have our own little barrier reef due to the Gulf Stream; I never knew we had so many amazing things underwater around Ireland to look at including a German submarine from WW2 off the coast of Antrim.
Obviously I also did lots of diving every time I went on holiday. It was great pooling my luggage with friends Ben and Ken which meant I was always able to take my own diving gear with me. Whilst on a holiday to Cuba I tried to teach Ben and Ken how to snorkel. Let’s just say the lady will never get her Milk Tray. I am happy and proud to say I went diving in the Bay of Pigs – how many people will ever be able to say that? I’ve been diving off Greece, South Africa, Egypt and Vanuatu (in the south Pacific) and am very lucky to have such great memories that will stay with me for life.
All of my diving experience has quite surprisingly, prepared me for one aspect of Motor Neuron Disease. I’m now on night-time non-invasive ventilation (a machine pumps air into my lungs to assist my chest muscles). This entails wearing a face mask and tube – something that I’m told other M.N.D. sufferers often struggle to come to terms with. Having spent a lot of my life underwater dependent on another form of air always wearing a mask, I’ve fortunately had no problem adjusting to this non-invasive ventilation. Who would have thought?
Don’t forget to join my Facebook Group and the Eimear’s Benefit Night Facebook page, please!
More soon
Ciao
Eimear X
Lovely sis ! And I see your point about it helping you be accustomed to the night time ventilation. Well done. XXX
ReplyDelete