I returned from a week's trip to Singapore to attend the annual Asian Dive
Exhibition (ADEx) late last night, bleary of eye but richer in memories! :-)

A major highlight of the trip was the opportunity to meet up again with J-M,
Bjorn and Soyong and to meet Angelo for the first time.  We'd arranged to
meet at the Billiard Room Bar, at Raffles Hotel, on the Tuesday evening.  I
couldn't remember whether we'd said 18.30 or 20.30 and so arrived at the
earlier hour.  The advantage of doing so was that I actually managed to read
Asian Diver from cover to cover while making a beer last an hour at a time.
(Two firsts in one evening!) :-)

Because of the excellent company the rest of the evening flew, and by the
time we left - past midnight - we'd made a huge dent in Raffles gin,
vermouth and olive supplies.  Thanks guys.  Not only for your hospitality
but for your fine company.  It was really good to see you all again and next
year - in Bangkok - it really is my 'shout'!    I'm only sorry that I didn't
manage to catch up again but the organisation this year left huge doubts
about what was happening and when!

In terms of the Show itself there wasn't a great deal of new product and
several major manufacturers were noticably absent.  Neither was there a
great deal happening on the speaker side at the show itself. Having said
that, Jarrod Jablonski and Andrew Georgitsis were manning the Halcyon stand
and did a couple of splendid presentations.  One on the expedition to dive
the 'Brittanic'; and the other on the fundamentals of DIR.  (I would urge
anyone who's unclear about DIR to see this presentation if the opportunity
presents itself.  They're articulate, intelligent and personable presenters
who manage to cut through much of the confusion and controversy that often
surrounds the DIR concept.)  Not only that, but they're good blokes at the
personal level with great senses of humour!  :-))

Unfortunately - because of poor scheduling that co-incided with the DIR
presentation - I missed the talk by John Bennett on the logistics behind his
recent deep diving scuba record of 305 metres that he set in the Philippines
last year.

REBREATHERS
Without doubt the neatest looking unit was the Halcyon RB80 that JJ had
brought along.  (There probably wasn't room on the stand for the big
Halcyon!)  Khoo Soo Seng, of IANTD, had quite a collection, including the
Fieno that seems - and to my way of thinking rightly so - to have faded from
memory; a Cis-Lunar; an Inspiration; and the Megaladon, a unit that I'd only
heard of without seeing.  After just one look it's apparent that it's a
re-vamped UT240 that 'nearly' got off the ground back in 1996.  (It was the
brain-child of Stewart Clough who - together with Oceanic - intended to be
first onto the market with  a rebreather designed for the recreational
market and called the 'Phibian'; a proto-type of which was displayed at a
number of dive shows in the early 'nineties, that was pipped at the post by
the Drager 'Atlantis' and that never ever came to market.)

FINS AND THINGS
Tricky said that he'd discovered a manufacturer selling fins specifically
designed for breast-stroke swimming but I never managed to find them.  I
kept getting way-laid every time that I set out to find the stand.  At one
of our 03.00 post-show 'let's-have-a-drink-and-review-what-we've-seen-today'
sessions we both decided that they were probably redundant items anyway! :-)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Stan Waterman and David Doubilet were along as guests of Scuba Diver
Australasia Magazine who held a ticketed dinner talk on the Saturday night
accompanied by slide and video presentations.  That was the same night it
was announced that I was to be presented with an industry award that Stan
Waterman himself had selected for me in recognition of my own modest
photographic efforts!! <BWG>  (The award itself is a visual thing that I'll
have to show Viv when she's here so that she can tell the NEDFesters what it
is!!) :-)))))

Tony Wu and William Tan were also at the Show with their award winning book,
'Silent Symphony' that really is superb and a copy of which I also have for
Viv when she arrives.

The 'Seacam' housing was also promoted at the show.  It's a wonderful piece
of engineering design that even allows photographers to house their surface
flashguns.

RESORTS
Most of the region's leading dive resorts had stands at the show and, as
usual, it was easy to drool over all of the places high on my wish-list even
although it's generally agreed that some of them, like Sipadan, are
beginning to become a little tired.

LIVEABOARDS
Also well represented, including the launch, by Silent World, of a new
luxury liveaboard in Vanuatu.

FORTUNE TELLING
Tricky and I decided to escape the show for a couple of hours on the
Saturday morning to have our fortunes told.  (It was probably unnecessary
considering how many people at the Show had already told us what our
respective futures held if we didn't tone down our behaviour!) :-)

We failed to find a fortune teller but did manage to have our auras read.
Mine blew up the machine! :-)

Strike