I had two marvellous experiences this week. Firstly, I got my first dive in
since December. Secondly, I buddied with my daughter Natalie, who did her
first diver ever in the ocean!

She turned 10 in March, and was meant to get certified as her birthday
present, but because of SARS, she was unable to travel until now. So we went
over to Bintan (an Indonesian island a 45-minute ferry ride from Singapore),
and enrolled her in a Discover SCUBA Diving experience. I wanted to make
sure that she really wanted to dive, before spending thousands of $ on gear
and certification (I don't believe in certifying family, so would have to
get someone else to do it).

She did marvellously on the confined water exercises, and we spent 65
delightful minutes on a shallow reef, meeting southers stingrays,
cuttlefish, clownfish (a particularly delightful experience for her after
having watched Finding Nemo about 63 times!), a nurse shark, and ARF.

She never flinched, never bolted, had near perfect buoyancy control, and had
more air left than I did. She's got the gene :-)

Looks like I'll have to spend the dough :-)

Bjorn