Glastonbury
Spot the difference …..
Papallacta
Hot Springs, and no oxygen
Cotopaxi
Still writing this one!
Mitad Del Mundo
The centre of the world
….. and you thought the world revolved around you!
still writing this one …!
Wraysbury Lake
It’s been almost two years since I moved to Wraysbury, a four minute drive from the lake where thousands of trainee diver have come to know and love during their early education of the open water, and their later education as the twin up and move onto gas mixed (I know absolutely nothing about this, you can tell that … huh?)
I saw a thread on YD which was started by Scuttler that there was to be a one off ’special dive’ even though the season had ended
I told Six that I’d be there for 3pm (left the office slightly early), and I was at the lake early! but, could have been there earlier
I thought some greater power did not want me to get their at all
First, I set the alarm, locked the front door, walked down the steps, sat in my car then remembered that I didn’t have a change of clothes. So, I went back in and grabbed a few sweats to put on after
Second, I set the alarm, locked the front door, walked down the steps, sat in my car then thought ‘where’s my phone?’. I went back in and searched the whole house, I rang my mobile off the land line ….. found it
Third, I set the alarm, locked the front door, walked down the steps, sat in my car, drove off, closed both gates and set off down the Wraysbury road
I got within 100 meters of the entrance to the lake ‘damn, I left my dry suit at home!’
I turned round and headed home, opened both gates, walked up the steps, deactivated the alarm ……..
Finally, I got to the lake and met up with Six and Andy
The first dive was in daylightish, Six was fiddling with her strap ;o)
Andy showed us his brand new twins (I didn’t understand this, something about being longer and slimmer, lighter or was it heavier and that he’d welded them together himself. I just nodded and smiled like I knew what they were talking about)
After my last overseas trip in October my latex neck seal was knackered and needed changing big time. There was a clear gap of a few centimeters between my seal and my neck. So, Andy kindly taped me up so I did not get wet
After the second dive my drysuit neck seal has completely ripped
I also had flash light trouble. My main light did not work even though I had just put in brand new batteries. I put different batteries in my back up and they got stuck half way down so that did not work. Six kindly lent me her back up
We walked down the ramp and into 8 degrees of prime Berkshire water …… it was cold
and guess what, MY TYPHOON HEATED VEST DID NOT WORK - AGAIN !!!!
London Hyperbaric, St John’s Wood
Yes, I did log these as dives!
The London Diving Chamber, a Hyperbaric decompression chamber offering NHS funded recompression to divers with Decompression Sickness (DCS) together with other Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) treatments.
London Diving Chamber specialises in Diving Medicine and provides a 24 hour clinic with everything a diver could need from a medical facility.
The word ‘hyperbaric’ literally means ‘high pressure’. The use of high pressure (i.e. pressures higher than normal atmospheric pressure)and it’s use in medicine is often viewed today as being somewhat new and controversial. However, the concept of Hyperbaric Medicine has been in existence since as early as 1662.
The industrial revolution, when bridge and tunnel builders were working in compressed air, saw a further great development in hyperbaric chambers. It was at this time when Paul Bert reported that nitrogen bubbles were forming in tissue during rapid decompression (1876) and was implicated in “The Grecian Bend”.
Since the latter part of the twentieth century hyperbaric medicine has gained most of its recognition for the treatment of certain mainstream medical conditions specifically related to the diving industry, including decompression sickness and air embolism.
A famous person in the chamber with me
Is Terrence Stamp considered ‘famous’??
Article Published in India Link
Ten years ago I entered a way of life that was to, in my opinion, lead me to the single most thrilling activity ever known to mankind. I began to explore an environment which is still relatively untouched, encountering living creatures whose evolution can be tracked back over 500 million years.
The earth’s surface covers 196 million square miles and 72 percent of this is made up of the worlds five oceans: the Antarctic, Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and
Pacific
Oceans. Yet fewer than 10 percent of people use the water for recreational purposes, those that do opt for above-water activities such as sailing and surfing or lazing around on the beach. However, those looking for something more daring have started to plunge beneath the waves in search of new challenges and unique experiences through the sport of SCUBA Diving.
I had been swimming for as long as I can remember and my earliest memories are of being encouraged to use the slide at the outdoor pool in Maidenhead. So, there I was wearing armbands, a little red bikini and a matching red rubber ring around my waist and I was about to tackle the world’s highest outdoor pool slides, or so I thought when I was three years old. I cautiously walked to the top of the steps and waited for my turn. As I went down the slide the sun was in my eyes and then I hit the icy cold water with a huge splash.
As I bobbed up and down on the surface I turned to my Dad and cried, ‘I don’t like you anymore!’ and splashed around until he fished me out of the water. But secretly I loved the water and went back for more until it was time to go home.
My parents had always encouraged me to go swimming and to learn to swim. As a child growing up in
Kenya my Mum was never allowed to go near water as her parents thought it was too dangerous. As a result of this I was taken swimming regularly and joined a swimming club at an early age. After 10 years of competing and teaching kids and adults to swim I needed to take my love and affinity of the water one step further.
After graduating from University in London I spent my third summer teaching swimming in the
US, then in October I started working for an IT company. But, I soon realised that I was not ready to adopt a grown up lifestyle comprising a suit and shiny shoes - I needed to get away again!
This trip was to be like no other I had experienced. I booked a flight to the
Maldives and spent the entire two week holiday over Christmas and New Year studying and sitting exams to qualify for my PADI Open Water.
The Maldives are the remnants of a number of volcanoes and comprise 1200 atolls which dissect the equator east of
Kenya. My choice of the
Maldives was due to news stories I had read about el niño destroying coral reefs and how melting of polar ice caps could result in the complete submersion of these tiny islands with in the next century.
The Maldives is a
Mecca for diving enthusiasts the world over and they flock to the islands to spend time in this underwater paradise.
On my last dive in the
Maldives I rolled off the back of the boat and entered the water. As the last diver submerged a large white tip shark came up to greet us. My adrenalin began to pump, this was my first shark encounter and I didn’t know what to do, this wasn’t in my PADI manual, how do I defend myself against this 500 pound beast of the deep! I looked around to see my diving buddies all suspended in the water, eyes wide and fixed on this huge beast which was now circling just below us.
All of a sudden it flicked its tail and disappeared. The Instructor began to motion us deeper into the water. I checked my dive computer and I was only at 10 meters at the time. My initial certification at that time enabled me to dive to a maximum depth of 18 meters but further study and practice now allows me to dive much deeper, on a recent trip to
Egypt I dived to 60 meters.
During the rest of that dive we saw eagle rays above us which were perfectly silhouetted against the sun, a pair of large hawksbill turtle effortlessly hovering over the reef looking for food and a Napoleon wrasse who tracked me with his motile eye for at least ten minutes. Just as I was getting sensory overload our time was up and we headed back to the boat. On the way we encountered a school of barracuda, each one over a meter long.
With my PADI qualification under my belt and a need to satisfy my thirst to learn and experience more of the underwater world I took a further eight diving courses including the professional Dive Master certification. This allows me to go anywhere in the world to work as an underwater guide.
There are endless dive sites around the globe offering incredible aquatic diversity. Tropical diving destinations are abundant with exotic marine life and coral reefs. With every dive, and at differing depths, you will see different species of fish, crustaceans, and nudibranch all with a variety of different colours.
There are also ship wrecks and lost cities in lakes, rivers and oceans that are dived by people who are interested in history or finding priceless artefacts which will later be seen in museums.
The ultimate adrenalin rush is ice diving. Where the divers cut a hole in ice which may be up to a foot thick, they then jump into the water with a rope tied to them so
they will find their way out at the end of the dive. With ice diving preparation is key. There is no way of communicating with others and if you lose the rope there is no chance of you finding the hole in the ice which you entered and death is inevitable.
During my last trip to
Egypt I returned to a reef that I had dived many times before, but this time due to the highly qualified people on the boat we were going to tackle the arch at Elphinestone.
There is a tale about an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh whose final resting place is Elphinestone and that his sarcophagus lies at the under the arch - 60 meters below the surface of the water.
Due to the tides we had only one chance to dive the arch and had to be fully kitted up and in the water at 6am or we would miss our opportunity to dive on one of the most difficult and respected sites of the Red Sea.
We entered the water at the south eastern side of the reef and began our descent. It was very early and the limited sun light meant that the usually bright colourful coral looked grey/ blue. The magnificent arch opened up in front of us and sure enough there was a large rectangular shape in the centre of the arch. Through the other side of the arch we could see four hammerhead sharks acting as security guards for the Pharaoh who had been the sole occupier of the arch for thousands of years.
My diving equipment is made up of over twenty separate items valued at £5,000 which need to be carefully maintained between every dive. My camera is my most precious piece and I have taken many underwater pictures so that I can share my experience with others. My underwater pictures can be found on www.superjolly.com.
Taking up diving is not like any other hobby, it takes a lot of commitment to keep your certification up to date and having your equipment regularly serviced.
Taking up diving is like discovering a whole new world and once you’ve jumped in and experienced this vast unexplored environment you may want to specialise in certain areas or try all the different types of diving available to satisfy your need to adventure and learning.
Bendy Fish
I was on a 8 day liveaboard doing five dives a day in the Dutch Antillies, beginning at St Maartin and ending at St Kitts taking on Saba and Statia along the way.
On the seventh day my left hand and arm started feeling a little sore and itchy
I never really thought much about it until I returned home and went to the office the next day
Over the next week my hand got worse …. I could not type, I could not use my mouse in my left hand. Worse than that was that I could not hold my weights while working out in the gym and I couldn’t throw a punch in Combat. I was driving with my right hand and the thumb of my left hand which was not as bad as the others digits
My fingers were swollen, discoloured, tender to touch, I couldn’t bend them, my hand was very sore and still itchy
By the second week I realised that there was something seriously wrong
I was going down the route of having touched something and getting poisoned. So after seeking advice from random people I was sitting at my desk in the office with my hand in a mug of boiling hot water or a glass of ice water. I was rubbing tiger balm into my fingers and rubbing oil into them. But nothing tooked the pain away!
It was getting worse and now I could not bend my fingers or make a fist
I went to Ashford A&E and saw a nurse who used to work for the Navy in Weymouth then up in Leciester near stoney and she old me that she had seen a lot of diving related injuries but decided that I had been bitten by a spider
I went to my local doctors surgery and the GP I saw wanted to send me to the Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, but I had to have a blood test first
After five blood tests I was told they were all negative and there was nothing wrong with me
On the way back to the office I called Gary at Slough Sub Aqua. After I described my symptoms, he said ….
‘you have a bend!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘yes you have!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘yes you have!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘you’re in denial!’
Gary gave me the number of the Hyperbaric in St John’s Wood and told me to call them
I still wasn’t convinced so I took a detour and stopped by Runnymead EuZone
There was a closed sign in the window, but I could see lights on and the dooor was slightly open
I decided to call them, and a really nice lady asked me to come in as they were doing stock taking
She took one look at me and dialed the number of the Hyperbaric for me
MY Polly, Deep South
Disgusting!!! do not go on this boat
Skills Summary
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
ACMA Qualified
TPG Academy Professional Project Management Accreditation
BA (Hons) Finance
SKILLS
A Qualified Accountant and experienced Project Manager, previously having worked within Finance and Marketing in highly business focused roles for major blue chip companies. An able communicator, adept at liaising with all levels of the organisation both internally and externally with experience of working on multi functional teams including Sales, Marketing, IT, and Technology.
Financially astute and highly analytical combined with experience in quality process management, change management and in best practice audit. Including improvements to the planning process, and changing the reporting process to ensure accuracy and the removal of risks in the decision making process
SAP UK Limited, Bedfont, Middlesex
The world’s third-largest independent software provider, SAP delivers business solutions to more than 36,200 customers in more than 120 countries around the world.
Apr 2007 - present AFIT Financial Controller
Recruited as the Controller for: Finance, Legal, Commercial, Facilities, IT and Support
- Ownership of P+L’s from a finance perspective for all departments within responsibility area
- Modelling maintenance revenue including taking account reductions due to maintenance at risk
- Modelling other future business issues and the financial impact of them in the monthly rolling forecast
- Preparation of close management reports for each responsible area & reviewing them with the area Heads
Achievements
- Rewrote the Facilities and IT assessment process for £15m to be correctly allocated between UK operational lines of business and Global until based in the UK
- Created close reporting pack which had previously not existed
Orica, Fairfield Avenue, Staines, Surrey
Australian listed consumer company with four divisions: Explosives, Paints, Chemicals, Fertilisers
International project team brought together for the global integration of Dyno Nobel into Orica Explosives
Jan 2006 - Mar 2007 Business Finance Support Manager
Recruited to Orica Limited to support the CFO & Integration project manager on Finance & Synergy reporting
- Created budget process for 53 countries and worked closely with global CFOs to complete on time
- Budget v. Actual variances following through any large variances to understand and close the gap
- Developed synergy process & model to monitor and report the performance of 450+ initiatives
- Worked with project managers and AT Kearney Consultants on the identification of synergies leading to potential EBIT improvement of A$400 million over four years
- Prepared cash flow statement and NPV analysis to 2014
- Scoped a cost model and wrote business case for the closure of the Oslo head office
- Prepared an internal audit programme for the three operating regions (Asia, Europe and Latin America)
- Maintained the Balanced Scorecard and KPIs for the project team
Achievements
- Created budget process and model for 53 countries to a total value of A$140m in 2007
- Created a synergy performance reporting tool, replacing the complex model built by AT Kearney
- Part of the team which identified A$80m synergies in 2007 growing to A$115m in 2010
- Prepared board slides on progress of synergies and budgets
O2 UK Limited, Bath Road, Burnham, Berkshire
Aug 2003 - Jan 2006 Data & Reporting Process Improvement Manager (within Marketing)
Promoted to manage data and reporting improvements initiatives to achieve a complete control environment
- Identification & quantification (benefit/ cost/ capability) of process issues which had risks or opportunities
- Project Managed business wide initiatives to improve quality and accuracy of data and reporting
- Wrote processes for initiatives and trained others to take these improvements forward
- Developed Business Cases and costing for data and reporting improvement initiatives
- Identifies the resources required to support the initiative, and gaining approval from resource manager
- Developed reports for Sales, Marketing and Finance on Business and Consumer KPIs
- Worked with highly multi-functional teams including: Marketing, Sales, Technology, Networks and Care
- Presented to stakeholders on progress of key initiatives including progress against budget and milestones
Achievements
- Built a data repository which became the single source of truth for all consumer reporting within Sales, Marketing and Finance, this improved financial accuracy for Board level decision making
- Removed 42 percent of consumer reports which were duplicated & were using the wrong assumptions, this reduced the workload of Sales, Marketing and Finance reporting teams
- Part of the team which identified 40 processes which when corrected would create £5m EBIT
- Project managed 3 projects to a benefit of £500k
Jun 2000 - Aug 2003 Business Analyst
Recruited to O2 to be the Finance representative on Business & Consumer proposition project teams
- Worked on Prepay revenue generating and retention initiatives from inception to completion
- Presented detailed impact assessments on all new initiatives affecting Finance looking for risks or issues
- Provided financial input (costing and pricing) into Business Cases and Initiative Documents
- Co-ordinating the capture of reporting requirements across Finance, Sales and Marketing
- Wrote processes for all new reports and trained others to take these improvements forward
- Developed, analysed and interpreted performance evaluation data and KPIs
- Worked within cross functional and cross directorate project teams including: Sales, Marketing and IT
Achievements
- Produced a suit of reports for all new consumer prepay propositions
- No Finance issues with data and reporting on any of the projects
- No financial risks evolved following project implementation
- Negotiated & generated alternative solutions for non-compliant requirements, avoiding any no-goes
- No project slippage due to Finance
EDS, Globe Park, Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Nov 1999 - Jun 2000 Project Accountant
Selected to work on the implementation of a new Problem/ Asset Management system
- Created project plan and cost model for a new problem and asset management system
- Investigated best practices by auditing a number European entities
- Carried out training sessions & workshops to communicate best practices to entities
- Established problem escalation protocols to levels of the organisation where they can be resolved
- Created & controlled the project documentation - benefits, risk assessments, assumptions, plans & issues
Aug 1998 - Oct 1999 European Financial Analyst
Promoted to European Financial Analyst to carry out analysis of European results to the US and project work
- Consolidation and analysis of country month end results including KPIs of key Infrastructure categories
- Budgeting, planning & variance analysis at the framework & country level ensuring full financial analysis
- Evaluating the progress each country against budget, following up and closing any gaps
- Presenting results to the CFO, Vice President and Framework Manager ensuring full financial transparency
Sep 1997 - Aug 1998 UK Financial Analyst
Recruited to UK Financial Analyst to create monthly reporting and forward planning for 7 UK business units
- Defining their business strategy and ensuring no surprises at month end
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This is my Wordpress port of Andreas Viklund's open source XHTML theme, "Close to Attraction" (Andreas04). Will be downloadable soon.
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