Fit women showing you their knickers. That's class, that is.

My first full day on holiday was a) busy and b) my birthday. As mentioned yesterday, I decided to treat myself to a couple of dives, partly to try to make sure I didn’t need a PADI refresher as I’m required to dive every 6 months or I have to sit a course. Which is both expensive and annoying.

We got up fairly early and Christina decided to come along for the ride, though she couldn’t dive as she was coming down with a cold. The shop sorted me out with all my kit, including an air bottle that required a wrench to open. Not until I’d ripped the skin on my hand trying first. Ah well.

The boat was a smallish RIB with enough room for a handful of us. There were two instructors, the pilot, Christina and myself and two other divers. The trip to the first dive site was maybe 15-20 minutes during which time I managed to just about stave off seasickness. The sea was pretty calm so we’d picked a good day to go out.

Having said that, I couldn’t wait to get into the water and away from the bobbing. The sea was a moderately comfortable 19 degrees – colder than I’m used to, but fine with the full length wetsuit I’d been issued with. I was one on one with my instructor so we edged our way down the anchor rope to around 30m and began to explore.

Thing is, My mask kept fogging and I was rapidly becoming both dizzy and disorientated. I’ve never felt like this underwater before, even with mask problems. The mask was my own – I’d brought it with me and it had been fine in the past. I guess it needed a better clean before use. However, the head problems just wouldn’t go away. As long as I kept my mask clear, I wasn’t so bad but at the first hint of clouding I started to feel spaced out.

Not good.

I just relaxed and kept my mask clear as much as possible. The dive itself was OK with decent visibility, but nothing spectacular to see. However, I don’t remember too much of it which is a shame.

And more hot women in hotter pants.

When we surfaced, I had a bit of a headache and we also got stuck at the dive site for some time as the anchor had managed to wedge itself rather too securely on the sea floor. My instructor had to dive down to loosen it, and after almost half an hour of riding the waves what little food I’d had that morning decided to make an exit.

We made it to the second dive site, known for turtles, about half an hour after that where all the water I’d drunk decided to leave my digestive tracts and mix with the sea water. I decided to sit the dive out and lie down. I wasn’t just ill, I still had a sore head and felt dizzy. Not a good shape to be in before a dive, even a shallow one.

So that was most of the day. After returning to shore I headed back to the resort with a sandwich and had a bit of a snooze until I felt more human. I was in such a rush to lie down I even forgot to get my logbook stamped. Very annoyed about that.

The rest of the daylight hours were relaxed, and in the evening we caught a free bus up to see a cabaret show that Christina and her mum had booked. Not normally something I’d do on holiday, but hey – why not? It was called The Sound of Musicals and included a meal and all the alcohol we could shove down our necks.

It wasn’t bad, either. The food was pretty decent and the free wine not the worst in the world (though the rosé was the driest I’ve ever tasted and I stuck to beer anyway). The performances were good, and the song choices not bad either. There were numbers from The Sound of Music, Les Misérables, Chicago, and Joseph amongst others.

The girl sat next to me was related to one of the main cast members and on the way out I mentioned this to him as the performers waved us off. “The noisy girl at the front? Yeah, that’s my cousin!”

There is a vague possibility that Christina and I headed back to the karaoke bar when we returned to town, but there is no proof of these rumours. I hope.

Got to love the token xmassy tinsel

This was fairly last-minute so I didn’t really mention it much on here, but when I finished my school placements (and for other reasons) I just needed to get the hell away from the UK for a bit. Unwind, chill out, avoid the internet and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

Fortunately, I know some very lovely people who offered me a room for a few nights if I fancied chilling out in Tenerife. All I had to do was get there and bring some spending money. Easy.

A quick check via skyscanner.net pointed me in the direction of Scotland‘s largest airline, GlopeSpan from whom I booked a return flight from Glasgow. Oh, yes. That would bite me in the bum in a few days time…

So stupidly early on Sunday 13th, my uncle dropped me off at Glasgow Airport. Bang on time I took off and shortly before midday I landed at Tenerife South Reina-Sofia Airport. One point to note is that although Tenerife is Spanish territory, it’s in the same time zone as the UK so there’s no need to adjust your watches. Tell this to the telephone companies as my phone insisted on moving itself forward an hour due to connecting to a Spanish network. Grr.

Taxi from the airport to Costa Adeje where I would be staying is posted as being €23.50. I opted for the bus instead as I’m a  cheapskate. For those heading that way, you want the number 111 to Playa Las Américas and then 416 or 417 to Torviscas. Do note there is a less frequent survice on a Sunday and you’ll need to look for landmarks on the second leg to make sure you get off at the right place – it’s barely 10 minutes’ ride. Total cost was less that €4, so make sure you have some smaller notes or pocket change to hand.

From the stop, it was a short walk to the resort where I was staying and met up with the lovely Christina and her mother, Karen. The weather was nice (though there were a few showers over the week) and the company good!

My first priority was to book some diving. I’d tried to organise something online when I was still in the UK, but the company I’d looked at hadn’t replied. As it happened, they were based less than 5 minutes’ walk from our resort so Christina and I wandered down to sort something out.

The company was Diversity, and after some haggling, they agreed to the internet rate of €65 for two dives, all in. Far cheaper than other operations that were asking that or more for just two dives with equipment hire on top. The choice was Monday or Wednesday due to weather and tides and I decided to dive the following day.

After that, it was pretty much just a relaxing day. We walked about, I got familiar with where things were and had a McDs as my first meal of the day. Dinner was a lovely roast at the restaurant attached to the resort and in the evening I got slightly drunk and attempted karaoke at a nearby bar. Twice. Or maybe three times.