Good news!

Yesterday was a day of excellent news, one to stay in the memory for some time (given my age, I can't really hope for more than that!).

As my regular reader(s) will know, I started scuba training in November 2009.  I qualified as an Ocean Diver the following summer and started Sports Diver training in November 2010, completing it last summer - by the skin of my teeth: I got the last exercise signed off on the last dive of the year.  Last November I started the Dive Leader theory training.

And yesterday I took the exam.  And passed.  Yeehaah!

Slightly unexpected, that.  I looked at the paper and saw two questions on the Dive Tables that we had covered in the revision lesson - and I couldn't remember how to work them out.  My brain does that in exams.  I moved on to other questions, came back to the Dive Table ones at the end, and managed to get some sort of answer for those two, and a third one which we hadn't covered.  I have to admit they were all wrong, but I still passed [big smiley face!].

I never dive using the tables.  Who does, now that we all rely on computers?  But if I want to do the Instructor course (and I do, all in good time) I'm obviously going to have to re-learn how to use them.

I got home, after the statutory celebration (sorry: de-brief) in the pub, to find the latest issue of Scuba magazine waiting for me - and my second piece of good news.

I'd got in touch with the publisher of Scuba, BSAC's new house mag, shortly after it was launched (this is the third issue) because they were looking for a female diver to write a regular column.  I didn't get that job, but he suggested I write a couple of pieces on spec for two regular columns; so I did.  And one of them was published as a two-page spread this month [another big smiley face!!].

I know: you were expecting my usual rant.  But even I can't be a grumpy old woman with that sort of thing going on [really smiley face!!!].

Life's good.  And I'm due to go diving on Saturday (fingers crossed for the weather).  Aahhh.

If you want to find out more about my writing, go to http://greatcopy.info/sampler.