Diving
On Friday Jacinta and I travelled to Portsea in order to get a few dives in. We stayed at the Portsea Hotel, who informed us that while "we were not directly above the live band, some sound may travel". It was true that we were not directly above the band, but if we were to have taken three steps into the corridor we would have been. Luckily the live band was very good, and so I slept quite happily despite the walls vibrating around me until 1am.

In the morning (6am) I awoke and visited Dive Victoria, and discovered that the 9am dive we had intended to go upon was cancelled, so we could all go back to bed.

Later, after breakfast and buoyancy checks, we departed upon an 11am dive to a shallow (10-16m) reef out in the bay. The dive went pretty well, but I didn't properly apply defog to my mask beforehand (meaning I had to clear it regularly), and Jacinta experienced a few minor difficulties.

The first dive got away late, and so there was a bit of running to-and-fro for our 1pm dive, particularly to get replacement tanks of air. This dive was done in a kelp forest, and was one of the best dives I've ever experienced in Victoria. A wide range of ascidians in a variety of colours, and blue devil fish everywhere. I'm used to having to look into caves and under ledges with a torch to find a blue devil, not being able to swim nose-to-nose with them in open water.

Our third dive was at 3pm, and of course by this stage we had to keep a close eye on our nitrogen levels. This dive was out to Castle Rock, a site that we'd dived a number of times before. The water was lovely and clear, and we saw a cuttlefish near the start of the dive. We were sharing the site with a number of new divers doing their open water, and we generally kept out of their way. I sure hope their buoyancy skills improve with practice.

It's well known that heavy exercise (especially carrying around heavy tank and belts filled with lead) acts as a flavour enhancer for food, especially Mexican. So on the way home we stopped by a fantastic Mexican resturant and finished our meals very quickly, not too surpising considering we had also missed lunch. After dinner it was just a long and tiresome trip back home, and a morning of rinsing and cleaning gear to look forward to.

Missing Rabbit
Our dear pet Rabbit, Shadow, hasn't been seen since Thursday evening. It could just be that with the unusually warm weather he's been snoozing under the house, especially since he's now grown his winter coat. However Shadow is a very companionable rabbit, and so takes many opportunities to check in on Jacinta and I, and distract us from whatever task we're performing to be petted.

We're a little concerned, because if something has happened to Shadow, we're not quite sure what it would be.