Last Saturday I drove to Groningen, for two reasons. First reason was to meet with Reinout and Jeroen, and discuss some things about our upcoming holiday to Corfu. Second reason was to buy a proper diving light. I dare say I succeeded, as I bought a Salvo Rebel 12W LED cable lamp. This is essentially a LiPo battery back, connected to a 12W led lamp with a cable. The idea is that you’re holding the small and light lamphead, while the bulky battery is stowed elsewhere (in this case, strapped to your tank). Had great fun, and enjoyed lunch on the Markt in Groningen.

On Sunday we had a gathering at my place for our new RPG campaign. Last minute addition to our group was Brenda, who I already knew from Wendy’s group of friends. She’s a great addition to the grouo; We had loads of fun. I screwed up dinner logistics, so we went to the local snackbarfor fries and such.

Tuesday Peter F called, one of my scuba instructors (and collegue), to ask if I was interested in an early evening dive in Vinkeveen. Obviously, I was :D. The new dive light performed brilliantly :D. Saw loads of fish, and a lobster too, which was eating one of the aforementioned fish. Divetime was 43 minutes, max depth was 16,4 m, and I used  1649 liters of air. This was my 13th dive.

Went diving in Vinkeveen today. Illegally, I might add. The divesite requires you to have a permit, which my buddy and I didn’t have. That permit is a hotly debated  topic in the diving community. In itself the permit is cheap, only 10 euro’s per year. The problem is,  it’s the state who issues the permit. The administration required for those permits costs more than it will bring in, so it’s not about the money… and more importantly: all the other recreational activities requires no permit whatsover. I could swim there free of charge. However, if I carry an air tank, I suddenly need a permit. I do wonder if a fine would actually stand up in court…

Anyway, Vinkeveen is very nice underwater. It seems dark, because the bottom is dark brown. The visibility is rather good, at well over 5 meters. There’s plenty of fish to be seen, I saw a small pike, various rather large zanders, and loads and loads of perch, in all sizes. There’s a lot of man-made attractions too. There’s the usual shipwrecks, but also a city bus, and various other things you can swim through.

I was underwater for 65 minutes, max depth was 11.3 m, and I used 1774 liters of air. This was my 12th logged dive.

Well, not really my first dive, but my first non-training dive.  In a way it’s a bit the same as your first solo car drive after getting your license: you know what to do, but it’s still strange to be left to your own devices.  Had a great dive with Donald and Suzanne, even though visibility was extemely poor today, at around 1m.

Last night I had a double surprise. A few months back Hans & jitske invited us for a party to celebrate that they were together for 12.5 years. I could have sworn that party was on Saturday night, so my first surprise was when Lya asked me on Friday if I was going to that party as well, tonight. Erm… tonight? It turns out the party was indeed on Friday. Oops. As the party was in Gouda, where I work, I decided to hang around at work and go directly from there. I did a quick lookup of the venue, to see where it was exactly: it was the Burgerhal, beneath Gouda’s beautiful medieval city hall.

The second surprise was when we got there. The seating arrangement was somewhat strange, but made the coin drop immediately. When checking up on the Burgerhal, I’dnoticed that one of their features was the availability of a city official for weddings, outside of normal office hours. A lot of small things suddenly made sense.

And indeed, that evening Hans & Jitsje were wedded :D. They looked lovely, and the party was great :D.

I just realised it’s been over a month since my last entry. Bad boy, bad!

Got certified as an Open Water scuba diver last weekend, ending the course. Been playing around with my camera a lot, including a visit to Burger’s Zoo with Lyanna.