Stanley's dive vacation

As I've been working very hard and non-stop since leaving my homeland Vietnam, Debra and Dan finally relented and allowed me to go on vacation. It just so happened that Dan was headed on a scuba vacation (surprise!) with my friend Mogens. It was a live aboard trip which means that you board a boat from land and then spend the entire trip on the boat where your only priorities are eating, sleeping, diving, and occasionally having one drink (after finishing diving for the day, of course).

My adventure continued on this trip. I did go on several dives and Dan snapped a few pictures of me meeting some new friends. First, Mogens wanted to have (another) picture taken with me (who doesn't really?).

I got to meet a great looking barracuda who didn't look very friendly, but also didn't seem the least bit interested in me (which is unusual--most other beings are very interested in me).


There was one part of the trip that made me a little uncomfortable, but no one else seemed to mind much. That was when my new friend Anne made her 300th dive somewhere in the middle of the trip. To celebrate, my friends took their scuba gear and me on a "special" dive. They didn't take anything else ifyouknowwhatImean. It was all good fun and I served as a witness and also as a rash guard for Mogens on this "special" dive. Luckily, the water was warm, so I didn't get cold and my friends enjoyed "hanging out" too.It was very strange, but other than Dan and Mogens, most of the people on the boat didn't really have much interest in meeting me or having photos taken with me. I guess sometimes it's nice not to be a celebrity and enjoy just blending in with the rest of the crowd.

Of course, in their endless pursuit to cause me some pain on every trip, there was an incident where I took a little good-natured abuse. See for yourself.


I didn't go on every dive, but if I did, I would have been glad not to have any pants since I would have peed them when Dan caught this video.

I'm very excited about my trip to OOW09 coming up in about a month. I recently spent a few days in a very small space and traveled all the way back to my friend Debra in Belfast, so I'll have to share some of that experience soon.

Any Cleaning Gurus Out There?

Stanley has a problem, in the process of getting flat he was embedded with a fair amount of tarmac or bitumen and no matter how hot the washing machine is, it just wont come out. (Click on the photo to see the full extent f the problem). I know the original intention was to ruin Stanley, but we love him now and that would be unfair, and sometimes he gets invited to places where he really does need to be a little smarter.

Next week he is joining Vikki from the ACE Program for an ACE dinner at RMOUG and this is the first time Stanley will have had dinner with her since his christening and he naturally wants to look his best.

So what do you do when something wont wash out? Any ideas gratefully received, but Stanley is philosophical and not too worried, at least it wasn't tattoo ink, can you imagine having a name tattooed and it being spelt wrong? Well that is exactly what happened to one ACE Director not that long ago. The video is in some foreign language but basically he is trying to show that you can be a computer nerd and still have fun, exactly what Stanley thinks!