Unique Creatures

Agent Blonde
Originally uploaded by Laura Storm.

The world has spun a fair few turns since my last update, and there are things I have meant to record, should have recorded, and haven’t recorded. A filming session for BBC3, with Peter Sheard at the University of Luton, for example. Seeing as that was about a month past now, I will possibly leave the detail of that for another time - perhaps nearer to screening.

What I cannot let go amiss, is the news I was presented with on Christmas Eve. The infamous Vodka Elf has reached another level. Diver Magazine’s ‘Buddy of the Year 2006’. I’m now desperately trying to find a ‘Nominator of the Year 2006’ competition to enter.

Another alternative I’d put myself up for, is ‘Bad Buddy of the Year 2006’. The last fortnight has seen us ‘working hard’ in The Maldives, on a Manta Ray research project, run by Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler and husband Matt aboard MV Gaayia. If we hadn’t assisted, who else would have? My part was to photograph the underside of these magnificent creatures, to pick out their unique identification marks.

Prior to stepping aboard though, the Elf and I spent a week ashore with Matt and Anne-Marie, on Kuredu Island. One of our objectives was a little familiarisation with the ripping currents that flow through the various thilas and channels out there. At one point, we had a channel to cross, at a depth of 20 metres or so. Matt and Anne-Marie had crossed to the other side and were hooked in with their lines. As I pushed headlong into the current, I was concentrating on doing the same thing, as my progress was made inch by inch. However, there is no ‘I’ in Scuba - it should have been ‘us’. I had completely overlooked The Elf struggling, and who had by now hooked in about 20m downcurrent. To make matters worse, I misread the whole situation - that the easier and sensible thing to do would have been to let go and drift with the current. Instead I stayed hooked in, until Elf had caught up ( and drained a fair proportion of her air supply ). It was a dive where we all learned some useful lessons, and I was given a new name that questioned my parentage.

Not by Vodka Elf, though. It seems that forgiving is all part and parcel of being Buddy of the Year.