Hello beautiful girl, I love you. Fish?

So I spent all of Saturday procrastinating packing until about 4, when I actually did pack. We got on the bus at 5 and went to th'airport, with chicken sambos & mango juice from school. One 3 hour flight to Kota Kinabalu later, I'd finished my first book (The Dressmaker of Khair Khana). I left my passport on th'airplane and legged it back on to get it. It only occurred to me afterwards that I could've been shot or summat. The air was hot and sticky like good asian air should be. We got a dodge minibus to our hostel, got as comfy as poss in our dorm and slept. 

The next morning we got brekkie and went to the market before a short lesson on symbiotic relationships in a marine environment, including a great impression of a sea cucumber and a silverfish by Selwyn & Khet Kat. We got lunch in KK in a bun place which was divine then packed up for our next flight to Tawau. Air Asia was reliably turbulence-y which is always fun. We got further minibuses to Semporna through plantation land then we all checked in, had a briefing with th'instructors and got our t-shirts, then got poor enough food and a litre or so of mango juice each.

Monday morning we were up at 6.50 to pack our dive bags, grab brekkie and head out to the harbour (which smelled like ____ ). Monday was so unreal rainy that errything got absolutely soaked. The diving was increds though, saw my first turtle which was like PHWOAR and did some buoyancy drills and the likes. When we got back there was a rush to the shower and then we had another marine ID lesson before DINNER which was about a trillion roti in an Indian place. We then crashed in our room but not after I'd read a little of me book, The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Imma cheat a bit now and say that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all followed in the pattern of Monday, although they got progressively sunnier and the diving got progressively better. On Tuesday we went snorkeling on our lunchbreak and saw a barracuda (the one that kills nemo's mam)a bout a metre and a half long, just chilling round the pier. On Wednesday's island we played 1 ringgit (~25c) for a whole hape of coconuts from the locals who shimmied up a tree about 10m tall and threw them down. We drank the coconut water in the toasty sea. It was legit like an advert. Nearly every night we'd get dinner in the roti place, the poor people were run off their feet but it was worth it for the beef fried noodles. Started teaching Nina Gaeilge too. Useful phrases such as "Chuaigh mé go dtí do bhríste aréir agus chuir mé mo lámh ar do phrátaí".

On Thursday my group (Oda, Laura, Nick & Arthur) went to Sipadan (one of the top 10 dive sites in the world REPRESENT). Sun were splitting the stones innit. On our first dive we saw a gazbillion turtles, a shoal of barracuda AND a shoal of jack fish. It was unrale. Sipadan was absolutely gorgeous. Twas a privelege so twas. We went to the market when we got back and got a kilo of lychees for a euro. On Thursday night we went out for dinner courtesy of Linda & Selwyn, although there was a powercut so it ended up a candlelit affair. Some of the nicest seafood I've ever eaten (apart from this one tiiiimmeee....in 'Nam...). After that we all went out for more mango juice then Halfdan and I headed back and played a kind of contrived game of pool with Kishi. We all stayed in the guys' room until the early hours when we were so high on nitrogen that we all crashed once more. 

We left at lunchtime the following day, after more market crawling and continued exploitation of the roti place.  We got a flight back to Kota Kinabalu, then went back to the same hostel. There was a debate on where to head for dinner and after the majority decided on Burger King and I a decided no, I j-walked Dilene around Kota Kinabalu in search of perfect cheap food. Which we found, much to our delight, in a cheap corner chinese. I got ginger and spring onion fish, never have I been so satisfied. We then disobeyed the no less than three in a group rule further and walked down to the seafront, where we spotted a market in the distance. We wandered around it for longer, buying sugary dough lumps and satay, to the heckling cries of men seemingly madly in love with us. It's a hard life. When we got back to the hostel just in time we watched Finding Nemo (as is the tradition) and went to bed, in anticipation of a 3.50am start the following morning.

I woke up to Nina saying oh...guys...it's 4...so like a shot, I packed, and teeth brushed, and dressed, then waited on the pavement outside. 4.15 came and went, and we then realised that the minibus people had misinterpreted, and were coming at 4.50. I read my book with cockroaches all around -  I honestly don't think one can get used to those things. At the airport, Kishi challenged me to finish my book on the aeroplane. I fell asleep instead, and had a super weird dream. We got back to a cold and drizzly HK where we got the hour long bus back to school. Before napping or anything so civilised as that, we had to wash and clean all of our dive gear. Not, however, until Dilene and Halfdan had chucked me, fully clothed, in the freezing pool. Why do I always seem to invite this? One of the great mysteries of life. I was then locked out for the rest of the day (I should really get myself a key) so I hung out with various people and in the block 1 pc room, doing very little but playing bubble shooter. I went out with Mia to get some food in Wellcome but c'est tout. I went to Maddie's room where I found Livvie & Tiff Tiff...and played more bubble shooter.


Woke up this morning at about 9 ish, got out of bed about 10.30 ish, had a shower and went to brunch then vaguely tidied up, went to Apoopoo's room to write me some letters, watched The Boat that Rocked, got the feeling that our lives are inferior to those of the 60's, went to dindins, caught up with Awnee (waaaaaay Paddy's day next weekend) then went back to Apoorva's where I skyped SOPHIE BBZ, before chillaxing with Blendermie, James, Blendermie's couch and Blendermie's PIMPIN' speakers. They flash. Directly imported from the Thai/Burmese border. Went to check in, back to Bell's and now dans ma chambre after skyping mo mham. 

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH SCHOOL TOMORROW


(Photo creds to Oda & Nick as I lost my camera halfway through the week and got it back with drunken photos of the instructors on it)

We're going where the sun shines brightly, we're going where the sea is blue!

Today's post is a wee bit earlier than usual for reasons I shall outline below, but sure it gives ya th'entire weekend to read it, wha?


Sunday last, after I left off on me blog in  the morning time, I tried to chase people to come to Sai Kung with me and eventually settled for Laura. We set off at about 2/3, stalked Starbucks until a seat was free, pretended that the coffees left behind were ours so we didn't have to pay, and set up camp. I did a chem lab, Laura napped ("Wake me up after 20 minutes"...20 minutes...10 minutes....5 minutes....15 minutes...40 minutes...eventually a grand total of 2 hours), and we bumped into Lilia who'd had the same idea. After Laura had managed to wake up and do a bit of study for bio, we bought a venti ass hot choc (to share ofc), got pizza in Paisano's and cught the bus back for about 7. I followed Laura back to her room then we went to a meeting at 8 about the "Financial Situation" of our school. €1m in debt next year but that's cool. Positive outlook to be upheld and the likes. Matthew had the beautiful solution of sending Arnett to Macau to gamble with the entire endowment fund. At 9.15 I went to get me photo taken for the lion dance page of the yearbook, then went back to Laura's room to pick up my laptop and that. Ended up staying late as boarding school shenanigans often dictate. 

Nina being subjected to aforementioned boarding school shenanigans

On Monday my geography class was called off cause we'd donated our Saturday to geo, and then I got an e-mail to say that my physics class was off too. Unexpected double morning free feeling is hard to quantify. After schoolicles on Monday I had project week planning, we went through gear and that and got generally hyped up, then dinner, then a photoshoot for the Judo yearbook page at 7.30, which was pretty funny. On Monday night Leila came round begging for more clothes because as part of a Lenten Brit challenge she'd agreed to wear Rosie's clothes. Rosie had provided her with an assortment of granny curtains so Leila was in desperate need of some shorts. She stole mine and an impressive chase began whereby we ended up in a toilet cubicle in block 3, me nursing Leila's severely bashed head and both us us semi laughing, semi in hysterics from all the adrenalin. 

Tuesday had school which was meh, I had a science project meeting thing after, then went back to work on a physics lab. I got it done beautifully, saving and all as I went along when excel decided to go all spazattack and crash the laptop. Went and had a severe mope in Áine's room, where I found her in a severe mope, so we curled up in bed, moped, and ate chocolate of the parcel from home variety. Twas uber productive. Starred in a video made by Heather (I'm at 01.18), and did my physics lab all night.


Wednesday had a free morning block so I took my time getting up. Aprés l'ecole, I played too much Tetris in my room, then went to Sai Kung to pick up snorkels for project week and also to go to Sara's house. I read with Erin for about an hour, had dinner which was stew and mershed perderder. Got back to school for 9 this time, then hardcore crammed math but not really but that was the intention. I went to Dilene's room to do a wickle bit of study and she gave me a life saving diagram and I reckoned I was set for life.

Thursday had that darned maths test. Everyone always comes out of maths a little shaken, almost as though we've all overexerted our mental capacity. I quite like the feeling, although it didn't outweigh the sense of impending doom as it usually does. Meh, those results can wait. After school on Thursday we had science project presentations which were pretty interesting I shpose? Our theme was sustainable campus so we had to do experiments in a group yadda yadda. Tar éis é sin I went out with Jámes for a little while which was *american accent* "quuuuaaaaaaaare graaaaaaaaand" so twas. Nowt beats a few sour cream n onion pringles. Then came roomie photo time for the yearbook. We all wore black, painted our faces and skipped down the road/sat on walls/hid in trees. After that I went to Ma On Shan to get some money out with Khetiwe who I bumped into in the MTR station. I lost Khet in the vast metropolis that is Sunshine City but bumped into Madison & Tiff, so I bought some mango gunk from the Hui Lau Shan place with them then came back to campus. Spent the night doing my geo essay, with as much procrastination as was possible. Even had the smelly candles out. 

On Friday school could not be over quick enough. After school I was locked out of my room so I went to Rahael's room to get her to come swimming because from a (horrific) 13 degrees, it had gone up to summat in the 20s. The pool was absolutely freeeeezingbum but we eventually enticed a whole cohort of bikini clad minions to join us. I skyped the rentals from the poolside then went to Paloma's birthday celebrations in the sick bay the poor poppet. We had cake and then choccy fondue and tested people's knowledge of Genghis Khan and capital cities of balkan states. After that I went back to my room, set up me music and Rahael came round and we painted our nails le chéile. At 7.30 we went to have dinner in the student kitchen with Laura, Mia, Heather, Rosie & Lee. I went back to Lee's room  to pick up some cinnamon and woke James up with a sharp blast of a  weird bulbous wooden recorder. At 9 we hit Ma On Shan, played with the phytoplankton in the sea, and got extremely mucky flip flops. Somehow this group outing deteriorated into a mini brit sing a long session, needless to say Adele had want to watch her back. I got back to bed, threw on some Damien Rice cause I'm home alone in the room, and read meself to sleep as all lazy days should end.


Woke up this morning at 9 thanks to a phone alarm locked in a drawer somewhere in the room, and wrote this blog to Bell X1. Going shopping with Mia soon for last minute necessities (can't believe I spelled that right first go) then at 5 I'm going TO MALAYSIA TO GO SCUBA DIVING FOR A WHOLE ENTIRE WEEK.  Grá as an tSín!