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I typically reserve my blogs for travel and life milestones, nothing major has happened, so I figured I'd combine a few life events.
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If anyone read this blog late last year: Planning to trek through the Himalayas.
Around August last year I had a spontaneous idea to go trekking through the Himalayas in Nepal. The plan was to do it with a friend between Feb-May this year, I was keen as mustard and started researching into it. Since then I had I lost contact with my friend and the idea died down a bit. I finally caught up with him again 2-3 weeks ago, he told me he had received a promotion at work, is moving to another city and won't be able to go to Nepal. I was a little bit frustrated but not really phased, I jumped on the internet and started researching the trip and decided to go ahead and just do it, even if I have to travel by my self. Less than I week ago I booked a 17 day trip to Nepal, hiking to the base of Mount Everest. I fly out May 7th!
Here is the trip I will be doing: http://www.geckosadventures.com/Himalaya/Trip/Overview.html?trip=Everest-Base-Camp&tripid=2856
It's still a good 2-3 months away but I am already going through my gear checklist, I'll need to buy some hiking shoes, sleeping bag etc... I will be travelling alone, I'm a bit nervous but still really excited!
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I'm also in preparation of moving into my own house, paperwork is about 90% complete, once the bank signs off, it'll be all mine! It currently has tenants but they will have 30 days from the time of loan approval to move out. It's a fairly exciting chapter of my life, growing up way too fast! The mortgage is going to take a large portion of my salary each month so I'm going to have to learn to budget a lot better if I want to continue my current adventurous lifestyle. I am also planning on relaxing my output at work. The stress is currently effecting other aspects of my life, which I'm really starting to notice, I love my sports and fitness and lately I have only gone to the gym maybe once a week. Also looking into settling back a bit, perhaps starting a relationship once the dust from the first 6 months of this year settles.
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About 6 weeks ago I completed my Open Water PADI ticket. I plan on going for my advanced shortly. Scuba Diving is great fun; you almost immediately enter a world that most people will never see in their life. I'm currently going diving every 2 weeks. The solitude, the environment and ambiance, it's all an amazing experience. I had a dive last week, it started really average, just reef, no fish and we were only about 8 metres down, about 5 minutes into it my dive buddy and I started to get closer to the mounds of reef around, as we explored and got closer we found a few openings, discussed the safety (As best as you can with hand signals  ) and decided to squeeze through into one. We were immediately entranced into a massive cave, huge schools of fish, amazing overhangs and openings with large fish and other marine life. It was such a surreal experience we both just floated there for minutes looking around taking it all in. If you have ever thought about getting into Scuba Diving, I highly recommend it.
I'm in the middle.
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If you read the blogs section, you'd be familiar with Glider, he's an amazing artists who draws portraits. I have a friend’s birthday coming up in April. He has just had a newly born baby and adores him, I decided it would be a good idea to have Glider draw a portrait of kid based on a photo. As Manifesto pointed out with his anniversary photo, Glider is extremely talent and very professional. He had the drawing done in only a few days and will be sending it out soon.
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I think that's pretty much it lately, really inundated with work to do anything.
Oh, I have a whole bunch of SK T1 signed team shirts, including a couple signed by Bisu and one signed by Boxer which I will be auctioning off soon for Childs Play & the Red Cross, stay tuned for details on those, I just need to find some time to sort out the logistics of it.
Thanks for reading!
Energies
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are you buying a free standing house, or an apartment?
scuba diving gives me the fucking jitters >.<
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Your life sounds awesome.
That is all.
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ps would you be interested in giving your countryman a free skt1 shirt?
lol im joking man, gl on your advanced
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First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic
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On February 14 2010 17:22 JohnColtrane wrote:
are you buying a free standing house, or an apartment?
scuba diving gives me the fucking jitters >.<
A house.
First time I did an open water dive, we had 1 metre visibility, which means all you could see is the fins of the person in front of you. Twice I had someone kick my regulator out of my mouth. 15 metres deep, can't see anything, and you can't breath. Good times!
On February 14 2010 17:26 JohannesH wrote:
First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic
Lol, I should have used full stops.
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wow that sounds scary as shit :C
first thing i would do once i got out of the water would be to kick the teeth out of the person that knocked your regulator out of your mouth lol
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On February 14 2010 17:26 JohannesH wrote:
First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic
Lol same, but damn I'm jealous.
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I love Nepal. I want to go back there so badly. Enjoy your trek and please blog about your visit. I'd really love some photos.
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On February 14 2010 18:18 thopol wrote:
I love Nepal. I want to go back there so badly. Enjoy your trek and please blog about your visit. I'd really love some photos.
Thanks mate, will definitely blog, I quite enjoy the recap, check out my WCG&China blog as an example.
I'm also planning on taking a camcorder to do a sort of video diary.
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On February 14 2010 18:18 YoonHo wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2010 17:26 JohannesH wrote:
First I thought that you were moving to Nepal for scuba diving when I read topic Lol same, but damn I'm jealous.
That's why they require you to have a diving ticket, you learn how to deal with these different situations. I didn't really stress, I just stopped for a moment, waved my arm to trap the reg and continued breathing.
A few times I had thought about diving in South-east Asia because some of those places don't require qualifications. In hindsight, I am really glad I didn't.
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Lol good luck with the trip to Nepal. I went to Tibet last summer, and altitude sickness just knocked the wind out of me for an entire week before I got used to it. But looks like you're definitely more fit than I was, so I guess you're gonna be ok 
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Good to see you doing well. I got my PADI about a year ago on a trip through Vietnam with my girlfriend. We haven't kept up unfortunately (like most people who get one) so this was inspiring to read. I was always hassled by the trouble it took to get on a wetsuit! The underwater experience is so amazing we'll do it again sometime.
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Wanna switch lives? plllllllllzzzzz!!
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Good choice on the Scuba Diving. I recommend taking a trip to Okinawa sometime in your life and dive there. Okinawa is said to be one the top 10 places to dive at in the world and the place i first picked up my license . Its absolutely beautiful. And seeing your from Australia, a plane ticket shouldnt cost to much .
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edit: double post 
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On February 14 2010 16:55 Energies wrote:
I was keen as mustard and started researching into it.
??
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How much does it cost to learn how to scuba dive? the reason I ask is my school offers a gym course in it and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it on my own.
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I'm not sure about the US or Canada, but I'm fairly certain in order to hire gear or have your tanks filled with air in 90% of the countries in the world you require a PADI diving license. So you should look into the qualifications of your school. I believe the US has their own system of accreditation, whether that is accepted world wide, I wouldn't know.
For me, it cost about $475(AUD) for the course and about $80(AUD) for a compulsory dive medical.
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