Dive gear

Monday, 30 March, 2009 @ 6:40 PM

Living in a world-class dive destination like the Cayman Islands, it's almost a crime not to spend as much time underwater as possible. With the exception of the handful of dives I made during my PADI Open Water course in Phuket all those years ago, every dive I've logged has been here.

Renting dive gear gets expensive after a while, and comes with all the drawbacks of any rental sports equipment – low-end gear, heavy wear and tear, occasional sub-standard maintenance and the absolute necessity of forcing yourself not to think about who the last person to have that reg in their mouth was. Eww. The solution to this, of course, is to own your own equipment, and so last week, in celebration of having made 50 dives, I bought myself a BCD and reg.

It's all ScubaPro gear, used, but in great condition, and since the seller was the maintenance guy at a local dive shop, has just had a full service. I've had it out on two dives already, and I'm enjoying the luxury of breathing through a balanced regulator (which makes breathing much easier in certain situaltions – low air; deep; cold water etc.) and wearing a BCD that actually fits, and doesn't insist on floating me head-down and ass-up, an irritating trait of most rental BCDs I've used.

Now that the water is warming I'm planning plenty more diving for the rest of the year, and am even considering investing in a little waterproof camera, to dip my toes in the world of underwater photography...

The passing of an institution

Thursday, 19 March, 2009 @ 8:45 PM

I received an email from Dad this morning with some sad news, regarding the dubious midnight demolition of the 81-year-old Panama Canal Yacht Club in Colón, earlier this year. I spent three months there in 2006, living onboard Valdolese while waiting for her new engine to arrive and be installed.

Although Colón itself was a shithole (sorry, but there's no other way to describe the place), the PCYC was a surprisingly pleasant oasis in its midst. The premises had seen better days, and the food in the restaurant was barely palatable ("are you going to try the grilled rat or the deep-fried dog today Ian?"), but there was a constant stream of incredibly interesting characters passing through. Dead Ed, Lord Geoff, Aussie Bill, Canadian Bill, Andy Anderson, Johnny One Finger and Kris, Ronan, Mario the dinghy dock guy, Brad, Gerry the German and dozens of others. Some stayed a month, others were gone after a day and the odd one, like Dead Ed, never left. Millionaires on superyachts, globe-trotting retirees, delivery skippers, adventurers and all manner of mysterious and shady desperados of unknown motive and moral stratum. They all passed through the PCYC and they all had a story to tell, and several I've remained friends with to this day.

At the time I wasn't 100% thrilled to be stuck there, but it was endlessly entertaining and in hindsight, I realise that my time there was an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I feel really sad, hearing that it's gone for good.

Harder, better, faster, stronger

Friday, 13 March, 2009 @ 6:20 PM

A frustrating reality of computers is that the amount of data requiring storage magically expands to fill the space available. Modern operating systems use their hard drives as swap space for RAM, and some software (looking at you, Photoshop) can do the same thing on a MUCH larger scale. One consequence of this is that when the available hard drive space falls below a certain threshold (or becomes overly fragmented), system performance suffers.

I've been bumping up against this limit with the standard 160GB Hitatchi drive in my laptop, and have had to be constantly pruning files to keep the requisite 20-30GB of free space available. I finally got tired of this, so bought a 500GB 2.5" Western Digital drive in an external housing to install as a replacement. The hard drive is only nominally a user serviceable part on these Macbook Pros, and switching one is a fiddly task involving removing a mix of 24 tiny, but different sized screws (some requiring a miniscule phillips-head screwdriver, others with unusual T6 Torx heads) and then replacing them afterwards – in the correct order! Definitely a job for someone with good close-up vision and fine motor control. Being possessed of both of those attributes, I performed the brain surgery last night after work, and I'm happy to say that it seems like the patient will live :-)

Suddenly confronted with more than a third of a terabyte of free space, I feel like I've moved from a cramped apartment into a huge mansion! Aside from the extra capacity, I'm also relishing the noticeable performance boost that the new drive is giving me. Launching apps and opening files, and even just navigating the Finder definitely feels snappier. Absolutely a worthwhile upgrade.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Saturday, 7 March, 2009 @ 9:20 PM

I work with a nice Irish girl called Norma, who coincidentally used to live in Hong Kong during the time I was there (and for quite a few years longer), working for the SCMP. She was recently in Australia on holiday, and passed through HK on her return trip. Back at work, she handed me a small, red envelope marked with gold lettering, telling me that she was approached by a shady looking character in a smoky Lang Kwai Fong bar, who asked if she knew a certain Chris Court, and on the affirmative passed her the letter.

On the back of the envelope is taped a postit note marked with "TO CHRIS COURT. Kong Fu Fat Boy!" (lol), and inside is a crisp, new HSBC $20 note.

All very mysterious.

Well, of course it was a Lai See packet. These are traditional Chinese New Year gifts in Hong Kong, bringing wishes of luck and good fortune for the coming year to the recipient, and conventionally handed out to children and unmarried acquaintances. As to where this particular Lai See originated? Well I have a hunch that the twisted yet brilliant mind of Shaun Horrocks might have something to do with it…

Here's to ya buddy. Cheers for the thought!

The (other) dream lens

Friday, 6 March, 2009 @ 5:15 PM

Before visiting Miami last weekend, I made a quick scan of Craigslist for any interesting lenses that might be on the market, and lo, a guy was selling a 17-55mm f2.8 Nikkor, otherwise known as the elusive missing lens in my lineup. We arranged to meet on Saturday morning, briefly haggled, and now I'm the proud owner of yet another piece of beautiful high-end Nikon craftsmanship :-)

The 17 to 55mm range is important on a crop sensor DLSR, as it encompasses everything from wide landscapes to portraiture. This particular lens is the creme de la creme of standard zooms, and is essentially the pro-grade replacement for the 18-70 kit zoom that came with my D200 body back in 2006. The 17-55 is intended as the sister lens to the 70-200 VR, so now if I'm going "photo take-outing", those are the first two items that will go in the bag, followed by the 105 Micro, Sigma 10-20 ultra wide, tripod, SB-900 speedlight, TC-14E teleconverter and a 77mm C-PL. It's a heavy kit, but leaves me well prepared for virtually any photographic contingency!

Of course, opposing this is the school of thought that tells us – not entirely tongue in cheek – that if we carry more than one lens at a time, we are only guaranteeing that we have the wrong one mounted on the camera at a given moment. Heh.

Anyway, with luck that will be the last lens I'll feel compelled to buy for a while, although a little voice in the back of my head is already reminding me that I'm missing any quality glass above 200mm... Unfortunately that's where things start getting REALLY expensive. I'd better start selling some pics to pay for this damn hobby!

Combat Granny

Friday, 6 March, 2009 @ 4:50 PM

The scene: We're eating a late breakfast at a sidewalk café in Naples, retirement village for the US. Next door to the café is a cinema, trailing an orderly queue of senior citizens, no doubt waiting for their matinee session to open. A car pulls up to the curb, but remains angled out into the road, semi-blocking the right-hand lane. A sweet little octogenarian lady opens the passenger door, levers herself out, and slowly hobbles to the rear door, which she opens and proceeds to remove her walking frame. By this time, a couple of cars are lined up waiting to get past, and the front one gives a polite toot of the horn. The granny whirls on her walking frame… gives the bird to the waiting car and yells in a gravelly, long-time smoker's voice "Shove it up yer ass, BITCH!"

Merriment ensues amongst the café patrons. Sometimes you just gotta love the Yanks!

A weekend in Miami

Friday, 6 March, 2009 @ 3:30 PM

I had a great time during my much-needed off-island weekend in Miami. First stop after clearing immigration was a cute little restaurant on the Miami River. Once the sun set, we were treated to the glorious spectacle of both the full moon and Venus rising, just a handsbreadth apart, between the skyscrapers.

I spent the first night in a hotel in Doral – a suburb of Miami famous for being a stop on the PGA tour. Up early the next morning, and off along the Everglades Parkway (I-75, also known as Alligator Alley) on a road trip to Naples, a town on the West coast of the Florida Panhandle. This road runs through the heart of the Everglades, and although the scenery visible from the highway is a little limited, it nonetheless gives an intriguing taste of the place.

Naples itself is a pleasant, rather spread-out town. It has a main shopping strip with plenty of trendy little cafés and art galleries, and if you stroll to its Western extremity you find yourself on a broad sandy beach, host to a surprising amount of birdlife as well as some gorgeous sunsets.

Typical of a trip to the US, vast quantities of food were consumed in the various sushi bars, crab shacks and pancake palaces that we encountered along the way. I can highly recommend Pinchers Crab Shack where, for only the second time in my life, I stuffed my face with so much crab that I was physically unable to fit any more in. Fantastic!

Returning to Miami, we took an alternative route, the Tamiami Trail, a smaller road than the I-75, and offering a slightly more intimate view of the Everglades. Unfortunately, by now time was running a little tight for my flight home, and so we only had the opportunity for a brief stop at a ranger station. There was, however, an interesting viewing platform, offering a close-up view of some good sized 'gators basking in the sun.

Photos to come!

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