w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Today's lyric:
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"Peace with my stomach the sky is inside her
Open the window to let her breathe
Patch up the scars with some cardboard and karma
Trust this is far beyond what I need
Turn around to eat for I will
Blind myself to joyfully kill
One dozen wicked words to find
I know we'll start again sometimes."

Longpigs: "Dozen wicked words"
From the album: "The sun is often out"

So Buddy and I went here again (with what's becoming a traditional pizza meal to see us through the evening session - ta, matey) and were again very glad we'd made the effort.

Terence Stamp introduced the proceedings, with "I'm not a good scuba diver. My (younger) wife is. She's now into free-diving. (long pause) I may lose her..."

Rick Stanton was announced as "a troglodyte who's been deeper in Wookey Hole than Harrison Ford in the gay re-make of Star Wars" and proceeded to improvise during his talk as the slide/video show gremlins struck. The guy's a mentallist, though, because he's not formally scuba-trained but spends weekends underground and in water "not knowing, literally, what's around the next bend, how deep, up or down, whether it's a dead end or not?" And lugging 120kg of kit. Not for the faint-hearted.

Frank Gardner was genuinely un-selfconscious about his disability and drew a graphic image of himself standing (neutrally buoyant) on the deck of the Thistlegorm "in my Leonardo DiCaprio moment."

Monty Halls was his usual, natural comedic self and had taken the time to video the cameramen who filmed his "Great Ocean Adventures Two" ("a title brilliantly created by Peregrine and Tarquin in full creative flow").

The best clip was of a 14' saltwater crocodile, which they decided to film using a shark cage. Trouble is, salties are very flat compared to sharks and it is possible (as we saw) for them to get their gobs three feet into the cage - cue mayhem amongst the snappers!

A great evening - capped by seeing Tony, who taught us both to scuba-dive and who is a mate of Rick Stanton. Lookin' good, Tony!

Enjoy your weekends, y'all.

Labels: scuba