I’ve been reading Steven Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” over the last week or so. I say reading, actually I’m listening to the Audiobook on my Zune. But the point is that, in the book, Dr Covey talks about getting back in touch with your core. Being centred. Well at my core, it seems, I’m still a little boy…

Here I am on the new Qantas A380 and I’m loving every minute of the experience. The size of the plane, the new and shiny on everything, even the view out of the window on takeoff. More on that in a minute.

Of course there is a lot to enjoy and admire on this feat of engineering. Despite travelling in economy there’s on-demand video, audio, TV, even Business programs. Over 1000 choices in fact. All this on a mammoth 10.6” touch screen. Of course it would be really good to be able to plug the laptop or personal video player into a premium screen like that, but I suspect we’re a little way from that foresight. Nevertheless, there’s no lack of things to see and do, and it’s almost not worth bringing anything with you. Of course in these days of personal entertainment devices, it’s very likely that most passengers will, in fact, have any number of gadgets.

But uniquely, and inestimably more helpful for the technophile of today is the in-seat power, USB charging and Ethernet Network. The theory is that there’s Internet connectivity too, but I haven’t been able to connect beyond the LAN yet.

The take-off was impressive, just watching the massive wing as it lifted in response to the acceleration. We also discovered the “skycam” to watch the flight from the in-seat screen. Yeah I know it’s probably just a $50 USB webcam stuck on the tail but it’s amazing (little boy in me again) to watch the plane you’re in, as it taxis and then takes of from above.

One other thing is the noise of this titan. Or rather, the lack of noise. This has to be the quietest take off I’ve experienced in almost 40 years of international air travel. Noise cancellers still do make a difference, but less so than before. In fact the whole experience inside the aircraft, muted lighting, slightly larger seats, and missing roar, makes for remarkably comfortable travel.

Economy though, is still economy, and you’re not going to be able to open a normal size laptop on this plane. But with the 10” Asus EeePC for sale in duty-free for just $599 (or the 9” for an incredible $480) or this little 7” RAON Everun Note I’m using, you can happily compute for the entire flight.

I eagerly anticipated this flight, and so far, I’ve not been disappointed. Here’s hoping I can get an upgrade to premium economy for the flight home.

R42

In diving there’s one of those “golden” sayings. Ostensibly to keep people, well, alive. The saying goes “Plan the Dive, Dive the Plan” and it’s one of those fail-safes which ensures that people are considering all possible variables prior to subjecting themselves to risk, and then adhering to the contingencies they’ve planned. The idea is that if anything changes, everyone aborts the dive at that point.

It’s actually a pretty good philosophy for life. Plan ahead, and if anything changes, stop, rethink the plan, and execute.

Which of course is the antithesis of what happened for our holiday. :)

For some time we’d promised Amanzi that she’d qualify as a diver this holiday, our original plan was to head to Magnetic Island for a couple of weeks. Then we realised that we’d committed to attend a friend’s wedding in the middle of the two weeks. Well, we couldn’t afford to fly, and driving some 2400km (one way) for one week was impractical to say the least. So we changed our plan at the last minute to head to Coffs Harbour. At some 6 hours from Sydney, it’s about the furthest I’d want to drive in a day, and at 30 deg South, it’s about as far South as I’d want to dive – at least for qualifying dives.

Well, our first week in Coffs was ok. Amanzi completed her theory, her pool sessions, and 2 of her 4 dives. Unfortunately, despite completing her first 2 dives on Wednesday, the Thursday blew out completely with wind, and all dives were cancelled.

That meant that we had to return for her final dives. But we’d already planned to spend the second week waterskiing at Wiseman’s Ferry – a nice local haunt, very familiar for us. I’d also made arrangements for Stuart, my currently unemployed, itinerant, backpacking brother, to come waterskiing with us. So we had to find a place where we could take the boat, and still be close enough to Coffs to complete the diving.

All of this found us phoning around campsites, motels, and holiday units, on the Thursday night before heading home to book a week in some of the most popular holiday coastline in NSW, for the 2nd week of the school holidays!!!! Mike Davey, of Jetty Dive Centre, suggested Nambucca Heads. We followed his advice, and secured a great little cabin at the Foreshore Caravan Park. I have to say – this was absolute bliss. Here’s a Windows Live Photo Gallery stitch of three sunset shots I took from the front of the cabins on our first night.

The Nambucca River was to all intents and purposes empty of boating traffic, and it seemed no matter what the weather did, the water was gorgeously flat – ideal for skiing. To top it off, we were only 40 mins from Coffs.

So we returned up North on Sunday, and Amanzi and I went out on Monday for the final two dives. Yet again her ears let her down. She simply couldn’t equalise and get down. Tuesday and Wednesday saw unfavourable weather again. Which left Thursday, our last day in the area for her final qualifying dives…

….fortunately, she did it!!! So she is now a qualified PADI Openwater Diver.

And that’s the last time we leave planning our holiday so late :)

R42

I’m not one for chain mails or multiple petition signing websites. But when an organisation that I respect, and value for significant value in my own personal and professional life, such as TED, promotes such a campaign, I’m happy to share.

The thing about XDR-TB, and the images you see will move you, is that it’s treatable. Easily treatable. We just need to move away from our hollywood produced movies and TV myopia and use the remarkable power of the technology we love to see the real picture of human suffering in the world today. Then we should act.

I don’t believe that acting means everyone should give up their lifestyles and all their possessions and become poor themselves. Although I’m sure some are called to that. I do believe though that those of us “haves” should give, sacrificially, to the “have not’s.” This isn’t only financially, but also your time and talents. Often it’s giving your effort, skills, and time that has a greater impact than the money you’d earn in that same time.

Anyway, onto XDR-TB. Watch. Share. Sign Up.

Change the world.

R42 

As ever I had great ambitions to blog and post short video clips of each day this holiday. As it turned out after a marathon pool session, two dives on Monday, a day out at the Big Banana on Tuesday, and another 2 dives yesterday, each evening saw me totally knackered and in bed early. Far too fatigued to edit and upload video. Especially considering the treacly slow uplink on the WiFi here.

However, I did manage to purchase a small digital still and video camera with an underwater housing, so did put together some clips of her first couple of dives. These were meant to be on Monday, but unfortunately Amanzi’s sinuses were clogged and she couldn’t equalise, so had to abort both dives :(

We took a break on Tuesday to give her ears time to heal, and tried again yesterday morning. This time to success.

Dive one is about getting comfortable underwater, and Dive two an opportunity to practice those scuba skills so hard won in the pool.

R42