Bubbles

A leisurely start to the day. Some coffee by the pool, reading the paper and waiting for everyone to emerge. One by one there were signs of life, usually presaged by the barking for the dogs. Soon breakfast was on and the smell of bacon and eggs mixed with the heady scent of Thai flora was enough to stir the Gorse Fox into motion (albeit, limited).

After breakfast we pottered about until the truck from the dive shop "Scubafish" arrived. Two of the staff lugged in some tanks and several crates of equipment. Today was to be centred on the pool.

There were more fins than Helsinki, there were weights, BCDs, regulators and wet-suits.

The Gorse Fox was first, going through the protocols for setting up the BCD, tank, and fitting the regulator. Most he had remembered from last time, but it was good to be talked through it again by Cousteau-cub.

Soon he was in the water and after a few minutes, taking control of his autonomic reflexes that still deny there is a safe way of breathing under water, he was swimming back and forth with the elegance of a dolphin (though maybe an elderly one with arthritis and a passing resemblance to an elephant seal). He practised his basic skills - clearing his mask, losing and recovering his mouthpiece, and so forth.