Gnasher the Diving Wonder Dog, aka Andreas

Hey yall

Now it's time for another exciting blog from the very one and only Andreas, Perry, Poochie, Gnasher and 'erry, or any other Nickname the Team keep giving me!
Due to Melissa, Pete and common Dutch language I've had the pleasure of getting four new names in only a week and a half. Personally Gnasher sounds the coolest, but it's probably due to the fact that I don't know who the real Gnasher is. 
Except for the obvious confusion I meet whenever somebody calls one of my names, I really start to get the hang of it at this place of hard work, learning, wonders, adventures, downsides and upsides. 
The work is getting easier because of the growing knowledge and confidence in what I'm doing is right. 
Like assembling a customers kit, or even worse, Pete or Alice's kits.

I really feel I'm learning a lot and having some great experiences both on dives and off work. The last dive I had previous to this blog was a dive at Poco Naufragio which was incredible. We sat on the bottom playing with a Common Ray while  surrounded by fish of all sizes and shapes. 
From Ornate Wrasse and Zebra Bream, to Barracudas and Parrot fish. After a while playing with the ray, we got further away and Alice fed Black Morays and FangTooths while we were watching  Simply Incredible. 
Next dive that day were at Starfish Bay. A site normally known for the massive amount of, yeah you guessed it, Starfish. 
Well we saw a lot of starfish, but due to the amount of Black Sea urchins there ain't that many any more.
Well not to bother because me and Dennis brought our knives and have a 'Confirmed Sea Urchin Kill Scoreboard' on our fridge and he's in pole position, so we had a little bit of fun "cleaning" and watching all the different fish that comes with. 
Though it took a bit of convincing myself into doing this, since I have no previous history of genocide or anything like that, and spend a year before coming here working for Greenpeace, But still the Black Sea Urchins are a plague here and have no natural enemies. The rest of the dive we were looking at all the beautiful and funny small creatures.

This week I've also had my first shore dives with Melissa. I really like these dives because they are so different from the boat dives I've done the other days. I especially liked one dive we had at a site i don't remember the name of, I think Las Eras ,but there was a big pipeline going from shore to... Yeah well... Cambodia. 

Anyway, between every concrete block along the pipeline it was packed with fish, crabs and different kinds of critters. I saw some of the biggest Arrow Crabs I've ever seen, the biggest Trumpet fish ever ever seen and the biggest cuttlefish ever!

Apart from all the diving we got a day off on Saturday  despite being exhausted, hungover and just plain tired, both me and my roomy Dennis committed ourself (on our own initiative) to climb Red Rock, Punta Roja, with Mahmoud and Lydia. 
Mahmoud being prepared in a way that not even Indiana Jones or Mr. Dundee could have done better, Lydia turned up in flip flops and with a lunchbox consisting of ice cream.
In the end we made it to the top, and despite the fact that we were tired me and Mahmoud decided to the some real climbing on the cliffs facing the water. A real manly experience.

On a completely different topic, we all just passed our EFR (Emergency FirstResponse) course today. It was all in great fun with all of us interns trying to save each other from nearly every possible incident and injury we could get into, and Pete consistently educating us switching between the real first aid course and all of his stories from 'back in 'Nam' or whatever war he was in.

Well that must be all from me for this time.

Hasta luego - Andreas (Perry, Poochie, Gnasher 'Erry)