Surprise... surprise

Yesterday, I sat for the IDMO final test. Prior to that, we had a session (final one) with Carl. He came to give out his best student prize which went to Azizan. The prize was his book and he gave it to the student who he thought did exceptionally well during the morning presentation (which was more like a torture session...hahaha). The presentations were in fact a way for him to make old dogs like us study. Anyone can be picked and hence the extra effort in studying at night. I did not do well in these sessions as I can't speak in front of crowds and I just cannot memorize and regugitate facts, that is a damn hard thing to do!

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Anyway, after that was the exams. 50 MCQ questions in 90 minutes. We had to answer 35 correct to pass. I was lucky as majority of the questions was easy for me as I have dived for a long time. The physiology and physics parts were a breeze, again, the memorizing facts part was a bit of a problem. I did what I knew best, guess! And surprise,surprise when the results were announced...ah ha... I got 96% (or only 2 wrong). And with that I got the top student for the IDMO series 2008. Such a sweet surprise.

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Yesterday afternoon we went to Sipadan. No, not diving but just a joyride. I went on the army boat the RHIB (?? don't know what it stands for) but it is an inflatable assault boat that can seat 12 passengers. There were 2 boats, the generals were on one and the lower ranking guys (plus us civillians) were on the other. Since no big shots were on our boat the army guys had a lot of fun showing off, and it was really like a rollercoaster ride.....I was holding so hard to the seats, afraid that I might just fly off and fall into the waters. The ride was about 45 minutes and we were in Sipadan by 3.30 pm. The army base there had a feast ready for us, and I had the most delicious 'cokodok sotong' ever. Some of the guys went swimming and snorkelling but I opted for walking round the island. Man, that was an opportunity I cannot resist. Since Sipadan was closed to the public on 1.1.2005 no one (except the army,of course) could roam around the island (the land part anyway). Only place divers could walk on was the 100 metres stretch at the Drop Off. And, I, a civillian was able to walk on the other areas (with the army escort, of course). Dream come true. Yeah, I realise that a beach is like any other beach but being able to walk freely on restricted areas was such a adrenaline rush (hehehe... I am exaggerating). But the view was really awesome.

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On the way back we stopped at Kapalai and that brings back lovely memories. I think that was the last trip the whole gang went diving together- December 2006. Saliha, Kaz, Wanie, Inda, Azrin and I had so much fun then. The place looked the same and how I wished I was able to dive.

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We finally got back to Semporna at about 6.40pm. Jean almost missed her ride to the airport and she sms'ed to say she reached Tawau with only 10 minutes to spare... hahaha... but I think the afternoon excursion was really worth it!

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The whole course (academically and socially) was wonderful. I made a lot of new friends in the army, and even Major General Mat Zin is now my friend... And the most important thing is, now I have friends who take care of the decompression chambers.... (well, you have to forgive me, this is diving doctor thinking).

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For now, good bye Semporna. It has been a wonderful two weeks!