Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Addict

Tioman was SUPERB!! More specifically, diving was superb!!! The corals, the fish, the breathing of compressed air, the saltiness of the seawater, the heavy load of the diving equipment, the apparent weightlessness underwater and aiblity to do somersaults without holding one's breath... I could go on. I think I like wreck diving best - you descend down and swim till, as if out from nowhere, a mysterious shadow appears in front of you, towering over you like a monster of the deep. The old and coral-covered structure holds surprises just waiting to be found as you swim around and over it, and sometimes peeping into the ship's hold. Shoals of fish - big or small - surround and seem to flirt with the ship and you, and other solitary fish, some so huge and colourful, and some you have to squint to distinguish it from its surroundings, but all the more rewarding when you actually do find it.
Night diving was a tad disappointing, since I couldn't see anything "special" even though I looked hard. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but by then I was quite tired to care much. I think I saw more night-snorkelling in Perhentian. Several surprises though, one of which was this sudden silver flash underwater which turned out to be a big fish chasing a little fish, who just happened to catch up with its prey right in front of me. It held the poor fish in its mouth for a while (probably saying grace LoL) before swallowing its meal. Another fishy surprise was the amount of fish the non-divers (aka NS) caught on the 1st day, and how nice they tasted!
If you ask me to name something as good or better than diving it'd be the night sky - so many stars!!! If I weren't so sleepy that night I'd have stayed on stargazing, trying to make sense of the seemingly scattered patterns (ie. making up my own constellations and star-pictures hehe). On the way home on the bus, the view was enhanced by the towering trees that sped past. The universe seemed so vast, so awesome from that vantage point, looking up past the trees into the starry sky, and got me thinking about how a God who could dream up and create all that expanse up there, could pinpoint a miniscule amount of things like us humans to focus upon. Insignificant but significant. I am humbled.

On a different note, went for the free MPO organ recital on Monday, and finally heard the famous Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D (?) - the one made famous by Vanessa Mae - live on the organ. Dr. MR made a few mistakes, but on the whole a good performance (especially since it's free!). I like the original version better, with the thundering reverberating organ chords that send shivers down the spine. Also heard this intriguing piece by a 20th Century French composer based on the Westminster Chimes. Intriguing in the sense that he weaved myriad chords into the main melody, twisting and turning it and bringing it to a resounding crescendo. Anyway, I hope it was a good introductory course to someone on the intricacies of classical music. ;)

More later. Need to study for a test, and get ready to go back to Kuching. Yay!