30 Sep 2007 — About a month back, I had to go Male for a few days to attend Kissaru 07, which is a job fair organized by the Maldivian Youth centre, aimed at providing an opportunity for youth to meet with employers from various sectors and explore the diversity of jobs available in the Maldives.

This event was officially opened by the President, who as these events go, delivered the promise of an inescapably long and tedious speech — made all the more painful because I was in my uniform standing under a tent under the Maldivian sun not understanding a single word of Dhivehi. He then took a walk round to all the various stalls, during which I had the honour to be graced by his presence and even got to shake his hands. The moment was apparently captured and featured on the news that night — and so many a fellow team members informed me the next day. Oh well, it was just funny to me, meeting this man, wouldn’t have otherwise looked twice passing him on the streets. It was my five seconds of Maldivian telly fame, and that was it, over and done with.

But then lo and behold, an envelope from the President’s Office was delivered to the resort, and herein lies its contents:

Wah… I so duah-bai ah? The president himself actually sent me a photo of our “moment” together, not the other way round?!? Haha! I guess I should find a solid-gold frame to display it or something equally befitting. If for nothing else, this makes for an amusing dinner party story, another quirky Maldivian memory for later on.

26 Sep 2007 – Recently a Singaporean PR contacted me to say that Straits Times might be keen to do an article on me, apparently the unlikely combination of my nationality and the locality of my workplace is rather unique and even news-worthy. They sent me a bunch of questions to answer, and I thought I’d share them with you so you too have a better idea of what exactly it is I do here – No, quite contrary to popular belief, I do not spend my days lounging on the beach!

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19 Sep 2007 – Hey everyone! You are now officially reading the blog of a PADI certified Open Water Diver! Whoohoo! Yes! Yes! I’ve done it! From 16 – 18 September, Marcus, Jason and I took a crash course in diving, and man… now we’re totally hooked! I must admit that on the first day, when we had to do the exercise of removing our mask underwater, I totally freaked out and almost, just almost threw in the towel at that point. But thank goodness my dive buddies, and especially our instructor, Harvey-He’s-the-Man, were so patient and encouraging that I somehow managed to curb my fear, and stuck it out. Yep, and it does get easier and easier with each dive. Of course, drowning down a whole bottle of Rescue Remedy probably had something to do with it.

But panic attacks aside, the rest of it was sheer unadulterated fun, fun, FUN! And frankly, I am sooo lucky to be doing it in an environment like the Maldives because even for our confined water dives, instead of doing it in a pool as you would typically do in a city, we already headed out to the lagoon where there was plenty to see, thus making the experience much less daunting and a lot more colourful. Haha, and I also had great dive buddies (yep, that’s dive lingo, “buddy”) who were just cracking me up all throughout the course, yes, even underwater! Have you tried laughing really hard underwater with a regulator in your mouth?!? Fish aside, the next best thing had got to be doing forward and backward flips underwater. The boys also showed off some sub-aqua Matrix-like moves – absolutely side-splitting hilarious!

It was perfect! The absolute best experience I’ve had since coming to the Maldives. Hey! That’s what coming to a place like this is all about right?!! So yep! Guess where I’ll be come my next off day? Down Below! Rock on!

See what I mean about the boys?!?

Underwater Hand Signals?!?

Haha, gearing up to look the part!

12 Sep 2007 - My goodness, how long has it been since I last wrote?!? Geez… and so much has been happening as well! Which partly explains why… reason being that I’ve been saving my days off. Yes, my precious one single day off… firstly cause 妈妈 and 老爸 finally came to the Maldives! Yes, they were really here! More to come on that of course. And secondly, I’m saving my days off again to do a diving course in a couple of weeks. So no days off = totally shacked = no time to blog. Sorry folks.

The thing that prompted me to finally get off my butt was that I received the loveliest surprise yesterday morning. As usual I was in the staff room when my recep came to inform me that a guest wanted to see me. Shit, sinking feeling… usually when a guest specifically asks to see you, it spells trouble… what have I done wrong now… With slight apprehension, I entered the relaxation room where the guest was waiting, a certain Mrs Roxanne Richards, hmm… not one of my package guests, wonder why she wants to see me… oh well, we’ll find out soon enough. “Oh hello Tiffany, I wanted to meet you to let you know what an amazing writer you are. I’ve been reading your blog, you write really well.” Wh-wh-wh-what?… My jaw would have hit the ground had I not resisted the urge. Oh wow… I TOTALLY wasn’t expecting anything like this. What a compliment, and yes, a definite reminder that there are people out there who are actually reading my blog. Some more than others. I can’t let them down. I must write! So yes, thank you very much Roxanne for the gentle nudge to get back on track.

So as I had mentioned, YES YES YES, would you believe it, my parents were actually here at the resort! Imagine that, my 妈妈 snorkeling in the Great Indian Ocean, oh well, trying to anyway. And my 老爸, geez… there was no getting him out of that Jacuzzi! We also wined and dined to our heart’s content on the finest of cuisine, went on a fabulous champagne sunset cruise and just spent many a magical moment together. I’m getting all emotional again just recalling their stay, and I’d better not start bawling like I did cause I happen to be in a very public place at the moment.
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