VirtualSound’s Neighborhood

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

i hurt. pretty much all over! while i have been remiss about writing i have not been remiss about traveling. i am in hawaii for the week. and it was my genius idea to hike diamond head trail this morning (at 0800hrs might i add) and then have a surfing lesson at 1500hrs.

i now know why surfers have bodies to be oogled. my arms feel as if they are about to fall out of their sockets. just the first paddle out was enough to fell me! i am pretty sure the only reason that i manged to stand up on the board was because it actually took more energy to fall off it in the end!

but it was super fun! and if i find myself in a place where i can surf regularly i plan on doing so!!! the rest of the day was filled with cocktails (much to my mother's disdain i had a daquiri before setting off on the surfing adventure, the logic being that if i was slightly liquoured up my limbs would be looser and i would be less likely to hurt myself when falling off the board - there was no questing that i was going to be falling off the board!).

i then had lovely sunset cocktails at the moana surfrider (omg i want to stay there!) and meet some lovely kiwi's who joined me at my table (i was a 4 person table - i will never cease to understand why american refuse to share with others when they have space to spare! its a blanket declaration, but as far as i have seen true, i love sharing tables with strangers, you meet cool people that way. okay, sometimes they're odd, but then you just leave!)

anyway, i am shattered beyond belief, and trying to work on a job application, yeah not the best of circumstances!

tomorrow is pearl harbour and yesterday was diving. the diving was super mellow - i was out with two non-divers... but i saw a big sea turtle and a ray so i am a happy camper :) even if it wasn't a wreck dive... the colours here are no where near as cool as in dahab, but i guess is hard coral (cold water) instead of soft coral (warmer water)

and i am off to try and work some more.

and i am back! well, maybe sort of. its been ages since i last wrote. i'm back in the states and bumming around. its fantastic to be doing all of well, not really much! although i must admit our dogs are loving having me back, i seem to have taken on the task of being a living chair...

i kind you not. everytime i sit down they take it as their right, no, their responsibility, to sit on my lap! i've actually had to seek refuge in a cafe in order to respond to emails, update here and work on some job applications. lets just say that while they may be comfortable, daschunds are too long to comfortably fit on my lap and allow me freedom to type....

okay, so just a hello i am here, the move went okay, everything is unpacked etc etc (which in and of itself is amazing!)

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day

4 comments

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

the last two days have been amazing, incredible, i don't really know... there simply aren't words. leaving has been a long time in coming. i know its the right decision. i need the change, particularly professionally. my boss and i had a good long talk about it, and he agrees. which in a weird way helps me know what i am doing is right.

personally i am sure it is right as well. its just a hell of a lot harder. there was never going to be an easy way to make the break, but these last two days have made it even harder. albeit all the sweeter and with more memories. when i get dropped off at the airport, i like to do curb side drop, hug goodbye and then i am gone. in some ways, i wanted to try and get away with that here.

it would have been fine. but i should have know better that that would never work. and in a twisted, masochistic way i am glad that it didn't. my palestinian colleagues threw me a lovely surprise farewell with cake etc. yesterday, it was so sweet. and it was great that it was a mix of international and local colleagues who came, that said the most to me. i really, really appreciated it.

and then last night there was my international ppl farewell. it was fantastic. everyone came. seriously. everyone - at least everyone who was in gaza. my (and maria's) flat was full of people, laughing, dancing, having a good time. it was the perfect send off.

and there were presents and speeches, all so embarrassing and lovely. my boss said the sweetest things, and it meant all the more because i know that he doesn't say things that he doesn't mean. it was, again, i don't have words, just so fantastic, it means a lot when people you admire and respect, when people of such experience and background and skill all come together to celebrate you and your time and your leaving. it was very, very special.

and then today, saying goodbye. wow. it was hard and good, i felt the worst when disappearing on my local colleagues. but again my boss was lovely, swanning off to meetings outside after giving me a big hug and promising a recommendation letter for the files and a reference anytime i needed it. he's just been promoted. he's now the equivalent of an under-secretary general. his word counts for so much. its amazing to have that on file.

and then the sneaky bunch organised everyone (including all the drivers) down in the parking lot. there was more hugging and speeches, and everyone stood there waving until the cars left the compound. it was really, really lovely again. and the best memory to leave gaza with. knowing that i will be missed, that i made a difference, selfishly its just so lovely to have that there as my last image.

and yes, now i am off for drinks and dinner with some jerusalem friends, an airport run with maria, a lazy day tomorrow, with drinks with all sorts of assorted friends and colleagues tomorrow evening. i will miss this place and these people, but these wonderful memories from the last few days are just a perfect way to end.

yesterday i actually woke up because it was too quiet.... the sea was absolutely still, no waves, now wind nothing. i don't think i have ever been somewhere quite to serenely peaceful. i mean, at other beaches the surf is rougher (which i like) but there is also noise from other sources. here, occasionally, you have the dive trucks driving by, but thats it.

it has been supremely relaxing and hectic! i finished my advanced certification yesterday, it was great!! we did the canyon first thing yesterday morning before many other groups were there, which was cool, you go down about 10m and then descend about a further 20m into a canyon in the ground sit on the bottom do some 'exercises' - counting ones to check for nitrogen narcosis, colour ones to see the light difference.

then you swim around the canyon looking at all different wildlife and structures. its nuts when you sort of do the math and realise that you're 90ft under water! but now i can do deep dives which is cool :) we also did a drift dive, although to be honest the currents here aren't very strong so i barely noticed it.

for this dive we literally dropped into the water bcd inflated put on our fins and masks - and dropped down into another sort of tunnel/canyon. so as you jumped in and kitted up, there was about a 20m drop right below you, and you had about 1.5m on either side before you hit the coral wall.

so down we descended, and then you do a hop over a ridge and down another 26m and then under this little rock formation and out into open water to view the reef. not for those who get claustraphobic or vertigo!! again, just this amazing view peering out into nothingness on one side, down to a barely defined bottom (and we hadd 25-30m visability) and then this wall of coral just bustling with life! it was spectacular!!

more octopuses and eels (forgot that i also saw and eel on the night dive def. creepy!! as well as this gorgeous blue trigger fish (un blue!!) that must have been at least a foot tall and a foot and a half long!). and just tons of clown fish, zebra fish, parrot fish (so odd looking!) angel fish, everything! it was like living in a tropical acquirium tank!

then i did my third dive of the day - a naturalist one - and had to identifu at least 5 fish. didn't see the turtle though :( we did sommersaults to pass the time at our decrompression stop and played with the clownfish - one actually nipped my finger cause i wasn't fast enough! think it scared him more than me that he made contact with this weird thing!

i really just love the feeling underwater too of the serenity and peace, its eerie and amazing all at once. and the absolutely beauty is staggering, also when you realise that there really is this whole other world that we just don't see. i will definitely be keeping up with it this time.

i need to clue on to booking a flight to HI to see my brother - and book some diving :) i want to do a boat dive, and a wreck dive, underwater photography and maybe nitrox. with those and what i have as a basis, it really opens up pretty much everything for diving whenever and where ever i find myself :)

wondering now if i parents would disown me if i gave it all up and went off to be a diver... technical or instructing, what a life living by the sea, in the sea... of course its not all fun and games - i think i've learnt that lesson at least as well as most!

the last two days, well, 36 hours have been manic. i hope to write more tomorrow, my battery is dying and i am exhausted. i think only the hike up/down the crazy swiss/german mountain can rival this exhaustion. at least in recent memory.

but this is good exhaustion. i practically lived in the sea today. soooo much diving! and it went well, the night dive was a bit spooky. but considering it was my 7th ever dive i am not really surprised... i think once i am more confident/comfortable it would be cool to do it again.

my instructor is a gem! and he thinks i am wonderful, he didn't believe me when i said that my first dive with him was my 6th dive ever, he insisted on checking my log book. he said i dive like someone who has 30-35 dives under their belt :)

and i am a bit toasty, which is confusing because i spent most of the day under water... but i saw an octopus and the boys scared it to make it change colours (so cool!) and small baracuda, and flutemouth fish and clown fish and a flamenco dancer on the night dive (a fish, actually a slug, not a person) and a lion fish and oh my goodness so many others!

i am now determined to take a underwater photography class. and my bouyancy is loads better! i don't now alternate between the sea bed and the surface :) of course i feel like i am bouncing up and down even now that i am stationary on land!!

the journey here was a nightmare - 12 hours start to finish, but bed had never been so wonderful. and while dahab is not fantastic (all the stereotypes about egypt/the sinai are true...) it is just so peaceful and quite after gaza and jersualem. i woke to the sound of crashing waves and nothing else! and i am sitting now in the dark on the balcony over looking the pool and it is dead silent. so very zen.

alright, sleep is necessary, 0730hrs pick-up for another three dives...

i am finally truly testing out my wireless and blogging from bed :) just a quick post as i am full from another superb dinner (third night in a row we've had a low key communal meal, its great! i will miss that aspect) and rather sleepy. my mind has moved into overdrive and it's tiring out my body...