The Diver's Log: DAN... DAN who?

Oh look, another feeble attempt at me trying to be witty in the title of a blog post. I've been watching too much Mock the Week and stand up comedy programmes on Netflix and it has evidently taught me... nothing... absolutely nothing. Anyway, on with the post!

This is a very quick post and as misleading as the title sounds it actually involved no diving whatsoever. That's in the next diving post, I promise. No but today I became a DAN qualified Emergency Oxygen Provider. So, let's treat his like a Geography GCSE question and break down what that means.

Seriously, Rebecca, who is DAN? And why is his name in capitals?!

This was one of he first questions my mother asked, and due to the fact she is the predominant reader of these blog posts. I will explain. DAN is Divers Alert Network, the diving industry’s largest association dedicated to scuba diving safety. DAN provides emergency assistance, medical information resources and educational opportunities. DAN is a non profit organisation and it was the first organisation to notice that there needed to be specialist insurance to Scuba Divers, due to the nature of injuries that can occur whilst out on a dive, especially in cases of lung over expansion or Arterial gas embolisms, in layman's terms, not very pleasant things to experience.

So, What did you learn today?

As mentioned above, DAN occurs educational opportunities; becoming an Emergency Oxygen Provider is one of them. I learnt how to assemble an emergency oxygen cylinder with rebreather mask and demand valve attachments, as well as attaching an oronasal mask (pocket masks that most people get when they finish a first aid course.) for when dealing with a non breathing diver, so I can do rescue breaths and they get oxygen in between those rescue breaths. The nature of different diving injuries, and how to treat them. If in doubt - give an injured diver oxygen, only if you're trained of course. But if you're on a dive without an oxygen kit and some who's qualified... I just wouldn't go if I were you.

Why did you do this?

This course just seemed very much like natural progression before I qualify as a rescue diver (Roll on Sunday, woo!) {UPDATE: I'm now a rescue diver! More on that in another post} but as I want to go on to do my dive master and my instructor; being trained to administer emergency oxygen is a necessary skill, just in case something ever goes wrong.

My Bucket List As A "20 Something"...

As I mentioned on my previous post about my return to blogging. I turned 20 at the start of the month and although some might not class it as a age milestone, for me I do. It's the age where I really need to seriously take a look at the direction I want my life to take. So, I felt I would create a bucket list of everything I want to do before I hit 30. I have 10 years to do the 20 things on my bucket list as a 20 something. As, I do believe that's the age bracket I fit into now... ish...

1) Travel -

I don't mean the all inclusive holiday package to Magaluf with the girls over the summer where most of it is spent in a haze of drunken nights and hungover mornings. That's just not what I would consider travelling nor do I think of it as particularly fun. However , dear reader, if that's what you enjoy, you do you! Go out there and have fun! Nor do I mean going round being cheap tourist tat (okay, maybe a little bit but that's just a bad choir tour habit!). No, I want to travel and learn about new places and new cultures, I want to go Thailand, to Brazil, even maybe Alaska. I just want to see new parts of the world that I would never normally conventionally see. I have always had a very intrinsic "wander lust" about me, so the goal is to go to 5 new places I have never been before.

2) Go To The Galapagos Islands -

As a marine biology student you end up learning a lot about Darwin, and consequently, Darwin's finches of the Galapagos islands.I know this is similar to my first point but hear me out. The Galapagos is meant to be an absolutely stunning place to go and dive, with a host of different marine creatures, so I am determined to go there and get as many dives in my log book as humanly possible. Plus it would be great to see the finches first hand of course.

3) Be a PADI Qualified Diving Instructor -

It's a career path I never really started to consider until about 9 months ago but the more I look into it and the closer I get to becoming a Dive Master, the more it seems like a natural road to go down. I don't care if it's in the UK or abroad, I want to become a certified diving instructor. With the way things are going, it's looking quite plausible that this could be a job I take up when I graduate uni to keep me busy whilst I look at what I want to do for a masters.

4) Raise The Money To Send My Parents On a Honeymoon -

Momma Goodwin and Papa Goodwin never got to have a honeymoon when they first got married because they just quite simply couldn't afford to.And with everything they have done for me, such as a supporting em through uni, I want to raise the money to send them away on a holiday by themselves where they can truly relax, it might be a few years away but I will make it happen, by hook or by crook.

5) Finally Get My Driving Licence -

If I'm honest this is something I want to complete in the next year or so. I haven't done it yet but because I'm not a competent driver; in my head I can do all of the maneuvers, just when it comes to actually doing it all my anxiety kicks in and I freak out. So I will over come my anxiety, Will pass my driving test and then I'll finally be able to stop relying on public transport, yay!

6) Run a 10k -

I've been getting into running a lot more recently because I'm going a lot more sprints for my HIIT training on the treadmill, I would really like to run a charity 10k one day, predominantly because every consultant I've ever met has told me not to run... yep. And the charitable aspect of course.

7) Read More -

I really need to get back into reading again, I want to be one of these people who can read one book a week, I know when I was a lot younger before exams came along, I would read ALL THE TIME. So I want to start doing that again; because it's the easiest way to absorb several lifetimes worth of knowledge

8) Come Off My Anti-Depressants -

Again, another self-explanatory challenge, as much as they have been the biggest help I've ever had the sheer cost of prescriptions is beginning to mount up every month, and I don't want to rely on them forever.

9) See The 8 Wonders of the World -

Ties into the #travel point that I made first but if I'm honest, I want to see thse 8 wonders of the world, although I've already seen Niagara falls and it's lovely! But I also want to see if they really are just that wonderful...

10) Learn To Ride a Bike -

Yes, dear reader, it's time for me to confess that I just couldn't learn to ride a bike as a child, I could never get my balance right and I'm pretty sure it's genetic because when my mum rides a bike she goes backwards. Yeah.... No.... We don't know how that works either.

11) Re-Visit Choir Tour Sites -

The Choir Tours of 2010 (Barcelona), 2012 (Berlin) and 2014 (Tuscany) will always ALWAYS have a very special place in my heart. It's where I made some of the best memories I will ever had, learnt about history, saw things I would never even dream of seeing such as The Sagrada Familia, Concentration camps, the leaning tower of Pisa. So I want to re-visit these gorgeous places 10 years after I orginally went, 2020, 2022, 2024. If fellow choir members are reading this and they're interested in doing something like that too, pop me a message, we have some planning to do.


12) Get a Tattoo -

Mum, Dad, I'm sorry. I know you're probably going to skin me for writing this one but I really do want to get a tattoo, one with meaning, I want to get one that celebrates my family and at the moment it's looking like the anchor thigh piece which I've wanted since I was about 15. Because my family have always been there for me and always will be, holding me strong and steadfast through any storms and rough seas of my life.

That was a bit more poetic than I had first intended... whoops.

13) Go On a Road Trip With Friends -

Another reason why I want to pass my driving test, I want to grab four other friends, jump in my car and travel from the south of the UK, to Ireland, the north and then to Scotland, then going to all the places we missed on the way back down, staying only in cheap hotels we find the day or two in advance, or other people's sofa's whatever happens at the time.

14) Get A Job I Love Waking Up For -

This is just a general life goal really, I have said to myself if I ever found myself in a job role where I woke up in the morning with anxiety and fear of going, I would hand my notice in there and then and find something else because my parents taught me that no matter what you do in your life, just do what makes you happy.

15) Go To Mermaid School -

Before you laugh at me, these are real things, not something that I have made up in a dream. (The jumpers for pigeons weren't a dream either, Mum who's probably reading this!)  They are all over Europe. What I learnt from some research is that they are effectively free diving classes but you get to wear mermaid tails and clam bras, wooo! Dream come true for this water baby!

16) A Skydive -

Please don't ask why, I just want too. Okay? I'll do it for charity and everything.

17) Do An American Food Challenge -
I watched a lot of the TV show "Man Vs. Food" when I was younger. Adam Richer must've inspired something in me, and my Dad probably encouraged my ambition to take on a food challenge and win. I'm a naturally fast eater anyway and as long as it's a meat based challenge (chips and bread would just fill me too quickly.) I should be absolutely golden.

18) Get my MsC -

Amongst all of this meat eating, mermaid schooling tom-foolery I do still have an academic goal. I want to complete my masters at a minimum, my overall goal is to do my PhD but I'm gonna take this one step at a time. I've got a whole lot of life to live first.

19) Be a Self-Sufficient Blogger -

Occasionally, I pay a little bit of money to advertise my blog on facebook. And because it's something I love doing so much and I love hearing people's feedback from, I would really like to reach a point where the money raised from putting advert on the blog, is put straight back into advertising it on facebook, thus growing it's audience. Heck, I want to get to the point where there are "The blog with a porpoise" t-shirts. Wouldn't that be cool?!

No?

Okay then, sorry.

20) Compete -

I'm about to become a hypocrite. Please allow me a second to brace myself for this moment.


*big intake of breath*

Right, okay, I'm ready....

I said I would never ever compete in a fitness competition, however, after starting my figure competitor training programme for  abit of fun, I have been enjoying the style of training more and more and I've decided now that one day, when my academics are on pause and I'm working full-time, I will train to compete in a bikini figure competition. Just to say I've done it.

Phew. Well, dear reader, you finally survived to the end of this bucket list and I survived writing it. And for that I would like to present you with a medal but as a poor, skint student, I can't do that. So I will give you a metaphorical pat on the back. Aren't I nice?

Maybe I've inspired you to start thinking about your own bucket list. If so,What's on your bucket list? I would really love to know some pop me a comment in the box below,

Your wait is finally over... for now.

You're probably all sat there wondering, where the bloody hell I've been, why such an unannounced hiatus, Rebecca?! Be rest assured my dear readers, it's not you, it's me. To quash the rumours to begin with, no I haven't given up blogging, I've actually still been quite active over on my twitter page @RebeccaByTheSea. Anyway, I digress your favourite penguin loving, Marmite lady (See my first ever blog post to understand that reference.) has returned from the perils of her first year university exams.

To be perfectly honest with you, dear reader. I just simply couldn't cope with blogging alongside my studies, my mental health, going to the gym an awful lot more and keeping together some pitiful excuse of a social life. For that, I am truly sorry. :( In amongst all that I've actually done (what I consider to be) some pretty awesome stuff. Oooooh yes, the lists are back people. and if you read that "Ooooh yes" in the Churchill car insurance dog voice, stop watching so much telly.

 1) I've landed myself a role on the university's sub aqua club committee -

Yes, the lovely lads and ladies of HUSAC, for those not in the known, that's the scuba diving society of the university of hull; have decided they like me enough to make me the treasurer of the committee. Nobody else would do it.  In other words, I will be looking after their finances and chasing down the people who haven't paid their joining fees, in the style of a short ninja debt collector of course. No one is safe. Not even you.

2) I turned 20 -

I'm now officially a "twenty something." I really don't know how to feel about it as a lot of people say I already act like a 30 year old with my slippers, tea and persistent symptoms of a mid-life crisis. But all I know is I have such an awesome bucket list of all the things I want to do, all the adventures I want to go on, and the stupid things I want to do with my hair before I turn 30. Which all going well, I should have posted by Sunday evening.

3) Hi, my name's Rebecca, I'm an emergency first responder, may I help you? -

I finally got my Emergency First Response (EFR) qualification! Meaning I'm one step closer to my PADI rescue diver qualification. Wooo! What this qualification has trained me to do is CPR, Defibrillator delivery, basic wound treatment and some other first aid bits and pieces, so may the lord help you if you ever end up with me as your emergency first responder in a bad situation. (Joking!) I had to do my EFR as part of becoming a PADI qualified rescue diver, which if all goes as planned, I should be as of this Sunday. Setting me up nicely to becoming a PADI Dive Master over the summer!

4) Started a new training plan -

Yes, I've got the idea into my head that I would start a figure competitor training programme. Although I'm not going hardcore on it yet, I'm 3 and a half weeks into it and the muscle definition I've gained in such a short period of time is fab and I just really love the programme. The exercise combinations are so much fun and not too complex. It seriously helped me get over the fear of going back into the gym. If anybody wants the link to the plan, just shoot me a message!

And that's that really, I don't think I've been up to much else over the last couple of months over than studying and what is listed above. But as I write this I realise how much I have missed blogging and I can't wait to start producing more content, especially when it comes to updating you all on my adventures over the summer. Be rest assured, there is so much exciting stuff going on that you'll probably end up with a blog every few days!

To finish this post up, If you've known me through this 3 month period of exam preparation you know I could quite often be spotted in the library, crying horribly softly over "The Introduction to Genetic Analysis" but to each and everyone of you both here in Hull and at home, I would like to say a massive thank you for keeping me sane over the last few weeks especially, whether that's been a friendly text message, phone call, plying me with sweets and chocolate in the library or a coffee and chat, I genuinely couldn't of done it without you guys.


NOW GO AND HAVE THE BEST SUMMERS EVER.