Many short updates

Shall just start by ranting off all the notable meals in the last month. Number 1 on the list was dinner at Majestic Restaurant The food was excellent, although it was marred by an inflammation of my gum near my wisdom tooth. Was thinking of extracting it but it was too close to my Maldives holiday and I figured it would go away which it did. Anyway, that dinner was seafood galore, lobster, abalone, sharks fin, scallops. Think my cholestrol level rose significantly after that dinner. It was also one of the most expensive meals I've had in a long while, total bill came up to $1,000 for 6 people. That dinner was a combined celebration of mother's, sister's and my birthday.

Next two meals were alright, went to long beach with the 2SIR PCs. Tried out the new place at Dempsey Rd and the turnout was quite good. PM, Faizal, Alston, Andy, Nideen, BT and myself were there. Ordered a set menu for 8 and was totally stuffed by the time we were done. Think there was too much food and 1 more person coming would have been perfect. The last meal of note was dinner at Teochew Restaurant Huat Kee at Amoy Street. This was to celebrate Mother's birthday and we surprised her by inviting the Koh family there. She was totally shocked to see them and I think she enjoyed the company. Food wasn't spectacular though, had much better food when we went the previous time and ordered ala carte.

Spent a small bomb this year on birthday presents, definately more than last year, but my spending still pales in comparison to what sister spent on my presents and mother's. This year bought diamond/pearl earring for mum and wine/wine book for sister. Simple but expensive. :p

After that came something I was waiting for since September. My long awaited trip to the Maldives. 7 days away from work and 6 days of diving. Pictures as usual can be found here. There were a couple of highlights of the diving.

1. Seeing an Eagle Ray immediately on entering the water for the first dive. Unfortunately, nobody took pictures of it and it was the only eagle ray for the entire trip.
2. Diving with the resident Napoleon Wrasse at Fish Head dive site. Ultra friendly fish which swam close enough for us to touch.
3. Watching plenty of sharks swimming freely. Even had 1 white tipped reef shark swim straight at me and turn away only 1 m from me.
4. Diving among an entire school of Manta rays. Saw 4 just hovering off the reef and heard from another diver there were about 10 in total.
5. Having an entire school of fish swim past and around me. Nothing much to crow about, but the feeling was magical.

Other than these highlights, the diving was above average, but the currents were quite strong and the visibility was average most of the time. I think the Maldives is very strong on big stuff but seriously lacking in Macro items. Only saw 2 nudibranch on my entire dive.

Anyway, I'm planning my next two dive trips already, most probably Layang Layang in May and Bali in October. Not sure what's there to see at Layang Layang except that it's one of the best dive sites in Malaysia. Bali is purely for the Mola Mola or Ocean Sunfish. Hope these trips come true.