Being AWARE

On Sunday Aquatron Dive Centre did something absolutely brilliant! 

Spearheaded by Awesome Annie, a bunch of  people gave up their Sunday lie in and headed to Dog Fish Reef, Loch Fyne to take part in the Project AWARE Foundation Debris Month of Action.

Dog Fish Reef is a very popular site for fishermen, campers and divers but unfortunately due to some peoples inability to dispose of their trash in a responsible manner it has over time started to resemble a rubbish dump with bags of trash stuffed in the bushes and litter & fishing line strewn across the shore. 

The main aim of the day was to do a site clean-up both on shore and under the surface, because the litter on land very easily becomes marine debris and sadly when this happens it is usually a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' for many people.

Every year an astonishing amount of waste makes its way underwater and can reach even the most remote ocean areas. The rubbish kills wildlife, destroys habitats and threatens our health and economy.

As a diver you have a unique opportunity to protect the ocean environment and making every dive that you do a Dive Against Debris, even if it is just a quick removal of some fishing line or stuffing a stray piece of rubbish into your mesh bag when you spot it.

From the Project AWARE website.

The simple action of removing rubbish from the shore or the underwater world has the potential of preventing more of these horrible things from happening...

Pics found via Google images.

You don't have to be a diver to make a difference either, it is just as important to remove rubbish from the shore thus preventing it from ever entering the water.

Here's the Aquatron Dive Against Debris day in pictures...

Dog Fish Reef at Loch Fyne.

Mark and I did our PADI Rescue Diver Course here back in May.

It was nice to see such a good turn out for the event.
Argyll and Bute council had kindly provided litter picker tools and protective gloves for the shore clean-up.

Yes, that is me on the right, looking amazingly fabulous in my scuba gear ;)

The underwater debris removal crack team after their first dive.

The shore crew sorting out the debris, counting and weighing it so that it can be added to the Dive Against Debris Map and project stats.

Just some of the debris collected.

The crack team spotted a wheelbarrow but decided to leave it behind as quite a few underwater creatures had made their home on it. The general guideline is to leave alone if things are growing on it or living inside it, unless of course it is something very harmful to the aquatic environment.

Here is Mark with a couple of divers getting kitted up for their second dive.

Mark did his second Divemaster Trainee session on Sunday. 

All bagged up and ready to be collected by Argyll and Bute council.
My hat goes off to the sorting crew that had to go through all the festering refuse that people had left behind in the bushes.

A worthwhile way to spend a day, I think you'll agree.

In other news this old girl turned forty the other week, became a certified PADI Master Scuba Diver and started her PADI Divemaster Internship with Aquatron Dive Centre, exciting times! 

Hope you are all doing grand.

I will love you and leave you with a cracking tune by the amazing Afro Celt Sound System, enjoy :)

All the best,

Jennie

xXx

Ready, Steady, Glasgow!

Last week was like a wonderful whirlwind.

Our dear friend Leslie of The Dandy Lion Market came up from London for a wee break and Mark and I both volunteered at the Commonwealth Games.

I did two days at the swimming events at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre here in Glasgow and Mark went across to do a day at the diving events held in Edinburgh.

We managed to cram a whole heap of fun stuff into seven days and enjoy the buzzing vibe of positivity that the streets of Glasgow have been awash with during the eleven days of the games.

I absolutely loved being a part of the games and even if the days were pretty long, starting at 7.30am and finishing off at around eleven at night, we had an absolute blast.

Here I am with Chris, Tom and Chris outside Aquatron.

We all got kitted out in the official games volunteering clobber.

The events passed without incident so I didn't actually have to don my scuba gear and get in the water.

One of the judges accidentally dropped a pen in the pool but we were not called upon for that as it was quickly retrieved by a lifeguard.

The Australian team were amazing and swam home a motherload of medals.

Sadly there were no Scottish gold medals won on the two days I was there, so I never got to hear Flower of Scotland.

Personally I prefer this version with Kenneth McKellar...

Gie it Laldy!

It was billed as The Friendly Games and it truly was.

I haven't been in a place filled with so much positivity since the last time I went to a rave.

I would do it again at the drop of a hat!

I think it was a perfect time for Leslie to enjoy Glasgow too, even if Mark and I had to work a lot.

We still managed to have the obligatory drunken night out, visit the Gallery of Modern Art, a funky Pam Hogg exhibition/pop-up shop and a wee trip to the seaside.

Leslie and Mark at The Crystal Palace where we also hooked up with some visiting relatives from down south.
Matt & Leslie battled it out with cues at The Solid Rock Cafe.
Leslie with Clyde at Central Station.

The Pam Hogg exhibition and pop-up shop.

A wee trip to Irvine Beach Park.

It's all back to business as usual for a few days now before we head off for another adventure.

This summer has got to go down as one of the best ones in my life so far, I am loving every minute of it!

I will love you and leave you with an amazing tune that is having me dancing around the house at the moment and lusting for a pair of red jazz trainers...

Hope you are all well peeps.

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

Happy is what we are when we're together

We've had some cracking summer weather here the past few days and as luck would have it Mark had two days off in a row, yay!

After he finished work on Saturday we bundled all our dive gear, along with four borrowed tanks and weights courtesy of awesome Aquatron, into the car and headed north to Ballachulish.

We stayed the night with mum and on Sunday morning we did our first ever completely solo buddy-team dive in Loch Leven.

There are two popular dive sites within a stone's throw of mum's house, the one that we went to with Ben a while back called Manse Point and another one that is even closer to the village called The Slates.

Unfortunately Mark had forgotten to charge his GoPro camera so we've got no pics or film of what we saw under the surface which was a shame cause the visibility was really rather splendid on the day.

We did two dives of about 40 minutes each, the maximum depth that we went to was 20 meters and the dive highlights were spotting a Ling  and having a close encounter (thankfully not too close) with a large Lion's Mane Jellyfish. The water temperature was a cool 10°C but I kept fairly warm in my Scubapro Climatec Undersuit & Everdry 4 Drysuit combo.

On Sunday evening we drove back to Glasgow and celebrated our buddy team milestone by cracking open a few bottles of choice ale, awesome!

When we woke up on Monday morning the sun was blazing though the window and although I had planned to spend the day indoors taking photos for the Etsy shop, it would have been a sin to miss out on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year.

So Mark and I decided to grab our snorkeling gear and head to Wemyss Bay for a day by the coast.

Here's Mark all wetsuited and booted running into the Firth of Clyde...

It would have been too cold to go snorkeling for any length of time without wearing a wetsuit but with a protective layer of neoprene we could stay in the water for a good twenty minutes. The water was crystal clear so the visibility was amazing. We spotted lots of crabs and really small jellyfish but I spent most of the time looking for unusual pebbles for my collection.

Here are a few snaps of our lovely day at Wemyss Bay...

We only took a couple of pics at The Slates on Sunday as our minds were pretty preoccupied with getting everything just right..."planning the dive and diving the plan".

The dive site name is spot on. Here I am rocking my fleecy thermal onesie or Monkey Man Suit as I like to call it.

A well deserved cuppa in-between dives.

So that was the tale of our two days of diving and snorkeling fun.

This is the lifestyle Mark and I have been longing for and I can't begin to explain how happy I feel that we finally got our procrastinating act together and made the move up north. I feel tremendously blessed that everything has turned out so good and that we've managed to hook up with such awesome & kindhearted people.

Don't get me wrong, we had a really nice life & lovely friends down in London too but financially we were always chasing our tails. Even if Mark was earning twice as much as he is here in Glasgow we were still always teetering on the brink of being completely broke.

Although the move has not put us in a better place financially at least we are much happier and we get to do loads of fun stuff, which to me is more important than a bulging bank balance anyway.

Last month we were sent a lovely surprise parcel from our friends Kaori, Adam and their cute as a button daughter Maya in Japan. It contained (among other things) two beautiful kimonos and obi belts.

We have been awaiting an opportunity to take some photos of them and on the way up the road last Saturday evening that opportunity presented itself.

We wanted a dramatic backdrop to do these truly stunning garments justice and it doesn't get much more dramatic than the spectacular Buachaille Etive Mor.

It was Mark that choose this spot. I think it's quite Hokusai-esque.

Mark snapped a few solo sans wig ones of me but the midgies were out in force so it had to be a guerrilla style photo session. 

I had some fun with PicMonkey this morning :)

I'll leave you with a cheesetastico tune from the 90s, enjoy  ;)

May this blog post find you happy & healthy.

loads of love,

Jennie

xXx

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Rescue Me

The past few weeks have been immensely hectic but also very rewarding and fun.

I am thrilled to announce that both Mark and I are now PADI Rescue Divers, huzzah!

The course consisted of one classroom session, three pool sessions and the open water grande finale at Dogfish Reef, Loch Fyne last Sunday.

To say that the course was physically demanding would be an understatement, there were times when I was seriously wondering if I'd be able to get through it. 

To surface an unresponsive diver, giving rescue breaths and towing him or her to the shore whilst removing their and your own gear, then dragging them onto the shore before performing CPR and instructing others to contact Emergency Services (or having to do this yourself) is a TALL ORDER! However when you succeed in doing it, you feel totally flipping awesome.

The Rescue Diver Course made me realize the utmost importance of personal fitness and also that I still have to gain a fair bit of diving experience before I get to grips with the Dive Master Course.

So the aim for the coming months will be to go diving whenever the opportunity presents itself.

There are plenty of great dive sites to explore here in Scotland and with any luck we will have a great summer of doing just that.

I'm also hoping to do a few more courses with Aquatron; the Search and Recovery one is at the top of my list.

Last Saturday it was time for Frocktasia to roll out the rail again at Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair. 

This time the fair was held in the fabulous Wasp Artists' Studio in The Briggait, which is a tremendously impressive, wonderfully light building and hands down the best venue we've ever had the pleasure to trade at.

Much like the last Judy's we did, we were kept busy pretty much from the beginning to the end and our complimentary necklaces and lollipops went down a treat.

I'm not sure when the next Judy's will be held in Glasgow but the fair floor manager on the day said that there might be one in Edinburgh during the festival and hopefully by then we will have a car.

Here is my May (thus far) in pics...

The first thing we sold at Judy's last Saturday was the 90s knitted RAVE hat.
May it go forth and have a wicked summer on the head of the wee girly that bought it.

The obligatory SIFOS (seller in front of stall) pics.

Cut-offs are evidently still going strong. I remember tutting at the prices of these when Vix (VOTE VIX) and I went to the London Fashion Weekend in 2010, I think they've come down in price since then?!
Tallula Vintage had some exceptionally pretty frocks up for grabs but alas I am still on a buying ban. 

Tania was our delightful stall neighbour on the day. Her fabulous Etsy shop is stocked to the hilt with eclectic vintage finds and upcycled discoveries.
The fetching retro print curtain in the £3 bargain bag of another seller made me think of The Queen of Curtain Couture (VOTE VIX).

I had to take a sneaky-snap of this fabulous shopper because I loved her psychedelic print mini frock and hippie head-chain get-up.
So much vintage and retro finery under one roof...truly something for everyone! 

I wish every day was a Judy's day :)

What I Wore: 70s psychedelic print dress (Chiswick car boot sale), 70s suede waistcoat (Vintage dealer friend), layered tights (99p stores & Aldi), African mask necklace (Princess May car boot sale) and suede pixie boots (gift from my mum-in-law).

On Sunday I brought my camera to the dive site in the hopes that I'd be able to take some cool snaps of us after the Rescue Diver Course but as soon as we left Glasgow the sky ripped open and it poured down pretty much the whole time we were at Dogfish Reef, so no luck there.

To be honest I was too shattered afterwards to even entertain the idea of acting photographer or even pose for pics...Yes, I really was that tired ;)

We managed to take a couple of pics in the morning before we set off.

This is what the house looks like the day after diving. Drysuits & BCDs in the bathtub and a plethora of gear drying out on bath towels scattered throughout the flat.
It makes me feel very proud to see these pages of my training record signed off and I think Mark and I will have yet another wee celebration when our PADI certification cards come through.

Before wrapping up, I'll just share a little picture medley from when we went to see Maiden Scotland play here in Glasgow, they ROCKED! 

Last time we lived in Glasgow back in 2000 we had a band together with Dave who is pictured with his lovely girlfriend Emma and Allen who now plays bass for Maiden Scotland.

Hope you are all doing grand and if you haven't already VOTE FOR VIX!!!

I'll love you and leave you with the soundtrack for the Rescue Diver Course :)

All the best,

Jennie

xXx

My Awesome April

Time for a wee catch-up folks...

April was a really jam-packed month for me. 

I did my scuba review with Aquatron in readiness for the Rescue Diver Course, stayed with Mark's mum in Ballachulish for few days to give her a wee hand with the spring cleaning, then we had Little Birds Market, I attended a Social Media Event with Business Gateway, hooked up with lovely Sara of Hello The Mushroom and Lynsay aka Miss West End Girl in Edinburgh, went back up to Ballachulish for a days diving  in Loch Leven with Mark and Ben, studied HARD for the Rescue Diver Course, went to the first ever Aquatron social evening and started the Rescue Diver Course.

In between doing all of the above, I've sandwiched Frocktasia's online selling activities, although I have to admit that they did suffer somewhat last month with everything else being so full on. 

Never mind, onwards and upwards is the motto for May.

I've got loads of frocks waiting to be added to my Etsy shop and this month we've also got another Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair to look forward to.

The Rescue Diver Course is going very well, so far we've done the classroom & two pool sessions.

There is still one pool session to go and then it is the grande finale at Loch Long on the 18th, the day after Judy's. Mark and I are going to be well and truly cream-crackered after that weekend I can tell you.

I've been wanting to do this course for ages and although it is hard work and a lot to take in, I am thoroughly enjoying it :)

Here's a medley of April pics...

It was fab hanging out with Sara & Lynsey in Edinburgh, the weather that weekend was AMAZING!
We popped in to Armstrong's to peruse their fabulous selection of vintage & retro attire.

This was the day after Edinburgh, like I said we were blessed with some truly stunning spring weather. This was our first ever UK saltwater dive, so far we've only done open water diving in freshwater. It was also the first time we dived in our Scubapro drysuits. Was it cold? In the water...you bet :)

The visibility in the Loch wasn't all that great on the day but I still managed to see crabs, sea urchins and loads of brittle stars. After the dives mum had cooked us a wonderful meal of yummy veggie chilli and rhubarb crumble that we devoured in her garden.

Last Friday I went to the first ever Aquatron Social Evening to listen to Annie & Martin talk about tips & tricks for underwater photography and videography. These guys are so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I'm so pleased for Mark that he gets to work with such a fab bunch of people. Then on Saturday the Rescue Diver Course started with the classroom session, behold my neat freak course work and Annie's adorable wee dog :) 

To round off a pretty perfect month, Mark and I decided to go walkies on his day off. 

Tuesday felt like the first day of summer here in Rutherglen, so we made our way to the Linn Park and the fabulous White Cart Walkway...

My awesome Hello The Mushroom tote bag got its first outing, thank you Sara :)

I'm so chuffed that we ended up living within striking distance of so many awesome parks. 

It makes the outdoorsy part of me jump with joy.

A celebratory cartwheel display...

Hurrah, spring/summer is finally here :)

Hope you are all doing grand folks?!

I will leave you with a cover tune that makes me smile from ear to ear and throw some odd shapes, enjoy :)

Loads of love,

Jennie

xXx