Semester 12 Chapter VII: Chasing Bags

Yo, what’s good what’s bad… It’s about that time again, we’re back with another one. Sunday morning in this motherfucker, sun is going up, new Push in the headphones, shit’s proper. I hope everyone has had a good week, I hope your energy levels’ proper and we’re all coming correct for the next week. Let’s get to this thing tho… 

 

After the last blog I picked up my diver friend and her sis and went to Abades where we accommodated a group of 9 people. We did it in two rounds, and managed it all with ease. Felt good, money was alright, good day. Oh, and I got this gig through a guy I used to teach English to. He organized a group trip to the island and got in touch with me. Shit worked out.

As for diving, I had another 3 gigs over the week. Nothing interesting really… Two DSDs and one Divemaster skills evaluation. That was fun tho. Me and the guy did arguably the cleanest kit exchange I’ve ever experienced. Smooth as hell.

 

As for social shit… I spent one night out in Palm Mar plus two of my close friends arrived on Thursday. One of my day ones and his gf. I’ve known both for ages and the hangouts were nothing but pleasant. We did some beers, we did some road trips, we got up to Teide park to do a short hike, I took them to Medano and today I’m gonna introduce them to diving. I really appreciate Tenerife for this. It’s so easy for people to come here from Europe. Refreshing. 

I’ve also accepted a new position in one of the language schools I work with. So now I’m also responsible for conducting job interviews and doing training. We’ll see how it goes but so far it seems pretty okay. 

 

Aight, I think that’s about it. Shout out to all my readers, shout out to all my people, shout out to everyone fighting the good fight. One!

Highlights:

• My people.
• Diving.
• Being up around Teide again.

Semester 12 Chapter VI: Peeling Off

Let me start this motherfucker by sending some healing energy to Shanghai. Shit that’s happening over there is absolutely nuts. Even though it seems like lifetimes ago, my memories of that place are still vivid, I still feel connected to it and I still have some people I truly care about in that bitch. I hope shit won’t get much worse than this and that everybody is gucci by the end of it. 

 

Okay my last week tho… Honestly, I haven’t been doing much. The sunburn I got last Sunday kinda canceled most of outdoor activities. Luckily the week has been quiet on diving so I turned down only one gig. I spent most of the time indoors working out, reading, watching series and working. It’s a fucking learning lesson tho. Got myself a sunscreen and some body lotion and I’m officially starting to care about my skin a bit more. People say that operating on sun needs some attention, people say that tattoos on sun need some attention… And I know they’re right, I just haven’t gotten myself to take it seriously. But I’m trying to switch it up… Not getting any younger so it doesn’t seem like the worst decision. 

 

I haven’t been socializing much neither. It actually felt good spending some time by myself after some time. One time I went out with my diver friend’s sis and one time I went out with both of them. Pretty cool evenings.

Saturday, I got back into water. It was a group of 4 Indians. Now, I hate stereotypes but man… Indians have a reputation in diving industry. They are usually pretty difficult to deal with and the can almost never swim. And I don’t mean that they’re rude or anything but everything just takes forever with them and they usually start panicking before even leaving the dive shop. I always approach them with no prejudice but they always seem to live up to the myth. Bottom line, it was a fucking shit show and after like 40 minutes we managed to get like 20cm under the water. My computer didn’t even register a dive. That kinda thing. All good tho. 

It’s Sunday morning, in a minute I’ll head out to do some more try dives, weather is good outside and I got new Kae Tempest bumping in my headphones. Fire. Hope you guys are doing well, you’re keeping shit positive and you’re not entertaining bullshit. One!

Highlights:

• Severance – some dope TV series.
• New Yung Lean, Kae Tempest & Banks.
• Body lotion. I’m totally enjoying that shit.

Semester 12 Chapter V: Back On Track (And Burnt As Fuck)

Hello world, here we go again. This time from sunny Tenerife again. Shit’s pretty good apart from the fact I got talked into a beach day yesterday (which was pretty nice actually) but since I totally underestimated the sun’s power over here (possibly combined with three weeks of wearing winter jacket), my face and my chest is fucking red hot today. I mean… It’s not critical… I still did my morning workout and I can function pretty normally… It’s just not super comfortable. Let’s start from the beginning tho… 

 

Last days in the Czech Republic were pretty full. Meeting with my people, farewell hangouts with the fam… I also picked up my bicycle in the shithole close to Brno and ended up spending like 4 hours in that motherfucker because some guy decided to jump under a train and police shut down the way back... Happy days. I even paid a visit to my bank… You see, we live in a fucked up world. I’ve never had any significant money. However, since I’ve been leftist anti-consumerist vegan for ages, I usually make a bit more than I spend. And when that happens for like a decade, you have some extra change on your account. Now, if it was up to me, I’d have the money in a shoe box under my bed. But since I move around a lot, this would be rather complicated. So it’s been just lying on my bank account. The thing is, I don’t have nearly enough to do something big with it (like buying an apartment) but enough for it not to make any sense just lying around being a subject to inflation that’s apparently gonna go absolutely nuts this year in the light of humans being idiots. So I went there and did all kinds of crazy shit to try to fight the devaluation at least a bit. Those were some three hours I’ll never get back…. 

Anyways… Thursday early morning I was on my way to the airport. As usual, I was carrying a backpack that was way beyond the carry-on limits. And this time I got real lucky. At the gate, the lovely wizzair lady was approaching passengers one by one asking them to stuff their shit in one of their frames. Lotta people couldn’t which resulted in them having to pay some extra fees. Well, she missed me so I’m still good when it comes to that. 

 

After I got back to my place, I went to get some groceries and then did some teaching. In the evening I met up with my diver friend and her sister who’s yet again on the island in Costa Del Silencio. My Pluto still runs beautifully.

Friday morning I was on my way to the dive shop and I took some gas on the way. See, even Tenerife has been affected by the global situation and gas prices went from about 1.2 to about 1.5 euro per liter. What’s pretty cool tho… Government has started subsidizing it. So you get to the station, tell the guy to give you 30 eur worth of gas which he does, and then you end up paying 24. The rest is on the house. It felt so fucking good being back in water tho. Friday and Saturday I did a wreck course with this American dude and the new intern in the dive center. Some great vibes, some great diving. 

 

Sunday, I went to Costa Adeje to meet up with a friend. I left early to stop by to a supermarket for some oat milk and to check out some new shoes since I’ve totally destroyed them all. Ended up getting some local Spanish ones (actually made in fucking Spain) from microfiber and shit. Not the most stylish but hey… The greenest option anywhere around. Around noon, me and the friend jumped into the Pluto and we went to La Tejita beach. She was suggesting a beach day for ages and I was like… Why not. It was a really good hangout followed by some coffee and ice cream in Medano and some beers back in Costa Adeje. I totally underestimated those 4 hours on the sun tho. Oh well. Got me some panthenol and I’m gonna take it easy.

This morning I went to Mercadona to get some more shit for home and then I went on a mission to pay fucking tax for my car. They sent me both online and paper note. I had to pay around 40 eur. Now, it’s supposed to be doable online but nobody knows how (that includes my Spanish speaking flatmate who deals with that every year). It should also be possible to pay for it at any ATM. Also no can do for whatever kind of reason. Alternatively, you can visit any bank and do it there. That’s what I went for today (since I exhausted the two previous options). And guess what… Also no way. So I just drove up to San Miguel and went straight to the police station begging them to accept my money. They gave me another piece of paper, directed me to another bank and voila… Bill payed. Amazing how smooth and easy shit is in 21^st century, right? 

 

Got back, had some lunch, talked to my dad… Listening to Banks now, all is good. Hope y’all doing good too. Shout out to all my readers. One!

Highlights:

• New Yung Lean & FKA Twigs
• Getting sun burnt.
• Diving again!

Semester 12 Chapter IV: Last Drops

Hey y’all! Hope everyone is okay and safe in this biatch. Let me start by sending some positive vibes to Ukraine. Shit over there is beyond insane and sometimes it’s fucking hard to believe all of it is really happening. So many lives wasted, so many innocent people killed… Somebody just off Putin please. That guy needs to be shut down for real… 

 

As for me… I did the covid booster shot on Tuesday and it didn’t disappoint. Same as the last time, my left arm hurt like hell for three consecutive days which meant no workouts, no running, no nothing. Which kinda sucked cause those were the last days of nice weather over here. By Thursday, we got back into deep shit. Temperatures around zero, occasional rain, all the good stuff. From what I’ve heard tho, it seems the conditions in Tenerife are quite shitty too. Turns out I might not be missing too much these couple of weeks… 

 

As for social life… Wednesday I did a dinner at my sis’. Thursday me and my sis went out with one of our childhood friends whom we hadn’t seen for ages. It’s kinda interesting seeing how many different routes people can take… And it’s also pretty fucked up how having a spouse and babies is like super normal among people my age. Often I have very little to contribute to a conversation. The evening was enjoyable tho and I followed it up with some more drinking with my bro who came to visit for a bit from Prague.

Friday I drove that dude to a town about 50km from Brno to deal with some shit and in the afternoon I met up with another of my guys. Cool evening, some playstation, some vegan pizza, some bar hopping.. Good shit. Saturday I went to my bro’s place out of town for some more good vibes and drinks and on Sunday we went for our traditional run. Crazy how a week before it felt like summer and this time it felt like fucking Siberia. Almost 12km tho, felt proud of ourselves… I got back home for lunch and basically spent the rest of the day with my sis and them. All love… 

 

It’s Monday and it’s almost time for lunch. I feel like my pain days are nearly over. Tattoos are almost healed, covid pain is done… The only thing left is teeth. This whitening shit makes them a bit sensitive. It does work tho. In couple of days I’m jumping on a plane back to Tenerife and I think I’m ready. It’s been more than beautiful over here but I got shit to look forward to back there too. And I’m really starting missing diving. Next time, I’ll be talking to you from over there. In the meantime, stay positive and keep your head up. What else is there to do… One! 

Highlights:

• My people.
• Being back on running and workouts.
• My dad’s cuisine. That stuff is on point.