I know you are all dying to hear how Petes scuba diving course went, so here he is......

I had been looking forward to learning how to scuba dive for so long that when the day finally arrived, I was pretty nervous, but equally determined to succeed. I learnt at Seashell Dive resort on the beautiful island of Koh Tao, which is also where we both stayed in a basic beach bungalow. The place was so relaxing that it was very difficult to stay nervous or stressed by the whole thing, but I tried my best! The first mistake I made was daring to put a YES answer on the medical history forms, due to my shoulder operations, and so I had to pay for a medical examination to confirm I was ok to dive. Basically she took my blood pressure and asked me if I could swim, then took my money and stamped my form. Apparently she only needed to look at my strong physique and see how I held myself in a beautiful yet powerful manner, to decide that I was indeed fit and well. Sure.

After all that the first day was just an introduction to what scuba involves and a chance to get to know our group and instructor. The group consisted of Mark (the Kiwi Instructor) Kay and Suzanne (a lovely German couple) and Pru (an accident prone lady who everyone knows, also part time mermaid). Mark was a great instructor, everything was done at the right pace for all, so that we could all feel confident about learning and not feeling rushed. He was also a great laugh and made us all feel at ease.

Day two, was our first experience of breathing underwater and the boat trip out was full of nervous energy, or as I like to call it, wind. After getting kitted up we followed Mark to the edge of the boat, and he showed us how to 'step' off. It looked pretty simple but when you've got half a ton of heavy breathing equipment on your back, and when you're stood in flippers on a boat that's going up and down, it turned out to be a bit more of a challenge. By accident I took my first breath underwater after my big step into the unknown, I just carried on breathing until I surfaced again. It felt good. Today was just a taste as all we really did was swim out the shallows of the Japanese Gardens and practice some of the skills we needed to know in case things went a bit dodge. They sounded a bit scary at first, practicing running out of air underwater, taking off your mask, losing your mouthpiece (second stage), emergency ascents… Doing them was surprisingly easy for me, everything just felt so calm because you can hear yourself breathing, it just helps to relax you. Thing is though, I spent half the time looking at all the cool fish swimming around in between our legs, so beautiful.

Day three, and it was our first proper dives, and Carla joined us on the boat so she could try Scuba too. Again, the water was so clear and the reefs were awesome. GIVE ME MORE! Then before we knew it, it was the last day of our course and our last two dives. For some reason I was more nervous about these ones then I was for the first, but hey, was still awesome in the water, and we went down to our depth limit of 18m. Looking up and seeing the bubbles rising was so strange and I was loving every minute. We were being filmed for our last dive, so Mark had the idea of performing a Queen song, 'We Will Rock You' underwater. Was good fun but fraught with danger as I was trying not to laugh so hard that I swallowed a lot of delicious sea water! Watching the DVD back was really bizarre, seeing us all underwater, and the rock band stunt came out perfectly.

It was one of the best experiences I've had whilst traveling, and I highly recommend that any who hasn't Scuba'd should give it a go. Make sure you get a good instructor and group though, as Mark really made it such a laugh, that any nerves were pushed aside by his enthusiasm, and the rest of the group from my Mermaid buddy Pru, to the German Love Birds Kay and Suzanne, were such lovely people, that I really hope we can all stay in touch.

Right, that'll do! If you've read all this then well done as Carla reckons you'll all have fallen asleep by the second paragraph! Thanks Love!