Landlocked Mermaid

September 21st-22nd, my partner and I joined Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club for a dive trip to Porth Ysgaden. Most folk went up on the Friday night and enjoyed an early Saturday dive. Between general exhaustion, work commitments, and life we chose to join them later. If we'd have traveled down on the Friday night we'd have got there gone midnight. Add in the 6am start, it was just a recipe for a bad dive. I have enough of those and feel like I have ruined plenty dives by crying. So we decided to join them for the Saturday afternoon dive and stay for one on Sunday. As per usual, best laid plans and whatnot, but more on that later. Saturday was beautiful for diving. The sea was calm, the sun was shining, and thanks to the autumnal breeze it was not too hot. Perfect conditions. The dive in the morning had been great by all accounts, there were even sightings of an octopus! Despite our sensible decision, I was a little jealous we missed it! Bay view at Porth Ysgaden The ...

This bank holiday weekend I ventured to Deep Wales for a dive weekend with Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club . We stayed at Tyn Ros again, using it as our base camp for dives at Abersoch and Porth Ysgaden. The plan was two dives on Saturday and Sunday, and one on Monday. Thanks to real life and work, Monday was never on the cards for me and my partner. But Saturday and Sunday were fair game for us! The club boats @ Porth Ysgaden The plan for Saturday was two dives from Porth Ysgaden: one over Big Rock and the other on the other side of the bay. Unfortunately, the sea had a different plan for me. On the first dive, we were supposed to descend the shot line on Big Rock. Being in a semi-dry (read, two wetsuits functioning as), I was slated to go in the water last, so I spent the least amount of time cold and wet on the boat. By the time I went in the water, the current was really running fast. It wasn't slow for the other divers, particularly, either. After rolling off the boa...

This month, I have asked the kids to show me on Dylan's world map where some of the sharks they have drawn for me live. Here are their findings: I'm sure Dylan meant to point at the correct America! This will be the last episode of Sharks @ 7 & 3/4, but fear not my favourite shark experts will be back in July with a new name! Dylan pointed out that at nearly nine, we cannot keep calling the segment 7 & 3/4. So we are having a month off and will be back with new videos from July. All of the old videos are still available on YouTube and this channel, to watch to your heart's content.

These last couple days I have been busy doing the final bits of making and assembling gifts, ready to deliver over the coming days. While I would love to tell you all what I have made and how, it will have to wait until the new year. Don't want to ruin the surprise for the family and friends who read. However,  I have been blaring the Christmas tunes and thought we could have some festive fun. I know it's not exactly aquatic themed, but 'tis the season and whatnot! My favourite Christmas songs are... Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch - The Grinch (2000) Baby Shark Christmas Lights What are your favourites?

I am back with everyone's favourite shark experts! This time we play Addy vs Dylan: Pictionary. They didn't playing for doughnuts today, just for fun. And it was a lot of fun! Enjoy roughly ten minutes of chaos.

The new episode or Sharks @ 7 & 3/4 is live! Watch Addy and Dylan, my favourite shark experts, go head to head in a quiz about the hunting styles of the Wobbegong, Goblin and Megamouth Sharks. What were they playing for? A doughtnut - the best of prizes. The game was simple. After drawing a picture of each shark, I posed them nine questions. All they had to do was show me the shark they thought was the answers. With nine points to play for, whoever had the most won the doughnut. Find out what happened below: And because their pictures are so beautiful, here they are close up. Left: Dylan's. Right: Addy's.

So this was a golden opportunity. August being a five week month, I had the chance to refilm episode three of Sharks @ 7 & 3/4 and get back on track for episode four next month. But the small window of opportunity I had vanished. I feel like the boat for refilming has been missed but rather than abandon this episode entirely, I am going to break this episode down here. The kids did some really great pictures, it's not their fault I fail at filming. So I'm going to showcase their beautiful pictures, share some facts and get my act together for the next episode. Basking Sharks Top: Dylan's. Bottom: Addy's The 2nd biggest shark alive today. They are filter feeders, meaning they eat plankton. They feed with their mouths wide open. They filter 1.5 million litres per hour and catch the microscopic plankton on their gill rakers. See those structures inside the mouths the kids drew? Those are the gill rakers. Their name comes from appearing to bask in the su...

This post has been a long time coming as I started filming it before going to Italy - in May! I hope you enjoy what we finally came up with. It was fun to film - a lot of chaos, laundry and background cooking noise. But that is the way this mermaid grew up! Let me tell you a little about Bananagrams . It is a letter game, a little like Scrabble, where you have letter tiles and you need to make conjoining words. There isn't a designated board, meaning you can re-arrange as many times as you need. Each player is given 12 tiles and the remaining tiles are face down in the centre, which have to all eventually be put into play. When they run out of their immediate tiles, the player yells PEEL and everyone takes a tile. A player can opt to DUMP a difficult tile and pick up three. Once all the tiles are in play, the player who runs out first yells BANANAGRAMS and wins! (And if you are me, you get your words checked by your sisters because they don't trust I can spell, for good re...

Meet my little brother Dylan: He is seven and three quarters, though he'll tell you he's already eight. He is just as crazy about sharks as I am, if not crazier. He can name at least fifty species of shark, just off the top of his head. He can tell you the bite force of several sharks. He is even writing a "Word Documentary" about sharks. (His phrase, not mine.) Because of this, I decided he'd fit in perfectly at my blog. He's a little strange and talks through clenched teeth sometimes (no, I'm not sure why!), but he is a sweetie with a mind full of sharks. So here is the first episode of Sharks at 7 & 3/4 ! It's inspired by the B-Movie Sharkenstein , and well, I'll let Dylan do the talking. Filmed by Mash - she's the watch buzzing half way through! (In case you hadn't noticed, I have a YouTube now! I would say check it out, but it is literally this video. But there will be more to come and it will be yo...