Dear Diary

[Lia]

Dear Batman,

I have an exam scheduled for tomorrow so that makes me eligible for skipping work, and what a great thing that is because with just one day off a week, I would go mad if after just a short break I would have to go back there and pretend for 10 hours that I have so many things to do. Bullshit, since I am very proficient with computers, paperwork in reality takes me so much less than I make it out to be, when I actually have any paperwork to do, which seldom happens. Why? Because if I don't drag it, I end up finding things to clean in the shop, and I'm kind of running out.

Masks, fins, snorkels, BCDs, wetsuits, rash vests, boots, gloves, manuals, metal racks, regulators, weightbelts, tank straps, goggles, accessories like lanyards, dive knives, torches, buoys, equipment bags, weights, pocket first aid masks, maps of the Zenobia wreck, air gauges, dive computers, dive watches etc. I know all of them so well I can dream about them now... Sweep, mop, hoover the classroom, clean the trucks, polish the wood, dust shelves, clean mirrors, clean windows, wash chairs, tables, put brolly out, check leaflets, make coffees, clean cups, send e-mails, send birthday cards, put new customers in Eve, certify dive students for OW, AOW, EFR, Specs in PADI, photocopy paperwork, rename, arrange in folders, file the records away. Customers come back, help with tanks and diving equipment. Can do all of this in about 5 hours, which is about half of my shift. Now figure out what to do with rest of the time I have to spend there... So I end up doing shitty jobs nobody else wants to do. And for less money than what I used to earn last year. If I do an Advanced Open Water course and Rescue Diver, it's gonna be worth it, cause from there it's easy to go for Divemaster. That would secure me a much better job anywhere in the world. Otherwise this ain't worth shite.

I'm sick of Cyprus, so sick that I'd rather be home and struggling to live, but at least I could see the people I love and the rest of my friends, and it would be my own damn country, and not working for somebody else's.

I don't know jack shite in the biochemistry exam I have tomorrow, because hey, I was too fucking stressed about everything to be able to study. You'll ask, stressed about what? Well, mateys, you don't want to know. The hair on your back will run away if you do.

At least working at the forum keeps my mind off everything else, and I can be blissfully ignoring.