ABSTRACT
I was leading a very comfortable and enjoyable life in Cambridge with the ideal job in an exciting and supportive environment. In some ways, life seemed too comfortable, although weekly games of rugby kept the adrenalin moving in the winter. However, rugby stopped between April and September and it is hard to work up much of a sweat playing tennis if you are constantly hitting the ball into the net or out of the court, so I looked around for an alternative. The university had a wide range of activities, some of which reached their peak in the summer, and I decided to explore these at the next fresher’s fair when the various clubs attempt to recruit new members. I was interested in two in particular, mountaineering and diving. I had done a little climbing both in Britain and in New England, and although Cambridge is badly placed for reaching good climbing country, they had a good programme of summer trips and expeditions, largely illustrated by photographs of hairy men in lumberjack shirts. The diving club, with the promising title of the Cambridge University Underwater Exploration Group, made their case through a film about their activities, which incidentally involved shots of girls in bikinis and the blue Mediterranean. I opted to learn to dive! This had the convenient justification that I could run experiments under the water and perhaps encourage the Medical Research Council (MRC) to make a small contribution to my holidays.
