[DiveDevil1966]

Hi Dive Trooper

No worries. I will be more specific. If you go to Egypt you can do everything there from start to the end. You can also start while you are in London. There is a school called LSD "London School of Diving". They have a good reputation. You could do a Open Water Course Referral. This means that you complete the theory and the confined water training in the UK and then complete the necessary 4 open water dives in Egypt. This will allow you to do more diving whilst on holiday rather than wasting your time learning dive theroy. You can also go and buy the open water diver manual and already start with your indepenedent study. This means you are working through the manual whilst in the UK and completing the required knowledge reviews at the end of each chapter in the manual. The manual consists of 5 chapters and therefore 5 Knowledge reviews. There is also a dive planner included, which is either the table version, the wheel or the E-RDP. I suggest to go for the E-RDP as it is good fun to learn this. This is required for the dive planning side of things. If you go for this oprion then let me know when you have the book and I will be able to give you a bit more study advice or assist you should you have any questions. This way you will complete all the training in Egypt.
I would wait with buying equipment. During your open water diver course you will have the opportunity to try various pieces of equipment. This will give you some idea what you like and what to look out for. I am also very sure that the instructor/dive centre will be happy to advice you on the equipment issues. Should you require any assistance on this I will be more than happy to help in this matter too. You do not need a buddy at all. Diving centers will provide you with this. This is the beauty when diving with a dive center as you dont have to worry about dive buddy's. They will take care of this.
If you have got the diving bug and would like to take this further then you can contact me any time and I will be happy to advice you where to go and what to do as this is what I do. I am teaching people to become dive professionals.
I hope this is a bit more helful. Just let me know if you require any further information.
DiveDevil