Off to the pool tomorrow to continue my metamorphosis from a holiday diver to what I think of as a 'sport diver'. Jagman is a great instructor and is gently introducing me to all sorts of stuff. Maybe I'll be a Techie one day...maybe. . . . Also, long hose set-up is clearly safer, but I didn't get on with it when I tried it once. Any thoughts on that?
It's good news that you've found a good instructor, but remember, you're still a beginner. . . don't plan technical dives yet. Technical diving skills are not a pursuit of cards. The skills now called "technical" are part of a pyramid of things to do underwater, only after the basic skills are well learned and second nature.
If your goal is to become a cave diver, your base of the pyramid is an experienced diver that can handle stresses in an open water environment. Yes you can find instructors who will "too quickly" teach you to string lines, but if your skills are weak in open water, you're going to add to the tragedies littering many of the "tech" areas. You don't want cave diving. . . Wreck diving is a technical area, or deep diving, or dozens of other advanced areas of diving. Spearfishing, Photography. . . anything that is distracting you from the basics of safety in open water is a danger until your skills can keep you safe without your total concentration. There is no card from anyone that guarantees your safety. . . just your practiced skill doing the basics.
You assume a long hose is safer. . . Without a very good skill level, a long hose adds to your danger, not your safety. . . need a long hose second stage, Not in open water, as an inexperienced diver. Far in your future a long hose is used in wreck or cave diving. Before you need technical gear, you need to have lots and lots of safe open water dives. Why not buy it now? A long hose hanging off your regulator is a snagging hazard, for partners fins, arms and legs. . . and it will be time to replace hoses before you're experienced enough to benefit from it.
As a beginner, get your certification and go diving. The price of tech gear should be spent on air fills, and travel to dive sites. The purchase of air, travel and gear rental is all you should be spending for the first year, or two, or three! When you have a hundred tanks of air in your log book, then talk to a tech instructor, then your tech gear will be new and of the newest designs, and you'll be safer.
Blowing bubbles is fun, don't spoil the fun and get scared or worse. After a few dives, turn your attention from just bubbles, to watching fish. . . you'll scare the fish, but with practice you'll learn to swim with them. That's the skill progression that will occupy your first 100 dives.