What a difference a smile makes

After almost a year travelling on our own, with only sporadic visits with friends, followed by the quite ghastly GA Adventures group tour, I am loving being surrounded by such nice people on Nusa Lembongan, our home now – barring a few short trips – until mid September.

John and Sue, who own World Diving where I am doing my Divemaster internship, are wonderful, like old friends who also happen to be excellent inclusive teachers. My fellow DMTs, Kai and Carolyn are awesome, we spend such a large amount of time together and in such close proximity it would have been pretty tough if they’d been gross. Despite the age differences, twenty five years between me and Kai, proving that age really is just a number, we work well as a team, supporting and laughing (at and) with each other and making every day just a little bit more enjoyable.

The divemasters, Instructors, boat captains, Wayan in the office and Ben the manager slash instructor have all welcomed us warmly and as unsociable as we pretend to be, it is truly lovely to be somewhere for a while, getting to know people and having them getting to know us.  

After two decades of living on the Portobello Road I didn’t just leave my home and friends but also a tapestry of people who on any given day I might wave and say hello to. Some I knew their names and stories, some were people I chatted to regularly, some just faces I’d seen and smiled at over the years and I’ve missed that feeling of being part of a community. After a year of not having time to really get to know anyone or for anyone to get to know us, I’m enjoying the simple pleasure of being recognised by our local shop owner and in the restaurants we frequent and that easy camaraderie that seems to surround dive shops.

If there is a point to this post I suppose that it’s my version of no man is an island, no matter how self reliant we are, a sense of belonging fostered by a good chat with friends, new or old goes a very long way to making my day perfect Xx