Under the Stars ✨

 

Hello Dear Reader, 

I write to you from an unexpected place...

Though it may not be entirely unexpected to you

I decided to stay in my little slice of heaven ✨

My concerns of talking to no-one were not so... In fact I met some very lovely people in my last week here. 

Two German girls, Anna and Leah 🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️, who were on my first ever dive. The sweetest pair. We shared many laughs in our brief time together and even managed to squeeze in some natural goodness. 

I have to say, I can't imagine ever feeling so relaxed around two virtual strangers, enough to fly through the colourful vibrating stars and bananas dancing like Michael Jackson 🍌🍌🍌

As for diving, well I am now qualified to plunge myself underwater to 18 metres depth... with a buddy 💙 my first dives will remain one some of the best memories of my life... a whole new world to explore 🐠🐡🦈🐟 

Thank you to Blue Marlin Dive and all the cool divers I met there... Shout out to the colourful Fraser for the awesome picture below 🩷 with whom I bonded over my new favourite thing, the peacock mantis shrimp:

This little guy sees in 12 colour spectrums (we see in 3), has a punch so hard it can crack a crab shell, and his eyes just do a whole 180 by themselves 👀💪

Just to chill with this dude for a few breaths under water means there's about a 90% that I'll be writing about my Advanced experience this time next week...

Having been serenaded from musicians at my place, grabbing drinks with random locals I met in a shop, bonding with amazing women and kindred spirits in tattoo parlours...

I decided to listen to my ♥️ and do what felt right... 

So 6 cones, 5 dives, 1 hour of bamboo prods and a few beautiful conversations later... 

I am sitting in my cheap as cheese accommodation, listening to the heaviest rain I have ever heard, with the strongest feeling of peace I have felt since arriving in Pokhara, Nepal, 2022... 

Sending my gratitude to the ocean this week... maybe I've inspired you to go for a swim... 🌊

A moment of gratitude

Dear Reader, 

Okay, so my second entry is a little late. 

One of the best things about remote working/ having a nomadic lifestyle is that when your mum calls you from Bali, stressed at having cards blocked and generally having a meltdown - and then subsequently asks you to come and help her combat life's challenges-  is that you can accept this plea/request/demand. 

And strangely enough, I had been struggling to decide where to go after my 3 week New Zealand South Island adventure 🤔 so nothing was booked...

Within a few minutes, I organised my flight from Nelson, New Zealand, to Bali 🌸

Now granted, my mum didn't have to twist my arm too hard to get me here... It is Bali after all 🌞✌️

After a beautiful few days in Ubud together , and being reconnected with some old acquaintances (and indeed meeting a new one, which I may mention in a later letter, Dear Reader), I am now in Gili Air 🌊 

It was hard to decide whether to go to Gili T, the notorious party hub, or risk going to Gili Air and speaking to no one for a few days. 

Whilst the latter may turn out to be true, I immediately felt a sense of calm as I stepped foot on this adorable island. Even pulling up to the harbour, I knew I'd made the right decision 🪷

It may be a quiet few days, but I now, more than ever, believe in fate, and that every little thing has brought me (and you, Dear Reader) to this exact moment ✨

So I come to the point of this letter...

This is a genuine message I just sent to my friend, back in rainy England:

"I'm sitting on a beanbag on the sand, listening to reggae music, drinking a really strong Mai Tai which costs £2.27, watching the lightning over the sea"

So next time I'm stressed, feel like I'm unworthy or lost, I'll take a hot second to appreciate the f*** out of this moment, retrospectively. 

Namaste indeed ✌️

The First Letter

Dear Reader, 

After travelling in some capacity for the past two years and working remotely now for over a year, I have realised that I have a problem... 

No, I am not talking about relationships, finances or anything like that... yet 👀

My problem is that this life is treating me well (sometimes) and I am lucky enough to see so many beautiful things and experience adventure that others don't. 

You may be thinking "Steph is a dumb white girl who doesn't know what problems are"... well you're not wrong probably but anyway...

I also don't have social media... I haven't managed to launch a yoga YouTube channel and I don't participate in vlogging.

What I do like, is writing... sometimes poems, sometimes entries in a diary after a really great day or evening... occasionally a handwritten letter to a special person.

But as someone who does a lot of cool things and also carries everything in a backpack, having a big, thick journal is not practical... 

But writing in my own blog sort of is! 

So this is a reason for starting it... but there are a couple more.

One being that I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who want to live vicariously through me. People want updates, photos and intense descriptions of my travels. 

This blog can be away of sharing without going into detail that people don't want to hear (sometimes people don't want to hear about how they are missing out on 30 degree heat when they are so cold that they can no longer feel their baby toe)

The final reason (or at least for now) is that I have a lot of things I want to talk about, be that travel (obviously), yoga, exercise, food and managing some sort of normalcy whilst being on the road. 

And yes, that will include relationship talk.

So I hope you will enjoy my fable as it is written with love and reflection 𐩕

Steph x