Independence Day

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It's funny how a day that is celebrated by another country is still the first thing you think of when you realise it is July 4. However we had no American celebrations - today was purely Indonesian with a Queensland twist.

We set off for our first dives straight after breakfast. Seabreeze has built a new dive centre and we headed down there to be kitted out with all we needed. We had brought some of our own equipment but hired BCDs and wetsuits. Then we jumped on the boat and set off to lukuan dua which means corner 2. The boat is small but easily able to accommodate the 7 divers. There were 3 guides so we dived together as a family group with Anda. After an hours rest we moved to timur - east and dived again.It was fun getting in to the water as Toby and Harriet had never gone off the side of a boat before. You have to tumble backwards and somersault in the water. Great fun but a bit scary the first time.

The dives were both great. The first dive Toby thought life couldn't get any better as he saw two turtles swim by and he thought they looked so graceful and beautiful. We also saw clams, nudibranches and seahorses.Lunch was late as we didn't have enough air tanks on the boat for the second dive. We wasted a bit of time going to another resort and borrowing tanks. It turned out to be the perfect time though, because as we were eating a pod of dolphins swam by. We sat and watched as they past by, leaping from the water as they went.

We needed a rest in the afternoon and then went for a walk. Toby has decided we need to walk 10000 steps each day so that he can eat as much Italian gelato as he wants when we get there and not get fat. This time we went the opposite way from the village. We passed loads more home stays and dive centres as we followed the path. Harriet got frightened by a cow that seemed to want to chase her, but it was only a calf and didn't want to go far from its mother which was tied up at the side of the path. We didn't get to the end before we turned around and headed back.

State of Origin was playing at home. There is no TV that works here and even if it did there wouldn't be SOO. Luckily Angus SMSed a couple of times from Vietnam where he was able to watch the game. We finally got the score off twitter/ the ABC. Fiona was relieved she didn't watch it, because she may have had a heart-attack - close game but Queensland won - again!

In our room there are 2 mirrors. One seems to make you look slightly larger and the other seems to make you look lots slimmer. The last mirror you look in before you go out can make a difference to your self- perception and self confidence. We always measure ourselves in some way, but all of our benchmarks are flawed. It has been a little strange over the last couple of days. Back home Toby is the one in charge and who knows how to deal with people and situations. But in Indonesia, and diving, it is Fiona who has the most experience. It's been good for her self confidence which had been lacking. She has been looking in a 'fattening' mirror. Now perhaps she is looking in a 'slimming' one. But what is reality?

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