Meeting Gregg & Leigh in Senggigi

After meeting Leigh (and her household help) first thing at their very beautiful, contemporary Asian style home in Jalan Palm Raja we headed off to see Gregg (Mister Gregg) at his Sekolah Nusa Alam (Natural Place School) in South Senggigi.  Some of the locals refer to it as "the rich school in the rice paddies", but to me it looks a beautiful little school, clean and ordered, and much better resourced than other schools I have seen in Bali-Lombok.   You can tell Gregg is very happy in his current position and much admired by the school community.  He and Leigh are developing into a celebrity couple in West Lombok; most of the Taksi drivers are very impressed when we ask to be driven to see Mister Gregg or Nonya Leigh! Their son Jacob is also thriving at school in this supportive environment

Class sizes at the school are very small (20 maximum) and every class has an English and an Indonesian teacher.  There are a lot of support staff in the school, all adding to the lovely calm, secure environment for the children, 70% of whom are Anglo-Indonesian.  Gregg has big plans for the future of the school, especially around building enrolments in the 7-12 years, and building the professional capacity of his staff and raising academic standards. 

After we left Gregg, happily hard at work, Leigh introduced us to a little local warung (restaurant) Coco Beach she'd discovered recently on the beach front a couple of hundred metres north of the Puri Saron.

We caught one of the local Bemos (a tiny little old van type vehicle that are the local equivalent of public transport) there.  We laughed at Leigh negotiating (in Indonesian) with the driver about a price to take the three of us off the road into the palm fringed beach side clearing so we didn't have to walk far! 

We took a couple of hours over our delicious lunch, talking, catching up and lazing in the gentle warmth of this most idyllic setting.  It is obvious that Gregg, Leigh and Jacob have a wonderful life here in Lombok.

Leigh had to go to pick up Jacob from school (Taksi again) so Rob and I spent the late afternoon in (me) and around (Rob) the beautiful (newly refurbished) pool at the Puri Saron.  It was around this time we admitted we'd already gotten over that feeling that Lombok is somewhat of a disappointment after Bali.

Rob is still not recovered from the most severe case of flu (+ assorted infections) he's had in recent years so is not risking going swimming or any over exertion.  Such a shame it has impacted on his holiday so greatly!

We met up with Gregg, Leigh and Jacob last night and enjoyed a meal out on the beachfront Warung Menege in the South Senggigi.  The sunsets are the star attraction here as Senggigi Beach faces West towards Bali, but last night the bar-b-qued seafood, Bintangs and being able to spend time with Gregg & Leigh had their own magic.