Nerd VS Wild - A part of the tribe

The next morning I drearily fall out of bed and walk like a zombie to the toilet block. “Morning!” greets one of the nomads as he fiddles with something on the front of his van. He pulls out a small tube, “We had 55 mills of rain in the past 24 hours.” He tells me excitedly. Since I’m new the world of the nomads, I’m unsure of what to say and being social awkward I simply say “Yeah it’s pretty wet.” On the way back from the toilets I spot a lady standing in front of her campsite smoking a cigarette and looking pretty pissed off. There is a small stream of water leading to her site from up the hill. She turns her angry gaze to me. “How’s it going love?” I ask, then I noticed the water flowing into her site. “Got a bit rained out?” I ask.

“Nope.” She says sharply then sucks down some more on her smoke. “Some assholes hose is leaking.” I look at her realising that I don’t want to be the focus of her rage,
“Perhaps he doesn’t know?” I add shyly.
“Perhaps he doesn’t give a shit! I’m going to go up there and give the prick a piece of my mind.”
I stand there frozen for a minute, while she stares at the puddle, wondering if it’s rude to just walk away. “Ok, have fun!” I say and leave.

“Morning Mate!” I get greeted again. “Just get in last night?” Another nomad asks. Suddenly I realize I’m no longer an outsider. The Nomads of St Ives have accepted me as one of their own. Courtenay walks past me chatting away to another camper as she walks to the bathroom, we are no longer the young dickheads, well, we still are but now we are a part of the Nomads!

Now, while it’s great having a chat to people, I have a few ground rules, and the golden rule is once I cross the threshold into a public toilet, or any toilet for that matter, all conversation ceases. No exceptions. The only form of communication I allow when in a toilet block is a head nod of acknowledgement. Now if you are reading this and thinking what a weirdo I am, I ask you what’s weirder, not talking to people in toilets, or talking to someone while your hand is on your junk? That’s what I thought…

So the problem with this is that now that I’m a part of the Nomads, I don’t want to be an outsider again. Now the Nomads don’t follow the golden rule, they will happily chat while in the shower next to you, while standing at the urinal, and even when you are pooping. I decided I won’t break my golden rule, but bend it. So now in the toilet area I will talk, however when I walk into a cubical conversation must cease. This system works out pretty good and although I manage to get roped into a conversation about politics with the next shower cubical over, things go pretty well. Well, things went pretty well until Australia day… A day that will live in infamy. The day my rule was flushed down the toilet and I became cursed.