Tourist guide Mirabel Azzopardi feels like an ambassador for her country.

When you’re sitting at your office desk and the sun’s rays enter the room from your tiny window, don’t you ever wish you had an outdoor job? A job that would take you out and about to the places you love most and that wouldn’t feel like real work? Or that you could move your office or desk to your favourite spot on the islands and work remotely from there? Some people do have that freedom and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

• Mirabel Azzopardi has been working as a tourist guide for 16 years.

“There was a time when I thought of doing some clerical work in a bank or in an office, but since I started guiding, I would definitely not swap my job for one in an office,” she says.

She is very proud of her job and considers herself “an ambassador for my country”.

“I like meeting people, sharing with them our cultures, traditions and explaining to them our 7,000 years of history,” she says enthusiastically.

Due to the nature of her job, she is exposed to the elements all year round, but this does not seem to bother her in the least.

“Every job has its advantages and disadvantages. I don’t mind wor­king in different weather conditions as long as I’m outdoors and not locked in an office, seeing the same people every single day,” she says.

Her favourite ‘workplace’ has to be Valletta. “I feel a sense of pride walking around this fortified city, especially when I’m guiding in St John’s Co-Cathedral... I can spend all day explaining there.”

However, if she had to have an open-air office, she would choose a countryside location, “ideally with sea views as I’m a nature person and quite adventurous too…

“I would set up my office next to one of the coastal towers built by the Knights of St John between Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Bay. It would be perfect to admire sunrise and sunset.”

• Simon Sciberras actually has an office but spends most of the time away from it… doing what he loves most, exploring the underwater world. Simon runs a diving school together with his brother Claude.

“Initially, I took to instructing as a summer job with my dad. After university, I spent some time working in an office, but felt that was not the life for me. Then my brother and I took over part of the family business,” he explains.

Managing the company leaves Simon drier than he would like to be as he tends to dive less these days, but he still gets to do “fantastic dives”. He says the best part about being an instructor is seeing clients’ reactions as they exit the sea.

“Most foreigners come to Malta with low expectations and usually leave saying they have to come back. We might not have the fish life of tropical islands, but we have a lot of different sites, which are some of the best in the world.”

Simon finds it difficult to pinpoint his favourite diving spot “because we have such a variety of dive sites and each one is unique.

“I also end up doing different dives, depending on the level of training of the clients; for example, with technical divers, we go to the deep wrecks like the Polynesian or the HMS Southwold and those are truly fantastic. However, sometimes you could have a great dive just outside our dive centre at Exiles.

“That is what I love about diving – no two dives are the same, and sometimes you find the most interesting things where you least expect them.”

Simon admits that a warm office may seem more appealing than a dive in winter, but the seascape can be truly stunning in the cold months.

“Till December, the waters around Malta are still quite warm and fish and underwater life abound. Between January and March, the water obviously gets colder and even fish life tends to diminish a bit; however, the winter months can offer clearer waters and since Malta has some of the best underwater visibility, the result could be truly stunning.”

If it were possible, Simon would not hesitate to set up an underwater office. “I think I would locate it just outside Santa Maria Caves in Comino. The location is swarming with saddled bream and also boasts beautiful, white sand and crystal-clear visibility… So with a nice, big, glass wall, I would be in heaven.”