journeys

The roundup

2012-01-02T17:49:00.009+10:00

Well, everyone else is doing it ... I've looked back through my 2011 blog posts, and I actually don't really know how to sum it all up. Some bad things happened. I got a torn meniscus in my knee. I did get to Bali, but was pretty sick the whole time! And - don't think I ever posted about this, but in the middle of the year my darling pussycat got run over - I was searching for her and had to pick her body up from the road. Too painful to blog about at the time, and although I'm now reconciled, I think that some of the pain from that may have spilled over into the way I was so freaked out/obsessed with my knee meniscus issue - probably explains a lot. (Never realised it at the time, but the knee thing happened only a week or two later.)

Something that I did learn from Dena this time was to 'enjoy what I've got/where I am in the practice'. I've just re-read a post from Bali about her concept of 'conscious samisthithi' before moving into each pose. To stretch the spine, then turn on uddhiyana and mula bandhas, and then move into the pose. One of the teachers at my shala reminded me to do that in my last shala practice before Christmas.

And don't let me forget that my meditation teacher Maharaji came to Australia, and I went to the 2-day event at Amaroo, and also saw him speak in an introductory event in Brisbane a couple of weeks later (having just flown back from spending 10 days helping my Mum when she got out of hospital). That was all really wonderful.

I'm hoping for a happy and healthy 2012! I will get another pussycat soon. I've reluctantly decided that while I still live in this house (which, although rural, has a road close by that cars/lorries drive fast along) I will have to prevent access to the wider outdoors. I've always kept my cats inside at night to protect the wildlife, but generally speaking I don't agree with keeping cats inside. But ... I just can't go through that again (finding her dead on the road), and have actually had part of the back deck fenced off, so I can give a pussycat limited outdoors access. I'm going to get an adult cat from the RSPCA shelter this time (although I'll definitely get an Abyssinian kitten again in the future!)

Anyway - let's just see what lessons 2012 brings to us all ... :)

Usual Christmas activities!

2011-12-27T18:46:00.000+10:00

A very traditional sort of Boxing Day at my Mum's house ... Family lying around reading books and watching the Boxing Day Test (cricket) match on TV! After a very large lunch! Cooking and eating being the other traditional activities!

Sadly Tendulkar didn't get to 100 this time, but there's still the 2nd innings to come!

Even Amber the dog was (sort of!) getting into the spirit of things!

Calendar pictures

2011-12-04T10:24:00.001+10:00

For the last few years I've been making a calendar each year for my Mum, using iPhoto - it produces such an amazingly professional calendar! Sometimes it's just family pictures for her, sometimes, if I've had a 'photographically interesting' year(!) I do one for me too. I made a 2011 calendar for me at the end of last year, with lots of photos from my 2010 overseas trip. Of course I forget what I've put on each month's page, so it's always nice to turn the page to see the new photos - and it was such a treat to turn to December the other day and come upon the page above! From the time I spent with one of my bestest friends, Wendi, in the Algarve, Portugal, where she lives. This page does sum up what a great time we had (and that's not even including our separate trip to Marrakesh!)

Class yesterday afternoon was great - although I was dismayed to hear they are closing for Christmas a week earlier than I had thought! I'll have to try and get a couple of classes in during the week as I can't go next Saturday ... Talking about yoga and calendars reminds me that a few years ago I found a wonderful calendar from an Ashtanga studio in the US. It was really nice in that the pictures weren't only of really advanced practitioners, but also some beginners. Never found another one - it would be lovely if someone did put one together ... (hint hint!!)

And I've been having such a good time at work lately, getting my head around Drupal, learning (or starting to learn!) about Panels and other Drupal-specific stuff! So nice to be able to spend some time on stuff that really interests me!!

Singing in Handel's Messiah

2011-11-27T20:00:00.005+10:00

Last night I sang in a performance of Handel's Messiah, at St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane with the Bach Choir. It was (again) such a lovely experience ... I didn't sing in it last year as I'd only just got back from overseas, and so missed most of the rehearsals. But this year, since I'd given up on my regular choir, I'd had it in my mind as my 'choir' experience for the year. And yes, sometimes it was hard to come home for an hour, and then drive back into the city to go to rehearsals. But it was so worth it!

I know pretty much all of the music now.The only chorus I still have a bit of a problem with is the final one - the Amen chorus. But I felt that I mostly had it! And it's so wonderful to come to the end of a chorus, and stop singing, then hear the sound echoing back to us from the cathedral's vaulted ceilings ... :)

Today my friend Helen came round and we practiced to the Mark Darby DVD. For various reasons, I hadn't been able to practice for 3 days, so it was really nice to get back onto the mat. I did a few poses that I'm not doing in class yet (ones that have been 'taken away' because of my meniscus injury and haven't come back yet). Some of them were quite good - others I could see I was a long way away from being able to do them again And in fact my knee felt a bit tender afterwards ... So I won't be pushing to get some of them back again yet!!

Wildlife etc.

2011-11-08T19:39:00.005+10:00

This is a possum with her baby on her back, up in the rafters of my back verandah! They're mostly nocturnal, so you can spot them during the day (if they're not inside your roofspace!!)

I've had quite a lot of wildlife encounters in the last couple of days! On Sunday, as well as seeing the possums, when I was hanging out the washing I heard some scrabbling over the fence in the neighbour's garden. And there appeared a large rabbit (or maybe a hare) woofling around. It got to about 3m from where I was when it finally saw me. Sat there with its ears pricked up looking at me for a couple of seconds, and then leapt into the air and rushed off!

And then on Monday morning as I was having breakfast and getting ready to go to work, I heard all this squeaking outside on the back verandah. When I looked, there was a red parrot on the railing, pretty much demanding to be fed! So I grabbed some (very expensive, and oh so yummy!) maple granola and put a handful out for it. It sat there less than 1m away and then hopped over and started in! It seemed to like the granola as much as me... :)

Such a surprise at yoga class on Saturday - I got given Garbha Pindasana back! Really, I haven't done that for a few months, since before I had the knee meniscus injury. I also got parivritti parsvakonasana back too, so now I've got all the standing poses again. Seated is a much more patchy experience, but I know it'll come back little by little. I hasten to add that my GP experience is nothing like that of Kevin (globie.wordpress.com) ! I can't do lotus, so the only way I can attempt GP is with crossed legs, and no arms through anywhere! But it's maybe easier to get round that way, even though it might take more than 9 rocks ... <grin>

Back on track!

2011-11-03T13:53:00.005+10:00

I'm feeling so much better now ... final course of antibiotics ends on Sunday - I don't really feel I need them but am taking them just in case! And I'm also taking Inner Health acidopholous to replace all the good bacteria killed off by said antibiotics. It really is so wonderful to be feeling healthy and with lots of energy again! You always appreciate your health so much more after a period of bad health!

And my yoga practice is all coming back too, after the extra restrictions of being ill and just unable physically to do much. I'm nearly back to my pre-Bali practice now. When I first went back to class (only last Saturday) I was put back on the restricted "post-illness or absence" practice that they make you do. But by yesterday evening I was given all my standing poses back, and just told to do the restricted practice to Navasana. Of course, even when I get all the pre-Bali practice back it will still be a practice restricted by knee meniscus issues, and I fully expect that to take up to a year to properly recover.

I just did a 35 minute lunchtime practice in the Uni pilates gym (my usual weekday practice location) and it felt really good! Still a bit wobbly in UHP (a fairly common issue for me anyway!), but I'm almost able to grab my toe in trikonasana, and my wrist in paschimottanasana. Feels very satisfying!

Some friends came over for brunch on Sunday. I'd originally invited them for lunch, but they suggested an earlier brunch. Turned out to be a really nice way to entertain friends, and still have time left after they've gone to do a few things in the garden, or wherever!!

And my only other news is I'm back singing with the Bach Choir, for their annual Handel's Messiah concert. When I gave up singing with my main choir at the beginning of the year due to lack of time (and a desire to give more of my precious time to yoga), I always said I'd try and do the 6 weeks rehearsal with the Bach choir to sing the Messiah. And I'm really enjoying it ... :)

Absence of yoga practice

2011-10-21T12:34:00.002+10:00

This post is just a whinge (Australian expression!) about how sick I've been the last few weeks, so be warned if you read further <grin>

I have been sick for weeks and weeks. In fact I started coughing badly the minute I stepped off the plane in Bali nearly 3 weeks ago. Then by the middle of the week the rest of this flu/chest infection caught up with me and I had no energy to do anything except class with Dena, and possibly a trip into Ubud to get a massage. Not interested in eating - most unusual for me! I was almost glad to be leaving at the end of the first week, as it had felt harder and harder to be involved in the class - specially with all the paroxysms of coughing ... I don't know how I got through all that pranayama!

Now it's nearly 2 weeks since I got back and only now, the 3rd type of antibiotics finally seem to be working. The cloud is lifting from around my head, and I almost feel I might have the energy to set foot on my yoga mat again - but a very short practice, and at home only!

Still feels like it'll be a while before I feel 100% again. I took some time off work last week, but didn't have much sick leave so had to come in this week. All I could do when I got home was collapse in bed with a cup of soup!

Turns out I've had some obscure flu that is very hard to get rid off. My lungs got infected, and that made the whole flu virus keep re-infecting! Lovely!

Don't think I want to write anything much about Bali at the moment - want to wait till I'm better again and can see it all through clearer eyes. It certainly was hard this time, which I had never ever expected!

Anyway - I do feel better than I felt at the beginning of this week, and people at work even say I look better so that's good! Hopefully it's all upwards and positive from here on ... :)

Steve Jobs ... thank you

2011-10-09T19:34:00.000+10:00

I was sitting in a cafe in Ubud in Bali when I heard the sad news. And yes, as Barack Obama said, I was one of so many who heard the news by reading it on a device that was inspired/created/refined by him (and his team). 'Devices' that have changed the way we communicate in so many ways - it's hard to get your head round how much.

This is a short bit from his famous speech to Stanford University graduates about 6 years ago ...

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Read the whole speech here or watch it on YouTube. And a great article here by Henry Porter (one of my favourite authors) in The Guardian.

He lived those ideals ... And we are all the richer for it.

I will miss your inspiration Steve ... go gently into that good night (sorry Dylan Thomas!)

Bali days

2011-10-05T13:53:00.002+10:00

One of the things everyone seems to do in Ubud is have massages. I didn't last time I was here but yesterday I went and had a "deep tissue" massage Is that the right term? Not sure but no doubt you get the drift! The two photos above are from Body Works, the massage place (predictive text changed that to massacre!!!) When I walked into the actual massage room the music playing was the Gayatri mantra which was nice. It wasn't nearly as painful as I had been fearing and I slept really well last night. Think I'll do it again before I leave!

After you have the massage you are taken into the garden (pictured above) to sit and drink a mug of herbal tea and have some fruit ... Really lovely - can't imagine a massage place like this anywhere but Bali!

And this picture was taken just before an afternoon workshop. The ducks seem to live in the rice paddies outside the yoga studio, and gather together in the evening to be shut into their duckhouse ... :)

Today's workshop was really good. Dena was talking about 'conscious stamistithi', and taking those principles into every pose. In a nutshell (and if I've remembered it correctly!) she says that at the beginning of every pose you should first Stretch (or lengthen), then Protect (activate uddhiyana bandha), and then move into the direction of the pose. That makes a lot of sense. Can't wait to see if I can remember/do this!

She also talked about how the practice of yoga will help people stay healthy as they (we) age. Which sounds like a wonderful idea since we can't avoid the aging bit!

Apart from the yoga, I did a bit of shopping today with my friendly driver Sujana, from last time! At a batik place I had fun buying a couple of little dresses - for Richard and Katy's daughter Margaret, and if Elizabeth has a girl this time, then one for her too! It's lovely to have young children to buy presents for!

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Back in Bali!

2011-10-02T17:56:00.002+10:00

Here I am back in Bali - that little island of paradise. I'm sitting on my balcony looking out at the rice paddies that run all the way through the hotel on a not too hot, overcast morning. Been for the first yoga practice, been for yummy brunch with everyone in the Indus restaurant across the road ...

Going to have a relaxing day today ... May go down into Ubud later, but mostly I want to just laze around, read a book, think vaguely about what I may want to do over the week.

Class was lovely. After we each introduced ourselves and said a bit about our practice, we did some breathing practice and then did a full led primary. I did all the poses in my modified practice and all seems good! Last week Richard gave me back 3 more poses and a couple of days later my knee wasn't at all happy. Which freaked me out somewhat (though I did keep Dena's wise words to me in mind!) But a couple of days rest seems to have done the trick - though I am more aware of being extra careful about alignment.

And I've met up with the other bloggers Bibi and V! Which is really nice ... :)

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Photos

2011-09-18T18:31:00.000+10:00

Sunday morning yoga on Helen's new deck - the dogs were so helpful ... :)

And Saturday morning breakfast on my front deck with its new roof (invisible in this photo!) and the table that was a birthday present!

How long has it been?

2011-09-16T12:59:00.000+10:00

Seems like an age since I last posted here! Only 2-3 weeks but they have been extremely full weeks!

Full of people staying; spending precious time with Maharaji, my teacher; more time spent down in NSW helping my mother get over her fractured femur ...

And now it's only 15 days till I fly off to Bali for a week with Dena!

I only got back from Bowral (where my Mum lives) on Wednesday, just in time to go to Maharaji's public Words of Peace event in Brisbane. Then back to work for the last 2 days of the week. I went to class (yoga) last night, and will go to the Saturday afternoon one tomorrow. Then on Sunday morning I'm going to Helen's to do yoga on her back deck. I've been meaning to take some photos of that for ages - hopefully I'll remember this time!

Decided to give my knee (and strained right hamstring!) a rest today. I went to the osteopath yesterday (Thursday) and probably shouldn't have gone to yoga that evening as she worked on the hamstring. Maybe I've undone all her work - hopefully not!! But anyway, good news on that front - she told me I don't need to come again for my knee! So my knee is being released to do the final healing on its own over the next few months!

Actually, my whole attitude to the knee issue has changed following an email from Dena. I'd sent her an email 'explaining' about my knee injury and all the poses I couldn't do. When I didn't hear anything back for a few weeks, I sent another similar email (!) She replied very sweetly saying:

Stop concentrating on what you can't do,

and enjoy what you can !!

That really cut through! I've been obsessed for weeks - no months!! Seems so silly now. In fact I can't believe I actually added a whole section on one side of this blog about what poses I could and couldn't do! That is going - going - gone !!

So, thank you Dena!!

Yoga and visitors

2011-08-29T12:41:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I was just hanging out the washing while waiting for Helen (my yoga friend) to come and do a yoga practice with me, when I caught sight of movement in a shrub next to the house. This is what/who it was!! A young-ish carpet snake, happily curled up on top of some outside lights ... I showed it to Helen - and we agreed that (speaking generally) we don't worry about snakes with patterns on them like this. It's the ones that are all one colour - brown or black specifically - that you need to be wary of!

We both practiced to the Mark Darby Ashtanga DVD ... I did some poses that I'm not supposed to be doing again yet (naughty!) Like mariA and B (but the easy version of B). And then Supta konasana ... and even shoulderstand. I was careful (very careful) about not doing anything bad to my knee, but it seemed fine! Some other poses - eg. Janu Sirsasana C and Triang Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana (which name I had to copy and paste from a website - too long to remember!!) Anyway, some poses I look at and think - it may be a whole year before my knee can cope with that again!! But still, little by little it is coming back, and I am taking the opportunity to concentrate on other areas of my practice, so it's all good. ( I suppose !!)

This weekend Maharaji is speaking at a 2-day event at Amaroo - it's 2 years since I last saw him! I am so looking forward to it. I've got people coming to stay for it too. My Mum is coming out of hospital on the Monday and I'm going down to look after her for a week. She could have come out on Friday, but I had to ask her to put it off till the Monday so I could see Maharaji ... Luckily she understands how important it is for me ... :)

And then when I get back from my Mum's it'll only be 3 weeks till I head off to Bali for Dena's workshop!

Yoga bookshelf!

2011-08-25T18:00:00.000+10:00

Grimmly did a blogpost about yoga bookshelves and invited everyone to send in photos of theirs! Sounds like fun! I've just sent him a couple to choose from, but this one is my favourite because it shows part of the shelf below, and you can get hints of other books that I have! Remains to be seen which one he'll pick though ... :)

My Restricted Practice Sequence

2011-08-11T15:49:00.001+10:00

For those yoga-tragics among us who are interested in minutiae, this is a list of the poses I'm allowed to do at this point in my recovery from a knee meniscus tear.

++++
Both Sun Salutes, although I have been instructed to use blocks in the 2nd one, getting into and out of the Virabhadrasana section.
++
Then Padangusthasana and Pada Hastasana
Trikonasana
Not ~~Parivrriti Trikonasana~~
Utthiti Parsvakonasana
but NOT the ~~Parivritti~~ one
Then Prasaritta Padottonasana (just the 1st and 4th variation)
Parsvottanasana
Utthiti Hasta Padangustasana - but only holding the wall with one hand and my knee with the other (!)
Not ~~Ardha Baddha Padma Uttanasana~~
though I can do that tree pose (again holding onto the wall)
Utkatasana
Not ~~Viradbhadasana A or B~~
++
And then to seated:
(Note: Not allowed to do any attempts at jump-backs or anything yet - so the vinyasa I am doing between poses/sides is Navasana for 4 breaths, which does keep the heart rate/heat up!)
++
Paschimottanasana
Purvottasana (although only the 'table-top' version)
Not ~~Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana~~
Not ~~Trianga Mukaikapada Paschimottanasana~~
Just been given Janu Sirsasana A again - yippee!
But not ~~Janu Sirsasana B or C~~
Not ~~Marichyasana A or B~~
Marichyasana C
And forget ~~Marichyasana D~~!
Navasana
Ignore everything else to
Baddha Konasana
Upavista Konasana
Not ~~Supta Konasana~~
Supta Padangustasana - somewhat modified. I have been told to keep my outstretched leg bent (right angles) when it's to the side
++
That's it. I usually do those seated poses twice, and then go onto Finishing, but no inversions at all at the moment, except a 'preparation for headstand - dolphin' pose.
++++

Bali - flight booked!

2011-08-08T09:45:00.006+10:00

It's been ages since I posted here (except for the burnt marmalade episode!) Quite a few things have happened in the past few weeks - some (one) of which will have to be its own post, when I feel up to talking about it.

But I really wanted to get back here, and ... late last week I got the wonderful news of confirmation of dates for my meditation teacher's events in Australia. Really looking forward to a wonderful weekend at Amaroo with him at the beginning of September!

Which also meant that I am now able to confirm my trip to Bali to Dena's workshop. Booked my flight on Saturday, and have emailed Dena with info about my knee issues ... :) Of course the flights were more expensive that I thought they'd be - but in a way that's something you have to expect! Partly because of having specific dates (which may coincide with some school holidays), partly because they never include all the extras/fees/charges in the online quoted price!! But anyway ... booked and paid for now!!

Apart from the yoga, and Dena, and the wonderful Ubud and Bali, I am really looking forward to finally meeting up with fellow ashtangi bloggers V (hiddenashtangi, which is really hidden at the moment!) and Bibi (pakistaniashtangi.wordpress.com/). You kind of feel you get to know people online, but it's great to have that face-to-face connection too ... :)

And, finally Masterchef Australia has finished (last night) so I won't be sucked into watching quite so much TV - every night!!! I have really enjoyed having a new focus on cooking over the past year or so and I'm sure that won't change. I used to cook a lot of Indian food ... now I'm drawn to more 'Asian' style food/ingredients - fish sauce, kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce), 5spice, palm sugar, etc etc. I find when I go to the library these days I'm always picking up cooking magazines (Delicious, Master Chef) as well as books. And I bought that Jamie Oliver 30-Minute Meals book and have been cooking some of those (really yummy) recipes, though not attempting to do the whole meal, or in 30 minutes. It's lucky I'm a 'vegetarian who eats fish' though!

Burnt marmalade ... !

2011-08-01T13:16:00.003+10:00

I can't believe that I spent half of Sunday making marmalade, and have ended up with a burnt-out saucepan and nothing else!

Actually, really what I can't believe is that I thought it was OK to spend all that time cutting up the specially purchased Seville oranges (with a tangelo and a lemon), going through all the laborious processes ... and then decide I could leave it boiling furiously with all the sugar in the mixture on the stove for the final 20 minutes, and wander out into the garden to do a bit of planting (green bean seedlings) and watering!

What was I thinking?!!! <eyes rolling>

Needless to say, I came back to a house full of burnt marmalade fumes and smoke! I guess I should just be grateful I didn't leave it longer and find the saucepan on fire! I ended up emptying the blackened marmalade down the bank outside ... maybe someone will want to eat it <grin> Now the pan is soaking with a mixture of bicarb and cream of tartar - apparently a magic cure for burnt saucepans. I have to boil it up tonight ... sigh!!

Yoga, my knee and other things in my life? Maybe tomorrow ... :)

Yoga class again :)

2011-07-11T10:54:00.001+10:00

Went back to class on Saturday afternoon - after 5½ weeks without yoga. It was so nice to be back ... :) Teachers didn't want to know about the Matthew Sweeney sequence - they have their own sequence (called the Laghu Krama sequence) they like their students to follow when coming back from injury, or absence from yoga practice of more than 3 or so weeks. We tweaked it a bit to take account of my knee, but really it is very similar to the Sweeney knee sequence (although shorter). So the plan is I'll follow this for the next week, and then he'll start adding poses back in, bit by bit over the next 6-8 weeks.

R kept a very close eye on my practice, and kept coming to give suggestions/advice. Although no adjustments at all, which seems pretty right!

This week I'm going to follow this sequence in my lunchtime practices (or as much as I can get through), and probably add in the couple of strengthening 'exercises' I've been doing - triceps dips and plank, plus a tiptoe one that my osteopath recommended.

There are many conflicting things going on in my life over September/October with dates still to be confirmed, so I'm still unsure whether I will get to Dena's Bali workshop at the beginning of October (much as I want to). I may not know dates for the other things for another month, but by that time I should have a better idea of how my knee is progressing, which should in turn help me to decide whether I should go (if it's still a possibility). I really want to go if I can. I know I can go next year if I don't make it this year, but I am really hoping to get to meet a couple of fellow Ashtangi bloggers who are going this year. Kind of out of my hands at the moment though ...

finally - back to yoga!

2011-07-08T13:19:00.001+10:00

My osteopath said yesterday that things were going very well, and I can now go back to yoga ... I took in my copy of Matthew Sweeney's modified knee sequence to show her. She crossed a few more poses off his list (things like virabhadrasana and baddha konasana), but it's oh so good to be able to start again.

I did a short half-hour practice at lunchtime at work today (in my boss's room as she was away!) I just wanted to feel it out - see where I might have a few wobbles. In one of the prasarita's I felt a bit of strain in the knee, so I stopped doing them. It was muscles I was feeling, so maybe they're just not used to it after 5 weeks' "holiday". I will try again in class tomorrow and see what happens. UHP she'd said I should only do with the wall - not sure why, but that's what I did anyway! Balance has never been a strong point of mine!

It will be interesting to see what my teachers say/suggest when I go back. I read a really apposite (lovely word!) post by Nobel (Yoga in the Dragon's Den) on the pain of being stuck at a certain place, which was also about having to go backwards because of injury! What I had been working so hard on has been taken away from me for the moment! But hopefully I can see it as an opportunity to work more deeply on other poses, and also on that pesky 'asana progression attachment' issue!!

Update on the knee!

2011-06-17T13:12:00.003+10:00

Well, it's about 2 weeks now since I did something (still don't know what!) that damaged my knee, giving me a small meniscus tear. This week I've found it a bit easier to walk without my knee clicking at every step. Have to make a really conscious effort to lengthen my spine - somehow the effect of this, which seems to incorporate turning on mula banda/lifting the pelvic floor, really seems to help prevent it.

I saw the osteopath again yesterday, and she is pleased with my/its progress so far! The swelling is mostly gone and the knee is quite cool, so she is believes I probably don't have a bigger tear. She said that if my knee does swell up again, that is when we'd got an MRI done, as that could indicate a worse tear than she currently thinks.

She still doesn't want me to do any yoga yet, but I'm hoping for next week (a week from today). That would obviously still be a highly modified practice, but anyway, we shall see! One lives in hope ... :)

I said that I was worrying about losing strength with being so inactive, and she showed me a highly complicated (to my small brain anyway!) isometric exercise that would work on all leg muscles. Incorporating a block between the thighs ... So I'm going to try doing that and hope that I can keep some strength that way.

And, despite all of this I feel really quite positive. I read a beautiful saying on someone's blog a few days ago (which I've already quoted on Facebook):

Buddhists say that the miracle is not walking on water, but walking here, on earth.

That really touched me (reminded me!). Life is amazing, and whatever happens I hope I can remember to enjoy the miracle of being alive, and accept whatever opportunities come. Once I get back to yoga, there will be an opportunity to work on other areas of my practice. Right now it's an opportunity to breathe and enjoy a quieter, slower pace of life.

Not good news for my knee!

2011-06-08T16:17:00.006+10:00

Well, I'd actually forgotten the name of what it was I didn't want to have happened to my knee, but my worst fears were realised when the osteopath uttered the words "meniscus tear"!! Huge sigh!

She says she thinks it's only a small tear that would hopefully heal in about 6-8 weeks. But I can't do any yoga (except possibly 'restorative' yoga) for a couple of weeks ... More sighs! She showed me how I need to try and stand/walk with slightly bent knees, and with my pelvis slightly tilted forward - but more kind of lengthened. This helps turn on pelvic floor muscles and the quadriceps - and encourages mula bandha! All to try to stop the dratted knee from clicking with every step. It's not at all easy!

And now (after I've finished getting my immunoglobulin infusion at the hospital) I have instructions to go home and make a potato peel poultice for my knee, to reduce the swelling!!! Lordie-me! Stay posted for more semi-edible remedies!!

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Knee injury freak out

2011-06-05T20:13:00.004+10:00

No idea where this has come from but ... I've got myself a potential knee injury - from where/what I have no idea! Just started noticing a 'tenderness' and then my knee started clicking when I walked! Total freak out - but on Saturday morning I did a bit of research on google (yes, I do know the dangers!) and it does sound like it's probably not too worrisome! But I'm definitely going to see my osteopath as soon as I can get in next week!

Before I looked at google (yoga + knee + clicking) yesterday morning I'd pretty much decided not to go to class in the afternoon but after that I decided I would go. Of course I told the teacher and he kept an eye on me! I did a bit of a short practice, couldn't bend my left leg too much in Janu sirsasana, couldn't do triang (etc) at all on that side. But most of my practice I could do, with care and keeping my left leg a bit bent (in the standing forward bends)!

But I'm really hanging out to see my osteopath next week - if I can get in!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bali again 2011

2011-05-31T19:08:00.001+10:00

Well I've been trying for ages to work out whether I can go to Dena Kingsberg's Bali workshop again this year at the beginning of October ... Possible timing conflicts with an Australian visit by my teacher, Maharaji. I still have no idea - the proposed September dates for that haven't even been sent in as far as I know! And no idea of which dates in September ?!?! Whatever, I absolutely must see him this year - that is my first priority!

However, I know that last year Dena's whole workshop got 'sold out' at some point so I've decided to go ahead and pay a non-refundable deposit for the Bali workshop, hoping that I'll be able to get to Bali too. I was quite scared to actually do that, but now that I have I'm really glad! I'm only going (or hoping to go!) for the first week, but it should be wonderful.

My practice is slowly getting back together after the short enforced layoff! Went to my friend Helen's on Sunday morning and we did our practice on her back deck amongst much tropical foliage! One of these days I'll remember to take a photo. Today I did a short lunchtime practice at the gym at Uni, and tomorrow it's back to class.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Full moon and stuff

2011-05-18T11:16:00.000+10:00

This morning I was driving to where I catch the inter-campus bus in to work - around 6.15am, and a big, beautifully full moon was still quite high in the sky ... Such a glorious sight - didn't have my camera with me but even if I did, I know you (well, me anyway!) just can't take a photo that recreates that sort of vista! The moon always looks so much smaller in a photo than it does with real eyes ... :)

I don't usually pay too much attention to moon days (bad girl!) but anyway, having just had a minor op to remove a mole from my arm, I've been told I can do any 'strenuous exercise' for 2 weeks?!?!!! We'll see - I'm going to leave it till my arm feels OK (at least the weekend), and then very slowly and carefully feel my way back into my practice! Hopefully I can do a heavily modified practice - leaving out anything that puts any weight or strain on my left arm ...

The cooler weather is finally arriving here. Been putting a little electric heater on first thing in the morning - and this weekend I'll get some wood into the house (using one arm?!!) and get the combustion stove going, or at least ready to go!

Spent a couple of days last week on a course - learning HTML5 and CSS3. It was great - there is so much more you/we can do nowadays. Can't wait for the opportunity to put some of it into practice ...

Holidays and 'the' wedding

2011-05-02T11:50:00.004+10:00

A pink waterlily in my pool turned pond! This is the waterlily that I got a couple of weeks before the 'great Brisbane flood', during which the garden nursery it came from went 3m under water!! I tell it I saved its life - I may have said this somewhere before on this blog, but I don't think I've uploaded a picture of the waterlily before ...

It's been a while ... had a pretty busy Easter break, with my mother visiting. Started off with a big lunch party to cook and prepare for (with her help!) and then a nice few days following spent going to galleries, the movies (Potiche), and family lunches ... Have to say I didn't manage to do much yoga, but I guess it's OK to have a few days' break occasionally. Doesn't seem to have done me any lasting damage <grin>

This is another long weekend here in Queensland - I've been having a nice lazy one, but have managed to do a few things, including assemble and coat/stain the new outdoor wooden table I got for my birthday (thanks Mum!). It looks really nice! Later this afternoon (Monday) I'm going to my friend Helen's ... 3 of us are going to do our various yoga practices (me Ashtanga, the other two following one of Helen's yoga DVDs), and then relax with a glass of wine. Sounds like a really nice way to wind up the long weekend.

And I'm not going to be precious - of course I did watch quite a lot of "the wedding" on Friday night ... Enjoyed all the 'bonhomie' (sp?!) of everyone in the streets, and all that pomp & ceremony. Brought back memories of Charles and Diana's wedding. My then partner and I were arriving back from a trip to Miami (to see Maharaji). I remember driving back from Gatwick on a bus through these incredibly empty streets - everyone was either in the centre of London, or watching it on TV. It was quite eerie ... :)

Practice Spaces

2011-04-06T12:42:00.005+10:00

It's quite surprising but somehow without me noticing it, I seem to have acquired a 5 or 6 day a week yoga practice! As opposed to a 3, occasionally 4 day practice only a few months ago. And all this under the quite difficult circumstances of my current working week - ie. being out of the house for over 11 hours a day.

Of course, this isn't 5 or 6 full practices. It's two 2-hour classes, and the rest are short half-hour lunchtime practices plus a vinyasa class I often take on Fridays (not sure if that really counts, but ...!) and frequently a Sunday morning practice with a friend ... But whatever - I am really pleased to discover this has happened without any discernible struggle or effort.

I thought about this after I read this post from kalbe on her A Breathing Practice blog. She also has to leave for work really early - too early to do a morning practice. So she rented some cheap office space in an old building near her office and turned it into her own personal practice studio ! I think she works in a small American town, as opposed to a city where this would just not be possible, but I am totally amazed at her dedication!!

Not sure that I'd be doing anything like that! I started off using empty offices at lunchtime (I've always been a mostly lunchtime practitioner). Then when I changed jobs and campuses, the best I could come up with was using my boss's office when she went to the uni gym at lunchtime. I also signed up for the gym in the hope that I might be able to use some space there to do yoga. At first it wasn't really possible (although there was the Friday lunchtime vinyasa class), but things have changed at the gym and now I can use a smaller staff gym to practice in. This means I don't have to hang around waiting to see if/when R goes to the gym, and can choose when to go etc.

Anyway, I think this has all helped my yoga practice develop ... which I'm very pleased about!

Friday morning yoga

2011-04-03T19:13:00.001+10:00

I had Friday off as a flex day ... so I was able to go to the only morning class at my shala. It felt so nice to be at a class in the morning - I almost always practice at lunchtime, or go to evening classes. It was a lovely change. Well, probably just the fact of having a day off work, and being 'on holiday' fed into the happy feelings ... Whatever - I had a lovely day!

Had a bit of a chat with R my yoga teacher and have now got another 'project' to concentrate on. I really need to build up strength in my arms and shoulders. I still can't hold chataranga dandasana, my arms just collapse at a certain point. And until I have that arm/shoulder strength, I also won't be able to hold dhanurasana, or headstand. Which I really want to do!! I have been trying to build up it up, and am going to do a few additional things at home to strengthen those recalcitrant arms! I need to develop those strong swimmers' arms/shoulders ... :)

On Saturday afternoon I went to a video afternoon at Amaroo and heard about how Maharaji is wanting to come to Amaroo again this September. And how we can make it happen. Very nice and inspiring ...

Today (Sunday) a friend Helen came round and we did a led Ashtanga practice with my new DVD of Mark Darby. It was the first time I'd practiced with this DVD - I really like it. He reminds you so much to be with the breath. Highly recommended ... :)

I've also enjoyed being able to do a few things in the garden, as the weather finally seems to be cooling into an Autumn. It felt very nice. I haven't looked at the veggie garden though - I mean, I have and it's a total mess! But I haven't tried to do anything with it ... just stuck to smaller easier tasks to start off with!!

Great Weekend!

2011-03-15T13:40:00.001+10:00

Had such a great long weekend down in Ocean Shores/Byron Bay region. My friend Vic and I walked on the beach, went swimming in the surf (all with a dog!), cooked dinner one night, and then went out to dinner with friends in Byron another night. We lazed around talking, reading the weekend newspapers, and generally having a great relaxing time.

And then on Sunday morning I got up early and drove to Byron to go to Dena's Sunday morning class. When I saw her I thanked her again for letting me come, and she said (smiling), you may regret it! The class that morning was led Primary, with full vinyasa, coming to samistithi between each of the seated poses. It was certainly full-on, and I came to really appreciate the one breath (or was it just an exhale?!) standing in samistithi before moving into sun salute and the next pose ...! As Dena was practicing along with us she wasn't giving 'individual' attention, but as well as counting she was constantly talking us through different aspects of each pose, which was great. Now if only I can remember more than a bit of that!!

Yoga Perceptions

2011-03-10T14:43:00.000+10:00

It's funny ... this week has been a really bad one for yoga practice. Since my Saturday class I haven't managed to do any of my normal lunch-time practices, as the room I've been using wasn't 'available' (ie. the owner of the room had stopped going out at lunch!) So when I went to class last night (Wednesday) it was my first practice for 4 days, and I was expecting that my stamina at least, would be affected.

Somehow in these circumstances I kind of imagine a big sign hanging over me, saying 'she has obviously not been practicing properly'!! Ridiculous I know ... and let's not even get into why I should imagine that the teacher(s) are micro-managing me to the extent that this small 'lapse' would be obvious to them! (I'm not going to deny that, rightly or wrongly I do care what my teachers think about my practice in general!!)

And then out of the blue, I was just moving into Parsvottanasana when R came up to me and said "your poses have really been improving, and and in this one you should have a wider stance to bring it up to the same level as the others ... !"

I was floored! Not that I'm repeating this coz I think my practice is great or anything - god I still don't seem to be able to bind in MariC let alone D! But it just goes to show that what goes on in my head is not necessarily the 'true' picture, or what is actually happening ... !

Today I went to the uni gym and did a standing sequence practice there (followed by a few of the seated poses I really need to work on, specially before Sunday). I went with a workfriend, and she ended up wanting to do yoga too, and follow me! So I had to talk her through it a bit which is a bit strange - takes you away from the rhythm of following the breath. But it was good to do some semblance of daily practice again, and good to find a place where I can definitely practice - as long as I don't mind practicing in a room full of machines and people using them!!

Brisbane floods retrospective

2011-03-09T11:46:00.001+10:00

For those who haven't read much about it, here is my friend Angela's account of her experience in the January Brisbane floods, published in the London Review of Books blog.

Now it's nearly a couple of months ago and it's hard to quite believe it really happened - that I was marooned, unable to drive more than about 2-300m from my house, with no electricity for 5 days! Quite surreal ... I guess if my house had been flooded badly, like many people's were, it would still be an ongoing issue and I wouldn't have any problem. Things to remember to be thankful for ... :)

Last weekend busy - next weekend Byron Bay and Dena!

2011-03-07T15:00:00.002+10:00

Ooh I'm so pleased! I'm going to Byron Bay (well, nearby Ocean Shores) for a long weekend this coming weekend, which in itself is something to be very pleased about! And then I thought - why don't I see if I can go to a Sunday morning class at Dena's shala. I didn't really think I could - she is running a (fully booked) month-long intensive there at the moment. There is no other Sunday class, so effectively I would be asking if I could crash her intensive class for one day! But I thought if I don't ask, I definitely won't be able to ... So I did, and I got an email from her today saying I could come!! YAY!!

Very busy weekend last weekend. Saturday was taken up with car issues (flat battery, ending up needing to be replaced), doing heaps of edits on a website I look after, then off to the sourdough bakery to get some bread for the freezer, getting eyes tested for a new pair of glasses (having lost my previous pair somewhere!), going to the library, and finally yoga class.

I don't know how I'm going on my attempts to speed up (or not be so slow!) my yoga practice. I think I managed 1 hour 50 minutes, but I did miss a couple of poses out, so ... I guess it'll just have to be a work in progress. When the teacher gives you attention and goes through poses, makes you do them again, it is always going to take longer, and it's not as though I'm going to say 'oh no, I need to keep the speed up so I can't try out what you're saying'!! I did discover that I appear to have always been doing something extra in supta padangustasana, which is apparently not part of the series, but kind of an extra stretch. Very strange (that I never knew this wasn't right). I must have been told to do it when I was first given it. I guess I never discovered this wasn't 'correct' as I never go that far when I'm practicing with people like Dena or Hamish ... :)

Anyway, yesterday I collapsed for a while ... did the final website edits, and then went out for dinner and the movies with a friend. Went to see The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest. Loved it - I had loved the book too of course. Ross, my friend, hadn't read any of the Stieg Larrsen Millenium series books, so I had to give him a bit of the back-story over dinner as I knew it wouldn't be explained! But he surprised himself and loved it, subtitles and all!!

Ashtanga high speed!

2011-03-01T13:19:00.001+10:00

This has been posted on lots of yoga blogs now, but for those who haven't seen it yet - enjoy a 90 minute ashtanga yoga practice compressed into 3 minutes!! And watch the animals move around - especially the savasana cat ! :)

Yoga in the heat

2011-02-27T14:19:00.001+10:00

It's been very hot here off and on over the past few days. Last weekend (ie a week ago) I feel like I may have got some sort of heat exhaustion after doing a couple of very strong ashtanga practices in less than 24 hours (Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning). I ended up feeling nauseous and exhausted all the rest of Sunday and taking the Monday off. Seemed so weird, but I do feel fine now! And yesterday's regular Saturday afternoon practice was fine - not as hot. However, I decided not to join in the Sunday morning practice with some local friends today, just to be safe! I really do not like being sick!!

Lately I've also been considering how long it takes me to get through my (not yet complete) First Series practice. Too long is the answer - at least 2 hours. And that only includes 5 mins savasana. I'm trying to rein it in, being aware of time wasted between poses, making my breathing a bit faster, etc. Focussing on the breath much more. (that connection is so nice for premies!) Also, at my class virtually no one does vinyasas between sides of seated poses, just between poses. I have been doing this since I went to Bali and London, and really don't want to stop. Apart from anything else, I'm sure it's helping me build stamina - definitely a good thing. So I'm not changing that. At least on Sunday I managed to finish and be rolling up my mat in 1 hour 55 minutes - I guess that's progress!

Apart from this, it's the usual pre-semester rush at work, with everyone realising at the last minute that they need a course Blackboard site set up, etc etc. I've arranged to go and visit a friend for a long weekend near Byron Bay in a couple of weeks' time, which should be nice. Might even get to swim in the sea!

Pussycat photos

2011-02-15T12:54:00.001+10:00

Sleepy Jedda pussycat - iPhone photo using Hipstamatic app

And same pose, using the 'regular' iPhone camera

Sweet photos, I really like the effects the Hipstamatic app gives! Still have a long way to go before I really get to grips with it though!!

hot hot hot ...

2011-02-06T14:42:00.015+10:00

It's been so hot here the past few days. Not so much temperature-wise - early to mid 30s, but extremely humid. That's OK when you're at work, or even at home in the air-conditioning, but yesterday afternoon's yoga class was something else! I said to the teacher as I came in - this is not going to be pleasant! And I was right ... ! Couldn't get the balance (?!) right between using my yogitoes towel or not. It was like my mat was getting slippery, but the yogitoes didn't have enough sweat (nice!) in it yet to give me traction. In one of the surya B downward dogs, the teacher was giving me some kind of adjustment and I ended up falling flat on my face as my feet slid out from under me!! Kind of dramatic, though didn't hurt at all!!

Anyway, I decided it was kind of like Bali heat, but without the advantages of being in Bali!!

Today I had arranged to go and do yoga with my friend Helen. I actually rang her last night when I got home to say I wasn't sure I could cope with it, but she said she'd put the aircon on, so I said I'd come. Then this morning I was really tired and wiped out, and so close to ringing again and pulling out. But I didn't, and of course I'm very glad I went!! Glad I remember that ... sometimes all you feel up to is 'showing up', and then it takes over ... :)

I also showed her the lovely photobook (see cover above) I'd made using iPhoto of photos from my overseas trip last year. I'm so proud of it, and really glad I did it. No longer will all my photos languish somewhere on my laptop, never to be seen!

Have also been having fun reading some 'iPhoneography' websites - iPhone Photography and Life in LoFi. I've never taken photos with my mobile before. Well, until I got the iPhone last year, I didn't have a mobile which had a camera - it was pretty ancient!! Looks fun - have downloaded some interesting photography apps and will see what I can do!

Apart from that, I'm having a pretty quiet weekend. Went to Bunnings (hardware store) and priced some roofing for the front deck that Ross is going to help me put on in the next couple of months. I will get onto doing some more work on the foame poetry website, which is due to go live with the 2011 issue next month. Was supposed to go to the movies this evening but I really don't think I'm going to make that this time ... maybe next weekend!

Back to yoga posting

2011-01-28T12:48:00.000+10:00

Finally got back to class last Saturday. I was actually quite tired, lacking in energy, but of course I was glad I made the effort to go. Practice was good, and near the end ... well, one of my unspoken 'wishes' is to be able to do urdva dhanurasana. Currently I do a version of setu bandhasana (bridge). I can't seem to lift myself up into the full urdva dhanurasana, although if assisted I can do it.

Anyway, on Saturday night one of the teachers asked me how long I was holding setu bandhasana. 5 breaths I said. Then she told me that Iain, the original teacher at the shala, had told her a long time ago that when students could hold it for 8 long breaths (3 times), then they'd be ready to attempt urdva dhanurasana! So ... this is another challenge that I am very willingly accepting!! (She does know how to motivate me!!)

Didn't manage to practice again until Wednesday (shock, horror!) when I went back to class. So, I was quite bendy, but of course strength wasn't exactly flowing. But hopefully as things settle down again here (work and home) after the floods, more opportunities for practice will be there again. I managed a short practice (sun salutes and seated poses) yesterday in my boss's room at lunchtime. She came back just as I'd finished which was good! I'm still doing the 'forbidden' Janu Sirsasana C and Marichyasana B poses in self-practice ... :) Hopefully I'll get MariB back 'officially' in the not so distant future.

I do have to acknowledge that the 'threading the needle' pose that I've been told to do in place of Mari B and D has actually focussed my attention on rolling my pelvis back in quite a few poses, especially forward bend ones. (Note: I find it hard to know whether the correct description is rolling it back or forward! Depends where you start from ... but what i mean is in effect, increasing the natural curve of the spine and kind of sticking my backside out!!)

Anyway, since I've been focussing on this I definitely feel like I'm doing something right. Seems like my back is straighter and longer in forward bends, hamstrings lengthening etc. So I'm pleased about that!

Flooded in ... the big adventure!

2011-01-17T09:27:00.003+10:00

View of the flooded Brisbane river, just 100m up from my house
All photos taken by my neighbour Phil Roth

I've been away having an intimate experience with the Queensland floods! Not actually flooded - my house is up on a ridge and even if the dam upstream broke I don't think the water would reach me. But from last Tuesday there was no access out of this area at all - all roads heavily flooded, all bridges under meters of water. I'd gone into work on Tuesday morning, but after a couple of hours, decided I needed to get home while I still could. It was a very hair-raising drive back through sheeting rain, with water running over the road, and rising up under bridges, but I made it!

This is about 600m back from where previous photos of the Kholo bridge on
this blog were taken! This is how far the river has risen since then!!
It was nearly 1k wide when this was taken.

The electricity went out on Tuesday afternoon. I kind of assumed that it was a 'normal' blackout and would be back on in a few hours' time ... Wrong! The next morning I discovered the phone had gone too. And, infuriating - the battery on my mobile was flat! The only contact I had with the outside world (apart from neighbours) was my iPad, which luckily was charged. So I was able to send emails to let people know I was OK, though I had to limit use of it to make the battery last. But thank god for the iPad - I'm so glad I got one, and so glad I got the slightly more expensive one with 3G capability!

Another problem for people living semi-rurally like me is that when the electricity goes down that usually means no water! All my water is tank/rainwater, and needs an electric pump to get it into the house! Plus there isn't a tap on the water tank (why, oh why?!!), so it's fairly inaccessible! Luckily on Tuesday afternoon when the electricity went, and it was raining really heavily, I managed to collect a lot of buckets of rainwater (they filled up so quickly!!). Had to resort to Indian-style bucket showers using the slightly green water from the pond (swimming pool turned into a pond a couple of years ago!) - but hey, better than nothing!

This is a few of a street (Skyline Drive) just 4 houses away. The river is normally
not visible but right next to the hills in the distance. The water you can see is the
river level spreading up the valley!

So, I did things around the house, did yoga on my back verandah, and read a lot of books. Luckily there are lots of books here - and this experience has definitely convinced me that no way am I converting 100% to eBooks!!! Did a bit of gardening - but was attacked by a lot of ants, so retreated inside again! The fridge and freezer obviously defrosted. Luckily I have quite a lot in the pantry cupboard, including milk powder (for bread-making) so food was never a problem. And at night I'd sit there reading with a book in one hand, candle in the other!!

By about Thursday I discovered my neighbour Phil (who took these photos) had a generator and he charged my iPhone and iPad for me which was great! Back in phone communication with the rest of the world! We had been so cut-off I told my mother in NSW that she knew more about what was going on that I did!!

Heaps of helicopters flying around - this was probably a medevac one, landing in a paddock just a few meters away, lots of others to check how the river flooding was going. In case I hadn't mentioned this - there is a big dam a few ks upstream of me. This was built partly to prevent Brisbane flooding again (huge floods in 1974, with wooden houses floating down the river!) and partly for Brisbane water supply. But the dam had been allowed to get too full and so they had to keep releasing water from it via the floodgates. This was why the bridges etc were flooded - but apparently at the flood peak, the dam water level was only 90 centimeters below something that would have triggered huge floods and possibly the dam wall breaking!!

Anyway, finally on Friday evening I heard that the Kholo Creek bridge on the back road was finally passable again. Note: this is not the 'Kholo Bridge' - which has featured in many recent photos on this blog, including one in this post further up. That one goes over the Brisbane river which is the main flood-affected one. On the back way out to Brisbane there is another bridge over 'Kholo Creek', which has water coming into it from the D'Aguillar range and goes into the Brisbane river. And that had been about 4m under from the amount of water coming down plus the Brisbane river flood! I don't actually think the Kholo Bridge, which is/was my normal way out, will be usable again for weeks! It's still so far under that they can't measure it!!

So the next morning I went 'out' into the western edges of Brisbane. Had a shower at my aunt's place (hoorraayy!), put some washing on there and charged my phone and iPad again. Did some supermarket shopping and managed (at the 3rd petrol station I went to) to join a queue to get some petrol. Came home, still to no electricity (but the phone had come back on Friday) but much better prepared.

And yesterday I went out to join in the clean-up. Ended up in the Brookfield Garden Centre - which had been completely submerged. You could see from the colouring/marks on the bamboo in the carpark that the water must have been at least 4m high there! And then when I got home - fantastic, the electricity was back on!! Such a relief!

Uni is closed till Thursday so I don't have to go back to work till then. I know my building didn't get flooded (luckily as it's the IT centre and we already went through a data centre fire a few months ago and all the disruption that caused!!) I know the yoga shala is opening again today, but with the roads and all, I think I'll leave it till Saturday before I go back to class. There's always my verandah here to do yoga, or inside if it gets too hot. (32degC forecast for today so I think it'll be inside possibly with the aircon on!) And maybe I can get back to the garden at cooler times of the day! We'll see - with electricity so much more seems possible 〈grin〉

I spoke too soon!

2011-01-10T14:38:00.005+10:00

Really shouldn't have said anything about the Kholo bridge being passable again! My neighbour saw my previous blog entry (linked on Facebook) and told me that 'they' were going to open the flood gates at the Wivenhoe dam that evening. And now, 3 days later, the water is 5m over the bridge!! That sort of height is almost incomprehensible! About 3 me's one on top of the other, on top of the bridge!! (Update: it's now 6.15m!!) And this morning when I drove out to go to work the back way, there was water over the only road out. I probably could have gone through, but I didn't trust that I'd be able to get home again, so ended up coming home and here I am today! I'll have to see what it's like tomorrow ... There have continued to be spells of really heavy rain every half an hour or so.

Had a nice day yesterday - despite the rain! Ross came over for lunch and we managed to put a 2nd old table into the pond in breaks in the rain, and then moved some of the pond plants around. The water lily is now in a new place, where it can hopefully spread across the surface of the pond.

Had fun cooking too - made a spinach tart, and also this amazing starter that my Mum does (from a recipe book called Easy to Entertain by Patricia Lousada) - grilled stuffed avocado. Sounds mad, but you mix some mayonnaise, curry powder, ginger, chopped up mint and some prawns, stuff the avocado halves and then put under the grill for 3-5 minutes, or until it starts to brown. It is is just delicious!!

Yoga on Saturday afternoon was really lovely. I felt focussed and strong (at least until near the end!) And then at the end the teacher came over and started talking to me. Said that my practice was really improving! I couldn't believe it! The previous class I'd felt like he was ignoring me, even disapproving of me (ever the paranoid one!!) Anyway, I know these sorts of things aren't supposed to matter, but I was really happy when he said that!

2011 stuff

2011-01-07T13:59:00.004+10:00

No more bridge pictures! The water is now under the bridge, but as far as I know the road is still too broken up around it for the bridge to be (normally) usable. I'll drive down and take a look on the weekend - this week I have just been driving straight into work via the back road.

I'm kind of contemplating whether I should get into big New Year's resolutions again this year. I know last year I said I wanted

to be able to jump back. Well, failed but I tried, and I can sort of/partly jump forward now at least, so I guess that's something! and
to be more sociable and have people over for weekend lunches. That's pretty much a complete fail! I think the only thing I can put that down to is complete laziness!!

So - I think I'll have to carry No. 2 forward again for this year, and the other? Well, I think I'll just aim to be able to bind in Marichyasana C - preferably on both sides. (I fool myself by putting the word 'reliably' in front of 'bind', but to be honest in the past couple of years it's been rare that I can bind even one side!) And of course there's a whole long yoga wish list in my head, but I think I'll just leave it at this and see what transpires in 2011!

I'm really hoping I'll be able to get to Dena's Bali workshop again this year. She's doing a two-week workshop this time but I could only go for one week. However, I'll just need to wait and see how other eventualities pan out, because if there's a conflict then this would probably lose out this time.

And gardening - I really want to do some more work in the garden this year! (We're off resolutions now, just plans!) At the moment I'm concentrating a bit on the pond (which used to be a swimming pool!). It had got really overgrown with pond weed, but now I've got rid of most of that, I am able to add some more plants again. Got a really nice water lily last weekend - 'raspberry red'! Sounds nice! It flowers from October to May, so hopefully I'll see some raspberry red water lilies on the pond this year! And this weekend a friend is coming round for lunch (see, I'm starting on the resolutions!!) and I'm hoping he'll help me put an old table together (that he found for me just before I went overseas) and put it into the pond. That's what I've been using to sit the water plant pots onto in the pool. I'm just worried that someone (me really as it's my pond!) will have to actually get into the almost black water to place the table!! Oh well ...

Back to yoga. Over the holidays I did practice quite a bit - mostly alternating standing and seated practices. Went to my first class back at the shala on Wednesday, and my lack of intensity over the holidays was really shown up! I was exhausted (and soaking) by the end! Did short lunchtime practices today and yesterday ... yesterday I only managed some sun salutes, and felt pretty grumpy <grin> But today was better - I did all my 'forbidden' poses!

Spot the bridge ?!

2010-12-30T16:06:00.001+10:00

And this is pretty much the same view as in the previous photo, but 2 days later! The whole bridge is now 3m under water!!! The main Brisbane water supply - Lake Wivenhoe, is just a few kilometers upstream, and on Tuesday night they opened the floodgates as the dam was overfull! Apparently the gates won't be closed again till Friday night, so not much hope of seeing the bridge again (let alone being able to drive over it!) until sometime late next week I reckon! Luckily the back way out is open now - though instead of a 15 minutes drive into Ipswich, it's now 35 minutes! And the way over the river is now over a weir and I noticed the water was only about 1m below that today!

It's funny - a similar situation happened just 2-3 months ago while I was overseas. Both my neighbour and my housesitters emailed me photos a bit like this, and I remember thinking - thank god I'm not there! Karma!!

I have been enjoying doing yoga with David Swenson - I have his old Primary Series DVD. It really makes me think I must practice at a much slower pace when I'm doing it completely on my own, as I'm breaking out in much more of a sweat than normal! My normal class starts up again next week.

Apart from that life is quiet. The weather is now improving, and I'm sure it's much nicer at the festival now. If only the weather situation had been reversed - nice at the beginning and awful during the end ... Oh well! I managed to spring Jedda from the pet motel (they normally won't let any animals out at all between Christmas and New Year!!) and she is very happy to be home - hardly letting me out of her sight :)

Rain Everywhere!

2010-12-28T14:01:00.002+10:00

I drove home over this bridge yesterday afternoon. The water was just under the bridge, but the actual road-base on my side had been lifted up badly already. I was only just able to get over it without damaging the car! And this is the view (from my side!) this morning!!

Has been a real drama-filled couple of days! It's funny - people think "Australian Christmas" = "barbecue on the beach in the blazing sun". Well, it hasn't been like that this year. (Not actually sure that I've ever had an Aussie Christmas like that!) It has been raining and raining for most of December. Having committed myself to volunteering at the Woodford music festival, which involves camping, I've been watching the weather with increasing dread! The last time I volunteered at Woodford - 3 years ago, it rained a lot and it was just awful! My tent leaked, mud was everywhere!! And I said I'd never go back ... :)

So on Boxing Day I flew back to Brisbane, collected my car (pre-packed for Woodford camping!) from near the airport and set off for Woodford. In the rain! Once I'd registered I set off to find where my friends had set up their campsite. The internal roads (tracks really!) were just dreadful - worse that I'd ever driven on. I had to drive through these huge pools/puddles of water that I'd never normally dream of driving through. A couple of times the car bottom was scraping along the bottom!!! I was soo freaked out!! Eventually I found it, and Helen helped me set up my tent - again in the rain!! I was wondering how I'd ever be able to drive out again (a week later when the festival finishes).

I then went to the actual Festival site and did the orientation for the Internet Cafe (where I was volunteering). Was reasonably encouraged to see that the road out appeared to be in much better condition than the road in! And then went back to the campsite, sat and drank red wine with Helen and Michelle. Then when I went to bed I discovered some of my bedding had got wet! There was a stream about 2 meters away, and I kept imagining it getting higher and higher with all the rain, and flooding the tents! So somewhere in that night I finally decided that unless I felt better I would to go home the next day! Pack up my tent and everything, get the car out of the campsite into the main carpark and then do my first shift at the Internet Cafe, before leaving. I could always drive back from home to do volunteer shifts. Then I fell asleep!!

Next morning I did all that - though of course there was a bit of reluctance to leave when I was wondering around the Festival site looking for something to have for lunch. There is something very seductive about it, even in the rain! (But that doesn't include camping in the rain at all!!)

And, thinking that the Kholo Bridge might be closed, I decided to come home the 'back way'. But I discovered there was a torrent of water over the road that even a big 4-wheel drive wasn't going to attempt, and I certainly wasn't in my little car!! So I decided to check out the Kholo Bridge before giving up and seeing if I could go and stay at my Aunt's place. And luckily it was 'open', although there were 'closed' signs up, but pulled a bit to one side. The water hadn't got over the bridge (like it is in the photo above). But the tarmac on one side was all broken up by the water that had come up there, and it was only because people had made a way through that I could get across it without damaging the car bottom! And now this morning the river has risen again, as evidenced by the photo, so no way anyone is getting over it for a few days now! So it's lucky I did a bit of shopping before I came home!! Marooned for a day or two probably, after which I'll try the back way again!!

Terracotta Warriors

2010-12-24T13:20:00.001+10:00

I quite forgot to mention yesterday ... When we went to Sydney on Wednesday we went to a quite wonderful exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, titled The First Emperor - China's Entombed Warriors. The exhibition contained various artefacts from the time the terracotta warriors were created (and buried!) plus 8 of the warriors (one of each of the 'types') and two terracotta horses.

Now of course I've heard of these amazing - don't really know what to call them! "Things" doesn't seem right - they felt so real! But anyway, I haven't been to China (yet!) so had never seen them, and had no idea of the impact they have. I think it also helps seeing them really close up. It was a really touching and mesmerizing exhibition - all those 8000 warriors buried since around 200BCE, protecting their emperor. Whose tomb they haven't got to excavate yet - so much other archeology to explore!
Exhibition link

Christmas in Bowral

2010-12-23T16:35:00.001+10:00

Lazy days down at my Mum's ... As if! Life is not like that with her, although she'd deny that! But lots of fun nonetheless!

Arrived on Sunday afternoon, and within a very short period of time we were off to the local cinema to see a preview showing of The King's Speech. With Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth (plus the lovely Helena Bonham Carter playing the Queen Mum - in earlier days). Totally wonderful film - hope it gets Oscars for its stars!

The next day it was all hands on deck to prepare for a dinner party that Mum had organised for that night! A few dramas but it all worked out and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Since then we've been up to Sydney for the night to have a pre-Christmas dinner with John, Gina and Peter in Peter's new flat. Which has absolutely no furniture in it at the moment - we even had to bring the chairs to sit on! But it was a fun night.

I've managed to find space to do yoga a couple of times too. Did standing one day and today I've done the seated poses (well, most of them!) Now I have to get back to cooking dinner ...:)

The Magic Carpet from Marrakech!

2010-12-17T11:26:00.002+10:00

Here's my magical Moroccan carpet in its new home! Although I have to admit that sometimes it doesn't look as tidy as this - Miss Jedda Pussycat seems to think it's her plaything to take running jumps at (or from) and slide around the floor on it ... in fact that it's her very own Magic Carpet!! ... :)

this and that

2010-12-10T15:06:00.000+10:00

I'm a bad blogger ... haven't blogged for ages - can it be 2 weeks?! And I'm afraid it's not that my life has been so full of exciting things I haven't had time to blog! Just the more 'normal' day-to-day stuff, the lead-up to Christmas etc etc.

Just one more week at work and then I stop till the new year. I'm going down to Mum's in NSW on the Sunday (19th). She has lined up some 'entertaining' - giving a dinner party the day after I arrive, and a few other things, including going for an early Christmas dinner in Sydney with the rest of the family - only one nephew left in Sydney now, since Jo and Emma moved to London a month or two ago! But we're all going to be having it at Peter's new flat (or apartment!) which he has just bought, which should be good! His first adventure in the wild world of property-owning!!

Yoga has been good ... until this week! Since I've been back I've been able to practice a lot more during the week (lunchtimes) than before - due entirely to being able to use my boss's office at lunchtime when she goes to the gym, or out to lunch, and her doing this more frequently! But this week I was sick at home on the only day her room was available, and I only managed a few sun salutes. So the only yoga I've managed to do this week is one regular class on Wednesday evening, and then a vinyasa class at the Uni gym at lunchtime today. Does that count? I don't think it does really, but when all else fails, it's better than nothing!

At least there's my normal Saturday afternoon class to look forward to - but this is the last one for the year. I'm hoping that my boss will get to the gym more days next week!!

When I go to Woodford (folk/music festival running from 27th December to 1st January) I'll be taking a yoga mat. They have quite a few different yoga classes,though no Ashtanga ones sadly! They used to say it was because it was considered too hot for an outside camping festival, but I noticed in the programme there was mention of a couple of Bikram classes, so I guess they've changed their minds on that!

life returns to 'normal'!

2010-11-25T11:14:00.005+10:00

Well, after my first week back at work (which seemed to never end!), I am settling back into 'normal' life. But I do still feel that lift that several weeks of wonderful new experiences/catching up with old (and new!) friends and family/being out of the daily routine, brings.

I have finally unpacked everything (this was brought on because this coming Saturday people are coming to stay in the bed that was covered with half-unpacked things!). Jedda pussycat is very happy with the new Moroccan rug, which she is taking as a place for her to sharpen her claws on (?!!!) and as a sliding game that she can take running jumps at! Sigh!

Can't say I've got back into cooking much yet. But next Tuesday Angela is coming for dinner and I'm going to cook a yummy Pasta and Aubergine (and cream) dish that Judy made one night in London. It's a Nigel Slater recipe from his 'Real Cooking' cookbook. This was one of the books that I got in London and posted home - everything I posted has arrived now.

And yoga ... I've got to class every Wednesday and Saturday since I've been back. And I've managed to practice quite a lot during the week (at lunchtimes at work). So I'm pretty pleased with that. However, last Saturday my practice was pulled back by R, or his assistant (who I think he uses to 'do his dirty work', or say things that the student won't like!) I was reading a blog yesterday - I think it might have been in Mel's blog, where she said something about how you have to go with how the current teacher teaches, whether it's at home or in a workshop or wherever ... And I do understand this, but it's still hard sometimes!

I've been stopped doing Marichyasana B and D, and have to replace them with that 'threading the needle' pose. Huge sigh!! I'm not even clear why, but a Mysore class isn't really the place for extended questioning that could lead to arguments (and tears!) if I wasn't careful! If I think about it (as I have A LOT!!) I'd guess the main reason/benefit of that pose is to open my hips. Which can't be bad, I know! There's lots of work to do there. But, but, but still ... !

In the end I have made a compromise with myself. I will do as I'm instructed in class (as of course I know I must, otherwise why go to class!) but when I practice at home/work I'm still going to do Mari B. I think I'll leave Mari D for a while until I can bind Mari C on a regular basis (as opposed to intermittently/occasionally!), at least on one side. It's that twisting around that I also need to work on, and if I can't bind in Mari C, there's no hope in Mari D! But this way I won't lose Mari B again, as I did before after I stopped doing it a few years ago when I was ill.

I'm also back to doing a modified chatarunga (well, my chatarunga was pretty much non-existent!) in an attempt to build up the strength necessary to do it properly. I'm OK about this - well, of course I'd like not to need to, but the fact is I do if I want to do chatarunga properly in the future!

Despite what I said at the start of this post, this has made for a challenging few days until I came to an accommodation with myself over it!

Back home in Kholo!

2010-11-13T23:21:00.004+10:00

Well, safely back in Kholo at last. After a somewhat long trip home - two long overnight flights (London to Bangkok, and Bangkok to Brisbane) with an 18 hours stopover in Bangkok in between! Of course I can't sleep on planes unless I have a few seats to stretch out on. On each flight I was assured I would have empty seats next to me, and each time people came to sit in them! After this happened on the second flight, I then decided to 'bags' a nearby centre row of seats, but just when I was feeling safe there, a man was ushered into one of the seats as there had been a problem with his original seat! I just wasn't going to win! I gave up at that point, and spread myself across two seats instead!! I was so tired by only one hour's sleep the previous night, followed by a day wandering around in Bangkok that I did manage get 2-3 hours sleep then ...

Bangkok was of course amazing! I ended up getting a 'tour' with a guide and driver for the morning, to go to some temples (and of course the inevitable shopping stops!) I was glad I had - the maps I had of Bangkok were very misleading as far as distances went! Things that looked very close were in fact a long distance apart!

The above photo is of the face of the amazing reclining Buddha statue, which is something like 70m long. From memory the head is way taller than me! Hordes of people there walking around it, taking photos etc. But even with all that, it was really beautiful.

After I managed to escape from the shops I'd been taken to(!), and said farewell to my guide and driver, I went to the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was an American who ended up in Bangkok after the war (WW2) and fell in love with it. He moved 3 old Thai wooden houses (made of teak) into Bangkok to be his home, and was very involved in getting Thai silk woven and marketed again. After he disappeared in the late 60s on a trip, his descendents gave the house to the Thai government, and it's become a museum/tourist place. Really interesting place to walk around and see/hear about all the lovely things inside it.

Got home yesterday, to a less than rapturous welcome from young Jedda pussycat, who'd been kept inside all morning to be there when I arrived home! But she did snuggle up in bed last night ... :)

Today I drifted around desultorily doing a few things, then in the afternoon went off to yoga! It was nice not to stop at navasana any more (after over 6 weeks!) But my balance in UHP (which went completely the whole time I was practicing in London at AYL) is still very dodgy! Hopefully it will get better over the next couple of weeks!! Tomorrow Helen is coming round in the morning to do some yoga, and of course be bored by looking at photos and my famous new rug! She did ask, honest!!

Mari D thoughts, etc

2010-11-09T06:19:00.000+10:00

Today was my 2nd-last time at AYL - for 2-3 years anyway. Flying out on Wednesday ... So, I'd been thinking about Mari D and how to approach it on my own, as I know my teacher in Brisbane will not be pulling me into that - either at all, or at best, not on any kind of regular basis! I'd decided to ask Hamish for his advice on what to do. I kind of imagined he'd be giving me lots of specific technical advice on how to get my arm far enough forward to wrap around, etc etc ...

But all he said to me was - it's all in the breath. Get your breathing right - equal inhale and exhale, and get the ujiyi breathing sound right, and everything comes. I actually think Dena may have said something similar.

Of course this appears all far too simplistic for my mind, which would far rather have some complicated instructions to "work on"! But I'm going to give it a try and see where it leads! I have so enjoyed practicing at AYL with Hamish. It's really been one of the (many!) best things about this trip.

Today I met another friend, Maggie. We went for lunch to Diwani's - somewhere we all used to go to a lot back in the 80s. Kind of a trip down memory lane! After some yummy South Indian food, we went to the Gaugin exhibition at the Tate Modern. That was a really lovely exhibition - I even bought the poster from the show. Hopefully I will get it together to frame it when I get home!

The wonderful Jardin Majorelle

2010-11-06T07:20:00.001+10:00

We went to this completely wonderful garden in Marrakech - the Jardin Majorelle. When I looked at a postcard of it before we went there, I thought it must be coloured - it just looked too unreal to be true. But, it really is like that!

Just incredibly beautiful! Most recently owned by Yves Saint Laurent, who set up a trust so it could be looked after in perpetuity. But originally created by a Jacques Majorelle in 1919.

Full of amazing colours everywhere, like these tiled steps:

Few photos from Marrakech

2010-11-05T03:03:00.001+10:00

Our (very cheap) hotel in Marrakech

Looking into a house from a souk lane

Wendi with the chicken man (musician?!) in the square one evening!

In Portugal and Marrakech

2010-11-05T02:58:00.002+10:00

I'm back in London after 8 days in Portugal and Marrakech, and I hardly know where to start recounting (some of) the adventures we've had! Expect a few posts on the subject! Staying with Wendi in the Algarve where she lives is always such a pleasure. One of my very bestest friends!

Funnily enough, from being someone who 'couldn't see the point of yoga!', she now does Iyengar yoga, and took me along to a class the day after I arrived! Lots of use of blocks, straps and chairs, but it was interesting to see a different take on many of the same poses I do in Ashtanga ... However, I certainly won't be rushing to another of those classes!

Then the next day we drove to Seville to catch the flight to Marrakech - just an hour's flight. What an amazingly wild place that is! The main square (Djemma el Fna) is pretty much as I remember it from many years ago, but with the addition of countless motorbikes driving just everywhere! Down the little lanes of the souks, through the thousands of people milling around on the square, and day and night! I never did get the knack of just ignoring them and believing they wouldn't drive into me!

We ate in the square, managing to avoid the sheep's heads at a nearby stall (!), as well as on rooftop terraces with a birds eye view of veiled women sorting through piles of knickers to buy in the street below! And such wonderful French croissants and pastries every breakfast!

We went to the most beautiful garden, about which there will be a separate post. We shopped and bargained (though not very well, probably!) And I came back to London with a beautiful carpet that I had bought! I am quite sure I am going to be overweight on the flight back home!

Yoga and some socializing!

2010-10-27T03:04:00.005+10:00

Better late than never! Had a great weekend about 10 days ago (pre-Cardiff and Dublin)! On Saturday I met an old work friend Rachel, and we did our customary walk down Portobello Road, which was great. Bought some more old side-plates, which I can't seem to get in Australia any more, without paying huge prices. These were around the 1-2 pound mark, and will be put through the dishwasher!

Then on Sunday was the promised yoga meet-up! Because half the tube was out of action, it was easier for Kevin to get to Euston than Bethnal Green, so we went to AYL (my home away from home!) After practice we went to a nearby Pret for breakfast. Another yogi called Helen also came. It was lovely to sit and chat about yoga and Bali, etc etc. Hopefully I can do this again in the not so distant future!

After that I did have to go to Bethnal Green, to visit my friend (another Wendy! I have 3 Wendy friends!) This Wendy is totally into jewelry-making - she had made me a lovely silver necklace, and we spent the whole afternoon making earrings to match! What I mean is, she had me making them under her instructions! It was such fun ... Will meet her again for lunch before I go back, and am taking my Bali bangle along for her to cast a professional eye over!

Photos from Cardiff and Dublin

2010-10-25T22:06:00.003+10:00

The beautiful new Cardiff Opera House (from the docks at the back)

Trinity College in Dublin, where the Book of Kells is displayed

Walking towards the famous Halfpenny Bridge over the equally famous Liffey River in the centre of Dublin

Long liost sisters and cousins in Dublin

Travels to Cardiff and Dublin

2010-10-24T03:25:00.006+10:00

Have been doing so much these past few days I haven't had time to write here at all! I've been in Dublin since Thursday (flying back to London on Sunday afternoon). I spent 2 days in Cardiff before that with Charles and Doris - very nice!

I'm going to write a separate post later about some of the earlier stuff (including Sunday yoga last week). But for now I'll just talk about Cardiff and Dublin. Had a lovely couple of days in Cardiff with Charles and Doris. Spent a lot of time going through Doris' quilting books! As well as admiring an incredibly beautiful quilt she'd made for the bed I was sleeping in (in her workroom) - of deep reds and oranges. I can't believe I didn't take a photo of it now! We also managed to fit in the obligatory visit to Charles' allotment (where we picked the last of the raspberries!), and then went on a drive to the Cardiff docks area which has seen a huge amount of redevelopment over the past few years. Saw the new Opera House, which is really lovely. (Photo will appear later!) Also the Norwegian church and a monument to the Scott Antarctic expedition. I hadn't realised that they had set off from Cardiff. Somehow I always think of Antarctic expeditions as starting from New Zealand, or Tasmania!!

Came back on Wednesday afternoon, and just had time to wash and dry some clothes and pack, before going out for dinner with Anthea, which was lovely too! And before I knew it I was on the bus to Stansted airport at 7.30 the next morning, on my way to Dublin for the grand sisters' get-together! I'd arranged to meet Carla (Irish sister) at Trinity College, as she had a lecture there. So that accomplished, we had lunch and then went in to see the Book of Kells exhibition. That was wonderful. Lots of information about it and the times beforehand, and then we went into a darkened room where we could see 2 openings of the Book of Kells (they have split it into 2), and also 2 other similar illustrated manuscript books. It was very peaceful and beautiful.

Yesterday Carla took me to this wonderful exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland. It was of 'prehistory' and included some amazing things, like an enormously long boat, probably the length of a redwood tree! And of course, some strangely moving exhibitions of bog people - bodies that had been found in bogs from many hundreds/thousands of years ago, amazingly well preserved. On some you can see the hands and fingers so clearly as if it was just yesterday. I really loved this exhibition. Not even mentioning the incredible section of gold torcs and other types of jewellery they used to wear way back when!!

After that we met up with some of the other sisters/cousins who had arrived for this big 'sisterly' get-together, and went off to the Art Gallery to a Metsu exhibition, also very lovely.

Today we have been to the Temple Bar Farmers Market, which I love, and then to yet another art exhibition, by Lavery. It was quite political - he was painting portraits of people involved in both sides of the Irish troubles at the beginning of the 20th Century. Very interesting, when I recognised the names!

We've also been doing a lot of great eating! Had a great family meal here at Carla's last night, cooked by her of course. Today we found ourselves in a great Mexican/Spanish tapas place for lunch, and in an hour or so will be going out for dinner somewhere else! I wonder if I will even be able to do Marichyasana A (ed: let alone B, C or D!) on Monday when I finally get back to yoga! I have definitely been having withdrawal symptoms - have been staying in places with absolutely no room to put down a yoga mat, so I didn't even bring it! However, when I go to Portugal next week I will definitely make sure I bring my mat with me, and make a space somehow ... :)

Plans are made to be broken!

2010-10-16T02:11:00.001+10:00

Well, I had this great idea that I was going to go to yoga 3-4 mornings this week, particularly as I will only be able to go 1 or 2 days a week after this week. But life, in the form of a nasty cold/cough, intervened! I actually made it to Euston station on Wednesday morning before accepting that a) I didn't feel well enough, and b) I should not be going to that small hot space and spreading my germs to everyone there! So I turned around and went back home, where I stayed for the rest of the day.

Felt a lot better yesterday, but knew I still wasn't up to it, particularly as I had to go to Brighton to meet up with a couple of old theatre friends. So that's what I did. Met Fizz in St Pancras station and travelled down together. We had such a lovely time - eating, drinking and talking, talking, talking! Hopefully it won't be quite so long before we can do it all again!

And today I finally made it back to AYL ... Still feeling a bit out of it but determined to make the effort. Of course it was worth it and I was really glad I did. Once again Hamish got me into Mari D on one side, once again stunning me!

Off to the ballet in a few minutes with Judy and Charles!

London Tourist!

2010-10-13T19:14:00.001+10:00

This is where I was yesterday afternoon. Bit of an adventure actually. I got to St Pauls tube station and when I went to buy some water, discovered I didn't have my purse - only my Oyster card (London travel card) which I'd been keeping separately! Either I'd left it at home (possible as it had been in a different bag when I went to yoga), or it had been stolen!

At first I thought I'd just have to go back home - no money meant I couldn't get into the Gaugin exhibition at the Tate Modern, which was where I'd been heading. But then I thought this is stupid. I'm here now and there's bound to be lots of free stuff. So I carried on, and so it was! Picture below is of this amazing installation by a Chinese artist - millions upon millions of tiny ceramic pumpkin seeds! I was looking from above and all the people in there just looked amazing! (And my purse WAS at home, thank goodness!)

Marichyasana D!?!

2010-10-12T20:45:00.000+10:00

I have always thought that Mari D was most likely a "not in this lifetime" type pose for me. It just seemed so ridiculously far away as a possibility. But today in Hamish's Shala, he got me into it on one side!!! I just couldn't believe it! (Mind you, he did say the right side was not possible yet without incurring a hospital visit!!!)

When I said something like this on my way out, he smiled and said 'nothing is impossible - it's all in the breathing!' I really do like practicing at Ashtanga Yoga London with Hamish. He is such a nice, humble person, but with an amazing capacity to see what people can do, and help them!

I'm going to practice there most mornings this week. After that, it will be just one or two mornings a week as I'll be away traveling quite a lot.

In London now!

2010-10-12T02:02:00.001+10:00

Well, here I am in London now! Luckily it's not as cold as I feared (yet!), but I still went out and bought a thicker jumper/cardigan today (from H&M), and eyed up some wonderful things in Zara! Must tell Emma about that shop for when she and Jo arrive!

I arrived at about 7am yesterday (Sunday), and managed to stay up a all day till about 7.30, at which point I collapsed and slept for 12 hours! Feeling great so far today ... Yesterday Judy's two children, their respective partners and babies came over for tea. It was a nice English autumn afternoon, complete with home-made scones and Cornish clotted cream - yum!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Hamish Hendry's Shala (pre-arranged by email with him!). I had intended to do a practice here today, but my room isn't big enough, and I just didn't get around to it. Hopefully I won't be too stiff!

More photos - from the gorgeous yoga space

2010-10-12T01:41:00.000+10:00

Here are a few more Bali photos - mostly relating to yoga.

Going into the yoga space:

Waiting for class to start:

Me in the yoga space with rice paddies view behind me:

And the view from where we had breakfast ...

And the view from where we had breakfast:

Last (morning) class

2010-10-08T16:46:00.000+10:00

We had the last morning class today. There is a session this afternoon, but it'll be short - we're heading out to a last night dinner at 6pm.

The class was different. Dena and Jack both practiced with us just up to navasana, before finishing poses. The idea was for us all to be together. So if someone finished a pose early, they waited for everyone to come to stamistithi before moving on. As Dena said, we'd been following her breath all through the week (in pranayama, etc), so she wanted us all to be breathing and practicing together. With no attachments to what we thought we would like to be doing. It was lovely. We did a full vinyasa practice, which was something I'd not done before. Tiring, but rewarding!

Then because some people had to leave before this afternoon's final class, we did the sharing our experiences thing, which was veery touching.

Justw having a final coffee in the wonderful Tutmak cafe before going back to get ready for the final final class! Tomorrow it's off to London, for the next adventure! But I definitely want to come back to the next workshop Dena does here! We'll see how that goes!

Yoga and lazy day

2010-10-06T16:17:00.002+10:00

Sitting in a cafe in a little street off Monkey Forest Road ... Having lunch and checking email, etc. I was tired this morning - possibly because I went out for dinner last night to a wonderful Japanese place, and drank beer! Not sure that's very conducive to getting up early to do a strong yoga practice!! Lucky I don't have any pressing shopping or anything to do! So I lay around reading the rest of the morning after breakfast, and just ventured out for lunch, very decadent!

I am stopping/stopped at navasana ... But there's so much in every pose of the practice as Dena says, so I am content. We are doing all of standing sequence led, which means at a cracking pace! In fact, because I normally take quite a while to set up in the UBH (standing balance?) I haven't got balanced by the time it's on to the next side/pose ! Oh well ... Today Jack (Dena's husband who assists), got me into the first side of Janu C. I don't know when that last happened - if ever! I can manage the second side, but never the first by myself.

In yesterday's afternoon session we went through the 2nd sun salute in minuscule detail. Also long discussions/try-outs of different styles of down-dog, and the reasons for each. I am learning a lot! Looking forward to whatever this afternoon's class brings ...

Photos at last

2010-10-05T14:30:00.001+10:00

Just a few at the moment ... Views of the hotel

The outside bathroom wall ... (I don't have an outside bathroom any more!)

And statue (not sure of who, not Ganesh) at entrance to yoga room ...

More (many many more!) will follow later ...

First Bali yoga practices

2010-10-04T17:07:00.001+10:00

,So, the yoga! The reason I am here in Bali ... ! Already it is very special. Dena is somehow not how I expected at all. (Why did I think she was tiny?!) In one way she's a normal Aussie girl (OK, woman!) But there's a real strength and control in there, and I know she is going to teach me so much, bring my yoga practice to a new level.

On the first afternoon we spent a lot of time with the breath (how nice!). Then we very slowly went through Surya Namaskar A, breath by breath, breaking each bit down. Ditto with Surya Namaskar B. Then just finished with a few gentle backbends. After that we sat in a circle (all 30 of us) and talked a little bit about ourselves, our practice, whatever. I guess the class is more Aussies than anything else, but there were Swedish people, Americans, Japanese, and a couple from Brazil!

Then this morning we went through the standing sequence led, before Dena 'let us go' to finish the rest on our own. Halfway through the sun salutes she stopped everyone to pull us up on the 'Upward facing dog' section. Reminding us all that this is the first backbend in the series, and that we should be aiming to bend the thoracic section of our back, not the neck or lower back (from whence comes back and neck pain!) It was really interesting - about how we had to first stretch our back by pulling from both ends, the toes and the head, so there is space to bend! I could go on about stuff she said, but I won't ... But I really tried to do this through the practice.

Bali workshop day 2

2010-10-04T16:58:00.001+10:00

Best laid plans and all that ...wrote this yesterday and had planned to go to a fast Internet place in Ubud today so I could upload photos etc. But when I got down there, the electricity was off! However, I had discovered that there is limited wireless access here at the hotel, so have come back to pLay with that! Photos will probably have to wait another day ... This below is what I wrote yesterday to post.

I'm going to write a separate post about the yoga so far (incredible), but wanted to write about today's 'trip to the countryside' with Sujana first. Such a sweet and unassuming man - I'm so unaccustomed to that! So, we set off on this drive up into the mountains. First stopping to see some amazing rice terraces - mind you, rice is grown everywhere here, including all through the grounds of this hotel - as photos will reveal soon!

Then on to a place that grows all sorts of spices and coffees. Coffee, cocoa, vanilla, ginger, ginseng, cloves, cinnamon - you name it! The owner (another sweet guy with an adoring little 2-year old daughter clinging to him!) reminded me that Indonesia used to be known as the Spice Islands. They served us up a variety of teas and coffees - including wonderful cocoa and incredible 'ginseng coffee'. That was the best! I had to buy some - I think it's just powdered ginseng mixed with coffee, but Yum!

Then we carried on driving up the mountain, through beautiful Balinese countryside, orange groves and up to the top wih a spectacular view of two live volcanoes! Nothing happening there I hasten to add, but evidence of the lava flow from an eruption about 70 years ago. Had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the view - vey nice! Came home after that to have a restful rest of the afternoon. I have arranged with Sujana to go to some Balinese dancing on Thursday evening. Maybe Maxine and/or someone else will want to come too.

I would never have done something like this - go off for a drive to the countryside by myself with a taxi-driver I hardly know - in somewhere like India! It is a completely different world here!

Friday in Bali

2010-10-02T12:21:00.003+10:00

There is something to be said for writing with a pen. I wrote a whole note on the iPad to copy and paste into this blog when I got to a wifi cafe. Well, either you can't or I haven't mastered that yet! (Note: I appear to have somehow got the copied text in but mAybe a bit out of order. For info - that was written yesterday. The yoga workshop starts this afternoon. I'll get better at this soon!!)

Of course I am loving Bali. Who wouldn't?! The people are so nice and the countryside is so so pretty! Yesterday (Friday)Oi had a lovely day. Had intended to go down into Ubud to try a wifi cafe, and maybe go to the Monkey Forest. Then the taxi driver suggested a few other things and I thought - why not be different! So he took me for a drive through the lovely Balinese countryside, first to a silversmith place (where I ended up buying a nice silver bracelet, of course!) and then to this batik place, where they have demos of the batik process and ikat weaving. Plus a very large and wonderful shop! I emerged from that some time later with my travel money card somewhat lighter, having bought some very nice clothes, a sarong and a few presents for people.

After that he took me to the Bali Bird Park, where I saw some amazing birds, although a few not looking so happy, including a cassawary. But there were huge caged rainforest areas that you could walk through with the birds flying freely in there. Including birds of paradise. That was lovely.

Came home exhausted after that ... I really enjoyed driving through the pretty pretty Balinese countryside! Such a sight for sore eyes (if my eyes were sore, which they're not!) I think I'm going to go for another drive with him up into the mountains and more rice terraces on one of the days when there's only yoga in the morning ... Not the sort of thing I normally do, but it is so lovely, (and the people are really gentle and nice, and trustworthy!)

Now I'm back home, and in a little while I'm going to do some yoga. Managed a bit yesterday, but I didn't even get through the standing sequence. Hopefully better today. The workshop starts tomorrow afternoon and it'll be full-on from then! had been

Notes from the Plane

2010-09-30T12:29:00.001+10:00

Below are some notes I wrote on the plane to Bangkok. Happily in Ubud now but having a few problems using my iPad wireless in the internet cafe - so am reduced to using the awful PC and evenworse keyboard!! Hopefully I will get this sorted/find a better place soon!

***
Panic over the Virgin \airlines system meltdown meant I ended up getting another ticket on Qantas to fly to Sydney and connect with my flight to Bankok. I just couldn't risk missing the connection onto the Thai flight! It all worked out and now I'm sitting on the plane, tapping away on my iPad! Housesitters are firmly ensconced and no doubt glad to see me go!

Even though I've gone through Immigration (and had my toothpaste confiscated and thrown away?!), and I'm sitting on a Big Plane heading way north of Australia, it stil seems somewhat unreal. Maybe when I get out of the plane in Bangkok airport it'll seem more real. Certainly when I finally finish with airports and am out into the steamy Balinese head I believe I'll know I'm somewhere quite else!!

Amazing sunset arount the edge of the sky ... probably over Bali but we're flying to Bangkok. Sleeping there, then flying back down to Bali.

Later:
Watched the Ashtanga NY video on the iPad. Now as the plane flies through the dark getting closer to Bangkok I'm having a lovely time listening to devotional/inspirtional music. This is my Inspirational playlist:

Every Day of my Life - Aaron Neville
One Love/People get Ready - Bob Marley
Hallelujah Chorus - Handel's Messiah
Oasis and
Downpour - both by One Foundation
Loving you Tonight - Squeeze (4 Weddings & a Funeral soundtrack)
Into the Mystic - Van Morrison
Love is all Around - Wet Wet Wet (another from 4 Weddings ... )
Can't Help falling in Love - Elvis Presley
As we Are - Cara Tower
Hare Krishna - Krishna Das with some throat singers (amazing sound!)
Om Jai Jagdish Hari - this is (or contains) a wonderful instrumental version of Arti

Got the last 2 off iTunes - happy to share further info to anyone who's interested!
***

I'd forgotten how awful internet cafe computers/keyboards can be!! Hope I can sort the iPad connection out very soon so I don't have to do this again! Plus I want to upload photos ... :) But - Bali is wonderful (of course!) More very soon ...

Final countdown!

2010-09-22T15:36:00.003+10:00

This time next week I'll be in Bali ... hopefully on my way to Ubud. In one way it seems quite unreal, but as I'm counting down the things I have to do/get/sort out, it is definitely becoming more real! I decided I needed to call a halt on buying new things (shoes, daypack etc) as it was getting too expensive, and if I need new things I'd much rather get them in some exotic/new place! So I'm taking an extremely old pair of shoes with me (I do have one new pair, plus some sandals!). And I'm not buying any more yoga clothes (I did have to buy some, as those I had were all falling to pieces!), and I'll take the old daypack I used 5 years ago! I think I'll try and clean it up though!

But my list of things to do is actually shrinking, finally! I'm also trying not to rush around doing too much these last few days. I work a long day as it is, and have been feeling quite tired in the evenings. Don't want to spend half the time I'm in Bali collapsed in a heap!

This is the place in Ubud where I'm staying, and where the yoga workshop is being held - Ananda Cottages . Looks so pretty - out in the rice paddies ...

Last week a friend of mine texted me to see if I wanted to go to a preview screening of 'Eat Pray Love' with him. It felt quite amazing to text back that I'd actually be in Ubud (the 'Love' part) at the time of the screening!!

The housesitters are coming on Sunday after lunch. I'm hoping to meet some friends for a late breakfast in Ipswich on the Sunday morning. Then on Monday morning it's off to the hospital very early (7am) for a final infusion of gammaglobulin to boost my immune system for while I'm away. Packing in the afternoon, and being picked up to go to the airport at 7.30am on Tuesday morning!

Woohoo!!! :)

Sleepy pussycat

2010-09-09T19:54:00.002+10:00

This is partly an experiment for uploading photos into blogposts on my iPad, and partly just coz I can't resist sharing this. Mind you, I won't know if it's worked till I try to upload this! Anyway, here goes ...

Yeah - it worked! Meet young Jedda pussycat relaxing after a hard day chasing lizards, and snoozing!

Getting very close ...

2010-09-07T14:33:00.001+10:00

... to when I fly off to Bali. In fact, in 3 weeks from now I'll be sitting on the plane waiting to take off for Bangkok! I'm kind of starting to panic now, thinking of all the things I need to do and how I'm going to fit them all in! I guess it'll all happen, and anything that doesn't, won't matter, but I'm still a bit stressed. Lists are getting longer (when they should be getting shorter!) and weekends are certainly not restful relaxing times anymore!

Having said that, I did actually have a fairly relaxing weekend just past! A friend from Byron came to stay while the Brisbane Writers' Festival was on. He's written a book about Christopher Isherwood and his spirituality, and was talking about it on Sunday. I went to his session which was lovely, and we also went out for dinner one night, and to see a movie. It was really nice to catch up with him again ...

The previous weekend was a mad rush - going down to Sydney on the Friday to do my tax, then catching the train to Bowral to visit Mum. We had a good day and a bit together, but then I had to leave at 8am on Sunday morning to catch the train back to the airport to get home to Brisbane. Mum is progressing in leaps and bounds - she is now actually driving again! There's not much I can think of that can keep her down for long!!

I'm managing to get to yoga quite a bit - in fact quite a bit of each weekend till I go is taken up with it. Can't relax the effort now just before the workshop - even if I wanted to which I don't. Just have to fit other preparations around it.

I'm sure there's more I could/should be posting about but I'm busy at work (oddly enough!) ... If I don't post again before I leave, then I will most certainly be posting from Bali, hopefully with lots of photos too!!

Update from the past few weeks

2010-08-16T13:24:00.001+10:00

Well, where have I been?!! Mostly too busy to post! I spent a week down in NSW helping my Mum who'd broken her arm falling over a few weeks earlier. I was there to help out for her first week home from hospital. With a broken arm she can't drive, and there's so many simple things that we take for granted that are either impossible, or hard, or you have to find new ways of doing! Luckily she was able to get community services help of one hour a day during the week. She gets the house cleaned, gets taken shopping, help with hanging out the washing, etc etc. Luckily she has a big network of friends who are constantly dropping in with food or for a chat, to take her or the dog out for a walk, etc etc.

Only managed a couple of yoga practices in that week, but since I got back things have been going well. I can actually see the results of putting in extra time/effort, which is pretty pleasing! I'm still mostly looking at consolidating my practice before I go to Bali. I know that I am unlikely to be able to practice some of the poses that I do at the Brisbane shala, as they have a different view on skipping poses to what I imagine Dena Kingsberg has! But that's OK - I'm happy to learn and improve wherever. (Although I do plan to keep doing certain poses in Bali in the privacy of my room, just so I don't completely lose them!!)

And I've booked my ticket to Portugal (going to stay with my friend Wendi), and most excitingly, she has booked tickets for us to go to Marrakesh (Morocco) for 3 days! Flying from Seville ... Oh it's going to be so great! That's kind of at the end of my time in the UK, so I've now got a great 10 days in Bali at the beginning, a great 3 weeks (only 3 weeks?, help!!) in London and the UK visiting family and friends, and then 8 days in Portugal and Marrakesh towards the end!

Happy sighs ... :)

snakes and health!

2010-07-21T19:56:00.002+10:00

Saw my doctor at the hospital today before I had the monthly immunoglobulin infusion (IV-IG). He said everything was fine (which is what I feel!) Don't know what my blood counts were - they hadn't come through by the time I left.

As I've said before, I feel really healthy and strong at the moment. I'm feeling my strength is increasing, generally and particularly in yoga. I have to enjoy it while it lasts ... Not being negative, but mostly I think most people aren't aware how important good health is until you get ill for more than a few days. It just colours your entire day if you're feeling even a bit off every day. So it's just GREAT to be feeling healthy and strong!!

I ended up coming home and not going to work after the hospital - everything got so delayed I would have only been going to work for an hour! I was just sitting having a cup of tea in the late afternoon as it was getting dark when I glanced out the window to admire the new verandah balcony that was put in last week (still unpainted). I realised I was staring at an odd shape twined around the railing. It was this really BIG snake - python really! I've never seen one as big as that here. Here is a (not very good) photo!

It would have to have been nearly 2m long!! Pity it was too dark to take a really nice photo (my camera was set on auto, and kept using a flash! Couldn't remember how to turn it off!) Anyway, last seen disappearing down the railings and over the edge of the decking to the ground below (this verandah is one level up from the ground).

Having a real yoga weekend this weekend. As well as my normal yoga class on Saturday afternoon, my friend Helen and I are going to do yoga together on Sunday morning! We haven't decided whose place yet ... :) And after that I think I'm heading up to some other friends (who live up a very rough track up a mountain!) to show off the new iPad and give her a go at my Airport Express (Apple product for wireless). They have a satellite internet connection that doesn't use a modem but a special phone, so I'm just not clear if they have the right type of connection on the phone to plug the Airport Express into (a usb connection). We shall see ...

Twitter and Masterchef

2010-07-06T21:16:00.004+10:00

There's this hugely popular reality cooking show called Masterchef on in Australia at the moment. It's on 6 nights a week, with people cooking off against each other and against celebrity chefs. I have been totally sucked in this season ... All part of my renewed interest in cooking! And now I've discovered another level to it - watching it and twittering about it at the same time! It's got a huge following here. 100+ tweets in 3-4 minutes! Mostly commenting on the dish being cooked, certain contestants that people like (or don't like), the hosts and celebrity chefs! It is pretty amusing as long as you don't get too caught up in the Twitter stream, and forget to watch the cooking!

Apart from that I do believe I'm finally getting rid of the current coughing episode ... Thank goodness! I'm certainly feeling so much better, and without any assistance from antibiotics! I've been noticing I'm feeling physically stronger too. Hopefully this will roll over into my yoga practice.

Went to Sydney last weekend for my brother-in-law's birthday celebrations. A very nice evening, although the Chatswood house was utterly freezing!

Travels to (and from) Sydney - and beyond!

2010-06-30T13:41:00.004+10:00

Heading down to Sydney again this weekend - just for one night. My brother-in-law John is having a big birthday on Saturday night. It'll be a lovely evening I'm sure - being held at his mother's place which is the same place as where Jo and Emma got married.

Apart from going back down to Sydney for tax purposes in August, I am now also having to fly out to Bali (via Thailand) from Sydney. The airline has changed its schedule since I booked, and if I wanted to fly out of Brisbane I'd have to leave a day later (which = one day less in Bali!) I seem to be doing a lot of backtracking in the first part of my trip!. I fly south to Sydney so I can fly north to Thailand, from where I will fly south again to Bali!! At least this time the flight leaves in the afternoon (as opposed to the middle of the night) and Thai Airways will put me up in a hotel in Bangkok before the flight to Bali. So that's probably a better deal, all in all!

And I'm interviewing the last (hopefully!) couple of potential housesitters in a few days' time, after which I hope to be able to make a firm decision, and tick it off on my list of things to do!

This evening I'm off to the (new normal) Wednesday yoga class, which is good. I haven't done much since last Saturday so I really need it!

Met some old workmates for coffee yesterday ... from the group that were 'restructured' last year (god it seems like much longer than that!) We had a good time being rude about the old place etc. We're all heading off overseas in the next few months. Beth is going to another 'old' co-worker's wedding in Canada next month. Emma is off on a 5 week trip round the States in August ... And then she comes back, and I go!!

And finally, back onto cooking ... on Sunday I made a spinach tart/quiche (again using the rich French pastry recipe taught to me by my Mum) and a tuna pie - both to eat during the week and/or go in the freezer. it's wonderful that you can freeze quiches. One day I'll get it together to take photos like Susan does on her Open Mouth Insert Fork blog. I do enjoy being able to cook on the weekends - there is very little time during the week for culinary exploits!

Posting from the iPad ...

2010-06-27T14:29:00.000+10:00

I got an iPad ... My rationale was that it'll be easier (lighter) to carry overseas than my laptop. And if I don't like it I can always sell it afterwards. I'm still getting used to it. I haven't (yet) had an iPhone so I'm not used to this style of typing! Or apps etc. But a workmate who also got one ( sooner than me) assures me that you very quickly get used to typing on it. It must be easier than on an iPhone as the screen space is significantly bigger!

Yoga yesterday afternoon ... Am still trying hard to bind in marychiasana C. Richard has got me putting in 5 breaths in plank in vinyasas (not every one!) to help build up strength. I'd really like to be able to do urdva dhanurasana (wheel?) but have never had the strength to push myself up. Yet!!

Healthwise things aren't too bad! I'm coughing again now I'm off antibiotics but, fingers crossed I haven't been feeling sick or anything. See the coughing doctor in a week and will see what he thinks.

Celebrations

2010-06-16T13:36:00.001+10:00

Been a busy few days ... Had the big birthday long weekend for Mum down in Sydney and Bowral, which went very well. Lunch in a Sydney club, drinks with various different friends, then a big family lunch on Sunday at a very nice restaurant in Berrima. It was a very nice few days, and no one got too tired or anything!

I did give in and go back onto antibiotics on Thursday evening ... I don't like doing it, and I do know the danger of over-using them, but in the end I didn't feel I could get through the weekend without them! Thanks to them I am now of course feeling fine (just a little bit of a cough) and intend to make the most of the few days more I am on them before the downhill slide starts again! I did manage to make another appointment to see the chest physician in 3 weeks (not the 3 months I had to wait last time!) and I will stamp my foot and just demand that he find something to do! Even if it's another antibiotic that I can take for a long(er) time ...

And hooray - I'm going to yoga class this evening! Last Wednesday I was feeling too rotten to go, and of course I was away in NSW on the Saturday.

health and yoga (what else!)

2010-06-02T16:13:00.001+10:00

Well, I've been feeling a bit off since last Friday. Mostly it's to do with the coughing (bronchiectasis). It was so bad on Saturday that I didn't end up going to yoga - had to give myself permission not to beat myself up about that! But I have been feeling gradually better since then (though still not 100%), and so will go to yoga this evening. I did a few stretches/hip-openers at lunchtime today, as it's been a few days since I did any yoga (last Friday to be precise!)

To be honest, I've had to push myself a bit today to commit to going, but I have reminded myself that I do want to strengthen/move my yoga practice along in the months leading up to Bali. And one of the ways I am/was intending to do this was by trying to go to class twice a week. As I'm not singing in the choir for the next few months, I have Wednesday evenings free and that's good as it's really the only evening during the week that I can go timing-wise.

Apart from that I'm gradually ticking things off on the list of things to do before the big trip. I've organised to stay in Bali at the same place as the workshop for the 3 nights I'll be there before it starts. I had thought I'd go and stay somewhere else cheaper and then move in when the workshop starts. But really, I haven't been to Bali or Ubud before, so I don't know it at all. And it will probably be 5pm or later by the time I arrive there, so I've taken the easy (but more expensive!) option. And I've also put an ad for housesitters into a web-based housesitting place, and a couple are coming this Sunday to meet me (and hopefully Jedda!) and see if we all like each other. I've 'short-listed' another couple of applicants as well, and hopefully this can be firmed up soon.

I've also decided I'm going to post recipes etc. here sometimes. I made a really lovely cauliflower soup on the weekend (Jane Grigson recipe from someone else) and I will post that later on (I'm at work now).

And here's cute but somewhat disturbing cat photo from Flickr ... I cannot feel that this ended well for the wee mouse!

much better now!

2010-05-16T14:56:00.002+10:00

It took me till the middle of the week till I felt fully 'over' the previous few days, but now I'm feeling great again and have a much happier frame of mind!

Had a lovely practice at the shala yesterday. I was still a bit under-strength (having only managed 2.5 practices during the week <grin>) but it felt good. And I managed to bind in marichyasana B again (first time since I lost it after the whole lymphoma episode 3 years ago!) On one side only, but still great!

Today I've been doing things around the house/garden, including some cooking. Pretty pleased with myself as I made a good pastry case (for an onion tart). I never used to be able to make pastry - when I was living with Angela I always used to say - oh Angela is the pastry-maker. But that was a long time ago (10 years - can hardly believe it!) and I finally bestirred myself to learn from my Mum, who has always been the best pastry-maker I know!

I have lately become much more interested in cooking. Not that I wasn't interested before - I like food, so it follows! But for years I'd been in a real rut, just cooking the same few dishes. A year or two ago I started to get sick of it all, really wanted to cook/eat different types of food. Somehow it felt time to try different / new recipes - and by new, I don't just mean new to me. I mean recipes developed recently by new young chefs! (And no, I'm not talking Heston Blomenthal, or those mad chefs creating dishes in a test-tube!)

I did try buying a new cookery book or two, but somehow they didn't spark any great interest. Then in the past few months I've gotten sucked into a couple of cooking shows on TV - currently Master Chef. I remember when it was on last year for the first time, I never bothered. But because of rave reviews from people I respected, I started watching. And they have really caught my attention/inspired me!

Now of course, my Mum's onion tart is not a new recipe! It's one of the things she cooks that I have loved for many years!! But I've never even tried to make it before! And only started making pastry this year. Now I've got quite a few cookery books on my wish list at the Book Depository (that wonderful place to order books online that doesn't charge any postage)! Just have to be careful what I'm spending money on, when I'll be going on a long overseas trip in just 5 months!!

And haven't even mentioned the Choir concert next weekend. Carmina Burana - I really love that music! I've sung it twice before, so I know it reasonably well. Just as well because I seem to have missed a lot of rehearsals this year. I think this will be the last QUMS (Queensland Uni Music Society) choir concert I'll be able to sing in this year. I'll be away (Bali and Europe - hooray!) for the 2nd Semester concert. I will try and see if I can sing in the Messiah concert at the end of November, but I'll have missed more than half the rehearsals, so it'll be up to the conductor to say yay or nay!

Here's a YouTube video (5 mins) of Carmina Burana 'highlights'! Have a listen - it's wonderful!!

health, not yoga

2010-05-07T18:18:00.005+10:00

That's what this (long) post is about :)

I've had such a 'torrid' few days not sure if that's quite the correct word but it sort of sounds good! So, can't remember if I've posted about this here before, but after I'd had the chemo 3 years ago (for the lymphoma) they wanted to collect stem cells from me so in the (hopefully very unlikely) event that it came back, I could have them transplanted back into me. But I guess my bone marrow had been damaged too much and try as they did, they just weren't able to.

So, flash forward a couple of years and there's this new drug around in trials that is supposed to 'mobilise' stem cells (see, they are created/live in your bone marrow, and all your blood cells are created there and and then migrate into your bloodstream - amazing!) And this drug is supposed to be really good at bringing the stem cells out into the bloodstream so they can be 'collected', in association with the other drug they normally use (and which didn't work or work sufficiently for me). It got passed by the US FDA and also had to go through trials here in Australia. My doctor managed to get me into the trial as a 'poor mobiliser' (!) and get the drug before it too came off trial and was approved here.

So, on Thursday of last week I had to start 5 days of self-injecting the original drug (Neupagen), then roll up to the hospital on the Monday night for the night so the trial drug could be injected into me, ready for the stem cell collection on Tuesday. If all went well, it would only take one day, but if they didn't collect enough stem cells that day I'd have to come back the next day for a second round.

What could go wrong? What didn't go wrong!!! Let's start with side effects. I think I'm a magnet for side effects! The Neupagen gave me nausea and exhaustion and back ache/bone pain. I didn't mind the bone pain - that was the stem cells forcing their way out of my hip bones, so I could forgive them that!

Of course, that weekend was the big choir camp weekend - rehearsals all day Saturday and Sunday. I managed to make it for the mornings but had to go home and collapse each afternoon. Then on the Monday night when I turned up at the hospital they couldn't find the trial drug! The nurses tried to contact my doctor but his phone was turned off! I knew where it would be - in his offices on the ground floor to which only he had the key! So, this drug had to be injected 12 hours before they start the collection (a 4 hour process). And I was spending the night in the hospital knowing that nothing could happen the next day (Tuesday). Eventually went to work on the Tuesday morning, and the side effects of 6 days of the Neupagen drug were such that I only managed to stay for a few hours before going home (the opposite direction to the hospital). There I fed the cat, collected another day's clothes, and went back to the hospital again to this time successfully have the injection.

So on Wednesday they did the first stem cell collection. It's very weird. Your blood is taken out of a vein in one arm, fed into this enormous machine with a centrifuge in it that separates the different components of your blood. And they attempt to collect only the stem cells. Then your blood is fed back into a vein in your other arm. Your whole blood supply is cycled through this machine about 3-4 times apparently. And, for this 4 hour process, you have to sit on a bed and absolutely cannot move the arm that is feeding the blood into the machine. Even leaning forward, bends the arm. I can tell you it is very difficult to sit still, only moving one arm, (and not drinking anything for obvious reasons!)

So, finally got to the end. The stem cells were couriered over to the big Brisbane hospital that stores them for people (for years), and they checked to see if enough stem cells had been collected. No, they'd got about half the amount needed! By the time I hear this it's about 4pm, and I'm told I'll have to sleep at the hospital again that night (and have a second trial drug injection). I freaked out! I'd somehow thought I could sleep at home and come back in the following morning, forgetting about the need for the injection 12 hours before. Had to drive home again, get more clothes and feed the poor bewildered little pussycat again, before driving back to hospital. (Did I say it is about an hour's drive from the hospital to my place?!)

Anyway, 2nd stem cell collection on Thursday. This was the last attempt - I think I'd only been allowed two vials (worth $8,000 each off trial, no charge on the trial!) I wasn't sure whether we'd get enough the second time. There were apparently less floating around in my blood. But still, we'd all done our best. If it didn't work, at least I'd done everything I could to get these elusive stem cells put away for a rainy day. (Or so I told myself!)

Got home yesterday evening not knowing the answer (it takes a few hours for the results to come through). But when I rang the hospital this morning it was SUCCESS!! Apparently they'd collected more the second time. And I was soo relieved! At least all the stress and illness of the past few days had been for something!!

I hadn't even mentioned the fact that I'd also had a perfect storm situation of an increasingly complicated conference website I was supposed to be doing at work, combined with a deadline told to me at the last minute of smack bang in the middle of stem cell collection! Luckily I was able to hand that over to someone else to finish off - but until I did that it did nothing for my stress levels!

And now I'm at home recovering. It's amazingly stressful being in hospital. I'm not doing anything - not going to yoga on Saturday. My platelets are very very low and I can't afford to do anything that might bruise me. But I will get some yoga (at a slower pace) in on Sunday morning when my friend Helen comes over ...

And a big Gold Star to anyone who gets to the end of this very long post !!! Looking forward to happier, more normal days and posts coming up!

Bali heat and Swedish cool

2010-04-12T13:10:00.002+10:00

It was incredibly hot at yoga on Saturday afternoon - even though it's now well into Autumn, it felt like it was hotter than the heights of Summer! Richard was helping me into Marichyasana C (nearly got it back now after 3 years of that pose lost in the wilderness!) Anyway, I told him I was going to Dena's workshop in Bali in October and he grinned and said - well, this is the temperature it'll be there! I, of course smiled like I already knew that (not!) But it's good to know now, so I'm mentally prepared ... :)

Went and saw the (subtitled) Swedish film of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' - first book of Stieg Larsson's wonderful Millenium series. It was such a wonderful film - really brought the book even more to life. And it was really true to the book too ... Lovely to see that icy brooding Swedish landscape. And the 2 actors who played Lisbeth and Blomquist were just wonderful. They've merged with whatever pictures I had in my head (from the books) of those characters now. Can't wait to see the other two films - they've all been made ... Highly recommended!

I'm still struggling with the cough from hell! I was on antibiotics, came off them on Sunday or Monday, but by last Wednesday evening I had a temperature and it was back onto them. I actually saw my 'coughing' doctor (!) on Wednesday afternoon (an appointment I'd made months ago which fell due at a fortuitous moment!) and he again said that the IV-IG infusions was the best/most effect/only(?!) treatment. Basically he repeated that if I get a bad cough or cold or similar, it is very likely to get to my chest and start a whole coughing cycle that can go on for 2-4 months (huge sigh!) This is what happened at the end of February ... I'm feeling pretty good again now, with another 5 days of antibiotics ahead of me. But - last time I only lasted about 3 days off antibiotics! Oh well - I know I had this a year ago and it did go away - just have to hang onto that thought!

Loong weekend ...

2010-04-04T19:45:00.002+10:00

Enjoying the long Easter break ... Today I went to my friend Helen's place and we did yoga on the verandah of their lovely old Queenslander home. Actually I nearly didn't go - I felt pretty tired this morning (after a very strong yoga practice at the shala yesterday afternoon!) but I knew that I'd feel differently if I went, and so it was ... ! There was a really lovely climber flowering beside me - flowers a beautiful dusty pink. Apparently it's an allamanda called something like Gypsy Rose - I'm only familiar with the 'common' yellow one. Must look out for it - I'd really like it in my garden. I can just see the spot, by the front door.

One of the things I've been doing this weekend is looking at the mess I've let my garden get into, and making a start on clearing away some of the weeds etc! The weather is finally a bit more 'clement' - ie. temperature down to an acceptable level for working in the garden. I have some plans to make a few changes, get someone in to cut down some very rampant growth, etc etc. Autumn/winter is a nice time for playing in the garden!

I've also been cruising the internet getting ideas for places to stay in Bali. The week of the workshop I'm booked into the place where the workshop is, but I'm arriving in Bali 2-3 days before it starts, and don't want to pay those sorts of prices when I don't have to. I'm just gathering some ideas/names at the moment. My whole flight is actually booked (and paid for!) which seems pretty surreal! I'm not leaving till the end of September for goodness sake! This is all way earlier/more organised than I usually am ... :) Still puts a smile on my face though!

Also went out with a friend on Friday to see the 3D Alice in Wonderland - Johnny Depp! I love those Tim Burton movies.

Holiday anticipation :)

2010-03-20T21:28:00.010+10:00

Well, even though I'm still fighting off an awful cough, I've felt incredibly galvanised these past few days! The thought of a week-long ashtanga workshop has really got me thinking about what I need to do to improve my practice before October. Apart from anything else, I'm definitely going to start doing a version of pigeon-pose (hip-opener) a lot! (ed: had to change this - I had mistakenly written 'kapotasana' which is a pose from the intermediate Ashtanga series that I seriously doubt I'll ever encounter in this lifetime!!) My left hip has got quite stiff these past few weeks/months and I need to put some extra work in there. (Made a start on this in class today!) I also need to 'retrieve' Marichyasana B ... I haven't been able to do it for a couple of years, since I had that big break from practice when I was sick/in hospital. That's one reason I need to get my left hip sorted out!

And then there's my new year's resolution of jump-backs. I'd stopped working on that when I damaged my shoulder (probably attempting jump-backs) ... Need to get back into that too.

Today I went into a travel agent to find out about prices etc. Amazingly, the flights between Bali and Singapore are all booked up already for that date in October - so I'm going to go via Bangkok instead. And of course I've laid my hands on a Lonely Planet guide to Bali!

And finally the weather is calming down here - I may even be able to get out into the garden and repair the damage done by neglect (!) Due, I hasten to add to a cocktail of incredibly hot weather, alternating with extremely heavy storms, combined with me being too unwell (cold/bronchitis) to face doing anything on the rare day when conditions permitted ... excuses, excuses, I know!!

Just booked Dena's workshop in Bali!

2010-03-11T18:10:00.005+10:00

I'm so excited - and a little bit scared! I've just booked to do Dena's Ashtanga workshop in Bali at the beginning of October ... wowwww!! It's for a week starting the 2nd October, in Ubud.

Ooh, it's all starting to feel real - the big 2010 overseas trip! After Bali I'm flying to London where I'll base myself with my sister who lives there. As well as spending time with Judy, I have lots of friends and family around the UK and Ireland to visit. And I'll also be spending 7-10 days with my friend Wendi in southern Portugal (though we may go to Morocco too!) I'll be away around 6 weeks ... (hooray for long service leave I say!) I had originally planned to go to London first (in September) and then do the Bali workshop on my way home. But I discovered that my plans didn't coincide with Judy's plans - she and her husband will be away on holiday for most of September! So I just swapped the times around - learning to be flexible ‹grin›

And ... a bit scared? Well, I guess it's just who knows what will happen between now and then ... :) I remember the last time I booked a big yoga workshop in advance, I came back from India (to go to it in Sydney) with giardia and there was no way I could go! And having been sick, I know nothing is for sure! But still - I feel like I'm investing in the future!

February news (sort of!)

2010-02-13T20:14:00.001+10:00

Seems like a long time since I wrote anything here. I came back from the wedding, and straight into a real firestorm at work. The normal pre-first semester start hecticness, added to the extra intensity of a big software upgrade, followed by difficult to solve database problems ... All of this got us very behind in the work that needs doing before the start of Semester 1. Ended up having to work overtime today (Saturday) to try and catch up. At least it was 'official', so we are getting paid overtime.

I've also managed to damage some muscle deep behind my shoulders (cannot remember its name my osteopath told me!) a few days ago. And how did I do this? By practicing/trying to do jump-backs! (One of my new year's resolutions!) Sadly I've been forbidden to do any yoga (or go to the gym) until after I've seen the osteopath again next Wednesday. She did give me some exercises to do to try and strengthen those muscles, which I am obediently doing!

And for my upcoming overseas trip (in around September/October), I'm just waiting/hoping for an ashtanga workshop to appear in Bali or Thailand that I can go to on my way back from Europe, before going ahead and firming up dates and booking flights. Although, knowing my past experience of trying to organise everything, I should probably not hold my breath waiting for everything to line up!

The Wedding (part 2)

2010-01-23T19:57:00.005+10:00

Where has the week gone I wonder?! I've been incredibly busy at work and I guess I've just been coming home and collapsing, with no thought of blogging or anything!!

So, I promised myself (and any readers who might be interested, though I know it's not really that exciting reading about a wedding of two people you don't know!) that I'd write about the wedding, just to keep the memories in my head, or on paper/somewhere! Just to get everyone straight with who's who: Jo and Emma were the ones getting married. Jo is my nephew - one of two children my sister Vivien had, before she died of cancer back in the late 80s, when the boys were around 6 and 4. John is their father. He re-married several years later to Gina who had two sons herself, slightly older than my 2 nephews. And her mother is a 3rd grandmother to them! So it's all a nice extended family - normal these days!

The ceremony was actually held in the beautiful house of Jo's other grandmother (John's mother) in the late afternoon. This picture shows John in the room before most people started arriving. Emma walked down the aisle to a Scottish piper playing Scotland the Brave on the bagpipes (just outside on the verandah)!! It was quite thrilling actually (this is my Scottish roots coming out!) although amusing because Emma's parents are Latvian - no Scottish there! It's all coming from the other side of the family! My mother is/was Scottish, and my sister Vivien was born in Scotland.

- John adjusting Bim's bowtie (one of his stepsons)

- The bride and groom

After the ceremony we all mingled on the verandah and in the garden, drinking delicious French champagne ... Then Peter, my other nephew/Jo's brother, gave the best man's speech. I found it highly amusing that he had his notes for his speech on his iPhone and was reading them from there!!

After many many wedding photos we all moved off to Catalina, a restaurant on the harbour at Rose Bay. The whole restaurant had been taken over for the reception. This photo (below) is a bit misty but I think it's really lovely - Jo and Emma entering the restaurant through a shower of rose petals!

We ate a delicious meal (I had a wonderful fish dish followed by creme brulee - my absolute favourite dessert!) and ate wedding cake, had more speeches and danced to a great jazz band. It was a really lovely evening - beautiful day in total. And Vivien was remembered and talked about by her children, John and us all, and we all knew how proud she would have been of her boys!

The Wedding (part 1)!

2010-01-17T21:35:00.001+10:00

Can't remember if I mentioned the big family wedding that was happening in early January. My nephew Jo and Emma's wedding happened in Sydney on Friday before last - I went down for a long weekend for it and it was a really beautiful wedding on a lovely summer Sydney day. But I've been so busy at work last week I haven't had time to blog. Although I did find time to upload photos to Facebook and Flickr in the evenings. And then I've spent most of today making this iPhoto slideshow of photos from the wedding (mine and a couple of other people's) - and then uploading it to YouTube! First time I've done that ... Mostly as a present for Jo and Emma, although no doubt a lot of friends and family will be interested to see it too.

Now it's late and I have to go to bed ... but I will blog more about the wedding (before I forget things!) in the next few days ... :)

Looking forward and looking back

2010-01-01T12:40:00.006+10:00

It's a new year ... a time for new beginnings, new focus, starting afresh ...

I don't really know if it's because of getting older (oh, surely not?!!) or because of having had a potentially life-threatening illness (non-Hodgkins Lymphoma), going through chemo and the recovery from that, the knowledge that remission isn't a 'cure' per se, and that I may well have to go through some sort of treatment again sometime in the future ... But whatever the reason, I do seem to engage more with the 'new beginnings' feel of each new year. I think about setting goals (new years resolutions) for the year, and look back on the previous year and what happened, how it went.

I had a look back through my January 2009 blogs to see what I'd aimed for. Before I go there, I should 'reprise' some of the things that were affecting me, health and otherwise last year.

Last January I was only a year and a bit out of chemo/recovery. I was also suffering from lots of bronchial infections/coughing fits and had only just started having the monthly IV-IG infusions the previous month. It took till May before the infusions had me turning the corner and feeling well again without the help of antibiotics.

The other big thing that happened to me last year was the whole 'restructure' thing we went through at work - starting from around September 2008 and culiminating in March 2009. It was incredibly stressful for all of us - fighting for our jobs as we were. Ultimately we knew it was a losing battle, but we really didn't want to roll over and let them 'do the dirty' on us without a fight. So we fought them every step of the way, with very few wins. But we stood up for ourselves. In the end I took another job at the University in a different department (the IT dept) on the main St Lucia campus. And I have to say it was a wonderful decision, and the outcome has been really good for me. I've been lifted out of my comfort zone (a very deep rut!) and stretched in many ways.

The only downside has been more travelling and a longer day. And less opportunities for lunchtime yoga.

So, what I was wanting to do with 2009 was see Maharaji (and I did, at Amaroo!) and try and put more into my yoga practice. I think I have been reasonably successful with the yoga aspiration too, considering all the health and travel constrictions 2009 had put on me - although it has been hard to find the time during the week.

And what about 2010? What aspirations and hopes do I have for this brand new year ... Good health of course, I always aspire and hope for that these days!

I do really hope (and intend to do what I can) to see Maharaji again this year too. Once a year isn't much but living in Australia it's usually the best one can hope for.

And in yoga - well, I've kind of been inspired by this YouTube video on jumpbacks and jump-throughs. I have never been able to jump back at all, but looking at that video, I think maybe I might be able to if I keep practising! So, this is what I am aiming for! To be able to jump back (and make a start on the jump-throughs!) And I really want to do this by September when I'm planning to go on a big overseas trip! So, we shall see what transpires.

(following para added a couple of days later as I forgot it when I was writing originally!)
The other thing I really want to do this year is make more of an effort to socialise, to invite people over for Sunday lunches! I need to be pushed/push myself to do this because I'm a bit shy / lazy !! But I was a bit too reclusive last year - or didn't make much of an effort! I mostly just went out to the movies with a friend, and saw friends at Book Club. I need to do better this year - for my own sake!!

I wish for good health and happiness for everyone, especially family and friends. And a friend on Facebook who I've known since the 70s posted this today and I'm going to copy it here - it really took me back to those sweet and heady days! I wish it for everyone ... :)

May the long time sun shine upon you, all love surround you

And the pure light within you, guide your way on ...

(Incredible String Band - 'A Very Cellular Song')

(I do of course sing it to myself rather than 'read' it!!)

Middle-of-the-night blues

2009-12-22T11:55:00.005+10:00

I think it shows what a wiped-out state I've arrived at over the past couple of weeks, that last night I woke up at 3.30am totally depressed and in a state, convinced I had far too many things to do/organise before Christmas, and too little time! And I lay awake for at least half an hour with all this stuff going round and round (and round!) in my head, unable to get back to sleep. All the time a part of me knew that I most likely would not be feeling like this in the morning, but that made no difference to my feverish, worried brain!

Why do I do this to myself? Of course I can organise what I need to do in the next couple of days - I'm well on the way to that already (nearly lunchtime on Tuesday!) I can understand this sort of thing happening when big/bad things are happening in my life, but ... really, Christmas preparations?!!! All I can do is put it down to being tired and run out of energy at the end of the year. Thank goodness where I work give us the time between Christmas and New Year off for 'free'. So when I stop at lunchtime tomorrow, I'm not back at work till the 4th January ... should be able to 'recharge the batteries' in that time!

I've also arranged to spend a few days in late January with a friend who lives near Byron Bay - and very near the beach! So that should be really lovely! Hmm, I wonder if I can drop in at Dena's shala while I'm down there. Now that'd be wonderful - must investigate!

Time of year busy-ness!

2009-12-14T11:30:00.004+10:00

Well, after last weekend I almost need a day off to recover! I think it must be a combination of the lead-up to the 'holiday season', plus I realise I haven't had much time off at all this past year. And it just seems like there's always heaps of things to do, Christmas parties to go to at this time of the year!

On Saturday I found myself getting up early to do shopping, go to the library, etc. Then driving half an hour west to go to our Book Club Christmas meeting/lunch. Which was really nice - we'd had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the first book of the wonderful Millennium trilogy, sadly published posthumously, by Stieg Larsson. I've got the 2nd book as an audiobook (thank you audible.co.uk!) and if I don't get the 3rd one for Christmas I'm going straight out to buy it!! Highly recommended - everyone loved it! (And I caught a bit of the ABC's 'First Tuesday Night Bookclub' program last night on TV. Everyone was recommending books for holiday reading and I noticed these books came up on quite a few lists!)

But anyway, then I had to drive over an hour and a quarter in the opposite direction to get to my yoga class. And it was really humid - and I've never sweated so much in a class!! Followed by my (normal) 45 minutes drive back home again. And I'm still trying to track down this wonderful instrumental version of arti that they were playing in class a couple of weeks back! Richard can't quite get the info right for me to find it on iTunes ... (Premie readers will know what I'm talking about!!)

Yesterday - Sunday - I was supposed to go to another Christmas party - and I really would have loved to but ... I was completely knackered and just couldn't! I did however manage to make it to my friend Helen's art exhibition opening at the Ipswich Art Gallery late in the afternoon. Could only stay for about 20 minutes before leaving to go home to collapse again! Lovely watercolours from her recent long South American holiday ...

Ah well - not long now!

The Good and the Bad!

2009-12-02T21:11:00.003+10:00

Well, good and bad to report on! I'll start off with the bad! As part of the government's attempt to stimulate the Australian economy they have been offering 'free' roof insulation to all home-owners - up to a certain limit. Well, my house is notoriously badly insulated - hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I'd always been told that the cathedral ceilings that are throughout the whole house are very difficult/impossible to insulate but when I went and enquired again, I was thrilled to hear they had some new type of 'blow-in' insulation that could be used, and was covered by the government's insulation rebate.

So, yesterday was the big day. But ... when they arrived they took one look at my ceilings and said - no, we can't do that! After lots of to-ing and fro-ing yesterday and today, it turns out that there's more than one type of cathedral ceiling, and the type I have (with the beams exposed inside the house) can't be insulated that way - there's only about 38mm space between the ceiling lining and the corrugated iron roofing. Big sigh!!

Ah, but the good news ... !
Today I saw my specialist, having had extensive blood tests on Monday. And counts are looking really good!

White cell count 4.6 (normal range 4.0 - 11.0)
Neutrophils 2.7 (normal range 2.0 - 7.5)
Platelets 155 (normal range 150-450)

Platelets were in normal range for the first time, probably in 2-3 years!! And Dr B said nothing to worry about - everything is normal, and as it should be.

And so really, that totally outweighs any disappointment I might have had about the insulation. There are much more important things in life ... :)

a post in search of a title!

2009-12-01T13:15:00.000+10:00

I missed my normal Saturday yoga class, but luckily a friend and I had already arranged to do yoga at my place on the Sunday.

I put on the David Swenson DVD and we followed that. My friend has done a lot of yoga for years. Although she hasn't specifically done the ashtanga practice, she knew most of the poses in the first series. It was an incredibly hot day (39degC) outside and I put the air-conditioning on. I think we would have been in a sauna if I hadn't - my house is not well insulated at all! Anyway, we both really enjoyed it and are looking forward to out next 'yoga Sunday' - which won't be till mid-January unfortunately, what with the approaching Christmas/holiday busy-ness!

And the approach of Christmas means I have to get myself organised! Mum is coming up to stay for the Christmas week - I normally go south to her place, but as I'll be going down there in early January for my nephew Jo's wedding, she decided to save me one of those trips! We'll mostly be doing the usual family stuff - and I have managed to book lunch for a few of us up at the wonderful Spirit House Thai restaurant in Yandina ... Can't wait!

Handel's Messiah in the Cathedral

2009-11-24T12:58:00.000+10:00

Last weekend was the annual performance of The Messiah in St John's Cathedral. I love singing The Messiah - I join another choir just for this performance. St John's is a 'new' gothic cathedral - I've put it in quotes as it's been in the building process for around 100 years! But it is now complete and was full of lovely patchwork-like decorations. A few photos follow ...

"... And all is coming"

2009-11-16T13:22:00.003+10:00

Had one of those sweet yoga practices at class on the weekend. I was really looking forward to it as I drove the 40 minutes trip there, and it was no disappointment (as if!) Everything flowed. I seemed to have more strength than I've had for ages, and was even able to hold ubbhaya padangusthasana (sp?!) - really for the first time for over 2 years ... Not to mention getting both feet off the ground in bakasana, again unseen for a similar amount of time!

It does seem like I may finally have gotten over the 'bump' caused by the NHL in 2007 and subsequent lack of practice (and any strength) for 6-9 months. Who'd have thought it'd take so long to get back from that ... ?! Of course I'm being very cautious in any pronouncements here - don't want to tempt fate !

And I'm older :) , and also my new working situation means I can't practice as much as I used to. (Not that I've ever been a 6-day a week person, except when in India.) But I do what I'm able to, without writing myself off. And right now, it seems like it's paying off, even if it's taken more time that I would like.

I know, I know. As a very wise person said - "do your practice and all is coming" ...

:)

What the cat brought in?!

2009-11-08T18:57:00.000+10:00

My gorgeous pussycat Jedda - that's her waiting in the doona to pounce on me (!) - has been decimating the lizard population around the house ... sigh! She brings them in and plays with them until they're long dead! I have been consoling myself with the fact that at least she's not bringing in any birds, which my previous cat Mieke used to do, and which really upsets me!

However, yesterday I went out to do some shopping, and left her outside. When I came back she had obviously brought something in (through the cat-door), and was trying to get it back out from under the chest of drawers in the living room. To my utter horror, what she eventually pulled out from there was a snake!!! I nearly died! I do know there are many brown snakes around where I live, and they are extremely poisonous. This snake looked to be young and a greeny-brown colour - about 1 meter long. I have no idea what sort it was - but it did also seem to have been damaged to some extent as it was slow and wasn't really trying to attack her, more get away from her. I know I shouldn't be pleased about any damage to a wild animal, no matter what it is, but really, a snake inside your house?!! I got a towel and managed to drop it on the snake, take it outside and drop it down a bank some distance away!

And while I was looking at her trying to 'play' with the snake, I thought to myself - I don't know that I'm going to have you for long Jedda. If she thinks it's OK to play with snakes, she's going to get bitten. And there's nothing I can do. Well, I guess I could keep her in all the time, but I don't think that's going to happen. But I think I will continue with the regime of her only going out on the weekend ...

Of course another consideration is her bringing a snake into the house and losing it there!!! Wonderful thought! (not!) But having thought further about that scenario, I really think that if she has brought a snake in, then she'll be excitedly trying to find it, and hearing it moving around, so I guess I'll have to be (slightly) consoled by that ... !

Yoga under the hammock

2009-11-03T20:03:00.000+10:00

Such a lovely morning today ... I had to help out at a training course being run at the Ipswich campus where I used to work (near where I live). I didn't have to be there till 9.30. I have a friend who used to work with me there before we all went through that big restructure/retrenchment thing at the beginning of the year. We used to do yoga together every Friday lunchtime in one of the teaching rooms there. She and her husband + stepdaughter have just come back from 7 months travelling in South America - lucky things! Mind you, I saw some video on their Facebook shot on a bus trip up the side of a mountain on what looked to be a one lane track cut into the side of a completely sheer cliff! No way I could have done that!!

Anyway ... she lives really near the campus and we arranged to do some yoga together at her place before I needed to go and get ready for the training. So we set up on the verandah and I had a gorgeous practice, managing to avoid the hammock! It was just a really nice environment - lovely garden greenery and smells, and her 2 dogs keeping an eye on us from the nearby sofa! I do miss those Friday lunchtime practices ... :) But we're going to find other times we can practice together - probably Sundays.

waiting for the storm

2009-10-25T12:29:00.002+10:00

Hot hot day here in Queensland! We have been 'promised' storms and rain by the weather bureau later today/tomorrow. Really hope they're right - it's 34degC today (and we're still officially in mid-Spring!) and when I walk across the grass at the university, it's crunchy! I hate it when it's so dry that happens ... Usually we're complaining about the humidity here, but I don't think I'll complain about it again for a while!

Yoga was (of course) incredibly hot yesterday! Someone asked me a couple of days ago if I knew of Bikram yoga and I said that's aka Hot Yoga! Well, I think my ashtanga class qualified on that count yesterday ... :)

That 'someone' was a good friend of mine back in Brisbane on a visit for her sister's wedding. We used to work together a few years ago. She and her then partner moved to London for his job (with Apple). We met up at a Vietnamese restaurant we'd been to before - it was so nice to see her. I'll see her next year when I'm in London - it's starting to become a real prospect!!

At work I finally got the revised eLearning website up last week. I'd had to make changes to it to include stuff about the Blackboard 9 upgrade which is consuming my work life these days! I've been doing so many things I've never done before since I changed jobs ... really great! One of these has been helping one of the trainers to run 'What's new in Blackboard 9' courses, and I believe I'll be doing them on my own next January/February.

What ... ?!

2009-10-20T16:19:00.000+10:00

I haven't written for ages ... what's been going on?! Difficult to say! Maybe I don't think I've got anything that exciting to write about?! Or maybe I've been caught up doing things and haven't got around/found the time to write? Or ...

Well, I don't really know the answer - sorry! I do know I've been contemplating the whole blogging/diary-writing issue lately. I do really like blogging. And I have always been a diary-writer. A few days ago, I happened to find/pick up one of my old diaries, from a pretty intense period of my life - a few years ago (relationship break-up - that sort of thing!). I didn't actually read any of the really painful entries - skipped to some that were from a bit later. But I was really struck by the difference in what I would write in that diary, and what I write in this blog.

I was always aware that I would self-censor a bit in a blog that is open to the world (well, whoever can be bothered to read this, that is!) It's inevitable - in fact sometimes I'm amazed that a shy person like myself can happily open her life up to all and sundry on the web! But - because I know everyone can read this, there are obviously going to be things I'm not going to write about here, for whatever reason.

However, it was quite a shock looking at the old diary. I poured so much out into that, it really makes my blog seem very superficial! I had no idea how much I was self-censoring! So, I thought about that for a while, and then decided to set up an additional, totally private blog, to use the same way I used my old paper diary. I know I could carry on writing in a physical diary - and when I go travelling I do a bit (in addition to blogging). But I guess I'm a child of the internet nowadays (well, I kind of like to think of myself that way !) - and I would rather be writing online!

So - quite pleased with myself about that! I will see how much use it gets - I have no intention of stopping writing here! Just giving myself another outlet for more private musings ...

Stopping now - I'll write a more interesting post in a day or two!

L'Oratorio d'Aurelia

2009-09-25T15:35:00.000+10:00

Went to see this wonderful whimsical circus-type performance last night. Aurelia - emerging from the chest of drawers above, is French, and has worked on stage with her family almost since she was born. Her mother, the youngest daughter of Charlie Chaplin (!), designed and produced this amazing show.

"The show looks like the world of a mischievous child, full of freakish creatures, both comical and frightening.

It’s a surreal world that some have compared to the paintings of Salvador Dali or Rene Magritte. There are many poetic elements in it, like the scene in which Aurelia plays an old Italian song on alarm clocks old and new."
(quote from an online review - http://www.theworld.org/2009/07/29/aurelias-oratorio/)

Well worth catching if you can ... :)

Happy Weekend!

2009-09-20T16:31:00.004+10:00

Well, things are looking up again .. for me if not for Jedda who is locked into the house for the next few days! Went to a lovely yoga class yesterday afternoon. It ended up being a led one (not Mysore) and various poses were left out to accommodate everyone there. I started off being annoyed by that, but luckily let go of it and it was just what I needed. I wasn't feeling very strong (too many missed practices!) and - well it was just what I needed. Jedda, I hasten to add, is still on the mend. Her voice is coming back to normal, and she's more active (and more demanding!) So that's a big relief.

Today some friends came to lunch. One of them, Ross, had offered to help me with one of my 2 garden projects - converting the pool into a garden pond. He had managed to find an old plastic garden table that was being thrown out, which we'd agreed I'd need to place pots on. So he turned up with that, plus some fish and plants he'd take from his own garden ponds (his garden is just a wonderful tropical paradise in a suburban backyard - amazing!)

Here he is placing one of the plants on the table ...

And this is the view I have sitting at the breakfast table ... (without him of course!)

We all had a lovely time eating and drinking and enjoying the day.

And finally, below is a photo taken last weekend (seems like an age ago now!) when I was in Sydney, and Mum and I went to lunch at Jo and Emma (nephew and girlfriend)'s new flat with the million dollar view over Sydney Harbour ...

That's Jo and Peter (nephews), Mum and my brother-in-law John.

Oh what a week!

2009-09-18T19:30:00.005+10:00

My poor little pussycat Jedda! I was away last weekend in Sydney (maybe another post!) and she was in the 'pet motel'. Got back, collected her and let her out in the garden for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon before bringing her in. Next morning I noticed she was a bit subdued but thought she was just pleased to be home. When I got back on Monday evening she wasn't there to greet me - as she normally always is. Found her in the bedroom, picked her up and she made this really strange, low sound. Gave her a bit of a tickle, and found a lump on her throat, which turned out to be a paralysis tick!

Well, I managed to get it off intact, and then thought - what should I do now? My local vet had gone home for the day, so I went to Google, and discovered that I really had to take her to a vet. Found one that had an on-call vet, not too far away, and off we went. I ended up having to leave her there for 3 nights! Her throat had got a bit paralysed and she had been starting to stagger. I finally picked her up last night, and ended up taking a 'carer's day' today to look after her. She's still liable to chuck up, choke, and her voice is really quite low still! I don't even know if it's ever going to get back to how it was before ... :)

She is definitely better tonight than she was when I picked her up yesterday - thank goodness. Don't even ask how much it costs to have a cat in a vet hospital for 3 nights - horrifying!!

My friend Ronnie was blogging about how important dogs are to humans. Well, cats are the same (but different of course!)