Portugal

Wendi and Missilu at the Tavira market! Back in London now, but had such a sweet time in Portugal. Went with Wendi, Elena and Missilu (and Pascal) to the beach one day (far too cold to swim, though I saw with horror some English holiday-makers in bikinis - shiver!!) Went to a lovely gallery where the owners make these stunning frames specially for each picture that is shown/sold there. Even went to the movies last night in Faro - saw The Grimm Brothers (luckily it was in English, with Portuguese subtitles, not the other way round!)

At the market in the picture I got some honey (from the Carob tree flowers!) for Judy and Charles. Hopefully it will just have a slight caroby taste! Ate loads of local olives - yum! Wendi and Jack have olive trees and carob trees in their little wild valley. Such a lovely place ...

And tomorrow - probably my last practice at Hamish's ...

Expect the unexpected!

Yesterday I went to Brighton with friends Tina and Linda. We had a great day - they bought some lovely Arts & Crafts kitchen chairs (very plain, oak, but really comfortable) and I got some old sideplates from the same antique shop. I love using old sideplates, but most of mine have broken now and there don't seem to be as many in Australia. I think all the ones I had dated back to when I lived in London before! (Don't ask me how I'm going to get them home in one piece!)

Then we went out to lunch in a wonderful wonderful wholefoods place - it was like a cornucopia of fresh beautiful food! And finished up with a walk along the beach - not actually on the strange pebbley beach, but beside that.

This morning I had it all planned! Go to yoga, don't take my mat but use one there, and then go on out to meet Wendy and walk round some east end markets. Well, first of all when I got to the shala I discovered to my horror that I'd forgotten to bring my yoga pants! I was sadly getting ready to leave again, when Denise (who teaches there on Sundays) lent me a spare pair! Thank you so much Denise!! So that was OK.

But afterwards when I rang Wendy to arrange where to meet, turned out she was having a bad day and couldn't make it. OK - I thought I'd go to Soho and re-visit the wondrous Patisserie Valerie for cakes and coffee (which I notice has sprung up in a few other places now!) But either it's changed location, or my memory failed me! I looked in Old Compton Street but couldn't see it. So I had coffee and croissants somewhere else, and then discovered that I'd walked right past Valerie's without recognising it!! Probabaly that was a blessing in disguise - I would have seriously overeaten there!

Tomorrow it's a Moon Day, so no yoga (sigh!) And in the afternoon I'm flying to Portugal to visit Wendi and Jack, Elena plus baby Missilu, and Badger!!

London days ...

Had a lovely day in London today. Started off with yoga at Hamish's - really nice. Then came home, had a shower and breakfast and couldn't figure out what to wear. I mean, this is London in October right? Should be grey skies, cold etc. But I ended up going out in a teeshirt and jeans and sandals! (with a jumper just in case, which I never needed!)

Met my friend Wendy for lunch - and she's just the same! It must be at least 7 years since I saw her, but she's one of those special friends who you just pick up with where you left off. (The other Wendi is the same!) We sat and nattered away for ages till she had to go back to work. We're meeting again on Sunday - going to some East End markets!!

In the afternoon I was supposed to meet up with Debbie (who I'd met at yoga in Bangalore 3 years ago). But we missed each other - I'd gone into a museum (the Handel museum) and had to turn my mobile off. But we're now going to meet up next week. She is very jealous about me gong to Hamish's shala! Apparently there is a waiting list to go. I guess coz I'm an overseas visitor, and I emailed to ask if I could, that makes a difference!

The Handel museum was really interesting - and I was amazed to discover that Jimi Hendrix had lived there for a while back in 1969!! Also picked up a flyer about a candlelight concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with Haydn's Nelson Mass, plus some Handel pieces! I'm going to go - my choir sang the Nelson Mass a year or two ago, and as the dates work it just seems right!

I realise I haven't said anything about my weekend in Dublin - perhaps I will later!

mmm ... yoga again

Showed up at Hamish's shala in London yesterday morning - it was hotter than where I go in Australia in the middle of summer! Probably because here (London) it's a small space with people very close together, while in Brisbane it's in a big space ...

Anyway - it was wonderful! I told him a bit about my practice and he told me to stop at Marichyasana A because I can only just about bind there and no chance of binding in any of the others. Made for a shorter practice (!) but I'm completely fine about it. I'm a visitor here and am just happy to be able to do yoga and follow his instructions. I'll probably only get to class about 5 or 6 times in the time I'm in London, but I feel sure I'm going to gain/learn a lot ...

Other things I did yesterday included going to the Apple store in Regent Street - what a fantastic place! For us Aussies who don't even have iTMS let alone any thought of an Apple store, it was like an Aladdin's cave!! I managed to resist temptation (those iPod nanos are just sooo cute!) but who knows for how long! Also met a friend from Oz who's working here now for lunch. She's gone from being a receptionist in an Animations company to a producer in less than 8 weeks!! (She used to be a graphic designer, and had done a few things that gave her some useful experience for this) Really pleased for her!!

Today I'm off to Dublin - whoohoo!

At Singapore airport!

Probably won't post this till I get to London (tomorrow morning) but here I am sitting in Changi Airport typing away on my lovely Mac laptop! It all seems to have happened so fast - one minute I was fiddling around at home trying to get myself together, nd now here I am. They have these terminals dotted around where you can get 15 minutes free web access, so I sent an email or two ...

Had a few panicked minutes yesterday when my workmate who is supposed to be housesitting (my house, and more particularly my cat!) seemed to be incommunicado, but it all sorted out. She came round this morning (complete with Playstation and huge TV) and hopefully is happily asleep there now, probably with Mieke pussycat wondering what's going on. She (Mieke) will no doubt be sleeping on the bed with her very soon. As long as she gets fed and some affection she'll be happy.

Saw a couple of premies at Brisbane airport - one going to KL and an event there, and the other back to South Africa, and thence to the Mauritius event! In one way I could wonder about my focus, but no, I'm fine about it now. I really wanted to go to London and visit friends and family - it's been 7 years since I was there. However,I will never again try to add on going to an event at the end of a planned holiday. (I had thought I was going to an event in India in the early part of November, but of course he's moved the dates to the end of the month, and I have to be bck at work on the 14th November - god was I freaked out when I discovered that!) In future I'll make the event the main focus, and add a holiday to that. Lesson learned, I hope! (It's the second time this has happened to me.)

Did manage to do some sun salutes this morning while I was waiting for Lauren - that was the first 'bit' of yoga I've done for about 8 days. I'm aiming to go to Hamish Hendry's on Thursday - and expect to be very stiff after that (big grin)

(later - got excited when soem guys came up to say that my flight woudl have wireless access in-flight! They gave me a card to get 30 minutes free access, but when I tried (somehwere over India!) it didn't work. Ah well - another excuse to have to go to the big Apple shop in London and ask questions!)

Centred again

The event with Maharaji is over. It went bye so fast - really didn't want it to end! After he'd left the stage, they showed a slideshow of shots from the event - lots of pictures of happy happy premies ... and the music that accompanied it was Twameva mata chapita twameva - part of Arti ... (excuse my no doubt crap spelling of sanskrit!) :) I wish I could remember what he said ... but hopefully some of it will trickle through to my consciousness in the next few days. It was just a wonderful, wonderful 4 days :) Re-focused me, reminded me of where my centre is. I truly hope I can keep that connection ...

Now I'm having to pull myself together and work out what I still need to get/organise before I fly out - which is on Tuesday! Wendi and Jack have gone - to Brisbane tonight and then flying to Portugal via London. I'll be staying with them in a couple of weeks!

Mmm - now I'm making a playlist for my iPod of inspirational music to listen to on the plane! Norah Jones - You do something to me, Aaron Neville, Every day of my life ... yum! And must put something from The Messiah in there too.

btw - my music collection is pretty old - I'm waiting for iTMs to open in Australia so I can (legally) download heaps of stuff!! There's an Aussie website called Appletalk with lots of discussion forums on it. The longest by far (about 50 pages to date) is about when oh when is the Music Store going to open here. Latest rumour is tomorrow (that's the 3rd October)but it's probably another unsubstantiated rumour!