Sunny day news

I got a new iPad Air today - I'm thrilled! As I'm going from the first iPad, the difference is immense! Half the weight, double the memory, and the new (to me!) Retina screen. It's smaller dimensions-wise but the screen is the same size. And so so much faster!

I'm gradually being given more of my 'old' yoga poses back, which is great. Fingers crossed that I don't come down with some other injury to set me back again!

And tomorrow is the first 'open house' - yes, my house is now on the market. Caused a large amount of panic and soul-searching when I got the real estate agents in and signed on the dotted line! I seem to be ok at the moment, but I'm sure there'll be more of that to come ... !

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad Air

Location:Kholo Road,Kholo,Australia

Steve Jobs ... thank you

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!)

snakes and health!

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 ...

Posting from the iPad ...

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.

an unwanted bath

an unwanted bath
Originally uploaded by tlong

My Google homepage has (among other things) a list of photos of cats recently uploaded to Flickr. Just look at this one - I couldn't resist posting it here. Never seen a cat and a rat together like that!

And talking of cats (and cat-owners) - guess who was climbing up a ladder in the middle of the night trying to entice a very naughty pussycat down from a tree! Yes, it was me!! Jedda pussycat (or kittycat as she's not 9 months old yet) only goes outside on the weekends, and never at nights. But I had to go out to visit a website client and then onto yoga at about 2pm yesterday and of course she was nowhere to be seen. And when I got home around 6.45pm, ditto! I kept calling her, to no avail.

Finally at about 10pm when I went onto the back verandah to call her yet again I heard pathetic squeakiing (she's good at that!) in the distance, and eventually after much wandering through the undergrowth with a torch, I realised she was above my head and spotted her! But would she come down? No, of course not! I brought a ladder around and climbed up a bit (only halfway) but it was never going to be high enough and she wasn't going anywhere. I gave up for a while and when I came back again she had of course gotten herself down quite happily and was still 'busy' outside! Very naughty pussycat!!

This post is full of cat-stuff - in case anyone cared, I managed to fix my MySQL issues, upload the CMS website, fix a few email problems and my client is happy! And I have ordered a new Macbook Pro - Yesss!!

(And of course, yoga was wonderful, as always!)

Week 2 - a little tired!

Last week I sailed through with heaps of energy, but I'm a bit more tired this week. I guess it's to be expected - will take a while for my body/circadian rhythms/whatever to get used to the new situation. But that's OK. My cough is also getting a bit worse, which doesn't help. I've got some antibiotics but am holding off taking them until I'm sure I need to.

One thing I'm really missing is yoga. Last week I managed 2 practices. This week, nothing so far! I'll go on Saturday but I can't see any other options. I've already got to get up really early - not going any further (or earlier) down that track. And I just don't have the energy when I get home. When I was at the other campus I practiced at lunchtime - there were heaps of spare rooms around, and we also had a weekly yoga session with 2-5 others. Here - this building is a rabbit warren but I don't think there's much spare space. Anything that doesn't have people in it has piles of computers and parts and cables and so on!

There is, however, this Unifit system where the gym is available for one hour at lunchtime to staff whose departments (mine included) pay for their staff to attend. After Easter I'm going to sign up there and see if they'll let me do my yoga practice there in the gym. Not ideal, but the best (possible) solution I've come up so far.

Weekends have been taken up with work on 2 websites! Never rains but it pours ... One of them is my first CMS-based site. I'm using CMS-MS and am getting the hang of that. The other one is a static one, that's come out of an Arts grant that a friend applied for. She quoted for a website as well as everything else. This is 2 Artists books, so will have lots of images etc.

And I'm really pleased because I'm going to be able to get a new laptop from the proceeds of these two websites. My existing one is over 4-5 years old and is just soo slow. It's a Mac Powerbook, and I've been using the later Intel-based Macs at work for years now. The difference in speed is amazing. But it's not just the comparison - there is definitely something wrong with the Powerbook. I'm making sure I back up to an external hard drive every night, just in case of disaster! Just have to hope it lasts out for another month or so!

Back home again

I'm home from a week's holiday in NSW - had a lovely time. The wattle was flowering all along the roadsides - lovely! However, it was pretty cold down there! One morning the pipes had all frozen, and the water in the birdbath was solid!

On the Monday we drove up to Sydney and I managed to get in a quick visit to the new Apple Store in Sydney. Gazed longingly at the new iPhone there - one day I'll get one! But for now my aim is to save up enough to go overseas next year! My accountant also told me I needed to get a new laptop, but I'm afraid it's going to be the same story regarding priorities!


We spent a few days in Mudgee, a lovely little town in central NSW - has a thriving wine industry among other things! We were staying with family friends who have a property (farm!) there. It was so nice. I spent half a day driving round helping to cart rocks to put into a creekbed to help erosion there. Then we went wine-tasting and even honey-tasting!

Met up with someone who I used to work with - she is enjoying her new life down south!

I took my yoga mat with me and managed to fit in a bit of yoga once! (naughty, naughty!) But I guess that's better than nothing. Monday evening I'll go in to class.

Now I'm sitting in front of the fire, but it's a lot warmer up here! Tomorrow I'll work on a small website I've got to do, and I'm also going to try and finish (or nearly finish!) my mosaic piece! On Thursday evening our new book club is meeting at my place and some of my fellow mosaic-ers are coming and want to see it finished!!

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!