Yoga and some socializing!

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!

Plans are made to be broken!

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!

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!?!

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!

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!

Update from the past few weeks

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 ... :)

Happy (poetry) days

My friend Angela is having a very happy time having won an Arts Council grant that sent her on a 6-week stay in a cottage somewhere in Ireland to write poetry! I've been following her blog - http://light-trap.blogspot.com/ which is full of misty photos of Irish scenery and happy poetry readings both in Ireland and London ...

She's not actually coming back to Australia (and work) till next January - lucky thing!!

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!

London London London ...

omigod ... got home late-ish last night and the news started filtering through as I sat down. Tried to ring people in London but all the lines were engaged when I tried. So I ran to the computer and started firing off emails to friends and family there. Having sent them I checked my email and found emails from Judy (half sister) saying they were alright. Then checked this blog (OK, it's new, I'm a bit obsessive!!) and found that Wendy had put a comment here to say that she's OK too. Back to my email and further emails from both Judy and Wendy! What a relief ...

Reflecting on it all, and the reported calm acceptance (or at least not violent panic) of Londoners - I remembered when I lived in London and was actually in Harrods when that bomb went off there. I guess Londoners got used to bombs with all the IRA stuff that went on in the 80s. (And, as my mother would remind me, the Blitz during WW2!) You just have to get on with your life. After all you could get run over by a bus tomorrow! Doesn't have to be a bomb!!

However, it is one of those times when I feel very strongly the British half of my (dual) nationality!