yoga practice re-started

IT's been a long weekend here, which was wonderful. Time to laze around, time to be in the moment, time to do some yoga again. I started off by going to a vinyasa class at work on Friday lunchtime, and then on Saturday I went back to my normal class. I cannot begin to think how long it has been since I was there ... but it was so good to be back and practicing again, even though a reduced, shortened practice. Lots of adjustment/alignment in Parsvottanasana ... a lot to think about there!

Then on Monday I went to my friend Helen's in the morning and we did a yoga practice. And - wow! I was so stiff. I could hardly get my hands to the floor in the sun salutes! Really showed me I had just been playing at yoga practice in the past few weeks, if that's what happens after one shortened practice at the shala. It is, as the saying goes, 'all good'!!

Apart from that I didn't do very much at all ... went to the library, wrote a few emails, made a few phone calls. Made some bread. I've kind of given up on sourdough (making) for the moment, and tried a 'no-knead' recipe from one of Bill Granger's books (Bill's Basics). It turned out quite nice, though I think I should have left it in a bit longer.

Bali - flight booked!

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 ... !

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 ... :)

I spoke too soon!

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!

life returns to 'normal'!

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!

Twitter and Masterchef

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!

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!

much better now!

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!!