Lovely weekend in Sydney and ...

Had a really lovely weekend in Sydney a few days ago ... invited by John and Gina - on the pretext of it being my birthday, plus the lure of visiting some open gardens up in the Southern Highlands, where I grew up. A lot of eating of wonderful food ensued!! Gina cooked a wonderful dinner in Friday night - including a delicious roasted cauliflower with amazing porcini and I can't remember what else dressing!

Then on Saturday we went for lunch at my nephew Peter's house (barbecued swordfish, roast potatoes and salad!) and spent time with his young daughter Chloe (just over a year old) and of course Tammy, who produced a spectacular birthday cake!!

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Out for dinner to a nice Japanese place that night .... it was all starting to remind me of the amazing gourmet food and wine-filled weekends that Angela and I used to have at my parents' place, after which we'd feel like swearing off eating for days!!

And on Sunday we drove up to the Southern Highlands to visit some of the open gardens. Which included one that had been my parents' home in the 70s! I never actually lived there but I remember that my sister and John had their wedding 'reception' there - marquee on the back lawn and everything! Not to mention I seem to remember both of us wearing Laura Ashley dresses!! (Gawd!!) 



Anyway, I talked to the current owner who was very interested to hear some of the history of the place. The actual house was about three times the size it had been when my parents had it, but it was still nice to see it all again! (And we don't need to mention lunch at the wonderful Burrawang Pub!)



Back home on Monday to singing, choir rehearsals and piano practice ... have I mentioned that I've started learning piano again? Had to buy a new piano keyboard with weighted keys etc ... I'm really loving it, even though the last time I touched a piano keyboard was when I was about 13!

And (last bit, promise!) today I finally went to a yoga class again! Led ashtanga not Mysore, but still so good to finally get back to the intensity of a class as opposed to my somewhat desultory home practice, which I can far too easily put off till tomorrow!!

It's been a long time between posts but ...

Here is (part of) the reason! I have been involved in getting my house sold in preparation for the big move! And as of last week, the sale was finally 'unconditional' - meaning no going back for any party!!

I have handed in my notice at work, booked the removalists for the 22nd May. And the following day I am supposed to move into an as yet un-found rental house in the Ocean Shores/Brunswick Heads region! I'm going down to start the look on Friday. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to find a reasonable place that will allow pets (e.g. 1 pussycat!). That seems to be a bit of a stumbling block at the moment, but really, loads of renters have dogs, so I can't see that it can be that difficult. (Fingers very crossed!!)

The plan is to rent for a few months to get a feel for the area, make sure I'm not making a big mistake (which I really don't think is the case)! And then look for somewhere to buy ...

It all feels a bit surreal actually! I'm leaving work at the end of next week and then have a couple of weeks to sort things out/start packing. Since Christmas I have been sorting through cupboards and taking heaps of stuff to the charity bins / chucking away etc etc. Which is really good now as I think if I hadn't then a lot more stuff would just have gone in the bin due to lack of time! I'm giving some furniture away to friends. Last Sunday Ross came over and helped me take heaps of stuff to the yearly Council Clearup at the bottom of the drive (great timing that!) Of course, as he said he went away with more stuff in his van than ended up on the roadside!

Yoga class is suffering a bit at the moment - it's been weeks since I've been able to get to a class, and I won't be able to go this weekend either. But I'm managing to mostly do my lunchtime short practices - although today I am blogging instead of practising!!

And in the midst of all these excitements I have been to 2 weddings! My nephew Peter got married to Tammy in Sydney just before Easter ... a truly gorgeous wedding in the Botanic Gardens, followed by an incredible reception at the famous Quay restaurant in the Overseas Passenger Terminal on Circular Quay. My camera photos were crap, but it was just magical! The Sydney Opera House out of one window, the Harbour Bridge out of the other, Luna Park sparkling across the harbour, and a constant stream of lit-up ferries going in and out of Circular Quay ... I will never forget that!

And then just last weekend my cousin's daughter Krystyna got married in Brisbane. Another lovely ceremony / reception with all the Brisbane family ...

Yoga, baby niece, house-hunting ...

A lot has been going on! First of all and most importantly, Jo and Emma have had a baby girl in London - Charlotte! Lovely ... born the same day as that 'royal' baby! So happy for them - can't wait to see her, though I will need to - they aren't due back in Oz for a visit until January.

Progress (slow but steady) is happening in yoga. I'm still not doing proper sun salutes, but am now doing a deeper version of the one I was doing, and I've also been given back the initial (knee on the ground) version of parivrtta parsvakonasana.  It all felt great at class yesterday ... even my balance in UHP was (amazingly!) much better. But I better not get too excited about that - balance is a very variable thing with me!

Still haven't quite decided what to do about going to Dena's Bali workshop at the end of September. I will need to commit soon as the flights will all fill up. I guess I'm still wondering how much I'll be able to do if I go. But it's two months away, and I would hope that I'd have managed to get back a lot of my practice by then. (And even if I haven't 'officially' been given poses back, I expect I will be doing them in my home practices, and at the workshop!) Probably I'm scared of getting sick yet again and not being able to go. But I can't live my life like that! Hopefully I'll manage to book something this coming week!!

I also went down to Ocean Shores for a couple of days at the end of the week - to check out property etc. It was good - even though a lot of the houses are suburban brick-types, there are definitely some houses are are more my style, so I feel fairly confident I'll be able to find somewhere really nice ... We also had a lovely time going to the Mullumbimby farmers market on Friday morning - there are heaps of markets around there, and there is just nothing here (well, nothing that's not an hour's drive away!) I was also introduced to someone who runs a community choir down there, and then there's Dena's shala in the district ... It will be good ... :)

A road trip through NSW

Well, I'm back home after 2 weeks away ... I drove down to Bowral, NSW, to pack up my Mum's house. And with lots of help from family and friends, that got done (or pretty much so) in a few days. It was difficult emotionally, but we all did the best we could. House contents got sent to Sydney to auction, taken by family members, donated to St Vincents, etc. I arranged for a few large pieces of furniture to be shipped up to Queensland, and packed my (small!) car with boxes of mementos / stuff from the kitchen etc etc.

I had decided when I arranged this, to have a 2nd week off to 'de-stress', doing a slow roadtrip back home. So, first I headed off to Canberra (staying the night with an old friend - lovely to see her!). Mum had this silver tankard that had been handed down the family for a long time. It was made in Scotland in the late 1700s. And at some point, why no one yet knows, a depiction of a very early Australian painting - 'The squatters' hut - news from home' was embossed onto it. That painting is in the National Art Gallery in Canberra, and my nephews and I had agreed this was the best place for this to end up. The gallery was very happy to receive it!

After that, I drove to Mudgee to spend a couple of nights with relatives/friends ... not in the houses pictured below, although David & Clarissa do live in a very large barn converted into a wonderful house!!





After a couple of days there eating and drinking, I then headed north and east to Coffs Harbour. That was the hardest drive - about 8 hours. But a friend from home has just moved there for 12 months to do a traineeship, and so I really wanted to get there and hear about how it's all going. She'd actually only had her first day of work, but Helen seems very happy about it. I'm actually very sad she's gone for the year, as we were 'yoga buddies'! We used to do yoga together most Sunday mornings (although different styles of yoga). But she'll be back in a few months, so ... :)

The next morning I headed up to Ocean Shores to spend the night with my friend Vic ... he always plies me with real estate ads to encourage me to move down there!!

And now I'm back home. After collapsing yesterday, today I have unpacked the boxes of things from the car, and found homes for most of them! And I've still got a few days before I go back to work - which will be for a 4-day week from now on!! Hoorrrayyyy!

Usual Christmas activities!

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!

How long has it been?

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!!

Holidays and 'the' wedding

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 ... :)

Christmas in Bowral

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 ...:)

this and that

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!

Photos from Cardiff and Dublin

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

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 ... :)

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 ... :)

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!

Celebrations

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.

The Wedding (part 2)

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!