Back to Mysore class

This week I turned a corner in my journey back to health after the brain surgery last October. I'd been to see a neurologist in Brisbane last week. He cut back the anti-seizure medication I've been on - thinking that this might help with the lack of energy I'd been experiencing for months. And it seems to have worked - I have been feeling a lot more energised since then!

And on the yoga front - ashtanga people will understand the lure of Mysore-style classes. Back in February when I had to give up going to Mysore classes in Suffolk Park (double whammy of a 40 minutes drive away coupled with a 6.30 start!), I at least knew there was someone giving ashtanga classes much closer to home, which included one Mysore-style class a week. So when my energy levels recovered a bit I knew I'd be able to go there. Which I did, but unfortunately that didn't last. The class location had to move and although still very local, it went down to 2 led ashtanga classes a week only.

So anyway, I suddenly realised I probably now had the energy for one or two early morning long drives a week, and on Monday I finally got back to Christian's class! Felt so great ... and hopefully my energy and determination will continue! 

(Note: did have the alarm set for this morning but didn't make it this time ... sigh! Will have to be next week but I do feel I'm on the road back!!)

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My recovery update (1!)

Well it's Friday and I've been home from hospital since Tuesday of last week. I'm still taking steroids each day (as well as anti-epileptic medication) but am slowly tapering the steroids according to a program. I will stop taking the steroids next week - which will be a big relief! I'm still having problems sleeping although it's not nearly as bad as it was when I was on higher doses!

And this week I started 4 weeks of physio / speech therapy up in Tweed Heads. Twice a week (Monday and Thursday) for 3 hours each time ... so far I've been pretty tired after each of those sessions, but it should get better! On Monday I went with my friend Victor, who just went and hung around in a local bookshop for the 3 hours. On Thursday I got a lift up with Victor, but then an old work friend, Beth Cavallari who lives in Murwillumbah came and picked me up from Tweed Heads and brought me home - after going out for lunch! That was great, and she's going to actually do the whole pickup / drop off for the rest of the (3) Thursdays.

However, like I said, I was pretty tired after all that - came home and collapsed on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon!

I'm also hoping to re-start my yoga practice in the next day or two. Probably just start with some sun salutes, and then gradually build it up. I won't be able to go back to class in Byron for another 2-3 months (ie. until I can drive again)

But anyway - right now life is sweet. I am very content pottering around at home and in the garden, and being taken out shopping or to appointments occasionally. No doubt as my strength returns I'll get a bit fed up, but that too shall pass!

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Progress

Things are ticking over ... my shoulder injury is largely fixed (fingers crossed!) and I am back to doing 'normal' sun salutes and vinyasas. The only weight-bearing pose that still gives my shoulder a hint of a twinge is purvottanasana, so I'm leaving that out for the moment.

Mind you - I'm only talking about the effects of the shoulder injury (bursitis) being largely 'fixed'. The year or so of no yoga still shows in my practice (and what my teacher will let me do) ... Because it's only 3-4 weeks till the Bali workshop I decided to take things into my own hands and start practicing poses at home that officially I haven't been given back yet. Really, just in an attempt to be able to practice all (or most) poses up to Navasana while I'm at the workshop, which isn't a huge practice anyway ... I expect my teacher probably has an idea I'm doing this ... :)

Things are moving along on the home renovation front! Swimming pool/pond is gone, replaced by a lovely big deck area. New water tank should be delivered just before I leave for Bali. Just a few more tidying up type things to do and then I guess I'll have to get the real estate agents in ... (Scarey!!)

Things are looking up

Although still suffering from a shoulder injury (bursitis apparently - developed/first appeared when I did that long drive down to NSW back in April!) things are ((fingers very crossed!)) getting better. I've been going to see my osteopath weekly for quite a while now, and last week she told me that she felt we had 'turned a corner' with the shoulder, and it was definitely starting to mend.

I had decided the previous week (ie. a week ago) that I just had to start doing yoga again, no matter how much modification I needed to do to the practice. So I went back to class last Saturday. My teacher got me doing a different kind of Sun Salute (no downdogs or anything that put any stress on the shoulder). I'd never seen this before - a bit like Surya Namaskar B, but from the utkatasana stage you step back and rise up into Virabhadrasana 1, then step back to utkatasana and repeat on the other side, then come back up to standing.

It felt so good to finally be back and doing a sustainable practice - by which I mean one that I won't have to stop doing again because I'm damaging myself again! I've managed to do 2-3 practices during the week, and this afternoon it's back to class. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can start to put back the ashtanga sun salutes, and then gradually the other poses/vinyasas that I can't do at the moment.

Apart from that I've been doing a bit of entertaining, again for the first time for absolutely ages! Had my aunt and cousins round for Sunday lunch a week or two ago, which went very well! I gave away various bits and pieces of Napier family 'stuff' that I'd brought back from Bowral (my Mum's house) for them. It was nice to share it around - and I've got heaps for myself already.

The proceeds from the auction of the contents of Mum's house have finally been sorted out/allocated to the respective beneficiaries. A mammoth task as there were two wills involved (my Dad's as well as Mum's) and in each will, different things were split between different people. And despite our best efforts, the sale list from the auction bore very little resemblance to the list we'd sent up to the auction! However, all done now!! Who knew there was so much hard slog involved in being an executor! But as I said to my nephews - I shudder to think what the solicitors would have charged if I had left that job to them <grin>

Easter update

So nice to have 4 days off to relax, catch up with friends, and catch my breath with what's been happenng over the last couple of weeks.

Health first ... Well, I'm finally and definitely feeling better! I'm coughing a bit less, and - just feeling a different person. I'm on antibiotics (don't ask!!) that I'll have to take for a few days each month for a while - maybe indefinitely. But it is wonderful to feel so much better - just shows how much it was affecting my general health. Hopefully the cough will get down to a very small issue - if not at the end of this course of antibiotics, then over the next month or so. We shall see, but I am hopeful!

I'm still not able to do any yoga (or physical exercise putting any weight onto my arms) until next week - because of the skin cancer surgery. But then I'll be able to start my practice up again, which I'm so looking forward to!

And the other big thing ... my Mum's house sold at auction last weekend. I went down for one night for it, and although it was torturous - bids going up by $1K at a time, and only after the auctioneer got to "and for the 3rd and final time ..." umteen times! But it sold, and at over the reserve price, so that was great. However, that also means that I now have to go back down and clear the whole house out before the sale completes in early May. I'm going to take 2 weeks' holiday, and will drive down in a couple of weeks' time. I've got lots of people - relatives and friends, lined up to come and help with various aspects of this. But I do know it's going to be a difficult time for me. It's not the house I grew up in, but there are/will be so many memories.

I'm hoping to only have to spend a week or so packing/cleaning up the house, and will then have a week to visit friends and slowly make my way back up to Queensland ...

Health issues - sigh!

Health issues have gotten on top of me over the past few weeks. It will all work out/be OK but I do feel like my life is a bit on hold at the moment!

Basically I'd decided at the beginning of the year that I just had to do something about the awful cough I've had for over 6 months. My haematologist arranged for CT scans to be done and referred me for a 2nd opinion to another chest specialist. This revealed that a lot of my coughing issue was not what the other specialist had thought (bronchiectasis, though I do have that), but a fungal lung infection! Which the (lovely) new specialist assured me was fixable! So I was really encouraged by that. Went off to have a bronchoscopy - so they could - a) work out what type of fungal infection, and b) clean out a lot of the 'stuff' in my lungs.

Then, somehow I'd thought I'd have the results in a week and could start treatment ... but when I rang after a week to enquire was told it would take 4-6 weeks to get results on the type of infection! This did not go down well, but I'm over that now, and hanging out for the appointment I have in 2 weeks ...

And again a month or so ago, I decided I had to do something about a couple of potential skin cancers on my arms, and following appointments I am having them taken off next week.

It all seems ridiculous but I have had at least one doctor's appointment every week for the past x number of weeks, and that continues for at least the next 3 weeks ... !!! I know it doesn't sound like that much when I write it down, but it really does feel like it's taking over my life, making health (or lack of it) the complete focus of everything! I hate it. I hate being sick! I hate not having lots of energy! (Whinge, whinge whinge!! Old Australian tradition!!)

And it's really played havoc with my yoga practice. I haven't been back to the shala this year! I just don't feel strong enough. And I cough so much (and so disgustingly!) in downdog it's pretty embarrassing! I am only managing to do 2-3 practices a week - most of them short 30-40 minutes at lunchtime. And then after I've had the skin cancers cut out next week, from memory you're not supposed to do any exercise for at least 2 weeks!! I can only hope that by the time that 2 weeks is over I will be on something to start killing off the lung infection. I have been told that it's a long process getting rid of fungal lung infections - so I want to start it as soon as possible!!

Anyway - I'm carrying on and mostly not getting too despondent! This too shall pass ... :)

Smiley days ... :)

Coming home from my Saturday afternoon ashtanga class it was evening, getting dark, and when I arrived at the gate at the bottom of my drive there was a wallaby sitting halfway up the drive! It just sat there looking at me as I opened the gate, and only hopped off to the side after I drove in ... Made me smile - one of the things I love about living in a semi-rural area!

I'm smiling a lot at the moment! I'm feeling so much better than I was, and yes, my cough is definitely getting better. (Although people who are around me at the shala when I'm doing sun salutes/downdog may not necessarily agree!) Health (good health that is!) really has an affect on your sense of wellbeing ...

And also - I am going to be going part-time (4 days a week) from next year! I'm so excited! My boss said "Are you sure you want to do this?" when I asked him! Is the pope a catholic?!?!! (I didn't say that to him, but ... !) This is something that my mother was always wanting me to do, but I could never afford it. Now I can (or will) - thank you Mum! Ever since I moved jobs and campuses, all the travelling (1 hour each way) has meant my work day has been incredibly long, and I've had very little energy to do anything during the weekday evenings. Now things are going to change! I always knew that this time would be a period of change - and this is the start ...  (And another very big smile!)

I didn't mean it that way, but in retrospect the title of my last post (Life goes on) could sound a bit down, or negative ... So it's good to be able to write a really smiley post!!

Life goes on ...

Life goes on ... my yoga practice is coming back together, slowly but surely. Still only managing 3-4 practices a week at the moment but hopefully that will expand over the next few weeks/months. I'm not going to sweat it - I remember how surprised I was to discover that I had somehow ended up with a 5-6 day a week practice without me realising it! So that should come in its own time - when the planets align!  And as we're going through a spell of unseasonably hot spring weather (even for sunny Queensland, Australia!) I don't always feel like walking across campus in the midday sun to the space where I can do a lunchtime practice ⟨grin⟩

Still enjoying my Sunday morning yoga practices with Helen. Sometimes other friends join in, sometimes it's just us. Last Sunday Helen brought out a DVD that we used to use way back when we did Friday lunchtime yoga sessions at the University about 3-4 years ago. Really nice - set in a subtropical garden in Byron Bay - or so I've always thought! Anyway, it was lovely to see it again, and catch a few hints as I did my own ashtanga practice!

My health is inching its way back to normal. Still coughing but less, and I no longer feel like I'm operating at 80% or less!

Choir rehearsals for The Messiah started again this week. I was really reluctant to make the (rather large) effort required to get to rehearsal, but of course am really glad I did! To be honest I don't even know if I'll be able to sing in the concert - that all depends on how my cough is going then. There's nowhere to hide when you're part of a large choir sitting on the 'stage' in the Cathedral when you're not standing and singing your heart out! But even if I can't sing in the actual performance, I just love singing it and it's wonderful to be part of the choir going through all the choruses again ... Do hope I'll be able to sing though ... :)

Yoga - respect your body?!

You know how people (yoga teachers, bloggers, writers) are always saying things like 'respect your body' - 'it's not how bendy you are' etc etc etc?!! Well, I have to say I don't think I've reached those exalted, detached heights at all!!

After a horrendous few weeks of illness, caring for other people who are sick, culminating in virtually no yoga for the past couple of weeks and then damaging my back helping support someone (without thinking about what I was doing!) - I find myself unable to go further than my knees in uttanasana (standing forward bend), and hardly able to get to the floor to do downdog, etc etc. And I HATE it!! Last Tuesday I started to do a first yoga practice in what seemed like living memory (! OK, exaggeration, but ... !) and found one of my wrists giving way in downdog and I collapsed on the floor!

Saw my osteopath on Thursday and she did say I should attempt to do some yoga - just not to do anything that hurt me! So today I went to a friend's to do yoga together. And - well the only good thing about it was the actual fact of having attempted to do some yoga again! There was so much I couldn't do at all, or could only do in an extremely limited fashion!

Just have to hope and pray that my 2nd visit to the osteopath tomorrow morning will get my back onto the road to recovery! Since I've been back from NSW and back at work (Thursday) I've been parking my car completely illegally in the carpark of the Uni vet school clinic that is right next door to the building where I'm working at the moment. Couldn't imagine being able to do the 15 minute walk up from my normal (legal) carpark, and decided if I got a fine I'd just pay it. Luckily I didn't so far - I'm now wondering if I'll have to continue doing this next week ... sigh!

Life events saga!

OK - a few people wanted to know more about the avalanche of stuff that descended on me this past week! It's not a secret or anything - friends/family/everyone at work knows - just thought maybe blog-readers mightn't be that interested ... But anyway - here goes! (No yoga this post!!)

So, to re-cap: 2-3 weeks ago it was discovered that I had this rare disease - autoimmune haemalytic anaemia being one of its names! - where my immune system decided that my red blood cells were the enemy and was killing them off faster than my bone marrow could create new ones. So I was in hospital for 6 days having treatment for that. I felt so much better after that (and still do!) - had a few days relaxing at home and then went back to work this past Monday.

Now the main part of my job at the university is as part of a 2-person team that supports a software platform used for student course content - Blackboard. We support the lecturers' use of this, fix problems they have. So, I walk into work and the other team member says to me - glad you're back - I'm being called into hospital for a few days! Well, that was fine ... he'd been doing everything while I was away, now it'd be down to me to do similar.

But then as I'm going home that afternoon I start getting phone calls etc. to say that my mother, who lives in another state, had been taken into hospital. She does have various health conditions (including emphysema) and although she'd been really well (relatively!) when she'd been up here at Easter, she'd been having health problems since she'd gone home again.

Over the next couple of days I'm having to grapple with what to do. Whether I should just abandon all work responsibilities (remembering that I was the main person 'on board' for Blackboard support), jump on a plane and go down to where she was in hospital.  Could we find someone else with the required knowledge to come in as a casual and help out? Or whether I should wait until the situation stabilised itself - in fact wait until she is able to leave hospital and spend a week helping her at home.

Then my doctor tells me that he doesn't believe the treatment I'd had in hospital was working well enough and I have to come in for half a day once a week to have this other stuff dripped into me. And - I did ask, but he told me I can only have this done at the hospital in Brisbane - not down where my mother is!  Which of course means that (except unless things go seriously downhill) any trip down to see/help my Mum will have to be timed around that.

All this time I'm talking to my Mum, her doctor, her literally zillions of friends, neighbour who helps her out a lot. Reports from her friends and the neighbour say she is looking much better than she had been, she is in the right place, etc etc. My Mum, however is tearing her hair out! She was taken into the public hospital into a 'high dependency ward' where it is extremely noisy and there were 5 men in the ward with her. She wants to move into the private hospital (which is right next door) where she could have a private room etc. but it is full!

Finally yesterday (Friday) a bed in the private hospital became available and Mum is there now. And - she sounded like a different person! Such a relief. Hopefully she can now rest and get better, and when they are ready to let her go home we will be able to time the release so I can go down straight after one of my weekly hospital visits, and come back home just before the next one!

My workmate is back at work - they won't know for a few days whether the medication he has been given will do the trick, or whether he will have to have other in-hospital treatment. But that's a bridge to cross if/when it comes up!

It's funny - I've actually felt I was handling this all amazingly calmly - at least during the day time! Feeling a bit detached, philosophical - don't know how to explain it. But at nights - I never do this, but when I was in hospital I'd been given some sleeping pills (as I was on a steroid - prednisone) and I have had to use them quite a few nights this week. I just found myself lying awake trying to work out what the best thing to do was - planning this and planning that! Last night was the first night I didn't!!

Back to class but ...

I went to the Friday morning Mysore class this morning - a rare pleasure as it's on between 9.15am and 11.15am, and I'm usually at work. But really - how could I on the one hand know perfectly well when it starts and aim to be there by 9am. And then on the other other hand decide that 9am was the best time to leave home (knowing it takes at least 45 minutes to drive there)?!?!! Can I blame it on the drug I'm still taking? (Prednisone)? I actually sat in the car outside for about 15 minutes waiting for it to get to the "o'clock" before going into the class!!

Oh well!! I did a shortened practice - which I was always intending to do as I have also hurt one of my wrists doing some arm-strengthening exercises - triceps dips. (The amount of foolishness I'm having to own up to here is somewhat embarrassing!!!)

Has been really nice just relaxing at home, doing a bit of cooking etc etc. I met a friend in town for coffee yesterday and we did a little trawl round a couple of galleries which was nice. And on Sunday I'm going out for sushi and the movies with my friend Ross - we're going to see 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'. That was such a wonderful book, and the trailer for the film looks good. In fact I was reading that book when I was in hospital in 2007, and my haematologist liked the look of it so much he ended up reading it and several others by the same author (Paul Torday)!

And back to work on Monday ... :)

It's been so long!!

Don't know why - combination of reasons I guess! Nothing much to say - v busy at work - then fighting off some kind of virus ... But finally I'm back here! And one of the things that has happened in the past month or so is I've finally got a new pussycat - from the RSCPA shelter.


Very pretty - she has some oriental in her as you can tell by her big ears and sweet-shaped face ... I've named her Sansa - after one of the two young Stark sisters in the wonderful SF epic by George RR Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire. I've been listening to these books on audible.co.uk audio for months now! I'm up to - I think it's the 5th book - Part 2 of a Storm of Swords. So addictive ... :)

Anyway, Sansa is not really my favourite character - that would be Arya, her younger tomboy sister. But really - I don't want a tomboy cat at all! Sansa is the sweet pretty one who believes in chivalry and knights and fairytales! So I'm channelling that sort of behaviour towards my new little friend - without a huge amount of success I have to admit so far! I had really wanted to get a cat this time, not a kitten.  But after I'd kind of fallen in love with this young cat, it turned out she was only 6 months old and has quite a lot of kitten still in her! As evidenced by her insistence on wanting to play at biting my toes at 4am, races from one end of the house to the other at breakneck (mine as well as hers!) speed, etc etc!! The RSPCA people said they didn't think she'd grow much bigger as she's already had kittens (?!!) - but that's good coz I like small cats. And hopefully the kitten stage will pass soon (she says wistfully!)

Anyway - what else?! A friend who I often practice yoga with on Sunday mornings invited me to a DVD screening of 'Yogawomen' at a yoga shala in Ipswich where I live last Saturday evening. We had quite a fun evening, but really it was too American for me. Lots of how wonderful women were (I know that already!!) and not enough yoga practice!

I've been sick for the last week or so - just feeling exhausted. Too tired to go to my Saturday afternoon class so that is really something! I managed to drag myself into work every day, and I did manage to do 30 minutes of yoga most lunchtimes. And now today (Friday) - the end of the week when I'd expect to be tired - I woke up feeling refreshed and full of energy!! Halleluyah!!!

Here's another picture of young Sansa ...

Absence of yoga practice

This post is just a whinge (Australian expression!) about how sick I've been the last few weeks, so be warned if you read further <grin>

I have been sick for weeks and weeks. In fact I started coughing badly the minute I stepped off the plane in Bali nearly 3 weeks ago. Then by the middle of the week the rest of this flu/chest infection caught up with me and I had no energy to do anything except class with Dena, and possibly a trip into Ubud to get a massage. Not interested in eating - most unusual for me! I was almost glad to be leaving at the end of the first week, as it had felt harder and harder to be involved in the class - specially with all the paroxysms of coughing ... I don't know how I got through all that pranayama!

Now it's nearly 2 weeks since I got back and only now, the 3rd type of antibiotics finally seem to be working. The cloud is lifting from around my head, and I almost feel I might have the energy to set foot on my yoga mat again - but a very short practice, and at home only!

Still feels like it'll be a while before I feel 100% again. I took some time off work last week, but didn't have much sick leave so had to come in this week. All I could do when I got home was collapse in bed with a cup of soup!

Turns out I've had some obscure flu that is very hard to get rid off. My lungs got infected, and that made the whole flu virus keep re-infecting! Lovely!

Don't think I want to write anything much about Bali at the moment - want to wait till I'm better again and can see it all through clearer eyes. It certainly was hard this time, which I had never ever expected!

Anyway - I do feel better than I felt at the beginning of this week, and people at work even say I look better so that's good! Hopefully it's all upwards and positive from here on ... :)

More postings from the knee!

I long for the day when I won't have to be posting about my knee! When it's not an issue, or such a big issue at least!

That day has yet to come!!

I found myself googling 'Ashtanga yoga with knee injury' this morning (well, it's pretty slow at work at the moment!) Anyway I came up with a hit on Matthew Sweeney's site. After his other books, there was a downloadable 'Primary and Intermediate Knee Sequence' - "for those students who have ongoing knee issues or a knee injury. It combines both the Primary and Intermediate Series while omitting all the postures that compress or endanger the knees". So of course I downloaded it immediately (only $AU5).

Very interesting - it seems to have (almost) all of standing in, then after Purvottanasana it skips straight to Navasana, and then everything seems to be in there. (Don't know about the 2nd series poses as I'm not doing them. Doesn't start with Pasasana - Salabhasana is the first 2nd series listed.) The main surprise to me was Baddha Konasana seems to be considered OK. Don't know whether my osteopath will agree - but I'm certainly going to take this in to show her!!

Seemed like said knee went a bit backwards this week (probably caused by me overdoing things last weekend!) But when I saw the osteopath yesterday, she said it was to be expected. And then after she'd treated it she told me that it responds really really well to treatment, and she feels fairly sure that it should clear up in the next few weeks, without any medical intervention! She did however tell me, no yoga for at least another couple of weeks!  ((scream!@#!))

Update on the knee!

Well, it's about 2 weeks now since I did something (still don't know what!) that damaged my knee, giving me a small meniscus tear. This week I've found it a bit easier to walk without my knee clicking at every step. Have to make a really conscious effort to lengthen my spine - somehow the effect of this, which seems to incorporate turning on mula banda/lifting the pelvic floor, really seems to help prevent it.

I saw the osteopath again yesterday, and she is pleased with my/its progress so far! The swelling is mostly gone and the knee is quite cool, so she is believes I probably don't have a bigger tear. She said that if my knee does swell up again, that is when we'd got an MRI done, as that could indicate a worse tear than she currently thinks.

She still doesn't want me to do any yoga yet, but I'm hoping for next week (a week from today). That would obviously still be a highly modified practice, but anyway, we shall see! One lives in hope ... :)

I said that I was worrying about losing strength with being so inactive, and she showed me a highly complicated (to my small brain anyway!) isometric exercise that would work on all leg muscles. Incorporating a block between the thighs ... So I'm going to try doing that and hope that I can keep some strength that way.

And, despite all of this I feel really quite positive. I read a beautiful saying on someone's blog a few days ago (which I've already quoted on Facebook):

Buddhists say that the miracle is not walking on water, but walking here, on earth.

That really touched me (reminded me!). Life is amazing, and whatever happens I hope I can remember to enjoy the miracle of being alive, and accept whatever opportunities come. Once I get back to yoga, there will be an opportunity to work on other areas of my practice. Right now it's an opportunity to breathe and enjoy a quieter, slower pace of life.

Not good news for my knee!

Well, I'd actually forgotten the name of what it was I didn't want to have happened to my knee, but my worst fears were realised when the osteopath uttered the words "meniscus tear"!! Huge sigh!

She says she thinks it's only a small tear that would hopefully heal in about 6-8 weeks. But I can't do any yoga (except possibly 'restorative' yoga) for a couple of weeks ... More sighs! She showed me how I need to try and stand/walk with slightly bent knees, and with my pelvis slightly tilted forward - but more kind of lengthened. This helps turn on pelvic floor muscles and the quadriceps - and encourages mula bandha! All to try to stop the dratted knee from clicking with every step. It's not at all easy!

And now (after I've finished getting my immunoglobulin infusion at the hospital) I have instructions to go home and make a potato peel poultice for my knee, to reduce the swelling!!! Lordie-me! Stay posted for more semi-edible remedies!!


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Knee injury freak out

No idea where this has come from but ... I've got myself a potential knee injury - from where/what I have no idea! Just started noticing a 'tenderness' and then my knee started clicking when I walked! Total freak out - but on Saturday morning I did a bit of research on google (yes, I do know the dangers!) and it does sound like it's probably not too worrisome! But I'm definitely going to see my osteopath as soon as I can get in next week!

Before I looked at google (yoga + knee + clicking) yesterday morning I'd pretty much decided not to go to class in the afternoon but after that I decided I would go. Of course I told the teacher and he kept an eye on me! I did a bit of a short practice, couldn't bend my left leg too much in Janu sirsasana, couldn't do triang (etc) at all on that side. But most of my practice I could do, with care and keeping my left leg a bit bent (in the standing forward bends)!

But I'm really hanging out to see my osteopath next week - if I can get in!!


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Full moon and stuff

This morning I was driving to where I catch the inter-campus bus in to work - around 6.15am, and a big, beautifully full moon was still quite high in the sky ... Such a glorious sight - didn't have my camera with me but even if I did, I know you (well, me anyway!) just can't take a photo that recreates that sort of vista! The moon always looks so much smaller in a photo than it does with real eyes ... :)

I don't usually pay too much attention to moon days (bad girl!) but anyway, having just had a minor op to remove a mole from my arm, I've been told I can do any 'strenuous exercise' for 2 weeks?!?!!! We'll see - I'm going to leave it till my arm feels OK (at least the weekend), and then very slowly and carefully feel my way back into my practice! Hopefully I can do a heavily modified practice - leaving out anything that puts any weight or strain on my left arm ...

The cooler weather is finally arriving here. Been putting a little electric heater on first thing in the morning - and this weekend I'll get some wood into the house (using one arm?!!) and get the combustion stove going, or at least ready to go!

Spent a couple of days last week on a course - learning HTML5 and CSS3. It was great - there is so much more you/we can do nowadays. Can't wait for the opportunity to put some of it into practice ...

Yoga in the heat

It's been very hot here off and on over the past few days. Last weekend (ie a week ago) I feel like I may have got some sort of heat exhaustion after doing a couple of very strong ashtanga practices in less than 24 hours (Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning). I ended up feeling nauseous and exhausted all the rest of Sunday and taking the Monday off. Seemed so weird, but I do feel fine now! And yesterday's regular Saturday afternoon practice was fine - not as hot. However, I decided not to join in the Sunday morning practice with some local friends today, just to be safe! I really do not like being sick!!

Lately I've also been considering how long it takes me to get through my (not yet complete) First Series practice. Too long is the answer - at least 2 hours. And that only includes 5 mins savasana. I'm trying to rein it in, being aware of time wasted between poses, making my breathing a bit faster, etc. Focussing on the breath much more. (that connection is so nice for premies!) Also, at my class virtually no one does vinyasas between sides of seated poses, just between poses. I have been doing this since I went to Bali and London, and really don't want to stop. Apart from anything else, I'm sure it's helping me build stamina - definitely a good thing. So I'm not changing that. At least on Sunday I managed to finish and be rolling up my mat in 1 hour 55 minutes - I guess that's progress!

Apart from this, it's the usual pre-semester rush at work, with everyone realising at the last minute that they need a course Blackboard site set up, etc etc. I've arranged to go and visit a friend for a long weekend near Byron Bay in a couple of weeks' time, which should be nice. Might even get to swim in the sea!

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!