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!!

NYE resolutions and all that!

Some January's I'm full of great sounding New Year's resolutions. Usually they fall by the wayside, but occasionally some do resonate through the year. I saw a blog post by the wonderful opera singer Joyce DiDonato about her suggested resolutions for 2017, and they did speak to me ... particularly the one about Practicing (singing, music) with Purpose. So I think I'm going to appropriate a couple of hers and see how they pan out! (Of course that one would fit it well with other parts of my life too!)

I also saw a videoclip on Facebook - an interview with the amazing English pianist James Rhodes, about his new book 'How to Play the Piano'. From what I understand, this book is about learning (or re-learning) to play the piano, and to play one Bach piece in 6 weeks! (It does involve serious commitment to daily practice etc!!) And he quoted an email he'd got from someone who'd recently retired, saying that doing this - immersing himself in music, learning to play an instrument etc, had made it the best time of his life. I could say the same for my life (brain surgery notwithstanding!), but of course I do know there are other reasons besides music for this!

And joy oh joy, I'm allowed to drive again from the 13th January. Which means I'll be able to go back to my yoga class in Byron (or Suffolk Park as it is now, even further away!) However ...

I know I posted somewhere about re-starting my yoga practice a week or two after I got home from hospital.  But then I got hit by all these totally unexpected bouts of total exhaustion ... yes, 'unexpected' despite the many warnings I'd had about this, especially if I tried to do too much! Like spend weeks driving (being driven) to and from Lismore for rehearsals etc etc!! I thought I was fine at the time but I think I was just running on adrenaline!!

Anyway, my yoga practice disappeared down a black hole, and I've really only started again a week ago. The first day I practiced again I couldn't even touch my fingertips to the floor! And I still haven't got to the end of the standing poses even though I'm leaving a few poses out. I can at least touch my knuckles to the floor now so I guess that's some kind of progress!!

I really should have learnt this lesson from previous times! Not a good idea to stop practicing for more than a few days, specially when your body isn't that young any more!! Ah well, another life lesson in not being attached to wherever my yoga practice may have been ...


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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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Musings on life and changes of direction

(( Warning!! This post contains a lot of 'navel-gazing'! ))

I've been thinking lately how it's funny that when you (I) make a big life change, you can think you have a plan for how it's going to be ... And it all turns out completely differently! I mean, really I shouldn't be surprised at all. I'm always thinking that I'm in control, and then discovering I wasn't! But anyway ...

I had this fixed idea about how my life would be when I stopped working in university IT and moved down to this lovely green area with soft green hills to the west of me, and beautiful beaches just to the east. I was going to do more yoga - get to more Mysore classes (tick!). I was going to find a good classical choir to join (tick again!).

So those ideas have worked out wonderfully.
But the other two are a different story ... !

Having come from a website/IT background I also had a big focus there - and it had been something I'd really enjoyed (well, the website side anyway!) So I was planning to do more website development, finally learn Python properly, and really get into learning other coding languages / stuff, and other website-related things.

And another thing I'd thought I'd maybe like to do - albeit a bit more of a distant possibility, was to get back into curtain-making. I always loved working with fabrics, and did a 2 year course on soft furnishings at the London College of Furniture years ago while living in London. I then had a small soft furnishings business both there and in Sydney.

And when I was packing up my old house in Kholo I just couldn't bear to get rid of the cutting table we had gotten made in London for the curtain-making business and then brought back to Australia. Had done virtually none of that since we moved up to Queensland (and lost access to people with wealthy connections who could afford to get expensive curtains made for them!!) But I still had all the 'stuff' from those days and so ended up bringing most of it down to my new home ... Where it now sits either in the garage or stored in cupboards! (And I still don't know when if ever I'll do anything with it all ... !)

However ....... Since I've moved I've hardly lifted a finger to do anything website or curtain related! Oh I still look after a few websites, and did spend a few weeks working on the 2016 edition of the foame.org poetry website. But, despite getting heaps of techie emails from places like Sitepoint and online course offers from Coursera etc, I have felt no inclination to dive in and learn new things.

No ... Most of my available attention seems to have been drawn towards music - classical music in particular. I'm loving the choir. I'm loving learning to sing. I'm even loving trying to learn music theory! I'm spending at least 1-2 hours virtually every day practising singing exercises, music for the choir, songs that I'm learning to sing at a little private soirée (!! Being run by my music teacher and his partner, just for their students ... But still a very scary thought!!) And then lots of extra time spent puzzling out things like the relationships between major and minor scales, identifying intervals, etc etc. All of which would be a doddle to learn if I was 5, but having a considerably older brain, is painfully and embarrassingly difficult!!

And as well, yoga is definitely getting a lot more attention now. I can see/feel the difference from the improved effort that I've been putting in, and from making it to at least 3 Mysore classes a week (up from just 1 in my previous life!)

I guess the moral / lesson here for me is - once again, to be open to unexpected things that life offers. I'm so glad I was, this time!!


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Musings on Ikea!

Even though I do like their 'stuff', right now I'd like to completely expunge the word 'Ikea' from my life! A couple of times I've had to go to the Ikea store on the way into Brisbane, and it's just a nightmare!! I don't know why, but whenever I've been there for a short while I just want to turn around and escape, run straight home without passing Go, or doing whatever else it was I was supposed to be doing that day!!

And now I'm in the middle of trying to make changes to an existing (very nice!) Ikea kitchen in my new house ... It ought to be easy, but ... I need to add some extra storage (I think the kitchen was designed/installed by a guy and there is way too little cupboard space!). And I also have to move a cupboard so I can put a dishwasher next to the sink (where it has to be according to the plumber!) And OK, a bit of fiddling around by a builder/carpenter to put the extra cupboards under another completely different, higher benchtop. But it took me a while to find/get hold of a recommended person who can be trusted to do this. And then I discover the doors on my existing kitchen are no longer made by Ikea so I also have to replace those doors! And I have to hope that the existing handles have not run out of stock before I get there, as they are also threatening to discontinue them!

I've arranged to go there tomorrow and collect everything with a friend who has a ute (Australian for utility truck!), as despite what the builder said I just know this will not fit into my small Toyota!! So I'm feverishly checking and re-checking my list of what is needed according to the builder. It's well over an hour's drive away so I'd rather not have to keep going back to collect forgotten/replacement items!!

Apart from that - still loving the new place and location. Not loving my seeming inability to get myself to the yoga shala very much. The last time I went I told the teacher I was going to try and come 2-3 times a week. And that was 3-4 weeks ago and I haven't made it back!! Somewhat embarrassing!! I am practicing at home most days, but I know I'm not pushing myself hard enough ... sigh! Hopefully I will get a good routine going in the not too distant future!

Had family visiting last weekend, we went swimming, to one of the local Farmers' Markets, and out for a lovely tapas meal in Byron Bay. And there's another 2-3 lots of visitors booked in before mid-December which is great.

Yoga and sunshine

Finally I made it to one of the Mysore classes at the Gold Coast Yoga Centre this morning. I've been going to the Saturday afternoon led Primary classes but for whatever reason it's taken a while to get to a Mysore class. And it was really great. Mark seems to be a lovely and encouraging teacher ... Every yoga centre is different - he told me he was happy for people to attempt all of primary, even if they hadn't done a pose before. (Of course in the led class this is what happens too.) So I'm just going to go with the flow and do this too. I've done/been given most (but not all) of Primary at some time. Although in the Brisbane shala, poses were taken away if you had an injury or something (as I often did!) and then it might be years before they were given back (if ever!)

Case in point is garbha pindasana. I used to do this years ago but - maybe it was when I got the meniscus knee injury, it got taken away and I haven't done it since then - probably 4 years. So when I started trying to do it again at one of the led classes I was completely hopeless! And I'm not talking about getting arms through lotus as I don't do lotus! It was the rocking round - I kept having to give up and move to the next pose in the led class!! Hopefully doing it in the Mysore class setting will give me the space and time to get it back properly again ... !

And also - Mark got my fingers touching in one side of Mari D! That hasn't happened since Hamish Hendry in London got me into that pose - again about 4 years ago! I was astounded!

It's a beautiful sunny day today ... hard to believe it's still 'officially' winter, although it gets somewhat chilly after the sun goes down. The Byron Bay Writers Festival is on this weekend - I'm going tomorrow for the day. My friend Victor is on one of the panels (on memoirs), and there are some great speakers whose sessions I hope to catch ... like Jeanette Winterson - I remember loving her first book Oranges are not the Only Fruit years ago ... Should be a fun day!

1st yoga practice at Dena's shala

I went to a class at Dena's shala yesterday for the first time ( except for one time I dropped in on one of her intensive years ago). She isn't teaching there at the moment, and even when she does, it's month-long intensives that I probably wouldn't be doing. But she told me I should go to the 9.30 class, sometimes run by Jack, and that she practices in sometimes. And that she would 'oversee' my practice.

Neither of them were there, which was probably a good thing as it might have distracted me!! And - this is the first time I've started as a student at a new shala. And my mind was full of worries about 'exposing' my pathetic practice! I was wondering if I should be listing all the poses I used to do until I got a meniscus injury 3 years ago, a lot of which have still not been given back to me ... On and on and on ... my mind is what's pathetic!! Of course I know that's not what's important, but it's hard to just accept and not listen! Christian, the teacher there told me to just do my practice as I'd been doing it at the old shala and we'd take it from there. I did put a couple of poses back in but mostly it's as it has been.

And it just felt so good to have got over that mental hurdle! Now he knows my balance is crap, and my strength is lacking, etc and I don't have to feel embarrassed any more ... I know, I know, I never did have to, but these are the mental burdens that some of us are burdened with!

So, all in all it was a lovely day! Plus I had my first visitor in the afternoon ... :)

Exertions in charuranga!

Since the last Bali workshop (last October) when Dena shone a big spotlight on my fairly pathetic sun salutes, I have been giving them a lot of attention. Partly the up-dog part, but lately I've really been concentrating on lowering into chaturanga. I've never been able to do that, and for many years just accepted that as the 'status quo' and didn't make any real attempt. However, this lack of strength in my arms has effects across my practice. For example, it also means I can't lift up into urdva dhanurasana, and can only do the more basic setu bandhasana with my shoulders on the mat. And that's the way it's going to stay until I put the effort in and build up that strength!!

So I'm now making a concerted effort in the chaturanga part of sun salutes, going down as slowly as possible, and it's definitely getting better, even though I still collapse to the ground with a moan <grin> - I don't know how long it's going to take, but I really hope I do keep this effort up this time!!

My friend Helen who I used to have a Sunday morning yoga practice with until she had to go interstate for a year's training placement, was back home for a few days last week. And we managed to get together on Friday (my day off) to do yoga together. Miss Squiggle, my pussycat loves this and of course was in there 'helping' to unroll her yoga mats. Well, that's what she said she was doing!! It was really nice to spend some time together, even though I don't know if/when we'll be able to do this again. Depends on whether my house has sold before she comes back for good. But we will get together sometimes, just not as regularly!

Hello new year, new beginnings

The beginning of a year always (? - well, maybe mostly!?!) seems to be a special time. A whole new blank canvas ahead, with who knows what adventures to come.

Looking back, 2013 was a very mixed bag for me. A lot of time spent dealing with my mother's estate, and the sale of her house. Then packing up/dealing with the contents of that house, which was (unsurprisingly) quite an emotional experience. And all through that I was dealing with various health issues - some of which were no doubt related in some way to the emotional stress of losing one's mother. And all of which meant I wasn't able to practice yoga for many many months. Finally I decided it was time to take control, to just get back to the mat no matter how much I was coughing! I made a decision to go to Dena Kingsburg's Bali retreat again, and had such a great time, I haven't looked back!

And behind all of those events I have been working through my own 2 or 3 year plan, to move down to northern NSW. I spent a lot of time fixing up things in my house, and finally when I got back from Bali it was time to get the real estate agents in. The house has been on the market for a couple of months now, and there have been at least two potential buyers who were very interested in it. Although in the end these fell through, I'm still very heartened. I always knew it would take a while to sell, as it's in the country, and needs a particular type of person who likes that sort of life. But I do feel confident that things will move in the not too distant future. And then it'll be time for me to move!

So, 2014 and New Year's Resolutions ...

There is much to look forward to, and one thing I really would like is, (as a friend on Facebook said) 'more yoga'! But I also really want to remember / be aware, that this all isn't a dress rehearsal. This is my life and I want to be living it now, not waiting for things that I want to happen in the future. To stay connected inside to reality and to just enjoy the ride!

I wish that for everyone ... :)

Sunny day news

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

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

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

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Location:Kholo Road,Kholo,Australia

Post Bali wrap-up

Back home now after a truly wonderful few days in Bali. My experiences last time (of being sick) had somewhat coloured my memory of Bali, and all those stupid worries I had about whether I was healthy enough to go and take on the intensities of a yoga workshop just made me scared to commit. I knew inside I was being pathetic (!) and, oh I am so glad I went. Bali is just a magical place. The people are so uncomplicated and happy. The way ceremony and their religion intertwines throughout their daily lives every day is just amazing ...

But - despite all of the beauties of Bali, this trip really was all about the yoga for me. Dena is such a wonderful teacher - the way she is just really clicks with me. (I think I've said it before, but she so reminds me of my favourite friend, Wendi!!) Another thing to look forward to when I move down to Ocean Shores is that she will be my yoga teacher down there ...

Anyway - I will have had 3 days at home before I go back to work tomorrow ... when I guess the normal day-to-day stuff will come back in and take over more of my consciousness - sadly! Going to a yoga class this evening ... it was a choice between choir practice (for the Messiah) and yoga, and I'm afraid yoga wins out over choir!!

Tempting fate

I was tempting fate when I made my last post about all the 'progress'! I think it was actually the next day that I suddenly developed some kind of muscle strain in my back! In fact it is/was remarkably similar to what I had a year ago ... My osteopath tells me that it's muscles that attach to my diaphragm and the strain/whatever is caused by coughing!!! If only I could stop!!!

Again I am finding myself unable to do anything involving a forward bend ... not so much the going down as the coming back up - my back can feel really unsupported (and painful!) But it's worst at night. I've once again established a close relationship with Voltaran - after only a few weeks away from it!!!

So, I don't know how many times I've said/done this over the last few weeks - but I will make a final decision on going to Bali after I see my osteopath again this evening. I'm pretty sure I'm still going to go. I just don't know how I'll manage sun salutes etc etc. What a pain!!

I wasn't able to practice on the weekend - had visitors, but yesterday I tried again. Sun Salutes were difficult - I ended up have to kind of 'creep down' onto my hands & knees to get to the floor, and then on with the sun salute. (Only tried one!) I did manage to do padangusthasana although coming back up from it was difficult. The Prasaritas weren't so difficult - maybe the wide-angled stance helps ... Maybe when I do my lunchtime practice in the uni gym today things will have got a bit better!

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!!)

Bali workshop booked!

Yeay - I gathered my courage and booked my flight to Bali for Dena's workshop in October! I still don't know what shape my practice will be in by then - don't even know if I'll be able to do normal sun salutes but really hope I will have got over most of the shoulder problems by then!

It's funny - I was so scared to commit, but now that I have I'm really looking forward to it - duh!! I realised/was reminded that you can't live your life worrying about things that might or might not happen ... just have to step forward and 'carpe diem' ... it's the only one we've got!!

Off to Melbourne next week for the Blackboard conference (LMS software I am involved with at work). Will be catching up with some Melbourne friends while I'm down there which should be nice - also hoping to do a bit of shopping on the day before the conference <grin>.

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 ... :)

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>

Distinct lack of progress!

Well, despite my excitement and good intentions, I didn't make it to yoga class last week, and didn't again this weekend - sigh! I started feeling not good again and - well, just another of the obstacles that have been in the way of my yoga practice over the past few months. I did do a very short practice today, and am hoping to manage to practice a couple of times at lunchtimes this week. It's no longer as easy to practice at lunchtimes now - the place I have to go to is further across campus, and it's not always available. But never mind. Will see how I manage this.

I'm still thinking/hoping to go to Dena's Bali workshop in October  and it's probably a good idea for me to have something to work towards! I seem to remember that the first time i went to one (maybe 3 years ago) it really made me put more into my practice. Both the teachers where I go remarked on it ... :)

Apart from this, I've been doing a Coursera course - Internet History Technology & Security - and it's great! No coding, but lots of really interesting history of the internet stuff. Only in the 2nd week, but last week was all about Bletchey Park (UK World War 2 code-breaking) and Alan Turing. Really fascinating - I am loving it!! Well recommended - and it's online and free!!

And if you haven't heard of Coursera - just google it and/or MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course ... !) The big buzzword at universities at the moment!

Fingers crossed - back to yoga!

Finally! I can't (and don't even want to!) begin to work out how long it's been. And it's been just one 'interruption' after the other! At the beginning of May after everything that'd happened I finally made a start on practicing again, and made it to one class. A couple of days after that I started to feel like there might be something going on with my knee - yes, the same one I had that meniscus tear in, just a couple of years ago. And sure enough, after a couple of days the knee started 'clicking'!! Horrors!! Luckily I happened to look back in this blog to when that happened last time, and discovered I'd noted down something my osteopath had showed me - how to walk without letting the knee click.

The added freakout for me here was that my osteopath had just gone to Vietnam on holiday and I couldn't get an appointment for a couple of weeks ... Still, I did manage to get a cancellation for just after she came back. And she said that it wasn't a tear again, but something I'd done must have just twisted the meniscus a bit or something! And finally, after seeing her again today she said it's ok to go back to yoga, but very very gently and carefully!! As if I'd be anything else - well, at least to start off with. I do tend to get impatient with being (as I see it!) held back, but ... :)

But I'm so happy now! I'll do a very light practice at home tomorrow, and then go back to class on Saturday afternoon. And maybe, if all goes well, I might try and go to Dena's Bali workshop later in the year - beginning of October. But I'm going to wait and see for a while first ... :)

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!

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 ...