It's been a while!

... since I posted here! Don't know why but here I am back again ...:)  Yoga is good - though I did get a quite bad cold a few weeks ago (first one for years so I guess I shouldn't complain - too much anyway!) And I did have to pull my practice right back for a few days ... Christian told me to concentrate on the breath (which resonates in so many ways!) and not to worry too much about how far I could get in any asana ... I think I'm well on the mend again now, although I do have to admit that after having a day off practice yesterday, I felt incredibly stiff and slow this morning!

Choir and singing have been wonderful! A local friend, also in the choir, came back from overseas a few weeks ago and we have been practicing a bit together. And I'm really thrilled to hear that we're going to sing the Faure Requiem in a concert at the end of November. Have always wanted to sing that and now I'm going to!

Had a friend staying for a few days and managed to do a bit of driving around with her - here are some photos!



We went to a community arts market in the hills behind Byron - at The Channon, and on the way back we were driving along little country roads and passed this lovely old house. Stopped to take a photo and the owner plus small son appeared from another house nearby. He was using the old house to display furniture he made and gave us a tour!



Another day we went to the wonderful Murwillumbah Regional Art Gallery - where I always say this view is just as good as the works of art on display ... And below is a selfie taken by another friend who came to join us!

Punchy title goes here!

Didn't know if I was going to get to yoga class this morning ... My pussycat Miss Squiggle used to be really good at coming back inside when I called her, but - I think she's started exploring a bit further afield (over the fence into the next garden!) so maybe she's out of earshot. Giving her the benefit of the doubt here!! But I won't leave her outside when I'm out so had to wait till she came back. Luckily she reappeared just before the latest time I could leave ... And I'll have to bear this in mind in future!


Look at her - butter wouldn't melt in her mouth!!

Last time I went to class (earlier in the week) Jack had me trying out headstand (which I've never done). I said I wasn't sure I would be able to, even with help - still not enough strength. And I was right, but for now, as well as doing that 'dolphin' preparatory/strengthening pose I'm going to actually make steps towards - hmm, getting used to just the starting position. I actually had no idea that my head was supposed to be on/touching the ground (or my hands). So even that seems very weird and difficult! Oh well, baby steps (as usual!!)

Am finally getting it together to organise my trip to the UK/Europe later this year. I'm going to do one of Dena's Bali workshops on the way. Which always involves a bit of backtracking - flying to Singapore or Bangkok and then back to Bali - have no idea why but it's much more expensive to do it in a more direct fashion. Just have to doublecheck with my sister in London that the dates are ok with her and then I can finalise the booking!

Oh, and I'm still having a lovely time at choir / singing! And learning SO much that I never knew (or had completely forgotten) on the 'technical' / Music Theory 101 level!! Perhaps I should rephrase that as discovering how much I didn't know, but need to! It's just great!!!

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Singing again at last!

Last night I got to start going to choir practice at last! Oh yes, I did the audition 2-3 weeks ago and passed! Very relieved - and in fact, in the end I think it was really good for me to go through this experience. The actual audition was more like a singing lesson, and it was really good for me to be able to sing in front of a teacher, and not sort of freeze up or shrivel away! I'm much less scared about singing in front of people now. In fact, at choir practice last night Ian got me to sing the exercise we had been doing in pairs, by myself and I just did it. Didn't even think about it until someone commented about it afterwards ...

As the choir was putting on a concert a couple of weeks after the audition, we had agreed it was best to wait till after that before coming to choir practice. But I had a couple of lessons with Ian, and feel I am learning so much. Much more than I ever have in the past! Very happy about it all!

After a very busy couple of days this week I'm finally going to yoga class tomorrow morning. It's over a week since I've been - I think I was a bit sick last week or something. Definitely need and want to get on the mat in the Shala again!


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Marichyasana D and choirs!

Christian, one of the teachers at the Ashtanga Shala in Byron, gave me some help/advice in Marichyasana D yesterday, and I ended up with my fingers touching on one side ... Very amazing! Of course I can't do it on my own, but the advice/pointers he gave me certainly helped me today without assistance, and I begin to believe that I really will be able to do it one day! In fact he told me that after struggling to do it himself for 4 years, he finally decided he'd never be able to, relaxed and then was able to! Which was part of his advice - don't strain and struggle!

Ever since I moved down here I've been looking for a choir to join that sings classical choral music. It's been hard - all I could find were gospel-type choirs. I did try one once, and they were nice but it's just not what I like singing in choirs. But then I discovered that a friend of mine sings in a classical choir ... The only drawback to me was the fact that you have to audition to join it! Which is something I've never had to do before ... All the choirs I've sung in were community / non-auditioning.

On top of this, I haven't really sung in a choir for a couple of years and don't feel very confident about my voice at the moment. So I found this online voice training course, and have been going through the exercises, and more importantly, doing the warmup voice exercises most days. Then I do something like sing through part of the Messiah alto choruses ... I've recorded me singing one of the choruses ("And the Glory of the Lord") a few times, and I can definitely see - no, hear! - the difference. The guy who runs this course (Eric Arceneaux) strongly emphasises the importance of doing voice exercises every day, and it seems he is right!

I've made contact with the choir conductor, and will probably go and do the audition on Friday! When I said I was somewhat nervous, his response was: "Don't worry about the audition. It is for me to find what you can do, not to give you a pass/ fail. We love people singing here."

So that was nice! Hopefully it won't be too onerous!


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Shala practicing again, and ...

Since I last posted I have been to Mysore class at the Byron Bay shala a few times. Each time Christian was the teacher, and each time Dena was there in a corner of the room, doing her own practice. A strong, quiet presence in the room ...  Feels really good to be back practising in class again.

On the weekend a friend and I went out for a drive, which turned into a bit of magical mystery tour! We had been going to the monthly market at a small village in the hills behind Byron, but it  turned out to have been on the previous weekend. So we decided to carry on driving through the beautiful countryside and ended up in Nimbin. For those either not old enough to remember, or not from Australia, Nimbin was the location for a famous Aquarius Festival back in the 70's (see www.rainbowdreaming.org/the_aquarius_festival.html for a description of it!)

My friend and I had both been at that festival - in fact I remember hitching up to it with a friend from Sydney ... Cannot imagine ever doing anything like that now ... :)  To be honest, I can't remember much about it all - probably too under the influence of various substances! But we ended up in an information  centre in Nimbin and I was completely delighted to see a display of photos from the festival, including photos of two of our musician friends!

And today someone is helping me put in two raised veggie beds! (Actually, he is doing it, I am supervising!!) Can't wait to be able to grow some veggies again. I bought some (biodynamic) seedlings at the farmers market today in anticipation!

Finally, back to class

I'm not even going to say/guess how long it is since I've been to a class at the (any!) shala. A loong time, far too long! Some of that because of sickness or visitors etc, sometimes because of monkey mindtrips!

I have been practicing at home, but a bit sporadically, and definitely lacking in intensity. I did decide to stop beating myself up about it all, and wait till I felt like going back. And finally that has happened. I went to a led class at the Gold Coast Yoga Centre yesterday afternoon. I like that place - people are friendly. The teacher (Danny) remembered my name after all these months! and he told me to take it easy ... I certainly had to do that! Standing was reasonably ok, but once we'd got to the seated poses and all those vinyasas, my arms got more and more tired! I started off just doing vinyasas between the pose (not each side), but ended up not even being able to do any! It's unbelievable how quickly strength goes! I knew this theoretically, but right now I really know it! Today I am aching in muscles I'd forgotten about!

And while on a roll, I'm going to go to Dena's shala tomorrow morning for a Mysore class. Not with her - she is teaching intensives and they are booked up for the rest of the year! But there is a 9.30 class, sometimes taught by one of her assistants, sometimes by Jack. So those are the classes I usually go to.

Hopefully this will get me on track to continue practicing at home with more intensity, and to go to classes regularly too ... Fingers crossed!



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The weather event!

Experiencing 'interesting' weather here! My local beach has gone from this:



To this:



A cyclone (Marcia) came across the mid-Queensland Coast yesterday and careered its way down south, while at the same time a 'rain depression' was hovering over the northern NSW coast (ie the Byron coast, where I live!) I live in a flood-prone area although to my knowledge the house hasn't flooded in the past few years (as long as anyone can remember). But there are rivers and creeks nearby that flood and it's all a question of how fast the water can get away / into the ground. It rained pretty solidly for 24 hours - that was the rain depression! - and today seemed to be the calm before the storm / remnants of the cyclone arrived to join in. But so far nothing much has transpired. I don't know if the cyclone has fizzled out and/or gone out to sea, or whether it's still lurking waiting to pounce!

Yesterday the local SES (State Emergency Service) came to everyone on our street, handing out information on what to do if we had to evacuate! So I made a list of what to take, and what to do to protect what is left in the house if that were to happen. All seemed slightly surreal, but better to have that done at leisure than in a panic I'm sure!

And now I'm going to go and do some yoga (there's a yoga mat in the car so I didn't have to add that to my list of essential things to take!)