choir, health, yoga ...

Spent the weekend at a choir camp. Our choir QUMS (Queensland Uni Musical Society) is doing a big performance of Handel's Judas Maccabaeus in just over 10 days' time. And although we've been rehearsing it for months, it's still a biig piece and lots to learn/polish! We're performing it at St John's Cathedral in Brisbane (apparently the last Gothic cathedral to be built - in fact they're still building it!) and there are going to be 4 soloists and an orchestra. Should be amazing - I normally only sing in big things like that when it's the Messiah - also by Handel!

Apart from that I have been slowly recovering from all the excitement ... photos will come soon I promise! Yoga did get a bit left behind but I practiced today - and it was hard! Normally it's only like that the 2nd practice after a gap!

Nothing much else ... but? wait! I just remembered! I had a blood test and then saw my doctor last week! Nothing too much new to report. Although my blood levels were a bit down on the previous test, he thought that those (the previous test results) were probably still reflecting the booster injection I'd had. My new WBC levels are still 'trending up' (!) if you take out that one. He was happy with it all. I am due to have scans (PET and CT) at the end of June and will see him again the following month. Assuming all is well in those, he said he probably wouldn't schedule any more scans unless/until something showed up. Which hopefully will either not, or not for a very long time!!

So anyway - it's all good!

happy party

Had such a lovely time at the party! Everyone was really happy and it was just great! One friend insisted on singing (declaiming?) a song from Shakespeare to me (as a birthday thing), other people told lurid embellished stories about my youth, and a good time was generally had by all! The only thing I was a bit sad about was that my iPod playlist that I laboured long over putting together, was really only heard by the people sitting closest to the kitchen (where the music machine was). But the 2 girls working in the kitchen said they really like it, so I guess all that work wasn't completely in vain!!

Photos will follow in the next few days, although some are on my Facebook album now.

Yoga has gone a bit into abeyance as I've got my mother staying at the moment. But I'll be back to it on Wednesday, and expect to be stiff!

Yesterday we trailed round Brisbane showing my brother-in-law and his wife round various art galleries etc before their flight home in the evening. They had flown up from Sydney specially for the party, as had my nephew. Jo, the nephew had to fly back to Sydney early on Saturday morning to help organise another birthday party that night for his girlfriend's mother! So it was such a sweet thing that he came up just for my party!

Today I'm having a bit of a quiet day - you know, washing, reading, playing on the web!

I'm baaack ... :)

Well, I wasn't supposed to be 'officially' back posting here till next week after I've seen my doctor again, but I've been spending quite a bit of time 'doing up' this blog again - new template, new pictures, new lots of things. And I just can't resist posting - don't want to wait till next week!!

So - I'm going to assume everyone who's interested will have been reading my lymphoma journey blog (http://lymphomajourney.blogspot.com) and so knows all about that. As I said there, I'm in remission. I'm back at work fulltime, back doing yoga, back living my life! My blood counts are still low, and my immune system still compromised, but as of my last blood test it's on the way up! Still building up strength etc. but lately I've been feeling soo much better and stronger. (Feels a bit scarey to say that - almost inviting some sickness or other to come! But I mustn't be too superstitious.)

Anyway, (this is a bit of re-hashing from the other blog, but ... ) I made a sort of new year's (new life!) resolution to not be so shy, to be more 'out there' enjoying life and taking what was on offer. So, as my birthday is next week I decided to have a party, partly for that but mainly more as a celebration after all of last year's events! That's happening this Friday evening, at a cafe in Paddington (Brisbane). Well, it's actually what they call a 'Backyard BBQ' - is being held in their very nice back yard and catered by them. This is so unlike me, but to be honest having taken the plunge I have really been enjoying all the organisation etc. and am very much looking forward to it ...

I'll still post health stuff on the other blog, but now that it's not so much of a focus in my life I'll leave it just for that!

Feels great ... :)

Last post for a while ...

Anyway, this will be my last post here for a while. I guess most people who read my blog will know that I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma ... so on Monday I head off to hospital for 2 weeks to start the treatment. I should be finished that sometime in November ...

I decided to set up another blog about this 'chapter' of my life! http://lymphomajourney.blogspot.com/ Mostly because I want to be able to close the door on it when I've finished treatment and the doctor gives me the all clear (as much as you can ever get an all clear once something like this happens to you!)

So head on over there to follow my ups and downs through a side of life that I never wanted to know about, but will now be having an intimate experience with!! As I keep telling everyone, I'm completely positive about the outcome and just want/need to get through it and out the other side!

See you there (the blog I mean, not cancer!!! )

And I'll be back posting here next year sometime ... :)

I ache all over ... :)

After yesterday's yoga class I am aching all over today! Particularly some (hitherto unknown!) muscles below my shoulder-blades at the front. Owww!! I can only think it relates to something Iain (and Maxine) were reminding me about - particularly in sun salutes but in loads of asanas. And that is to broaden my back (at the same time as dropping my shoulder-blades down my back). Apparently what I've been doing in the past is squeezing my shoulder-blades together, and thus hollowing my back.

Sometimes it feels like you have to think about soo many different things in each asana, Tighten my thigh muscles, widen my hands, lift my chest, drop my shoulders, broaden my back, don't forget the bandhas, ujiyi breathing ... etc etc etc!!

On a completely different note, here's a picture of someone who wanted to join in when my Mum, friend Ross and I went up the coast and out for lunch in the glorious Spirit House restaurant. He/she is a water dragon - a sort of goanna/lizard ... We were sitting beside the lake (I always request that!), and as well as the glorious food they serve there, it's just lovely to sit and enjoy the birds and wildlife there. The waiter told us not to feed the wildlife - apparently the chefs do feed them out the back!!

Anyone coming to Australia, you should make a big effort to go to this wonderful restaurant! You won't be disappointed!! The gardens are glorious, the food is out of this world (Thai-inspired), the ambiance is perfect! (Do I sound like an advertisement for the Spirit House?!!) :)

News from downunder

Well, I guess it's way past time that I posted again ... And just to put us all in the mood, here is my gorgeous pussycat Mieke, doing what she does most of the day, snoozing away!!

I've been pretty busy helping a friend put up the 4th edition of her online poetry website, foam:e But now that's done - uploaded the files last night.

I've also got some more website work - a couple of astrology websites! Wendy, the graphic designer I work with, joked that we might specialise in doing new age websites, as there's another similar one to do waiting in the wings!

Yoga is going good ... went to class on Saturday and had one of those practices where everything seemed great. Got lots of attention from the teachers and new things to try (in poses I've already been given). Those sort of days don't come all the time - sometimes I'm just dying for the class to come to an end (especially on a Saturday afternoon/early evening!)

I've also started going to this women's gym (Curves). I lost a lot of weight a year or so ago, and I really feel the need to 'tone my body up' a bit! I also need to build up my upper body strength (for yoga) and I'm hoping I can do this here to. It's just circuit-training - 30 minutes on various machines, plus 5-10 minutes stretches at the end. (Which I am religiously doing to make sure I don't lose flexibility!) And 3 times a week - on the way home! I may up it to 4 times a week - see how I go.

I guess if I had a 6-day a week yoga practice I mightn't need to do this, but the fact is I don't! One class a week, plus self-practice (at work) 3 times a week - that seems to be the most I can do ...

Seems good - I'm hoping for good things! (I do better when I'm pushed, rather than having to push myself!!)

back to class ...

Went back to class last Saturday for the first time for a month. They'd been closed for a month - a richly deserved holiday for the yoga teachers!! Anyway, even though I'd been practicing a bit, I could hardly walk the next day I was so stiff! Muscles I'd completely forgotten about speaking loudly to me ... Luckily it was a hot Sunday and all I had to do was collapse and watch one of the one-day matches on TV.

Even hotter now - 34degC I think. So I'm glad to be at work in the air-con ...