Yoga and the 5 Rhythms

I've been collapsed at home today (Sunday) after quite an amazing afternoon/evening yesterday. Went to yoga class in the afternoon which was quite lovely. Not that anything wonderful in the way of breakthroughs or progress happened - probably the reverse as I still haven't sorted out a new practice schedule since changing jobs (and time available). But it just felt so good to be 'in the slot' of practice - doing the sun salutes and just following the series through. I had to leave early because I was supposed to be somewhere at 6pm, and the teacher had started talking to everyone about pranayama, or the basic beginners' pranayama that he teaches and we do at the end of asana practice. I had to get up and go in the middle of all of this which felt a bit awkward, but couldn't be helped.

So - where I had to be at 6pm was at a 5 Rhythms dance! I'd never heard of this before, but a friend (Ross) invited me to one being put on by his yoga teacher. Basically it's a dance 'practice' founded by someone called Gabrielle Roth, where you dance to 5 different rhythms - flowing, staccatto, chaos, lyrical and stillness. 20 minutes for each rhythm. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was wonderful! I would have thought I'd have been pretty tired having just done about 1.5 hours of yoga, but I didn't sit out any of it! Most of us did kind of treat the last one (stillness) as a sort of savasana, lying on the floor, but still I have to say I was quite amazed that I was able to keep dancing without any thought of sitting down for a while!

However, today is a different matter! I was quite tired, and when I got back from doing the shopping (and visiting the library) I was quite content to have a slow quiet afternoon! Mind you, I'll still fighting with uploading my CMS website to a test server - unsuccessful to date! Hoping to get some (more) help from the user community, who of course are mostly in Europe/USA and so in bed when I'm awake, and awake when I'm asleep!

Photos from Easter

Me and my cousin, my Mum and my Aunt


Jedda, lounging on the antique furniture


hiding in the bedclothes!

Post-Easter holiday

A nice Easter holiday ... I took a couple of extra days and am now just back at work. This is the first break I've had since all of the emotional upheaval that I guess inevitably comes when a whole group of people you've worked with for many years are made redundant / split up. Somehow it seemed a much more significant event than if I'd just resigned.

My Mum came up from NSW (she usually does for Easter) and we had a nice family time. Went to visit one of my cousins on Easter Day - she's just moved into a new house at Mt Tamborine - about an hour's drive south of Brisbane. Very pretty there, up in the hills (Gold Coast hinterland) but also very green and wet! It rains a lot!! We had a big family lunch there with 4 generations (including an 8-week old baby, great-grandnephew of my mother).

On Monday a friend from many years ago came through Brisbane for the day - on her way from a wedding in Melbourne and a Great Barrier Reef holiday in Cairns, back home to L.A. We knew each other when we both lived in London a long time ago, and since then have met up every few years. Talked (and ate, and drank wine!) for hours and hours, so now we are both fully caught up on what's been happening in each other's lives!

I also spent quite a bit of time on one of the two websites I'm developing. It's mostly finished now - just whatever changes/updates that are requested. Next weekend I'm going to meet up with the client for the other website, to move that along too.

And this evening I'm (yet again!) picking up my yoga practice and going to class.

Week 2 - a little tired!

Last week I sailed through with heaps of energy, but I'm a bit more tired this week. I guess it's to be expected - will take a while for my body/circadian rhythms/whatever to get used to the new situation. But that's OK. My cough is also getting a bit worse, which doesn't help. I've got some antibiotics but am holding off taking them until I'm sure I need to.

One thing I'm really missing is yoga. Last week I managed 2 practices. This week, nothing so far! I'll go on Saturday but I can't see any other options. I've already got to get up really early - not going any further (or earlier) down that track. And I just don't have the energy when I get home. When I was at the other campus I practiced at lunchtime - there were heaps of spare rooms around, and we also had a weekly yoga session with 2-5 others. Here - this building is a rabbit warren but I don't think there's much spare space. Anything that doesn't have people in it has piles of computers and parts and cables and so on!

There is, however, this Unifit system where the gym is available for one hour at lunchtime to staff whose departments (mine included) pay for their staff to attend. After Easter I'm going to sign up there and see if they'll let me do my yoga practice there in the gym. Not ideal, but the best (possible) solution I've come up so far.

Weekends have been taken up with work on 2 websites! Never rains but it pours ... One of them is my first CMS-based site. I'm using CMS-MS and am getting the hang of that. The other one is a static one, that's come out of an Arts grant that a friend applied for. She quoted for a website as well as everything else. This is 2 Artists books, so will have lots of images etc.

And I'm really pleased because I'm going to be able to get a new laptop from the proceeds of these two websites. My existing one is over 4-5 years old and is just soo slow. It's a Mac Powerbook, and I've been using the later Intel-based Macs at work for years now. The difference in speed is amazing. But it's not just the comparison - there is definitely something wrong with the Powerbook. I'm making sure I back up to an external hard drive every night, just in case of disaster! Just have to hope it lasts out for another month or so!

New job and other stuff

I've been in the new (ITS) job for 3 days now, and I feel sure it's been a great move for me! The people here are great, and they really look after you. Being the 'information technology' centre of the uni, I guess it's not surprising that I was asked what sort of new computer I wanted, and was a 22" 2nd monitor big enough for my 2nd screen! (My last 2nd screen was about 15"!) And - give us a list of all the software you'd like us to get for you ... for someone like me it's almost like I died and went to heaven :) But they're also asking if there's anything else I'd like. [ed: I'm getting a brand-new iMac, with lots of Adobe software - yess!!]

My immediate supervisor is a coffee fantatic - brought in her own very expensive espresso machine and buys really good coffee beans. She won't let anyone else use the coffee-maker, but makes coffee for us all during the day!

The travel is a lot more than I was doing, but it's doable. Most days I'll be getting an inter-campus bus that goes between the campus I was working on and the main one in Brisbane. Once or twice a week I'll drive in. Takes about an hour. The problem with driving in isn't so much the drive, it's the finding somewhere to park when you get here! If you arrive later than 8.30am you're pretty much 'stuffed' (to use the vernacular!)

Anyway - I drove in today as it's choir practice tonight, so no point in catching the bus home and then turning around and driving back in almost immediately. And I'm going to go to yoga this evening - there's a 5.15pm class at my yoga school. So that's great ...

Finally - this is a really interesting blog/article on the future of newspapers - well worth reading if you're interested/concerned in this issue.
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/

Pussycat, yoga and job!

Latest Jedda photo - crashed out!

I've been feeling pretty good all week (marvellous what antibiotics can do!!) and went to class yesterday full of enthusiasm. It was one of those days when the teacher decides to lead people through the sun salutes and the next couple of poses - up to trikonasana. That always shows me where I'm taking extra breaths! That would be in surya namaskar B! Don't know when I'll ever be able to stop doing that, but it's good to be reminded!

Practice was really nice - I felt so positive about it all. I ended up being stopped as I was going into Karnapidasana (I had to look up the name in my David Swenson book - it's one of the shoulderstand variations!) Anyway, the teacher told me I was pushing myself too much and needed to build up strength before I carried on further! Oh well, such is life! Last weekend I stopped a lot earlier - at navasana (boat pose) but I think that was mostly that I was feeling a bit off, possibly because I'd had a flu injection the previous day. So it was a real thrill to have a practice that, if not back to where I was 18 months ago (was it only 18 months ago that all that health stuff happened?!) at least felt quite strong and positive!

On Friday I went for an interview for one of the jobs 'on offer' in a couple of weeks. It was good, although there wasn't as much web development in it as I had hoped. But they said there was quite a lot I would be able to do, just not in the position description. And if I go and work there I can have a Mac (they'll get me a new one!) and it's a big group within the University so other opportunities may well come up. I've got an interview for the other job on Tuesday, and I'll decide after that ... :)

Definitely time!

Definitely time that I posted again! Have been having a few health issues, in that as soon as I stopped taking the antibiotics, the coughing etc. started up again. So I'm back on them until I see the specialist in 10 days time. On reflection, I remember this happened last year when I had that long long period of coughing etc. And I had to keep on the antibiotics for quite a long time. Sigh! Just have to hope that in time the immunoglobulin infusions I'm having will raise my immune system to a level where it can cope with these things in a more normal fashion!!

I missed a bit of yoga last week, but have been back to it this week which is good. Even the doctor said I should be doing yoga for my health! I guess I can let myself off when I'm feeling physically ill, but otherwise not!

At work, in the whole restructure thing is slowing winding down to the end date (20th March). I've now got 2 possible redeployment positions lined up at the university, which is good. I'm leaning more towards one than the other, but will go for interviews for both anyway. We went to a very good 2-day workshop called something like 'Career Transitions' last week. Although we were all a bit jaded and suspicious to start off with, it turned out being really worthwhile, and I learnt a lot! Plus we all gained in confidence, as we were all put through a job interview by the person running the workshop, in front of everyone else. And even though each of us was pretty nervous, the rest of us were able to reassure the person being interviewed that they came across very well, and not at all nervous! It was really eye-opening.

One door closing, another opening ... and so it goes :)