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!)

A day of cooking

Went to a sourdough bread-making course today ... Held up in the hills in a pretty little village called Federal (which appears to have a general store and a Japanese restaurant!)





This was just some of the things we baked! Sourdough bread, sourdough hot cross buns, sourdough buns ... Not to mention delicious buttermilk pancakes, and cultured butter (?!!) made either with dairy kefir or butter milk and yoghurt or sour cream. And then eating said pancakes with either the butter with orange jest and maple syrup, or with herbs chopped through. Utterly delicious!!

And we each prepared and kneaded the dough for a sourdough loaf and brought it away with us, as well as some sourdough starter! A truly great day ... :)

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Late Christmas holiday

Having a lovely time down in Sydney - late Christmas celebrations with family!

Today we went into the city to see an exhibition, and decided to go via ferry. What a wonderful experience - I'd forgotten how I used to love that when I lived in Sydney ... Here are some photos ...






It's very hot here - hotter than home even though that's quite a bit further north. I guess the rainy sub-tropical weather there keeps the temperature down ... as it is, my knees got burnt sitting in the sun on the ferry!