Looking back looking forward

"Welcome to the last practice of the year"!

That's how I was greeted when I went to the Ashtanga studio this morning. Nice! And it was a pretty good one, which was also nice ... I'm really enjoying practicing at the new studio with Christian, another thing that has clicked into place in my life this year.

2015 has been a great year for me. Really feeling settled in my new life down in the Byron shire, and grateful that someone - 'life', is looking after me so well. I'm kind of reluctant to go on about how happy I am as part of me (the negative part of course!) thinks that will bring bad things down on me! Who knows ... But life is indeed good! Regular yoga practice, the wonderful choir, music / singing lessons, big overseas trip, and of course an amazing 5-day 'event' with Maharaji. Each of those things I could write an entire post about ... But I won't!!

I spent Christmas in Sydney with John and Gina, nephew Peter and his wife Tammy, and lots of other extended family members. It was a really nice few days, including swimming in the seawater pool at Curl Curl, and going to a lovely exhibition at the Gallery of NSW - from the National Gallery of Scotland.

And now I'm home again ... And looking forward to a wonderful new year ... No big overseas trips planned for 2016. I'm going to settle in and enjoy life here!


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Changes, new things

Now that the choir concerts are over for the year, my life is quieting down a bit, and there's time to give more attention to other things ...

One of these has been my yoga practice, and where I actually go to class. It's been quite hard ... 2-3 years ago when I was deciding where I should move to when I sold my place, one of the things that drew me down here was the opportunity to practice at Dena Kingsberg's shala. I know it wouldn't be with her as a teacher - she only teaches here in monthly intensives for part of the year, which are usually booked up almost a year in advance. But there are daily public classes at the shala and I was going to those.

As I'm sure I have said here before, I was going to the 10am class ... The shala has only one yoga room, and so obviously when there is a 7am intensive class then the only morning 'slot' is after that has finished. And anyway - I live 30 minutes drive away and thought I'd never be able to get up, showered and to the shala by that early in the morning. But then, when Dena went to Europe in the middle of the year to do workshops, Christian, one of her students who had been teaching the 10am class, started doing a 7am class as well. And because I had been finding a mid-morning class seemed to end up taking up half the day, I decided to give it a go. Which was, of course, a complete revelation to me!

So then after a few months of this I went overseas, where I went to Dena's Bali workshop, and then practiced at AYL in London, all at 7am or earlier! And then I came home about a month ago. But Dena is now doing the intensives again and so I have to go to a 10am class ... But ... Christian has left and started up another Ashtanga practice place in Byron Bay - The Ashtanga room. Which of course has an early morning Mysore programme!

I agonised over what to do about this for days - it felt faintly disloyal to Dena to go away and practice at Christian's place. But in the end I felt I had to do what was right for me ... I emailed her to explain what I was doing, and why, and she was fine about it - said she completely understood my reasons etc! And anyway, I'm still signed up to go to one of her month intensives in May - which will be another high jump for me but hopefully a wonderful time!

And in the meantime I have now been practicing at Christian's shala - the Ashtanga Room for a couple of weeks, and it's been lovely. He is a wonderful teacher.

Well, after that long long explanation (which must imply that my feelings of awkwardness/slight disloyalty are not completely gone!!) I'll just mention that the other change in my life is a new VW Golf car! Which I'm pretty thrilled with! A very large step forward from my old car ... Has AppleConnect, Bluetooth, all sorts of things that were unheard of when the little Yaris was built!!


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The Faure concerts

This week has been all about the Faure's Requiem concerts ... Two concerts down now, one more to go, tomorrow afternoon in Bangalow.

The concerts in Lismore (Wednesday) and Mullumbimby (today) were lovely. We were better at today's concert - and hoping to be even better tomorrow! The first two concerts also included a very sweet children's choir that Ian teaches. They marched in singing the Mozart Alleluia, and then did it all in solfa (do, re, me etc,) including the hand signs. They were better than me at that!! Below is a photo of them rehearsing minutes before the concert started.

Apart from the Requiem and children's choir, the concert included a Bach Concerto for Flute and Oboe, a Tallis piece and a Michael Leunig poem (A Gruntled Fellow) set to a Bach piece. That was really lovely, and made everyone smile/laugh.

Choir concerts are quite different here than in Brisbane ... I'm not talking about the standard of music. That's definitely really high! But - probably it's a 'Byron' thing - everyone is so much more relaxed and laid back, including the audience! A great rapport between the director (Ian) and audience ... Children wandering around, people with babies standing in the doorway ... And today the hall was completely full. Kept having to put more chairs out. On Wednesday evening in Lismore the fire alarm went off in the church, and the solution was to turn the lights off and carry on! (This was the caretaker's decision!!)

However, I do have to admit that my yoga practice has suffered in the few days since I got back to Australia. Partly because I've been feeling a bit off, and partly coz I'm finding it very hard to go back to a 10am class as opposed to a 7am one. I really don't like that any more, but there's not much I can do about it if I want to keep practicing at Dena's shala ... Sigh!



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Beautiful Portugal

Have been in Portugal for a few days. First of all we stayed in Lisbon for a couple of days. It is such a beautiful city - I was amazed! Couldn't put my camera (iPhone!) away ... We spent a day wandering up and down all the beautiful little streets. Getting trams sometimes, and even got on a funicular train one evening - going up an extremely steep street! The next day we went to the Gulbenkian museum and beautiful gardens ...

Then we caught the train down to the Algarve where Wendi lives -

One day - think it was yesterday (!) I went to an Iyengar class at a centre where Wendi and daughter do vegetarian catering for yoga and similar residential groups. The teacher had decided to do a 'restorative yoga' class then. It was interesting to see how differently poses we do in Ashtanga, are approached .. But I'll definitely be sticking with Ashtanga!

Back in London now, and the last couple of days before I head back home ...


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Dublin and back to London

We got back from Dublin on Friday evening ... Had a really nice couple of days there. We seemed to go to a lot of places - Judy and Carla had us on the move constantly. I know I've been walking a lot in London (apart from anything else, you walk for miles in the tube stations between platforms!) but it certainly seemed like we were walking huge distances in Dublin! Mind you, this is coming from someone who lives in a much more car-based area!

Anyway, the day we arrived we went to Dublin Castle, and then an exhibition of (I think) 18th century comic prints. We also went to a beautiful 'Palladian-style' country house set it beautiful grounds ... Again the beautiful Autumn colours were a feast for eyes. The Library (long room!) of Trinity College is also a lovely place to visit.

Back in London and we went out for dinner last night in Notting Hill. Last night also happened to be both Halloween and a Saturday night! The tube was brimming with witches, zombies and any other fancy dress you could imagine! Plenty of fake blood dripping everywhere - it was hilarious!

Today I made it back to yoga after a gap of 6 days! And boy did it show!! I've made sure to pack my yoga mat to go to Portugal - can't leave it that long again! But it was lovely to be there - met up with Kevin and we had breakfast together after and talked for ages. We only meet up every few years but there's always plenty of yoga to talk about!

Tomorrow - Portugal!


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More adventures on holiday

I'm getting towards the end of my time here in London. Tomorrow morning we're flying to Dublin for 2-3 days, visiting another sister who lives there ... Then a couple of days after we get back I'm off to Lisbon for 5 days, and a couple of days after I get back from there I start the journey home, via Dubai.

I'm only going to make it to Ashtanga Yoga London a couple more times sadly ... But it has been lovely going there, despite the extreme heat and mats that are placed no more than 5cm apart!

Last Friday Judy took me to Wisley (the Royal Horticultural Society gardens) - it was just such a lovely day! All the trees and shrubs were changing to their Autumnal colours, which you really don't see in Australia - or not where I live anyway!

And then on Sunday my nephew Jo and I took little Hugh (my 6-month old great-nephew!) to Gloucestershire to visit Napier relations ... It was a lovely day too - my Aunt, the 3 lovely cousins and various of their children too.

I do like this picture - the cat inside staring balefully at the bouncy dog outside, teenage boy staring at his phone and young Hugh wanting to get involved in everything!

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London notes

Have been having an enjoyable time in London - in between bouts of cold and cough recurrences! The other day I went to yoga, and having sniffled and coughed my way through all of standing (including falling over onto someone in utthitta hasta padangustasana !!) and a few of the seated poses, Hamish tapped me on the shoulder and told me me that was enough and to stop!! (Please please stop!!) So I left it a couple of days, and went back this morning. Still a bit cold-y but a lot better!

I've been spending some time with my nephew and his wife. We've been going out to galleries, and then having delicious lunches! I feel like it's a bit of a foodie tour of London this time, although not talking about famous restaurants or anything! Went to the Goya Portraits exhibition today at the National Gallery ... That was wonderful. And after we went to a Spanish food place - Barrafina. Really yummy food!

Also went to see the film Suffragette with a friend. I wasn't particularly wanting to see it, but it was really good. Quite amazing to be reminded that 100 years ago women could not vote, or even decide what would happen to their children ...


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