99to1

There's been a clearing between me and my world.
2 week class with the Finns is over, it went very well. The project manager is quite pleased.
When I'm in class, I find it quite draining. All my thoughts all day are for someone else, it's a very special attention which is required and totally exhausting.

Now I can breath easy. And perhaps get back to making more regular entries here, and getting some things done... which are way over due... tires, oil, taxes etc.

Due to ineffective use of either my paper personal agenda, or my corporate electronic one, I ended up with appointments with Christine (Thai Yoga Massage) Karen (Chiro/etc) and Hilary (kineasiologist) back-to-back 3 days in a row finishing on Friday, my last day of class. Fair to say my body has been through the ringer. I feel beat-up and reborn all at the same time. The stars lined up for me, in that they all brought very therapeutic experiences to my life, and didn't overlap in any way.

Taking it easy today, well until this afternoon anyhow...
Glen asked if I would take photos at the wedding. He and Heather are getting married today. He insisted that he didn't want me to be the official pro (thank heavens) just to "follow in my father's footsteps" and take some snaps. They are not hiring a pro, and they want to make sure at least one person of the invitees can get some shots with proper composition. I am using Heathers's Minolta Maximum 5. And just barely found enough time to learn it's operation. It's quite a big difference from the F3 and large Metz flash I'm accustomed to.

Small ceremony at their condo, and a reception at a nice Portugese restaurant downtown. Should be a very nice day.

Full house last Thursday.
Colin was absent, though Charles, Gilles, Kishore, Vidhu, and Petteri, and Jussi did manage to make it. If Colin had showed, I probably would have had to rearrange the living room to accommodate all those bodies. We did the typical routine, Sun sals, standing, seated until JanuB, backbends, and finishing.

As usual we had a very pleasant post-practice gathering/buffet. Gilles brought a home-made, hand-picked wild mushroom salad, there was bbq chicken, poached salmon, nice cheeses, bread and some spreads. Yumm.....
Oh yeah and of course a couple of tasty beers...

Last night I changed the orientation of my bed.
After a quick google I learnt of an ancient Hindu system of orientation of the home called Vaastu Shastra. According to most Vaastu Shastra references, looks like I did the right thing, as most references indicate to never sleep with the head in the North. Some sites suggest to always place the head in the south. Many sites indicate that best is East.

For now east it is... very dynamic dream activity last night.

Here's a typical quote from a Vaastu Shastra FAQ:

"In which direction one should sleep?

Answer - Direction of a person while sleeping also has importance in Vastushastra. One should never sleep having head towards the North Pole and legs towards the South Pole. However one may sleep having legs towards the West and head towards the East for mental peace, good thoughts and spirituality."

The latest on the ongoing saga of re-establishing a daily asana practice...
Since Loren and I have started our 30 minute sit in the mornings, I had adopted a gentle routine before bed; headstand, child pose, (supported) virasana, four minutes each. It's been at least 2 weeks that I dropped that...

Last night I stoppped by 295 and did sun sals and a few standing postures. This is the base, I will keep doing this until I have a daily practice back. I'm starting with Mondays...then will add other days when I can. It'll be a PM practice...though daily nonetheless.

They may want me to go back.
When Kishore heard the news he said "congratulations". I though that was sweet.

If things turn out it'll be an amazing 2nd opportunity. A second once in a lifetime opportunity. Still quite a few details to iron out on the logistics side though, nothing is certain yet.
We'll see...

Four yogis last night Colin, Gilles, Vidhu and me.
Instead of listening to David swenson call our poses, I loaded the Guruji 2001 Maui tape. They thought they knew the sequence. There was a lot of looking around to see what others doing to figure out if they were on the correct pose.

A little more exhausting than we're used to.

Colin couldn't figure out what was going on with Guruji's counting...very funny...

Staying with Oil. Don't think I'm going to switch to oil at 295... no budget right now. I'm taking advantage of the financing available on the double-walled german plastic tanks. Comes with 10 years guarantee including any environmental damages.

Glen said the photos from the wedding are good. I was suspicious that the auto-focus of Heather's camera was out of sync with my eye. I'm not going to see Billy Bragg with Glen this Friday. Going to stay home and Loren and I will either; enjoy another home-cooked meal grace to Kishore (I'll be his sous-chef), or it'll be just Loren and me celebrating 197 new moons together.

Haven't been on the bike in a while now... Gio's back from Brazil and the weather has turned wet again... We're considering an October weekend back at Coaticook. Have already considered starting the roller season.

No news on India yet... letting the administrators do their thing. Best of both worlds is my wish that postponning the Finland session is possible, so that I may get the opportunity to do both trips. Though it is looking very much like I will be the chosen one. And I also get to do a surprise 2 week training session to 2 more internal folks from Bangalore. I believe it's Sunil and Smitha (sp??). I have Kishore to thanks for having this much notice as.

Loren's first day back since last Wednesday, she's kind of fragile. I'll be at home early to be there for her in case she needs anything. I'm hoping that she has a wonderful day and ends up surprised and uplifted by her experience at work.

Monday did another solo practice.
Up to the prasaritas (head on block)...

It was a slow practice and the breaths were graceful, deliberate and deep. Christine will be our guest teacher this week, it should be another full house.

I dedicated Monday's practice and the attention of each breath to those who are affected by last Wednesday's events at Dawson.

And to all those who suffer.

Last Thursday...
The regulars plus Christine.
Charles, Colin, Gilles, Kishore Vidhu. Loren and Hannah didn't make it.
Christine had us all working harder than usual, with her adjudtments pointers and cues. Even Kishore was sweating! And Christine helped Vidhu with Matsyasana...his back didn't hurt. We all had a good time. And need I say really good food afterwards... yum