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December 30, 2006
Mysore odds and sods
Here are some photos that kinda slipped under the radar a bit....
Xmas eve at Mysore Mandala.... Yogis and yoginis showing off their best moves....
The Mandala lit up like a Xmas cake!
Anu and Ganesh looking quite resplendant before going out to see Anu's mum... Anu said she felt like a movie star there was so many of us taking photos of them....
Downward sausage dog.. Poochee (Anu's guard dog) !!!
H.H. Dalai Lama at Zongkar Choede Monastry
About 8 of us took the trip to Hansur some 90 minutes from Mysore to try and track down the Dalai Lama who is here with the local Tibetan settlement. There was a lot of talk about needing permits to get in to see him and this turned out to be the case. Whilst we could get in to here him speak (in Tibetan) and share with the 1000+ monks seated outside the building the permits got you passed into the inner sanctum of this building where the Dalai Lama actually sat. Still it was a great day, I enjoyed just being there and said to my friend that sometimes it's not about the message but the listening. We'd have forgotten what the Dalai Lamai said in a couple of weeks had we been able to understand, but the fact that we'd travelled here to partake in the event will stay with us for a long time to come.
You're not allowed cameras (or phones) inside the compound so I had to be happy with this shot from outside.
When we walked away from the setlement I took this snap and remarked it looked like a GAP advert. Spot anyone you know?????
So it's New Year's Eve eve. I'm not going to reflect over the year passed other than to say it's finishing well after a pretty miserable start. This trip has certainly been a revelation for me thus far though I can't say I've changed that much since leaving, though there's certain beliefs and thoughts I've had that have been reinforced by what's been going on and what I've been through. Next year's going to be a bit of a challenge but I'm going to face it settled better than I've ever been to face this sort of stuff.
2006? Well, it's going to leave me with some fond memories for sure.
Posted by graeme at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2006
New faces
Gawd it's not even the end of boxing day and already I've seen about 15 new faces around the place. Just this evening there were 3 new arrivals fresh in "off the boat" so to speak, looking fresh faced, polished and all shiny new (ie not bitten to death by the locally beasties yet!).
It's been a drab sort of a day. I fell asleep on the grass at the Southern Star (sorry but it's new name Regaalis - yup there's a double 'a' there, will never stick with me) and just kinda veggied out all of the day. Breakfast is taking up more and more of the day, which is fine by all means. Practice? well, it's coming along. Today just the girl from downstairs turned up. If everyone who said they were coming actually turned up I dare say there'd be no room to put them all.
Kirtan at Annie's again tonight, short and sweet. Just grand way to pass some time. I've taken to reading the magazines at Anu's rather than surfing the internet. Jeez, I'm becoming such a book worm..... What I would give for a nice plate of my mum's mince and tatties.
Talking of which, the silly mooo dropped a clanger last night on the phone when I called to wish her and my dad a Happy Xmas. We got talking about what I'd been up to and she said she'd read on the blog about that famous guy who was coming to near mysore and how nice it would be for me to meet Gandi! Err, that's gonna be kinda hard..... Mothers. Don't you just love them!
Posted by graeme at 3:16 PM | Comments (1)
December 25, 2006
Xmas with the Orphans of Mysore
Today I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Joseph who for the second year was handing out Xmas presents collected from the AYRI students to 4 of the local orphanges in and around Mysore. The one I went to this morning with about 6 other students is just a block or two from the Shala. If pictures paint a 1000 words then these ones need no introduction.
Joseph handed out the presents calling each girls name, wishing then happy xmas and shaking their hands. Then, when everyone had their gift the word to open them was given and all hell let loose. It was a great site to see all the wee faces shine out in amazement. There was one wee soul who was very very shy to start with, never said a word or uttered a sound the entire time, but was later bouncing around on everyone's laps.
The orphanage also housed some very elderly women. Joseph had scarves and socks as presents for them too. David Swenson was an absolute gem helping some of them open their gifts and setting them up with their shawls.
The second orphanage had older girls, though their surroundings were much nicer and very bright and clean..
The girls here had prepared 2 songs for us. I could tell Joseph was welling up with it all with all the fidgeting he was doing with his bag. It was a wonderful, wonderful way to spend Xmas morning.
Merry Xmas to you all, and especially to Joseph.
Posted by graeme at 4:08 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2006
Festive wishes...
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Britain great (not to imply that Britain is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "Britain" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
* This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal.
* It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.
* This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
Disclaimer:
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were inconvenienced.
Posted by graeme at 3:15 PM | Comments (1)
Mysore Zoo
I'm so ploeased! My danish friends returned from Jaipur early as they said it was soooo cold there that they could not sleep. I met them for breakfast this morning and got all the gossip on how they had to wrap up with all the clothes they could find. They also said that the window closed tight into the frame, but the window frame didn't fit well into the wall so the draft was coming stright through!! That's so India.
Today I ventured down to Mysore Zoo which is pretty good by most standards. The Giraffe's a right by the front door and are very active which is a great spectacle.
The usual collection of animals are there though the best laugh had to be trying to get in to the aquarium.....
This guy was kinda cute...
.
Posted by graeme at 3:01 PM | Comments (1)
December 22, 2006
Bits and pieces
It seems a bit absurd to be in Mysore doing Mysore practice alone in the living room, but that's how the day started for me. The flatmate's nursing sore hamstrings at the moment so he's taking some time to recover and the Norwegian girl from downstairs left the sweetest of notes saying she's got tummy troubles and is staying in bed.
I feel a bit unusual around here as everyone I know seems to be carrying some injury or other, some of which are really quite severe. Everything with me is A OK physically, other than the fact I've been a bit constipated (oh shit) and the knees and hamstrings are hunky dorey. I've been driving around town on the scooter dressed as a cast off from village people but other than that things couldn't be better. Oh, a girlfriend would be nice (I almost forgot how single I am now).
Good news. The Dalai Lama is going to be in town from the 28th of December so I'm hoping to get a group of friends together to go see if we can here him talk up in the tibetan settlement. he was here 2 years ago when I was here but I missed the opportunity to go listen to him speak. Hopefully I'll correct that this time around. There's also news of some stuff to keep us Yogis occupied over Xmas. There's a party at the Mysore Mandala Xmas Eve and Joseph is handing out presents to 3 orphanages around Mysore Xmas morning then hosting a pot luck party at his house from 1pm. New Years eve there's a party at Chow's (I think) as well as being Gaddi's birthday. It's good to have somewhere to go. Hopefully the food poisoning I had last time around wont catch me this year (god forbid) as it totally floored me and I was really bummed to be out of it over the festivities. It'll be fun to see if I can make it to the Shala on the 1st Jan for practice.
Tonight I've messed up on dinner plans as I've lost my friends telephone number. Bummer. Another Friday night in reading then.....
Posted by graeme at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2006
Walk in the park
Yesterday I went for a stroll around Karanji Tank. It was the moon day so i kinda wanted to touch base with mother nature for a while. The lake here is huge and holds a butterfly sanctuary and India's largest aviary. It also plays host to numerous young couples out walking, chatting and well, basically getting to know each other better, something that is actively frowned upon around here. Apparently in the newest Bollywood blockbuster (Dhoom 2) one of the leading ladies is being taken to court over her kissing scene near the end of the movie!!!
Today I headed down town to pay a visit to the Mysore Palace, to actually look inside it this time rather than just wonder at the light display that they put on every Sunday. It's worth a visit, no bad for 25 ruppees, and certainly plays host to some quite fantastic architecture and design. The main room on the ground floor which centers round an octagonal mosaic floor patterm with 3 pillars at each corner, and accompanying outside court yard is simply stunning.
This evening I hooked up with my Canadian and German friends (Jennifer and Bastian) and headed down to see Dhoom 2. It's quite a breathtaking spectacle but I would say that as it's my first Bollywood film. Mission Impossible-esque action scenes, huge dance numbers, and the skimpiest outfits you'll never see local India girls wear, plus the fact some of the scenes are shot in Rio in Brazil make it quite a spectacle. Oh, forget the plot, it's pretty lame. Did I mention that Miss World 1994 is in it too? :>
Posted by graeme at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Xmas present .... and Xmas past
Xmas present came in the form of a somewhat quick count in Utplutihi.. I think most people were astonished (and happy) that it finished so quick, I guess about a third of the time the count normally takes !!
Shala was busy for the last led primary before Xmas. Around 80 people crammed into the hall with 5 or so more in the hallway outside the door. Sharath even managed to squeeze "One more" in beside the gents changing room doors. It was a tight squeeze. Tomorrow is a moon day and some people are leaving for the 10 day break, others leaving for good. Lots of long good byes and email passing, hugs and fond farewells.
Xmas past
Today I went down to the Old Shala with my Danish friend Gaddi. Last time around I only looked at the door but prompt by Valletta who was down there yesterday and spent 30 minutes with Guruji in there taking in the atmosphere and energy of the place I knocked on the door. Thankfully a reply came and we were allowed inside (sorry for interrupting your lunch).
I believe Laxshmi answered (sorry if my spelling is bad) and he was more than happy to show us around once we were identified as Guruji students. It turns out he recognised Gaddi's Moshi-Moshi bag!!!
Here's the side door that the students would enter from...
Once registering here on the upper floor..
And the stairs where you'd wait to be called in to the main floor...
Which is a lot smaller than you'd ever imagine. 2 rows of 5 students and 1 run with 2 student running across the middle of the room
You can almost taste the energy coming from the many students who once practiced in here..
And ended their practices here upstairs in the finishing room
There were loads of old photographs on the walls from 1996 and 1997. Heres the best of the ones I took though I have one where there's a faguely familiar face of Mr Swenson standing at the right hand side. Where are they now???
We we're only in for 20 minutes or so but Laxshmi was sooooo helpfull in showing us round and explaining where things used to take place... It was just incredible.
Posted by graeme at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
Mysore, practice is coming
Yesterday was the first super early 5am led class that I had the chance to go to. I've had less problems this year getting up in the morning for practice even finding myself awake 90 minutes before class which give me a good chance to do some hip and hamstring stretches before hand. I've had both my legs up the wall and talked to the flatmate about some new hip openers too. It's great the number of wee tips you can pick up around this place on what individuals try before their own practice, their own little sets of postures that each of them have to set them up for the class to come or to recover.
So for led class Sunday there must've been something like 25 odd people sitting outside the shala gates by the time I arrived around 4.40am and another 20 or so people turned up after that. The shala's that quiet that people were getting places right up to the moment class started. There was some strange sounding music emminating from the speakers in the shala though, which got a wee laugh when it started to skip and jump, rapping through the tracks.
Guruji led the invocation then Sharat led us through the class. Pace was pretty much as in Byron and Auckland though this time around I stopped at Mari D where I'm up to in Mysore Practice. It's actually kinda nice to be able to sit and watch (and learn!) from the class as they continue with the postures until you get to join back in again. I knew this was coming though the guy practicing next to me tapped my leg to make sure I understood we could both rejoin the class.
Afterwards I sat and watched led second series. I was surprised that I could recognise about 5 of the practitioners. Hamish was there, his wife, Saskia from the Guru DVD, some of the guys I've met since being here, and a girl I recognise who was here 2 years ago too.
It's just amazing to watch the advanced students practice. I spent a large portion of the time watching Hamish, not onlt because his practice is fantastic, but also because I think it's a priviledge position to be able to watch someone of his calibre practice. I'm sure there's loads of people back home in London would love to see him work through even the simplest of postures just to see how he approaches them. Well, lets just say I learnt an awful lot from watching them all! Entry/exit from the first difficult twist (its name escapes me), leg / feet positioning in jumpbacks, advanced headstands (my favourite) as well as all the early postures in second that are somewhat more achievable than those nearer the middle where it gets into OMG territory!!
This morning's Mysore returned me to my exploits with Mari D. I waited for Sharath to come across and help yet again he's giving me plenty of vocal advise, asking if there's pain in my kness (nope) and telling me what I need to be working on first. "You hold here, breath 5 times". He actually said I'd be able to bind by the end of "next week"!! I admire his optimism to say the least but maybe he's trying to get me to work on it whilst the shala is closed! Clever man.
Some funny incidents around the shala. One of my friends said that as she was bending forward in one of the Padottansanas, Sharath tried to get through between her and the person beside her. As the shala was busy that day he had to put his hand on her backside to steady himself as he walked through; during Utplutihi, when someone came down early Sharath announced "You eager to get to breakfast?"; and in assisting another friend with the legs-behind-the-head for supta kurmasana he said to her "Ah, this is my next mission!"
Tomorrow's the last led class before the shala closes. Apparently Guruji's off to a nearby temple to pay his respects there. Classes resume 31st december. It's going to be interesting to see who commits to the Mysore class on the 1st January!
Posted by graeme at 1:43 PM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2006
Bangalore
Oops, I meant to include this one just to give you an idea of how insanely busy this place can get. This is just outside the airport in Bangalore
Posted by graeme at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
Mysore Days 1 and 2
One more!!! Ah yes, I remember this...
Yesterday I started at the main shala. As a surprise to my flatmate and me Sharath was there (I thought he was going to Goa but apparently that's not until the 24th) which meant amongst other things getting stopped at Marichasana D. It's so darn hot in the shala compared to Scotland, both in temperature and humidity, that even though I was practising at 6.30am I managed to bind in standing ardha baddha and both sides of Mari B, something I haven't done since I can remember. Mari C was slightly easier as was Janu C on the toes.
Guruji had told me to start at 6.30am but the first thing Sharath said to me (and others) was "Tomorrow, you come 6 o'clock". It's kinda quiet around here I guess.
I got help in Uthitta Hasta Pandagusthasana, a posture that Saraswatti helped me out with a lot last visit... He's certainly cranking my hamstrings as this morning I could certainly feel it. He gave a wee grunt, hopefully of approval!
It's kinda hard to concentrate first day, to be honest, there's so much going on wth the students around practicing stuff I've only ever seen in books, and it's a really exercise in dristi. The energy levels are great though and the mere fact of being in a place where so many people who are on the same path (admittedly further down the road perhaps) is something I personally value pretty highly. I took a lot of time today, didn't want to blow any caskets which thankfully I didn't.
Today I worked up to Mari D and again was helped in UHP. I was somewhat surprised to find Sharath there again to help me as there are so many other people in the shala doing a lot more challenging postures. I had to struggle a bit with Mari C on the second side but managed to grab my finger tips before Sharath said I was to wait for help in Mari D. Uh oh. It's a kinda long wait when you know here's a posture that I've hardly progressed with in over 2 years but hey, that's all in the mind, right? I guess he was assessing how things were with me today as he didn't push, pull me hardly at all. Got me to take my arm on the side of the bent knee (not in half lotus) round my back so he could pull on it but quite quickly said "enough for today, lots of time to open". From hearing other students talk that just might take a little while.
So tomorrow's my first led primary here then rest after that until Sunday which I can feel my body's kinda needing. My stomach's been a bit unsettled last 2 days but I put that down to the rapid change in food that I've been eating now it's pretty much all vegetarian cooked in Ghee.
One last thing.. Joseph's organised a charity event here for the kids and youths that he's helped pull off the streets and out of the sex trade (I believe I heard him say that). He's asking the students to sponsor a gift for Christmas for one of the 150 odd kids they look after here, the large majority of which are females. He told the group I was sitting with last night that he started this last year and turned up at the xmas lunch they'd organised with handfulls of presents for them all. Thing is, he said, was that none of the kids even looked at them, they just didn't know what they were for, they'd never received a gift before! Once Joseph handed over the present to the first child they pretty much cottoned on what was happening. Soon, he went on, they were trading presents with each other. Jokingly he said that when they started to complain about what they were left with, that was a sign for him to go!!! Well that's kids for you!
Posted by graeme at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
A wee walk around Mysore
Yesterday following class (more later) I had some time on my hands so took a wee walk around Mysore. I took my camera with me and here's what I saw...
Gokulam Main Street looking away from the bottom coconut stand
And from the other direction (a bit further down the street)
You wouldn't mess with this guy. He wouldn't look out of place in the "Cars" film by Pixar, perhaps in the field with the combine harvester... he's certainly as scary!!!
Unfortunately pollution is kinda hard to hide around here. If you look you'll be able to see the pigs shading under the tree and the cow in the back ground. And yeah, the place is smouldering away. Having said that I did see a lorry with a crew of men uplifting the rubbish from another site just today, so there's hope yet that scenes like this won't be around forever.
I love this picture its so typical of here. There's 2 bikes on the road (which is really, really quiet) but the man's still walking up the middle lane. I've seen buses stop in the outside lane of a busy road and let people off into the slower inside lane where traffic is rushing by!
I spent a fair bit of time after class sitting here when I was here last year but I think as its so quiet around the place most people are taking their coconuts from just outside the shala. People still congregate here if there's a group activity going on.
Shakti house, or the Kevin Inn, or Chandra house - I think that's what this place has been called over the years... You can get the most amazing breakfasts here... you'll have to come see round the back were people eat for yourselves, I didn't want to intrude.
This building under construction just amazed me with their scaffolding of trees held together with rope it look so precarious but the men on to didn't seem to mind at all.
An area of respite to come get away from the incessant noise... well, maybe. This parks up and round first right from Shakti House on the way down to Anu's
If you're looking for some quite excellent food (and a spot of internet surfing) this is your place. I actually came here when Anu first started and its great to see how things have expanded for Anu and Ganesh. You go through the gate and turn right to go up the stairs where the balcony area has been turned into an eating area surrounded by bamboo to shade you from the sun/wind. Food here's great and I'm glad to say the Chocolate Desert is still on the menu!
Ive come down to the cross roads and turned right to get this picture looking back up the hill. In effect if I turned around I'd be looking at the coconut stand meeting point. To me it show a road of possibilities, whichever one you take. To the left, Anu's and the delights of India, to the right there's a wee place to practice, and straight ahead? Well, that goes up the hill (from where you can get back round to the shala anyway).
And if you reach this place (next left) then your journey is at an end, or maybe it's just begining...
Posted by graeme at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
Mysore - finally I'm back.
I rolled into Mysore late last night following a somewhat eventful trip down from Bangalore by Taxi. I was supposed to come down by the train, atleast that was the plan but I discovered that the quicker train doesn't run on a Tuesday and that the slower one would've got me here too late to register for class. So the alternative was to risk the taxi.
For anyone who's not been in India before the stramash of a scrum that is Bangalore airport arrivals can be somewhat off putting if you're not prepared for it. It's one thing to get off the plane to find that there's one baggage carousel and there's so many people crushed round about it it's real hard to find out where any bag is let alone your own. I queued at the money exchange place (you're not allowed to bring any rupees into India supposedly) and that's where I was reminded of India's favourite sport - jumping the queue! If you're not standing front right and center, or have the shape of the 'Fridge' from American Football then you're pretty much fair game to be side stepped and stepped in front of if you dont hold you're own ground. But this is just for starters... imagine this on the road with 50 scooters, 25 rickshaws, 20 sudan cars, 4 big tanker lorries and 500 people all trying to get through a one car gap where the taxi rank is outside the airport and you'll quickly understand how it all goes down here.
The journey down in the taxi cost 2500 rupees (40 to the dollar, you do the maths) and can be booked from within the airport (well worth it). The Bangalore-Mysore highways is finished so the 126kms passes in just over 90 minutes, though if you pick the wrong time and get caught in rush hour it can easily take 2 hours to get out of Bangalore. It's strange at the traffic lights as they have timers that tell you how long it will be before the green signal comes. Often the entire backlog of cars, bikes, buses and vans will turn off their engines completely. Its like the start of a grand prix when it all gets going again. A real river of life.
So here's the scoop. Mysore's changed in the 2 years I've been here. There's like 2 theme parks, lighting on the roads (that flash at you), bollards in the middle and more buildings here now than I remember. There's a couple of Pizza places here now but I believe the Dominio's is n't very good. The road up to Anu's is lit, there's internet access here too, and the most wonderful chocolate, banana and peanut butter smoothie you could imagine. Electricity cut outs are more infrequent (places have battery back up now) and its still noisy as hell! People here are just great though I got shouted at as I went down Kaladasi road "This is a one way street, you're going the wrong way!!!"
So lets see. What Have I done today??? Arranged a scooter through the always helpful Shiva (at a price), got my 27000 rupees out of the bank - I had to cash some travellers cheques as the bank ATM only let me take out 15000 rupees before blocking my card (so watch for this one), sorted out some bog paper, ate with my flat mate, and of course registered with Guruji.
It's working out that I can fit on a whole months practice albeit with a 10 break in the middle due to the Shala closures over Xmas. Guruji and Saraswati were good enough to explain this all to us, though the change I didn't forsee was needing to have my passport number and a passport photo (which I did have) to register. Oh. One nice thing happened. The girl that registered with me today from Denmark only had 23000 rupees and she asked if it was ok to bring the remainder tomorrow. Guruji's like, sure, that's ok.
So I've a start time of 6.30am though I understand the shala's pretty quiet, mind you there are plenty of them around Anus on the internet... did I mention the chocolate smoothie????
I'll try take some pics tomorrow and get them posted here. I can see this machine's got a USB port so I'll ask Ganesh if that's ok.
One funny note to end on. I was talking to Ganesh when a woman came up and introduced herself to him. "Hi, you must be Ganesh, I'm Annie". I was standing there so I introduced myself to her too, not thinking anything of it. She talked a little while then left. Ganesh, afterwards is like "That's Annie Pace, senior teacher". Heck, I didn't even realise!
Ok I'm off to lick out the inside of this glass of chocolate!!!
Posted by graeme at 1:13 PM | Comments (1)
December 10, 2006
Where to next.. Oh yeah, some place called Mysore
Time runs through so awfully quickly these days. I was looking at my ticket this morning when I realised that it's been 2 months since I left Scotland. Wow. Day 60 already.
It's a bit strange but I kinda new that I'd hit a slump at some point and, well, that happened to be this morning. I only managed to practice up to the end of standing but my mind was all over the place and my enthusiasm for it all was ziltch. I managed to talk to my friend in Mysore so that cheared me up a bit, though I think I'm now destined to spend the night in Bangalore before heading down by train in the morning on the Shatabdi Express. I had such a lovely trip on it the last time and it was a great way to arrive in Mysore. It's not as if I'm in any hurry.
Today I went over to the Emirates Towers hotel which was runner up for business hotel of the year. I spent about an hour justing sitting on a bench outside the main plaza watching the world go buy. In the first 10 minutes I saw more expensive cars in one place than I'd seen in some show rooms. A couple of porsches, BMWs and 2 Rolls Royces. Eaak. I felt like I should have a begging cap out in front of me. Of the 2 Hummers that drove up, the dude who stepped out of the yellow one (I kid you not) completely blanked the parking attendant trying to give him a ticket so he could go park his car for him (he had his own driver do it for him). I was like. Jeez man, how hard can it be for you to just say "No thanks" and acknowledge the young guy's presence???
So I'm leaving here with mixed emotions. I kinda thought this place would blow me a way a bit more than it has but, well, I guess I had high hopes some time ago that I might not be here on my own. Still, the peacefulness here has been a bit of a godsend and the luxury of having a huge massive bed all to myself has been worth every penny.
On a funny note I was in the Virgin Megastore here and caught myself watching the Apple computer adverts on one of their laptops. I hadn't seen any of them before and they were running them one after the other. It's the set where 2 guys come out and one says "Hi I'm Mac" and the other bespeckled older bloke says "Hi I'm PC" and so on. They go on to make comparisons to each other as if they were the machines they were representing - the PC guys in one add comes down with a horrendous virus, you get the picture. Anyways, I found myself laughing out loud in the middle of the store. People shopping there must've thought I was nuts.
Posted by graeme at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)
December 9, 2006
Dubai Pics
And from Dubai...
One of the more colourful Mosques where people go to pray 5 times a day
The skyline as it stands today. Give it till the end of the week and there'll be another 2 skyscrapers up there!
The only 7 star hotel in the world. Some dude call Richard Gere is in town for the Dubai International Film Festival. He's probably staying on the top floor in the room next door to me!!
The marina under construction. There are some 40 blocks being built in this one area alone
This is a model I found in one of the malls... It shows part of the new development being built in the next couple of years. Yup, thats the Colliseum right next to the Eiffel Tower, and parts of London... Yeah gods.
Posted by graeme at 1:52 PM | Comments (2)
Auckland Pics
Here are some pics from Brisbane to start with (oops)...
Skyline
The park where I practiced in the morning...
If you look close enough you can see the lizard that popped up when I was in Prasarita Padottanasana B. I thought I could hear some rustling in the trees besides me but was a bit shocked when this little fellow popped his head out. He seemed to be quite curious as to what I was doing. Maybe an ashtangi from a previous lifetime.....
The cycle race I stayed and watched after practising
Though I kinda thought the dude in the car had an unfair advantage..
And now from Auckland....
No need to introduce this guy...
The skytower dominates the landscape
And gives you views like this...
This is what I call my matrix picture... It's the view you get if you dare to look down. This is from 220m up at the viewing platform. The little red circle to the top left of the base of the tower is where 'base' jumpers land when they jump of the ledge above the viewing platform. They're attached to guide cables and all but you still wouldn't get me jumping
Posted by graeme at 1:35 PM | Comments (1)
December 8, 2006
Oh My God!
Dubai is just totally unreal!!!
Its taken almost all of Thursday/Friday to get here though I did land here at 6.30am this morning. I actually flew via Melbourne rather than Singapore so it was kinda nice to touch back down in Ozland before coming out here. It was something like a 19 hour trip, with a 1.5 hour layover in Melbourne in that, which meant that, yes, I managed to watch 4 movies pretty much back to back. I watched 'Good Morning Vietnam', 'Monster's Inc', 'Inconvenient truth' (again) and 'Ice Age 2'. The choice wasn't as entralling as I imagined thus all the Pixar/Disney movies.
Today I took the 2 bus tours round Dubai. The first red tour with the Big Bus Company took me tthrough the heart of the city where for almost 1.5 hours I saw less than 5 women on the streets (and it's busy here). I had a break at Wafi City in the Mall which was really quiet as Friday's here are a religious day so a few places were shut. The blue tour takes you out to all the 5* plus hotels, beach resorts, and the new developments. Here are some quotes from the guide.
- In this area there are 40 tower blocks being built, and 4, 5 star hotels.
- This planned mall with be the size of 50 soccer pitches and will take you 5 days to get around all the shops before you start seeing the same ones again.
- The new airport will have 6 runways.
- Rod Stewart bought the UK island of this resort for 20 million dollars and was given a free jaguar car.
- Dubai uses 250million gallons of water every day (which it de-salinates from the Gulf).
- In 2004, Dubai had 4 million visitors each year. By 2010 the aim is to raise that to 15 million.
I've got some great shots so I'll get these up tomorrow as the hotel here gives you free access to internet (yippeee).
I spent about 2.5 hours in the Mall of the Emirates where they have the Ski Dome which I'm thinking of visiting tomorrow. We'll see.
Posted by graeme at 3:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 6, 2006
Sharath in Auckland
I guess this must be Sharath's third led class in New Zealand now what with the moon day on Monday and all. Oohh. That sounded like a song title from yesteryear "Moon day on Monday". Huh. Sorry, I digress... I wouldn't know whether the class was as busy other days in Auckland but I know for sure you could've driven a bus between me and the people on either side. I had visions of Dena running around pulling peoples mats together to get another one person in between two practitioners. "just one more?", yeah, right....
Still, once Sharath had pulled a couple of people forward to fill in some empty spaces near the front "You come, don't fear" (shouldn't that be on the back of a t-shirt somewhere? Darn, it already is) the class started. Not much to report to be honest. After yesterday's fun in the afternoon I have to say it continued into this morning. I managed to get my head to my feet in Badass Konasana, something I'm like "yeah, go me!" about, especially since it was early in the morning. Other than that, not much to say about the practice itself. Y'know I was just thinking it would make a fun exchange for the people in Auckland to go visit and practice at Dena's then as a reciprocal visit the Ozzie's come over here to NZ. That would be real fun. Then I guess y'all'd have to come over to Scotland to visit me cos I'd feel a tad left out :< Why oh why am I writing as if I come from the Deep South of America???
After class I actually realised that John and Lucy Scott were in class which was a real blast. Smn had told me they'd been there earlier in the week but I kinda assumed they'd gone home. I got a nice big hug from John (in fact 2 come to think of it) and he even remembered me from his class from this time last year (gawd a year goes sooooOOOOoo quick) and a nice wee hug from Lucy as well. She's looking forward to their retreat center opening in February, talked a bit about all the wwooffing they've been doing to the grounds and their trip back to the UK starting boxing day. John even said I was looking well. "Well so are you" which he got a kick from!
Following class I caught myself the harbour cruise which was somewhat nice other than the fact that I got a tad sun burnt, though did some damage limitation by staying out of the sun pretty much from about 11am. I met up with Smn again this time for a good old natter. She's the second blogger I've met face to face now and it's always nice to put a face (and a pretty one at that) to someone's online identity. Her kids were great too, real well behaved little souls, running around doing what kids do best. You're ok, I won't tell a soul what they got upto!!!! Yoga folks are nice enough folks as it is but I've found that people that take the effort to blog, to read, to comment, or whatever they do to contribute to this wee community turn out to be some of the nicest, welcoming people I've met....... I'd just like to say a big, huge, muckle (that's really big for you non-scots out there) THANK YOU to Julie for pulling this all together. If I'd come all the way round the world without this blog thing being here I'm certain my yoga life would be altogether somewhat different from what it actually is.
Tomorrow I'm off to Dubai to meet the Sultan, or whatever the dude's called. I must say I'm looking forward to it, especially if I can track down an ashtanga class. Now that would rock.
Posted by graeme at 8:35 AM | Comments (1)
December 5, 2006
Auckland Yoga Academy
I'm a bit hesitant when it comes to visiting places with the word "Academy" in the title as it reminds me so much of school, which was an Academy. Still, the welcoming face of a Sharath poster greeted me at the door and the nice wafty smell of incense came tumbling down the stair case.
I'd walked the length of Queens street this morning so I knew where to find the Academy for the 4.30pm class then detoured back to the backpackers via the Sky Tower where, at 328m high, you get some quite intensely fantastic views of Auckland and the surrounding areas. I didn't partake in the parachute-like free fall jump of the viewing platform, even though it did look particulary safe, the views were enough thank you very much.
I meandered though Albert Park where I watched a film crew record what I think was a mini fashion shoot. The 3 models looked frozen as they stood under the parapet as it was sprinkled with fake rain. 10 feet away I was basking in the sun. It's colder here than in Ozland, and the sky's very much like scottish sky. Its weird seeing people more covered up than in Australia. It really comes home this idea of expressing ourselves through what we wear. There's a real cross section of many cultures here with lots of Polynesians, Maoiri, Chinese, Japanese here, I feel strangely out numbered.
From the park I took a quick look at the Art Gallery then went back to pick up my mat for class.
The Auckland Shala is wonderful inside. They've made terrific use of the space, have the bonus of male and femals showers, a meditation area, and quite simply the most gorgeous pooja room I've seen (including those in India). I'd been in touch with the teacher (smn) who was taking the class and it was real nice to put a face to an email address and it actually transpired that we'd been in Mysore at the same time, even knew some of the same people. I'm still very much a newbie to this yoga thing, but it's nice now that when I meet people the likelihood of me knowing someone they themselves knows is much higher. It makes the world feel like a smaller planet and thats nice.
Practice itself was just fantastic. Practically the best i've had since travelling I guess mostly down to the afternoon start and the energy of practicing in a new space. I got a real good assist in Mari D, my first adjustment in this position in over 18 months, and it felt really great to get further into this posture than I've been in ages.. Supta Kurmasana assist was really good too though I've still to remember not to try and move so much, to stop wriggling and let myself dissolve in an adjustment more, rather than try and pull in further by trying to move myself... Smn has a really nice touch about her with her adjustments, was happy for me to work through my own practice, suggested a couple of things I could try out, and was courageous enough to help me out with my backbends on a first meeting (which I thought was very brave of her but I know this just reflects the confidence of her teaching and in her own abilities). Oh, and she did it all with a nice, warm, radiant smile... I kinda wish I could stay a bit longer.
If you ever get the chance to come to New Zealand, I'd look these guys up in a second.
I'm going to try for the Led Practice with Sharath tomorrow. Its a fair bit of money for one practice but what the heck, it's the experience of it all, right?
Posted by graeme at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)
December 4, 2006
Smugglers R Us (not)!
Today was travel day. I was up at the crack of dawn to catch the plane to Auckland, New Zealand. I'd packed everything nice and tight and caught the morning express train out to the airport, when I discovered my 8am flight had been delayed. Oh. It's going to be one of those days.
The flight finally took off after a 2 hour delay (incoming flight) and passed pretty quietly. Then the air stewardess passed out imigration cards which you had to declare any food stuffs. Ok it's one thing to declare to a national goverment you're carrying the stuff I had but it's altogether another to declare it here on the Ashtangi blog - ok, I had chocolate. And Crisps. And more chocolate. Oh and some organic vegetable stock powder (which could easily be mistaken for some nasty powder stuff). And then there was the 250 tables I was carrying (Glucosamine for my knees), and the two packets of [DELETED] as xmas gifts. Eaak. I could get 10 years for this stuff and banished from ashtangi.net (for the chocolate alone - it was a snickers bar after all!!).
So I ticked the box "Do you have and food stuff". Err yes.
That was the start of the troubles.
Apparently I fit the profile of a drug smuggler. White caucasian travelling abnormal flight patterns, staying in main cities for a few days and carrying large amounts of illicit chocolate. So yup, I was pulled aside and had to walk down the blue line which veared rather suspiciously off to the far right away from everybody into a huge hanger area surrounded by video cameras.
When I filled out the form declaring all I had food wise (I forgot about the two packets of [DELETED] - oops) then explained why I was only visiting New Zealand for 3 days when most people visit for atleast 3 weeks (New Zealand is much prettier than Australia anyways!!!). Then try and explain your unusual drug supplements and sanskrit books that you're carrying to a immigration officer who's done this like a zillion times. Eaak. On top of that I'd been browsing books on the Bangkok Hilton only hours before (that's where they send the drug couriers when the get caught - usually with someone elses planted narcotics).
Jeez. I never thought I'd be putting pranayama breathing to this use. It's when he pulled out the surgical latex gloves I thought "Oh no! Not that". Then he explained it was so I couldn't later suggest he'd planted traces of drugs from his own hands. Whew!
Still, everything, and I mean absolutely everything (inside all the compartments of my bag, rucksack and toilet bag) all had to be pulled out and examined. Thing is he never looked inside my rolled up yoga mat, but there you go.
I guess the guy was nice enough. He chatted away whilst I always knew that at somepoint he could've just stopped and asked me to back-track on what I just said. I was just glad this was happening in Auckland and not Thailand. Thankfully the swabs came back cleared ok and I got a nice "Welcome to New Zealand" on the way out. Cheers! To top it all off when I got to the backpackers I found I'd locked my case and lost the keys - managed to get them open with a pair of cutters the back packer's reception had.
So I'm glad I'm here. I hope tomorrow is less eventful.
Posted by graeme at 8:54 AM | Comments (1)
December 2, 2006
Pictures from Byron Bay to Noosa
Here are some more pictures from the later part of my trip....
Noosa Beach (On the way up)
Windy millar!!
Airlie Beach Lagoon
Whitsundays!
Whitehaven Beach Whitsundays
Here's where I practiced in Hervy Bay.... on the parking lot beside Elvis!
Zoo Australia Crocatorium
Bath time
Steve Irwin rest in peace - all the shirts had hundreds of messages written on them
YHA at Noosa, home for the last 5 days
Jesus saves! German girls I first met in Byron Bay then all up the coast until meeting again in Noosa. They fair made my trip!
Posted by graeme at 1:27 PM | Comments (2)
Elvis has left the building
It's been a while since I last posted as I've been a tad busy and the YHA hostel where I was staying in Noosa only had 2 internet points and they were always busy.
Let me see... what's been happening... Here's the executive summary...
Went back to the Hot Yoga classes. Ended up doing 3 in all before I had to leave to come to Brisbane. I really enjoyed the classes and the teacher was just fab. The people there were very friendly and welcoming. There were a few beginners in each class and I had a different teacher every time (they were all very good). Had an interesting conversation with the owner about the idea of continuing registration once you've become a qualified teacher (with the main school of the yoga you are teaching). Seems she qualified with Bikram then decided she didnt like the idea of having to continually fork out to renew here credentials every year (she's a very competent practitioner). Not too sure if I really liked the starting warm up breathing exercises... they kinda crinked my neck a bit (you let your head go as far back as possible as you breath out with your chin pressing against yor knuckles) and the last pranayama exercises were all a bit quick. I found my hips were more open after an ashtanga class as well which is something I've been working with but I'm sure the Bikram's helped all the same even if I'm not seeing the physical differences.
I visited Zoo Australia, the final resting place and life's work of one Steve Irwin. I've got some moving pictures of the thousands of tributes from all over the world that were pinned up for people to read. The zoo's just fantastic. You'd turn round the corner and someone would be out walking the elephants or a mob of kangaroos would come bouncing by!!!.. Well worth the visit. It's a great reflection on Steve and his team there what a fantastic zoo it is. His son's third birthday was yesterday and as a token to the community every child coming to the zoo under 14 could get in for free. Now that's something.
I took a boat trip round Noosa Sound and the main river and saw homes valued at over $5 million (australian dollars). Some of them are just out of this world.
I went to see Kevin Costner in "The Guardian" with a girl I met in the hostel. We went together on the boat trip then out for something to eat at night. She was really nice and I had a real good time. I got the real impression she like me a rather lot, though sadly it wasn't there for me. Oh well. I hoped she didn't take it too badly when I wouldn't show her the inside of my van (I think she wanted to get me inside the back of it!!).
I nearly ran out of petrol taking Elvis back to Brisbane. Turns out it was good karma for someone as the company had to upgrade the people who were going to get him on the next lease!!!
I've had a great walk around Brisbane today. Suz, you're going to love it here !!! There's lots of free stuff going on as the new civic center is opening today. I saw a 20 minute sketch by the Cirque (which I'm guessing is some of the apprentices from the actual Cirque du Soliel that's playing here just now). I'm going back tomorrow to take some pics this time. They were quite unbelievably fantastic.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Oz. I'm sad to be going. I've made some great friends and met some interesting people. The end of year review of 2006 in this blog's going to have some interesting things in it (from my point of view) this time around. I've had a blast.
Posted by graeme at 7:42 AM | Comments (0)