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May 31, 2007
Pinstripes in the Park
Last night I went to Bryant Park for the "Pinstripes in the Park" showing of the NY Yankees against the Toronto Blue Jays. Here's what the park normally looks like...
and with 12,000 yankees fans in for the free night's entertainment!
Pinstripes in the park
It's just amazing what this city does for it's inhabitants, the stuff it puts on for free (ok fully sponsored by huge multi-nationals) but the mere fact that it endorses this stuff (there's free classic films starting next month) is something you'd hardly see back home. I can't imagine them showing a Rangers or Celtic away game live in George Square back home!!!
Here's some more pics from New York's Central Park. I've been spending a lot of time here recently, picking up a baseball game each time I'm here.
The lake
Memorial to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields
Strike 1!
This is down in 23rd street. Nice name!!!
Just a quick aside. I've taken a break from recounting the daily slog of yoga life. To be honest I got a bit fed up of it all writing each entry covering how practice was going (or not). I'll get back to detailing practice once I get back to home I think.
Posted by graeme at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)
May 30, 2007
Yoga Man
I took my mat and towel to the Asian Laundromat up from the hostel this morning where I had to explain to the woman serving that my clothes stunk so much as I did yoga, and that it was only sweat, nothing else.
"Oh smelly man!" she said as she opened the bag, and she's not wrong. I've been drenched the last couple of practices, wee puddles at the end of my mat big enough for me to drown in, almost.
When I came back to collect the laundry, the woman announced "Ah, Yoga man, clean now!", big smile on her face. She's very perceptive too, I'd had a hair cut in the interim.
I'm fair getting in to the baseball here, it's just fascinating to watch all the little nuances that go on between the team members. Today some of the guys were bitching about another guy's ego, saying they'd need a wheel barrow soon to carry it on to the park. Thing is they all agreed he was their best player and he duly delivered to get them off to what ended up being a winning 3-2 start.
I also managed to nearly totally cripple my finances by keying in my credit-card PIN number wrong twice. Oops! Since then it's been restricting the amount of money I can withdraw so I had a few days of sweaty palms. I found a camera I liked so here are some shots from around the hood....
View from the Empire State at sundown
View towards Chrysler Building (excuse the spelling!)
All very patriotic this!
One of the boards on the railings at Ground Zero
Dude gives it some serious thought outside the World Trade Center site
Walking over Brooklyn Bridge
Sailors in Fleet Week doing the Officer and Gentleman thing (at the strip bar!)
Lady with a good view of the City
View of the city from Central Park (over the ice rink)
Posted by graeme at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
Vacancy
(28th May)
Never come across a bad Kate Beckinsale movie until now, and how aptly named
it is too. Vacant? Of a plot? Oh yeah. Well, there's a plot of sorts there but just as
you think this 'horror' (of a movie) is about to get going and get interesting
Beckinsale's up to that point super shy, super scared character gets a blast of testosterone and takes out two of the main assailants in one foul sweep. After that it's all down hill into another one of those "oh no, it's not finishing here !??!" endings. There were people laughing and booing at the end. Cripes! Avoid at all costs.
Earlier I'd taken a better walk (map assisted) through Greenwich Village to the lower East Side and down into Little Italy and the edge of China Town. The Italians had the entire street blocked off for food out in the street style celebrations of some sort or another, the place was a splash of colour and the smell's very enticing.
Came across Lombardi's, whose Pizza's are so good they're in the Pizza Hall of fame. Apparently they were the first to make Pizza's in New York in 1905, that's a long time to get the taste right! I also discovered the missing internet cafes I'd been missing on earlier trips through town. Funny how your own eyes can deceive you sometimes. Must be getting old!
Posted by graeme at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)
More on Art..
(27th May)
Today I went on another walkabout. This time from the hostel straight across to Central Park and down towards Museum Mile. It was like walking into a marathon race what with all the people who were out jogging round Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy Lake. Mind you, having said that, half of them were hardly going faster than walking pace. All the same, it's all in the effort and there was plenty of that going on.
I'd planned to go across the Great Field towards the American Natural History Museum (ANHM) but ended up taking a detour through the Guggenheim on the way. Jeez, what a waste of 12 bucks. I have this theory that a whole bunch of rich folks got together and decided they didn't like any of the art they had bought but couldn't decide what to do with it. The someone came up with the idea, "Let's put it all in one place and let the masses pay to come see it. That way it can fund purchases of the nice stuff that we can look at, they'll never know." Well, I hate to say it but this stuff was pretty crap, oh, other than the top floor exhibit run by the kids from local schools which was actually kinda cool.
As for the ANHM. Well it's in an entirely different league. Ok, the planetarium was a bit on the expensive side for the length of film they showed (Collisions), and the IMAX presentation on Dinosaurs was nowhere near as good as what the BBC have done in their Walking with Dinosaurs series, still, the dinosaur skeletons were gobsmacking in their enormity. My favourite was the giant tortoise which was the size of an elephant!
Later I walked down 7th Avenue to find I'd missed a huge street fair. I'm hoping they are weekly events and not just for Memorial Weekend. All in all I walked atleast 52 blocks today. My feet are killing me.
Posted by graeme at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2007
New York Update
It's been a couple of days since my last blog entry. I can put this down to my own stupdity. I've been wandering around Manhattan here for the last 3-4 days looking for a cheap internet cafe and couldn't find one. The I discovered that some of the parks around here have FREE internet access (24x7) so most people come here, or to coffee shops where they can get access for free while they drink (I don't drink coffee so am very rarely in a coffee shop!
So I've buckets of stuff to write about so there's a good chance this maybe one long blog. Eaaak, where to start?
Lets see. Here's some of the places I've been to.
Empire State Building - went up the evening I arrived. Cost me nearly $50 for the trip plus the Sky Tour which ended up being a roller coaster type simulator over New York. Views from the top are simply stunning, though I missed sunset by about 3 minutes. The sky tour almost made me sick. Thought I'd maybe meet the girl of my dreams up there but alas she wasn't to be found....
Grand Central Station and the underground - isnt as bad as I thought once I worked out that the 'express' trains dont have platforms at some of the stations that the 'local' trains on the same line do AND what direction is 'uptown' and which is 'downtown' (Bronx and Brooklyn Bridge). It get's difficult to spot the coloured circles marking the routes when you're in the station but once you get the hang of it there seems to be some method to the madness. It'd help a bit if there was some road side signs when you're out walking (there are some but not a lot). London's great on this point but I guess most tourists here pick up maps anyway.
Brooklyn Bridge - which I walked over at sunset (and back again). I got my first sight of the Statue of Liberty from here. The bridge was super busy with people meandering across and back, or running, cycling to/from work. I must say this city is extremely mobile. Everything's moving around you all the time.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - should've got there before 8am (I arrived at 10am) as that's when the day's allocation of visitors who can get inside the plinth maxs out. I had to queue for around 50- minutes for the boat across to the Statue (which is quite fantastic from close up) then queue again for 10-15 minutes to get onto the boat across to Ellis Island. There's some great information on display inside the sorting house and its a bit earie to be standing there thinking of all the people who passed through there (or not) on the way to a better life in America.
Ground Zero, World Trade Centre - The memorial exhibition on one side of the excavated site contains a collection of artefacts recovered from the wreckage of the twin towers, and a wall covered with the 'Missing' photographs and fliers from families looking for any information on their loved ones. I video playing on one wall listing all the perished peoples' names takes over 4 hours to run. I found it really difficult to look at any of the pictures on the wall, it was so moving. There was ample boxes of tissues lying around for people to use which was a nice touch. Plans for the memorial include 2 sunken waterfalls on the original sites of the towers and a huge replacement tower.
Rockerfeller Centre - as good as the Empire State with some neat graphics within the elevator up to the 68th floor. I went up on a warmer evening and managed to get a bit better organised and caught the sunset (girl not here either). No queues waiting to get in so well worth the trip. You can get discount for the NBC studio tour on this ticket but again you need to get in early. Note to self: Buy better tour book next time.
Central Park - love it. It's simply huge and caters for everything. Found the places I wanted to visit (from films I've seen), and also the little memorial for John Lennon outside Strawberry Fields. Had a great time watching the baseball that was on there. Wow, there's some complicated rules going on there (especially if you don't have the required 3 females on your team).
What else.....
Times Square - its Fleet Week here, lots of boats in town so the streets are awash with men in White Uniforms. I wish I hadn't broken my camera as I've some good pictures of the guys off on leave doing what sailors on break do best. This place puts London's Picaddilly Circus to shame.
Greenwich Village - where I was this afternoon is particularly nice around Washington Square where there's all sorts of street performers out singing, playing music and dancing. Best entertainment I've see outside the Edinburgh Festival.
As you can see I've been a tad busy. I've been walking about 6-8 hours every day and I'm a bit cappoot. So I'm gonna take things a bit easier, spend more time watching baseball in Central Park and get round to the remaining things one at a time instead of all at once as I've been doing.
Once I find a replacement camera I'll try and get some of the photos posted up.
Posted by graeme at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)
8 Random Facts
I've been out of the loop for a while so I may have missed the wave that this guy came up on but I'll give it a go all the same....
I was tagged by Clare for this meme. Here are 8 random facts about me.. I think that's how it goes....
1. When they started giving cards out in Mysore as it was so busy with students I went to register with my friends. As we sat waiting I said to one of them how embarrassing it would be if Sharath pulled you out of the crowd to give you an early slot. 2 seconds later Sharath pointed straight at me and said "You! Come here."
2. I was Deputy Head Boy at my school and Captain of the Rugby 1st XV.
3. When I was 13 I ran 10.6 for the 100m. I've jumped further in the triple jump than any female athlete in the Olympics.
4. I've got a degree in Artificial Intelligence (no shit!). My final year project was gloriously titled - "A rational reconstruction of a 3D feature based navigator for mobile robots".
5. I once did Bhujapidasana 12 times in the trot during a mysore class held by John Scott until he came over to help me - he told me he'd be with me in a minute!
6.
7. My best male friend is American, and best female friend is Swiss-Italian. I love these guys like they were family.
8. I've kept a log of all the yoga classes and teachers I've had since I can remember. At the last count I've been 'taught' by 47 teachers.
The rules
1: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2: People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3: At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4: Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
I tag:
errrr no-one.
Posted by graeme at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2007
Big Apple bound...
Only one nights sleep from heading off again, back to America and the delights of New York. Man, I just can't believe I'm actually going there! Deep breath time....
I've had a fantastically relaxing weekend back home with my parents. Bit of a snooze fest to be honest, catching up on some much needed down time and giving myself a complete rest. When I was a lot younger the swimming coach used to send us away from the pool for 2 weeks mid-august to give us all a break from the ups and downs of the training regime and to do something else with our lives. I really liked this time as I always came back to swimming keen and eager to get back into the water. I'm hoping I'll have a similar experience giving myself a bigger break before heading across the pond, not that I need to recharge the enthusiasm batteries but more as a good point to remind myself not to over do things too much and be careful of the over-training I've been known to inflict upon myself.
One night in London this evening them I'm off to the Big Apple. Yippeeee!!!
Posted by graeme at 4:17 PM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2007
Back for good? Errr no
I left London yesterday and took the Virgin train up the west coast back home to Glasgow, right into the thick of things. The UEFA Cup final was being held in Glasgow last night so 60,000+ supporters from Seville and Espagnola were in town to cheer on their team to victory (or defeat). The town was a wash of red/yellow and blue/white with large parts of the city centre shut off to traffice. Even the rain didn't dampen anyones spirits.
It's nice to be back home. The centre's had a fresh coat of paint but all the usual suspects were around. It was just great to catch up with the teacher and friends again after being away for 7 months almost. Jeez, I can hardly believe I'm back here. But I'm only passing through. Going back to see the parents tomorrow and over the weekend then getting ready for the final stage of my trip - New York!
Posted by graeme at 2:17 PM | Comments (1)
May 15, 2007
London
Today I had a really long, slow practice at AYL. It was great. I started off taking 8 breaths and just went from there. I thought I was going super slow then realised the girl next to me wasn't going much faster. Ah, safety in numbers. I really like just taking time and hanging out in postures these days, even the ones I find difficult nearer the end are just great to get into and have a good old breathe. Yum.
I've started to sort out all those confounded places where I'm taking extra breaths to get myself sorted before getting in to a posture. If there's one good thing about postures when they get easier is the fact I dont have to faff about as much trying to get my hips or knees to stop wailing at me so much. It's helping me out with the heat issue as well as body temperature seems to be staying steadier since starting at AYL than anywhere else this trip, so practice is all over much more comfortable. I'm still getting warm enough for the kurmasanas and what have you so I'm happy enough with that.
Two things have cropped up for me at AYL.
I've been a bit too Type-A about practising in the morning. I missed Mondays as there was so much noise in the dorms here I got like no sleep at all. I could've been getting to the shala at 9am instead of 5.30am and getting things going from there, rather than pushing myself so much to get up and out before it gets busy. It wasn't as if I had work to go to afterwards. I've been real tired for about 3 months now and I know I've been overdoing it a bit.
The other one I'll talk about later...
Tomorrow's a moon day so I'm gonna have a super long lie in. Yippee!!
Posted by graeme at 2:29 PM | Comments (1)
May 13, 2007
Next
I hate films with bad endingsm y'know the thing where the movie's trundling along quite nicely then all of the sudden the credits start rolling. Darn! What the heck happened there? Did they run out of money or something or did the stars have to jet off to Acapulco to top up their egos??? Arrgghhh. And up to that point it was as good a film as I've seen this year.
I think I've put a bit too much pressure on my left knee in Kukkutasana on Friday. I could feel it when I was coming out after trying to lift my big ass off the floor and get some air under there. I had my arms quite far through (for me) and I think it's worked in behind the knee a little bit more than I'm used to. Had to give it a bit of room in practice today. It's more achey than actual pain. Still, it's a warning for me to watch what I'm doing now things are moving in the right direction again.
Yesterday I spent the majority of my day up in Colindale at the Royal Air Force Museum. Having been through the Imperial War Museum mid week I was really looking forward to this and especially the exhibit on the Battle of Britain. I wasn't disappointed. The hourly show "The Few", dedicated to the young fighter pilots of Britain who gave their lifes to defend our shores from airborn assault from Germany, was really well put together using film, slideshow, audio clips and the Spitfire and Messerschmitt airplanes parked in front of the seating as backdrops. You just can't beat the sound of a Spitfire firing up and taking off.
Posted by graeme at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
Art? I just don't get it
I visited the Tate Modern Art Gallery today and out of the 3 floors of art work there was like 1 piece I actually thought "well, this is kinda nice". Take this as an example.
One 'artist' had created an installation. He'd taken a wooden cupboard, tall boy, whatever you call it, and basically filled it with concrete. The stuck the back of a wooden chair across the bottom of it. The critique at the side talked of a more famous piece of work (who's creator I forget) which shows Madonna holding the head of the dead Christ.
Err, hello. I just don't get the connection.
In another piece an 'artist' had created 99 30g tins of 'product', labelled apparently with his own excrement. Well, fantastic. I can just see that sitting on the mantle piece back home.
And does everything have to do with Sex? A huge installation of a 3 part socket plug, suspended from the ceiling, was equate to the penetration of the orifices of the body, and the dangling 'appendages' of the man. Hmmnnn. I just don't get it at all.
And the one piece I liked? Well it was a marble statue 'Harmony' that looked kinda like 2 yogis hand-to-hand in backbends, wrapping back to each other. Hmnn. Yoga, it gets everywhere.
Posted by graeme at 2:32 PM | Comments (1)
May 9, 2007
No splits
Yesterday in class H spotted me stretching myself out on splits. He put his hand on my shoulder and when I looked up he shook his head at me and smiled. I mentioned my hamstrings being tight after yesterday's evening practice.
He said he'd found that doing this over time caused a pain behind his knee which slowly and surely got worse. Not good. I thought, 'yeah, and you're point is?' Then he hit me with it.
Better to let it stretch naturally on its own.
Hmmn. He's got a point. I could see why practicing in the morning is actually a good, cautionary thing. I'm naturally a lot stiffer in the morning so this prevents me getting in to places I have no right being in, then or even when I'm looser in the evening. Evening practice always leaves me feeling worse off. 2 reasons, I'm much more open so more likely to push further than I should be, and secondly, after morning practice I've got all day to move around and lubricate my joints and move my tired muscles around, giving them a chance to clean out a little.
In MariD I think H is using less effort to get me in to bind, when it comes, and he's got me to think about the twist coming from my waste and those lovely love handles, so I'm taking extra time and working anything that goes near that area at all. Seems to be making a little headway. It's amazing how this practice all inter-relates with itself, posture to posture.
Posted by graeme at 11:31 AM | Comments (1)
May 8, 2007
Museum woes
Over the last few days I've had a bit of a museum frenzy. It's been great. I spent most of Saturday in the Science Museum and most of today in the Imperial War Museum, both of which I can highly recommend. It's one of those things when you're confronted with pictures of concentration camps in Auschwitz then have to decide what you're going to have for lunch. It seems so unfair that people from one century have such a hard time of it what with 2 world wars and the like whilst in the present things are all a bit hunky dorey. Still. It was an education in itself to go see this stuff, very thought provoking and all, and it certainly quitened down that monkey mind of mine during the rest of the day. Life's a very precious thing when you see how desperate the situations these people had to deal with, never knowing if they'd life to see the next hour. There was one piece, a 1/100 scale replica of the sorting area in Auschwitz were new arrivals were sorted 1 to 5 left to right based on their health, age and sex. Those going right had a long walk to the death chamber, those on the left spared to work in the hell that they found them in. It was so earie as it was all painted white, I'm guessing a winter scene, but the huge oversized pictures of some actual survivors from the place overshadow the model in all proportions.
On a more pleasant side, Pete, the winner of last year's Big Brother just walked in to the internet cafe, all dressed in blue with red and black dreadlocks, and not a swear word to be heard, now that's really shocking.
Posted by graeme at 6:26 PM | Comments (1)
May 4, 2007
KM at the VA
After work yesterday afternoon I took a tube out to South Kensington to wander round some of the museums. I walked into the Victoria and Albert Museum, a wonder in architecture in its own right and found myself spending 2-3 hours in this exhibition.
Man was it worth it. I'd spent like 30minutes in the National Portrait Gallery looking at the 'Face of Fashion' exhibition fronted by a picture of Kate Moss. I'd paid 8 pounds to get in to see that show and it covered like 2 rooms. Here the set up expanded over 4 rooms and included costumes, pictures, a timeline, a behind the scenes rolling video, 2 big display scenes, a recreation of her dressing room and as many Pop Princess gowns that would make any girl swoon in envy. It was all very well done and presented Miss Minogue in the best of light, sharing with her fan base at her best. And it was free to get in to and was rightly busy. Out of the public eye for a while following the discovery of breast cancer it was good to see this reminder of her enormous talent. I particularly liked the commentary on the gold hot pants which told the story of them being bought for 50p in a charity shop before adoring the Princess and immediately becoming part of Kylie Hysteria. And she can't half sing! It seems strange that I'd spend so much time there when just outside across the hall there was all this historical art work from Asia and China, massive 'cartoon' paintings on loan from The Queen that used to hang in the Sistine Chapel and as many Italian marble statues that you're ever likely to see none of which could hold my interest like Kylie Minogue's hotpants!
Today's last day freelancing at the J.O.B. Can't say I'm going to miss the place but it's been nice to touch base again with the faces I know around this place. Plus it's kept me in the good books with the bosses.
Posted by graeme at 8:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 3, 2007
Work blues
I'm so glad it's coming to the end of this week especially since I told the project manager at the J.O.B. that I didn't have anymore time for work after Friday. I'd already added on an extra week and to be honest it's been hard going. Yesterday I had a real gung-ho shouting match with the P.M. Enough is enough.
I went out for a wee shopping spree yesterday, not that I actually bought anything. It was Harrods after all and the stuff they have in there is somewhat expensive to say the least. In one of their coffee shops/restaurants they were selling soup at nearly 8 pounds for a bow and a piano at 21 thousand. Yikes! There was a lot of shop assistants standing around talking and not much buying going on. I picked up one of the store guides and with my backpack on I felt like a tourist inside a living exhibition. It was quite surreal.
Class this morning was fun. I nearly landed on the girl next to me when I bent down in Ardha Baddha and almost fell on her managing only to stop myself when I put my hand down on top of hers in the middle of my mat. I was a bit naughty when I left as well as I caught myself shaking my mat off at the end of practice all over the mat of the girl next to me (I think she'd gone to the toilet). There's one guy in the shala who has a mat that's disintegrating all over the place, it's making a heck of a mess and all his bits had stuck to the bottom of my mat. Oops.
Shala's closed monday morning due to the bank holiday here. There's a class from 6-9 in the evening but I think I'll take the extra day's rest.
Posted by graeme at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2007
Sloan strangers? Oh Brother!
I've been getting in to work by 8am this past week and a bit, which is a good hour before everyone else. As I'm only in to help the J.O.B. out of a sticky situation with the customer I've been taking the afternoons off. Well, I figure 5 hours a day is quite enough of my time to give them. I'm still on sabatical after all!
Yesterday I spent some time in Regent Park behind the office then took it upon myself to go take a trek across town to Sloan Square and down Chelsea way, an area of London I've heard loads of but never been too. It's one of the better areas in town (apparently) where 'Sloan Rangers' and the 'Hooray Henry' brigade are supposed to hang out, the types who drive around in huge Land Rover SUVs that have never seen a dirty puddle since coming spanking new out of the factory. For sure it's a nice part of town, even considered renting out a river boat to live in ! Oh and there was for sure a couple of 'Luvies' walking around dressed like they were going to Ladies Day at Ascot Race Course.
Then I ran into George from last years Big Brother walking about like a startled deer, like someone was going to acost him for being so bold as to walk out of Big Brother when things got a bit out of hand for him. Poor lad.
Posted by graeme at 6:39 AM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2007
H
H has been back teaching in London now for 2 days following his trip to Tokyo. It's the first time I've practiced under his watchful eye and his guiding hands. It's been an interesting experience.
I've heard people mention that he doesn't give you much help. Well, I guess to some degree that's true. I'd put that down to the number of students in his shala to be honest. The place has been pretty busy since he came back, though I've no real base line to compare it to as I thought it was busy enough when the replacement teacher was covering for him. The other thing I think's going on, and this is purely my interpretation of it, is that he gives you as much as you need at the point you are at.
Take Supta Kurmasana for example.
Recently I've been able to bind my fingers but only with the help of a good adjustment. I can't hold it if the teacher lets go. I can get my shoulders pretty far underneath and in some shalas this is where the focus for me has been. I stay in kurmasana until teacher has some time for me, this period can be quite long so I get enough opportunity to relax into my shoulders and easy out my breathing. Then the hands and shoulders get adjusted to touch (maybe), the feet get lifted nearer the head, then the big squish happens, head down to the floor.
H approaches this differently. He goes straight for my hands and elbows, holding them in a bind position and then as I can't hold the bind by myself he'll let me go and head off to help someone else. To me this signals that this is the key aim for me in this asana. Get your hands bound and be able to hold it. He never went anywhere near the front of my body once he started to work my hands. After that he doesn't come anywhere near me in my practice which again is fair enough. I think this is where he'd have me stop, I may even ask him that, though for sure I'd want to go further through.
Still. His adjustments are great. He's helped me both days in Mari D. My thoughts are he tries to get you in on the first go, then he doesn't have to spend any longer with you than he has to. He's got an assistant that helps out with him which helps alot for sure, but there are a lot of people here for him to look after.
It's worth the visit for sure.
Posted by graeme at 7:49 AM | Comments (4)