Woke up this Morning: February 2008 Archives

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February 28, 2008

One thing less to worry about

Now that the flat's sorted out (yippee) I can heave a big sigh of relief. Happy to have somewhere to stay for the next 6 months though I'll have to pull in the strings a little bit to cope financially. Well, it'll prompt me in to doing all those things that I'd put off to the side. Been watching far too much television here in the last 6 months so perhaps this will give me the nudge to get out and do a bit more.

Now, here's a strange thing. Over the past 2-3 days I've noticed something extremely weird happening. Lately I've been getting this really warm sensation at the top of might right thigh, about a palm width town from the top. It comes maybe 5-6 times and hour then it'll pass. I can actually feel the 'glow' as I sit here now. It's strange as the first time I came across a Reiki practitioner it was right here that my leg began to feel really warm. So much so that I actually said to the girl that I could feel the warmth of her hand on my leg. "But I'm not touching you" she said. Nice ! Or maybe it's the first of my 'hot flushes'. Do men get the equivalent of the menopause??? Hmnnn. Need to look into that.

Hold on a second, I'm far too young for that sort of thing, what the heck am I saying !

Mind you, it could also be something to do with the deeper back bends I've been doing over the last 2 weeks, but there again that's probably just my head messing with me.

Posted by graeme at 8:15 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2008

Some moves are better than others

So the hunt for a new place to stay comes a bit closer. Tomorrow I've got an appointment to see "the place" as I've now called it. I'm manifesting that it will still be there by the time I get over to see it. There's a distinct possibility that someone else will see it before me and snap it up.

It's going to be awesome to get over there and so uplifting to get out of this place. The flatmate's broke up with her boyfriend (again), the dogs bark at everything (even their own barking), and there's a sense of tension around this place that you could cut with a knife. I've already started lugging my stuff back to the office as a temporary storage until I finally find somewhere to move it on to. It's killing my back and shoulders.

On the practice front I managed to avoid hitting my head off the wall this morning when at the front of the studio, something I consider an improvement on the last time I was there. I had a much nicer practice today. It's totally me, my perceptions of it all, I know, but I just don't get people who power through from one posture to the next, breath all over the place but today it was all fairly quiet and peaceful in my head though I did manage to catch the foot of the girl beside me when I jumped back and she was in supta padangusthasana. I've also found a bit more courage when nearer the wall as I know I'm not going to fall over and clobber someone in front of me.

At work I managed to avoid getting all up to ninety when the machine I need for testing on came back from a demo with all the software completely erased. Ok, so it's only 2 day down the drain trying to repair it but, hey, these things happen right? Couple of years ago this sort of thing would've put me through the roof.

Posted by graeme at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Sleepless

Gads, it's been a while since this happened. I was wide awake this morning at 2.30am, and after shuffling around in bed for an hour or so it was a case of, sod this, I'm shala bound. Of course leaving at that time in the morning bound me to wheeled transport courtesy of the all night bus service which was surprisingly busy.

I think I was fourth in the door this morning, and getting there at 5.20am shows you the dedication of the regulars who turn up at that time of the morning. Mind you, they're a right socialable bunch, it was a nice surprise to hear up to volume conversation in the studio for a change instead of the more usual hushed tones as people exchange quick conversation either on their way in or out.

Practice was ok, nothing to write home about. My abs are still killing me after the weekend, and in fact I can feel them just sitting here typing this entry. Ow. Teacher dropped me back 3 times this morning. She never said anything but helped me up really quickly on the first one, not giving me the "walk your hands in", but pulling me back up to standing. When she did it the second time I had a big smile on my face. Dunno why, it just seemed so nice to be doing something different with backbends. Mind you, when she said "straighten your legs, relax your bum", I was a bit like, oh, that's a pat the head, rub the tummy combination. It's going take me a bit to get both of those right.

Posted by graeme at 8:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2008

Seane, take two

I managed to take 16 pages worth of notes this weekend at the 'detox workshop'. Keen to point out that it's not just what we put into our mouths, Seane took the class on a very thought provoking, very physical (my gawd!), and very spiritual journey over the 2 days

Here's some notes, my additions are in brackets. As always, this is my perception of what she said and not necessarily what she meant.

In normal practice a student can easily fall into consistent bad habits with not much time to correct [Seane holds you in postures for aaaaaaggggggeeess!]

It's easy to kill the rhythm of a class

Vinyasa has no dogma, no owner. No one can say you're doing it wrong [though I'd imagine people could tell whether you're doing it badly or not. I know, it's not the point]

Yoga is a "healing art, an expression of the self" [and/or Self]

Stability over flexibility

Watch your balance between yin/yang postures and don't transition too quickly

Vinyasa teachers don't demo a lot [but they do have some great things to share]

Yoga is in the "showing up and being present"

Teachers need to find a way of protecting themselves from the energy they can pick up in class

Regulate your body and mind, make an active meditation. You can do vinyasa washing the dishes

Read the book "Waking" by Matthew Sanford. [It may make you cry]

The aim [as a teacher] is for your students to not say "I like my body" but "I like my life"

Difference between detox and diet. We also need to purify ... our attitudes and perceptions

Build a pose from the ground up.

Heat from the inside/out a healthier approach

Anytime you are in a twist you want to think "Upward Dog" [sternum forward]

Practice being receptive rather than reactive

When a chakra is out of alignment it effects the vibrational quality of your energy

Yoga is just the band-aid on the wound. [Specifically towards a continued repetition of faulty actions. She's talking about decades here]

To understand what love is we need to understand what love isn't [She made a big play of going into the dark side, the shade of your persona to be able to better understand yourself]

Children are not immune from karma

Forgiveness is the hardest yoga you will do

The very thing we might be afraid of may be what opens our heart

"I don't believe there's lack in the Universe, only greed"

and finally

It's not what you're eating, but what's eating you

Posted by graeme at 4:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Mercenaries R Us

I guess it wouldn't be very proper to write about what happened in my review yesterday. This internet thing, y'never know sometimes and of late I've tried to verge more on the cautious side with what I've been saying here. Suffice to say that when I came out of the meeting I was actually laughing. It's getting to be a bit of a problem. I could probably rationalise and make sense of it all but at the end of the day it's spinning a bit out of control and there's no real signs of it getting any better. If someone had told me 8 months ago when I got back to work that I'd see and hear some of the things that have gone on around here I wouldn't have believed them, but these things have come to pass for a reason, I imagine, and if it's to make me a better person by teaching me a few things then whoever came up with this little lot has sure been mighty creative.

I've been thinking a lot recently about Brasil. I saw this huge advert on the underground recently about visiting there, wasn't anything like I imagined it would look. Of course I've seen the pictures of Rio, heard about all the stuff that goes on there, but I'd hate to think people would colour the UK by what they know about the city I'm in here, so I know I shouldn't be like that for other peoples' countries. I had a long chat over the weekend with one of the yoga students and her partner as they're Brasilian. Got some usefull heads up on a place to visit so I'm thinking about taking a trip out there during vacation this year. I'll see. The Canadian girl I met in Byron Bay day 2 of the round the world trip is now 3 days away from going to Jamaica for a look see. It's fun to see the paths that people weave across this little planet of ours.

Busy weekend again, yoga wise. I've to play scribe for my yoga teacher who wanted to come to the sessions but can't make it. "Take notes" the email said. I could be busy.

Y'all have a great weekend.

Posted by graeme at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

It's all go

There's lots happening this full moon.

I'm hoping that the flat that I'm looking at will come up for rent. The agent tells me that the owner's looking to put it on the market this weekend. It's in a real nice part of town and literally a stone throw away from the (other) shala.

I've got my annual review tomorrow morning. A chance for me to vent my spleen and dump out all the cr*p I've been holding onto since the start of this project since last April. I did a check list of things I wanted to say. 27 items in total at the last count. Not bad for 5 minutes work. Here's a few...

3. Not being listened to
4. Micro managed
14. They're "too busy"
22. Unrealistic expectations. I was surprised this was sooo far down the list.

The project I'm working on, and have been for the last 12 years, is up for renewal. The big cheese at the customer's place is apparently making a decision this Friday before heading off on holiday. Personally, I think he'll leave it until he gets back. I know that's what I'd do, let the supplier's sweat it out a little bit longer. After all, what's a few weeks going to change when the decision was supposedly due last June?

The soul teacher's in town this weekend. Jeez, she couldn't have found a better time to come. I call her the soul teacher as her class blew me away the last time with the stuff she was talking about. It really is quite amazing and she's so incredibly honest about it too. I had such a fantastic time with her last time in Scotland it was amazing.

One of the students from the teacher training weekend missed class over the weekend due to a family illness so the course director phoned me last night and asked if I could get together with the student and bring her back up to speed on what she missed. Ha, my first one-on-one since the sunday at class when only one student turned up for the open Mysore. This'll be fun!

Found out yesterday that D is leaving the shala, moving down the coast to pasture's new. She'll be sorely missed, such a great adjuster, and a lovely warm person. She's managed to get my fingers to almost hold in Supta Kurmasana this last week. I made her laugh this morning as she caught me reading the gossip magazine one of the girls had left by the door. She's such a great laugh. She soooo reminds me of the girl who was on the kids program Play School when I was growing up.

My friend, the hairdresser, who moved out to Oz-land emailed me yesterday telling me she'd expecting. Wow. She was so dead set against that sort of thing. "Took me by surprise" she said. She'll make a great mother.

And then there's the moon day.

WooooooshhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHH!

Posted by graeme at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2008

Hey, hen, urrr you fi Scotland?

It's good to be busy over the weekend but I'd forgotten how restless I get when I'm inside helping at teacher training and it's nice and sunny outside. Must be something from when I was a kid as I loved running around outside playing games and getting up to all sorts of nonsense. Now, when the sun comes out and I'm stuck inside I get like some penned in ally-cat, pacing up and down looking outside the windows. It's actually quite funny. Then at the breaks when everyone sneaks off for a quick coffee I'm like nashing outside to bask in the glow for 2 minutes. Ahhh, nothing nicer than the warmth of the sun!

Teacher training was good, busy as ever, with lots to cover. I got asked to help out with the interviews of the new students looking to join the course. And after my inquisitive questions the day before it turned out that the first person I talked to was from Scotland!! Ha! I think she was as shocked to hear me speak as I was to meet her, as she'd slipped back into a broad scots accent without thinking when she heard me speak. She told me later she hadn't done that for ages as she'd been down in England for a while now. Ha. You can take the lass out of Scotland but cannae take the scottish oot the lassie!

Twas nice. The new people are great. Very spiritual this time around which is a nice contrast to the high intake of people from the personal trainer arena we usually have. Each with their own unique backgrounds and stories to tell about how they came to yoga and why they wanted to start a teaching course now. One girl got all emotional about it all, it was very moving. The course is starting to get a fair number of referrals from students who have already graduated so that's good to see. I think that means a lot to the directors here as it's a good sign they're on the right tracks with their course content. One of the guys looking to start is the husband of one of the girls who'll be finishing soon. Obviously he's seen and heard a fair bit from his wife about the course but she told us over coffee that she was really surprised and delighted that he'd brought this up without any prompting from her at all. Result!

I hope my mari-d becomes more open soon. The poor adjusters have to work awfully hard to get me into that posture these days. It's getting easier, though it's a very gradual process for sure.

Posted by graeme at 6:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

Cycles

I'm off to help with the teacher training class this weekend. I got an email from the teacher running the course after I asked if they needed help out there. This years' students are coming down to the wire and are near the end of their course. They're covering first aid this weekend, doing one of these fast track courses covering all of the basics. It's during this time I've been asked to sit in on the course teacher's talk with some candidates for the course starting in April, give them some feedback on what the course is all about and answer any questions where I can, usual sort of stuff.

It got me thinking that this would be the 6th group of students I will have come across on one course or another all within the same yoga school. And of course, that means there's 4 groups or more I've had to say cheerio to as well. It's that Mysore feeling in a much bigger, longer scale. You may know, or not, but one of the problems yoga students face when in Mysore is the relationships that they make, often very deep, strong ones, that ultmately have to come to an end when one party ends up leaving and going home, and the other is left often to mourn the other's passing. Then, if you're the one left behind in Mysore, there's the challenge of making new friends all over again from scratch, if you can be bothered with it all. Where are you from, who's your teacher, where do you stop in your practice, where can I get my money changed.... please, spare me. And yeah, I'm as guilty for asking the same questions myself.

And it's intense. Both times I've been out to India I made good friends with people I met very quickly, and they made a big impression on me, one of them even got me into thinking about writing my own blog. And you get to spend a lot of time with the people you meet, it can all be a bit surreal, though very much in a nice way. Very much a 'yoga bubble' if there ever is one. But the break ups can be hard, one fair-well dinner too much.

And so it is with the teacher trainees. Ok, so I only see them once a month for a weekend, but year in, year out, I've seen the characters change and evolve. Like John Scott would say, lotus flowers blossoming in the garden. Some of them have become good friends, some of them well on their way to becoming great teachers, and one or two I do admit I'm sad to see go.

Life is a microcosm

I guess it all comes down to change, impermanence, everything changes but the land endures - all that good stuff, and I'd be naive to think it hadn't changed me too. I feel it strange sometimes when friends tell me how much calmer I am now, how much I've let things go, because for me, even more now than at any time, I feel like I'm grasping at things, at life, at postures, at practices, at people, and there's more inner tension and up-swirling, knots in my stomach, right there in that bit that can't be scratched yet is near enough to the surface that I can feel it.

And if anything it's when I sleep really well that I feel it the most in the sense that when my head hits the pillow, boom, it seems like I'm back awake in no time at all. Of course being inside most of the day sat at a computer desk doesn't make the day any longer. When I had 2, 3 hours to spare to walk along the shore in South Beach, the days seemed to last so much longer.

Well, I'm babbling again. Though I know I've had this very thought before....

I wonder what the new friends I'm going to meet tomorrow are doing right now?

Posted by graeme at 7:12 PM | Comments (0)

Friday

"The practice of cherishing can be taken
very deeply if done wordlessly, allowing
yourself to feel the love and appreciation
that already exists in your heart"

- Dalai Lama

Posted by graeme at 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

Doubled up

Yesterday was my 'bad' day, not that I was terribly dishonest though one friend said I built it up so much she thought I was opening my open Shala or starting 3rd series or something. Now those I would've really build up! No. Nothing like that. Yesterday I went off for my second practice of the day, which, when I added it all up, came in at just over 4 hours of yoga yesterday. Yikes.

Class was quite interesting, though I was a bit stunned by the teacher's hand's on approach. No sooner had the class started with a sama-vritti breathing practice (nice one) then he came up behind me, sorted my posture a bit, then proceeded to what I can only describe as trying to pull my head-off by the ears! I've had some mighty fun adjustments in my time, but nothing so full on or so quick after having walked in the front door. Hey, I could've been nursing a head injury!!! Anyway, that aside, I found the class just what the Doctor ordered. One of these reminders I need every now and again that I'm still getting used to practicing in the morning, and that as a consequence, evening stuff's so much more easier and open.

The big problem with this class, other than the long ears, is the fact that it finished 30 minutes after I'm usually tucked up in bed, and that's even before I had to get on the tube and train to get home. I had to really work at not falling into a deep coma-sleep at the end of class I was so out of it. Still, I fair enjoyed myself (moans aside), and I think I'll be back in the near future.

Today's morning class was nice and open too, though my back was noticeably stiffer. I'm feeling it a bit now but I'm putting that down to the depth of the backbends and the twists I was getting in to late in the evening. I'm really super surprised, and somewhat delighted, that my hamstrings are actually ok, and if anything the extra blast kinda helped them out this morning. The upshot of all of this. Well I already knew there's a big difference between a 5 and a 6-day a week practice.

On a lighter note, I think I'm gonna puke. I've come in to town to get a bite to eat and I've ended up in one of these city 'canteens' which unsurprisingly's got a "Valentine's special" menu on. There's a couple that I've sat down at right angles too who've been holding hands since I got here, thing is they're not saying very much though I can't really tell as the air-fan's making a heck of a racket. Jeez, she looks like she's gonna burst into tears. Oh, she's just smiled. Gawd, so glad I'm single. Dude, just ask her to marry you and get on with it!

Posted by graeme at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

Doubled up

Yesterday was my 'bad' day, not that I was terribly dishonest, No. Nothing to much to write home about. Yesterday I went off for my second practice of the day, which, when I added it all up, came in at just over 4 hours of yoga. Yikes.

Posted by graeme at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2008

Against the grain

I guess the time has come for me to break out a little and do something a little, well, bad. I've been thinking about it for a long time, though I've been waiting for the time when I've felt like I'm in the right place at the right time, planets in alignment if you like. Well, that time has come, so it's time to put one foot in front of the other, break the mold and go do it. Trust me to be under a bit of a cold when I feel like this too. Arrgh. Here comes a lesson in me trying to be mindful.

Still, it feels good to be taking on something new, albeit something all too familiar. Oh yeah, in ashtanga circles I'm sure it's a major no-no. Och well, rules, rules, rules. Faaah to that.

Posted by graeme at 8:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

Universal influence

So this afternoon I took 10 minutes out of my day to prepare a letter to my flatmate terminating my lease. I thought about it quite carefully, trying to word it properly. My land-lady/flatmate's been fantastic company and a terrific host so I didn't want to write up some drab wee 3 line "I'm leaving" kind of affair. I was also a bit concerned it might come as a bit of a shock to her, she's been so keen for me to enjoy myself here.

When I got home I got changed and handed over the letter and waited to see how she'd respond. Thing is, she'd received an email that very afternoon from someone who'd asked about the room the same time as I did over six months ago. Within about a minute of me handing over the letter she'd pulled up the guy's email and sent a reply saying to get in touch! Here's me thinking she might be a bit upset about me leaving. Ha! There's a shot in my big ego!

Thankfully there's a couple of places coming on the rental market in the area I'm looking at. If the Universe can see it right for me to be in the right place at the right time to secure one of these I'll be well happy. I've also timed this right so that if my J.O.B. annual review doesn't go so well, I'll be on the first train back home to sunny Scotland.

Posted by graeme at 8:20 PM | Comments (2)

February 9, 2008

Blooming heck

The adjustment workshop on friday night was good fun, interesting to say the least. There was a fair few people at, though this was the first time at this place so I wasn't sure if the numbers were good or not. About a 50/50 split between students and teachers which I think worked out quite well. There was a couple of interesting things mostly at the very end for me and all revolving around adjustments for Mari-C. I think that for every teacher I go to these days they've all got their own way of adjusting this posture.

This variation was to come to it from the side, working the arm binding round the upright knee in the opposite direction into the back of the leg up until the point where you bend at the elbow to bring it round the knee. The teacher's point here being that your skin and arm will naturally start to unwind so do the opposite movement away from here before you begin gives your arm so much more movement available to it as you swing it back towards the back of your pelvis. He also made a lt of noise about making sure the bending arm stays close to the bent leg and not fly out to the side, again, to keep your elbow trapped nice and tight against the knee preventing any slippage. It seemed to work really well.

What I did like, however, was what he suggested next, which was to take the whole of the back arm into yours (as an adjuster), and with your back foot supporting the pelvis from the rear, effectively lift the torso away from the grounding of the floor. This really lets you get a lot of room to twist further round, even helps with the breathing. It was great to give this a quick try out too. It was the first time apparently this class had been run at this studio, so I hoping with the positive response the teacher got from the people that were there that there'll be more of this to follow.

This morning I actually went back across to the studio for a Mysore practice. Having missed yesterday's due to my awfully sore throat I thought I'd try and make up by going today. Jeez, I was almost suffering from agrophobia by the end of the class there's so much space there compared to the normal shala, and that was with 20-25 people in the room. Not sure really what I made of the experience. I kinda like the closeness and the authenticity of the place down the road. Still, I bought a 5 card pass so I'm destined to go back there again anyway!

After class I sat and talked with a couple of the other students for an hour or so, which was really nice. Then a brisk walk up the top of the nearby hill for some great views out over the city, and a mildly slow meander back down through past the zoo, along past the shops back to town. And the weather's turned real nice and sunny, all the better for meandering in! So much so that I saw my first daffodils of the spring. Jeez, is it not a bit early for them to be blossoming out? Usually back home they don't appear until April times!

Posted by graeme at 7:11 PM | Comments (0)

February 8, 2008

Miserable

I had a really awful night's sleep, well if you can call 1 hour "sleep". The irritatingly tickly throat that I caught on the train to Glasgow last week that I thought I'd managed to get over came back and kicked me in the teeth last night with vengeance. The flatmate and her boyfriend's both had it for the last week as well but just as I thought I was going to miss out on catching it, boom, this happened. I literally feel asleep an hour or so before I normally get up in the morning. Bummer. Needless to say I didn't get to class this morning. It aches if I even open my mouth to yawn. I guess this is a subtle hint from the Universe to shut up and pay more attention to what I'm hearing, practice the art of listening for a while. I'm due to go to an adjustment workshop tonight so there's a good chance I may fall asleep during it if I don't keep my wits about me. Thank god for cough sweets, herbal supplements and max strength lemsip.

Talked to the flatmate the other night about the boyfriend 'squatting' and it seems she was surprised as I was to find he's been round her when she's not in. Strange. My guts are giving me bad vibes about all of this.

Posted by graeme at 2:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

Baby Elephant

I spent most of this morning thumping around like the proverbial baby elephant. I think it might've been the shock of catching the earlier tube as the train got in 4 minutes ahead of schedule. I globbered some poor girl on the head with my leg as she was coming up from down dog in her sun salute, then nearly side swiped V with my hand during the first of my own salutations. Yikes. Sorry. Then I head butted the wall, though thankfully only very lightly, on the way up from padahasthasana, I think it was.

Hmnnn. Focus not happening.

Practice did get marginally better near the end when I surprised myself with a good twist in Mari-C followed by a good bind in D, thanks to the teacher's much needed assistance. I could do with a baby elephant to sit on me in supta kurmasana, there's a long, long way to go there.

The network at work's been causing everyone grief the last couple of days, even the phones have been cutting customers off all over the place. It's made it unbearably difficult to get anything done, so it's not surprising I managed to get to page 100 on the book that arrived on Monday. There's not much I can do with a package that needs to be tested online when there's no network connectivity. Oh well. Atleast the book was good.

Looks like the flatmate's boyfriend's in squatting here now. That's not much fun. Still, only 5 days till I can hand in my notice to quit, seeing as how my 6 months here is up. Already had a good look at a couple of places so it's looking promising. I'm getting itchy feet again, I can feel it in my bones. Sometimes being a Gemini can be no fun. I really wish I could settle sometimes.

Posted by graeme at 9:01 PM | Comments (1)

February 3, 2008

Same-0 Same-O

I've been away from my mat for most of last week so when I got to the top of it this morning I was kinda expecting to be a bit stiff. I should've realised from the skating I did yesterday that my adductors would be quite sore. It makes for an interesting practice when there's aches and pains on the horizon lighting up whenever I move. Half the time I'm totally ignorant of how much involvement even the smallest of muscle groups have in a practice, that is until one of them begins to aches then I can feel it everywhere. So this morning's practice was steeped in pain negotiation, admittedly of the good kind. I was wise enough to buy a tonne of Epsom Salts to bath in both last night after skating and this morning after practice. It makes for some funny looks though as Epsom Salts here are used as a fix for constipation. When I go up to the counter to pay for the 4-5 boxes of the stuff I always get funny looks from the shop assistant. Once I was even warned against "taking all of that". I had to explain I would be putting it in the bath. "For constipation?", Err no, for easing my aching limbs. Thankfully one of the older shop assistants had also heard of the fish-wives' tale that Epsom salts are good that way. Regular salt seems to do the trick as well.

This afternoon I went down to the local to watch the first of the 6 nations rugby match for Scotland, this time kicking off against last year's champions France. I knew it would be the kiss of death when the commentator suggested that there was a ground swell of support for a Scottish victory. I'm happy to say that it was business as usual and the Scots run out a resounding defeat 27-6. Oh well. I guess it can only get better - though I'm sad to say that the Engerlish didn't fair any better yesterday either. :<

Looking ahead I see yoga's fairing high on the list of activities again. This week there's an extra workshop on Friday evening (adjusting), next weekend there's helping with teacher training, then the weekend after that there's the second dose of the visiting teacher who made such an impact the first time she visited in Scotland. I'm thinking I'm glad I had the rest this past week.

Posted by graeme at 6:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2008

Today's been a good day

After running in to town to get my hair cut I grabbed hold of my skates and went over to the park to practice falling-over avoidance. I was a really keen ice-skater at Uni, even taught myself to ice skate backwards, so it's been good to find that it's mostly the same though I have to admit the ice rink never had any slopes in it like they do here in the park. Yikes.

Later I took a long trip back out to one of the places in town I must've visited the first time I was here over 15 years ago. It's fun to see how the place has changed though it took a bit of time to get my bearings.

And now, with the evening coming in, "There's something about Mary". Damn, Cameron Diaz's such a honey!

Posted by graeme at 9:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2008

Back to the city

I got back into the big smoke after a 6.5hr train journey through a wind and snow swept country. It's weird travelling by train and not by air, as there's a wider sense of the distance as you immersed in it all. Being in a plane, high above everything with only the whiffs of fluffy clouds miles below marking the passing, there's just no sense of the sparsity of it all. In a train with the countryside whizzing by, you're right there in the thick of it.

So anyway, it was great to be back to see the teachers again and with a somewhat sad return back down here, though I know for now this is where I'm supposed to be.

Posted by graeme at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)