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April 30, 2008
Economy woes and knee-caps
There's a lot of talk in the office today about the state of the economy, the company pension scheme, CEOs getting paid rediculously obscene large amounts of money, and of course the football result from last night. Listen to them talk behind me, it's not a pretty picture. One of the guys is retiring next year and his pension's basically gone through the floor in the last 3 months as compared to what he could've got if he'd decided to retire this time last year. It's all just a numbers game. But one of the guys hit it right. It's all so far away, another 25+ years until I retire, and a lot of people don't budget beyond the end of the month let alone 25 years down the line. An of course, by the time retirement comes around for me the retirement age will have crept up by another couple of years. There was outcry in Scotland a while back when the retirement age was rumoured to be going up. The thing is, it was beyond the national life expectancy age for almost every male in the country. Work you to the bone. Yup, quite literally.
Though in many ways I'm glad I stuck to my guns and bought a small flat back home and never went further up that property ladder than that. At the time I thought it was a huge amount of money to invest but by today's terms it would be cheaper to pay of my mortgage than to purchase a moderatively cheap sports car. If things go south here I'll still be able to afford the roof over my head if I can get pretty much any sort of job, stacking shelves or dishing out burgers if needs be. There's talk of a lot of people getting in to negative equity in the coming months, and I'm glad I'm not one of them, though I am paying mightly for the pleasure to say that. Rent's extortionate here.
In class this morning I talked to H about the knee-cap thing. He totally agreed that movement of beyond a certain amount was a bad thing and that we'd watch what was happening. I asked about my arm placement, enquiring if I should be aiming to get my arm further down the front of my shin and away from the knee to which he agreed. Funnily enough it was S that helped me with Mari-D this morning and although she's doesn't get me as far in as H does, she does a terrific job of getting me bound. If anything I gives me a bit more of a chance to work within the adjustment myself and to a bit of surprise I found myself capable of holding the stronger side on my own when I was let go. No knee cap movement at all. Nice.
Anyways. Its feeding time here so I'm off for some scran. Yummy.
Posted by graeme at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008
Arrgh
I spent 2.5 hours yesterday trying to figure out why the project wouldn't run yesterday only to discover that I had been using the word 'Centre' instead of 'Center' in one of the calling routines. The application allows for function name resolution and runtime and of course it doesn't highlight any names it doesn't manage to resolve (go figure!). It's funny enough to remember to use the 'redColor, blueColor, blackColor' names than the English 'Colour' spelling though I'm sure I could write a MACRO to substitute them all for me at pre-compilation.
Practice has become a quiet affair this week though I'm getting a bit worried about my left knee cap in Mari-D. When the squeeze comes in the bind my right arm is pulling on the top of the kneecap and I could feel the cartilage move with it this morning. I think that's what was making the pop sound the other day as well. Something to watch I think though I know H is trying to get me to bind my arm further over and down the front of my leg away from the top and the knee.
It's chucking it down here today. Yeuch.
Posted by graeme at 7:50 AM | Comments (1)
April 28, 2008
Weekend training
Well it's been a busy old weekend.
The teacher training course was a lot of fun. The course has 22 new students on it this year, and as usual they've come from a wide variety of backgrounds and practices. It's interesting to see how people settle in and bond really quickly. The T'ai Chi teacher was on hand to give a basic overview of some Seasonal Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine concepts that come up later on the course, but she did it in such a practical way that there was lots of interaction amongst the students and they were soon making new friends and getting to know each other.
After the ashtanga practice - the school uses the series as the students home study practice if you like, and breaks down the series into 12 parts that they cover at each and every module, there was a series of discussions about the course, practice, assignments, module content and lecturers. Then the course directors suggested that they and the assistants demonstrate the sun salutations as we were about to look further into to the basic mechanics and setup of samasathitih, chaturanga dandasana, up and down dog, and they wanted to emphasise the different approaches people who practice different styles can have to the same small series of postures.
A couple of the other assistants, knowing that I practice every day, said (jokingly) that they didn't want to put their mats beside me. The Pilates assistant, who's practice is really nice as well, was like, "he'll show me up" - me with a basically average sun salute as well. All very non-yogic, and all quite funny.
During the posture breakdown the course director let out a real howler. She was helping one of the students out and said "Oh you've got those really weird [hyper-extendable] elbows". Then realising what she'd just said, she and the other director who'd heard what she'd said, started to laugh. "That's a good example of what not to say". It certainly seemed to break the ice and showed that even with 60 years experience yoga experience we're all still very much human. It's going to be another great course.
Then, of course, there was the sanskrit lecture that I gave, which was supposed to last for 15 minutes but took nearer 45 with all the questions the students had. It was interesting as the information I gave out was a very basic summary of the 2-day course that I'd done in Miami given by the American school of Sanskrit. I covered a basic history, showed the opening mantra written in sanskrit, sharath saying the mantra, the alphabet, basics of it's generation and how the vowels and constants can be combined, and of course some examples from the series broken into numbers, body parts, driste, nouns and adjectives.
All quite good fun really, though I would say I'm not a natural presenter. Unlike this chap. This is the authorised ashtanga yoga teacher in Miami that I spent a lot of time with learning anatomy, adjusting and how to count the primary series. He's just announced he's releasing the first in a series of DVDs on anatomy and looking at the trailer you can tell he's certainly at ease in front of the camera. If you're looking for a good source of advice on anatomy or Ashtanga in general you can check him out here.
Posted by graeme at 8:22 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2008
Year 3 (again)
It's teacher training time again!
So it's the start of another year of the London course. Another set of 20+ shiny new faces all keen as mustard to learn how to teach this thing called "Yoga". And guess who was asked late yesterday afternoon to cover some basic Sanskrit? Yup, moi. Yikes. Mind you I remember more than I thought I would from the Sanskrit course I took in Miami, mostly thanks to the teaching method than any diligence from my part to learn the stuff. Me that can't spell samasthitih as well. (I looked that one up). Interesting to meet another group of students and of course to see the teachers from up North again. It seems ages since the last course finished up only 5 weeks ago now. Time's flying by
Glad of the rest from practice now the week's over. I'm feeling a bit shattered though practice was nice and fluid this morning though I took my time. I'm finding that getting my head as close to the floor as possible in bhujapidasana's helping me out loads when trying to get my arms behind the backs of my legs.
Office is quiet this morning which is handy as I'm having trouble integrating XML Parser into the project so the air's kinda blue around here with all the expletives. If I wasn't in the basement I would've thrown my PC out of the window already!!!
Posted by graeme at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
Cracking up
I had the sort of practice this morning where everything popped. Not the usual sort of Marichyasana A pop but the oh-my-god-what-the-heck-was-that kind. Yikes. I managed to get a healthy crack out of my left shoulder just getting my arms together and shoulder blades down in Prasarita C. Then my right shoulder in Paschimottanasana B of all places, really wasn't expecting that. Felt like I'd dislocated the joint. Then the left hip went in Janu sirsasana B on the first side. I thought I was falling apart at the seams. Least the body seemed to be happy enough with it all.
The last 2 days here have been wonderfully bright and warm (other than the downpour yesterday morning). I spent a fair bit of time sat out in the park working on The Project in the open air instead of in the cafe, as I've done over the last 2 months or so. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air, well as fresh as you can get for a city centre, and I could feel my skin lap up the sun. Yum. It must've taken me about 2 hours to wander back home through the back streets, up past the huge mansions, through the parks past the stunning plant displays and the reams of people out playing footie, touch rugby and tossing the odd frisbee back and forward. Reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York just last year. Seems so long ago. Still no ice-cream sellers out yet so it's not officially summer yet but it's down to be nice and warm over the weekend. Yippeeeee!
Posted by graeme at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
How many people...
does it take to organise what I do at work? Apparently 14. Yup, that's right. I sat in this all-day meeting yesterday working through the next phase of the project plan. The customer was represented, in fact it was their meeting though it had to be in our building as they didn't have a room big enough to house us all, the third party supplier and our group. All in 3-4 project mangers, 2 support managers, 2-3 sales managers 4 techy guys and 2 tech leads.
Oh, yeah and me.
I dawned on m half way through the meeting that all these people were effectively deciding what I'd be doing for the next 8-10 weeks. Ok, for sure there's not just me working on this stuff, there's other deliverables besides the finished application but there was a fair but of decision making going on that would ultimately change what I would be doing. It was nice to see it so close up. I actually said at one point (the time scales are big aggressive) that I felt there was a train coming round the corner and it was heading straight for me. But it's nice to have something to work on for a wee change.
I got into a right flap this morning. Dunno whether it's the shower gel I've been using but the backs of my arms and legs have been super slippy the last couple of mornings. I almost face planted this morning in bhujapidasana though managed to hold my leg against the inside of my elbow in the exit rather then dropping in to the floor.
Posted by graeme at 7:54 AM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2008
Supta Kurma
I'm beginning to notice the slightest of changes in supta k over the last few days. I've changed tack when try to get my head nearer the floor. Instead of baby-walking my feet away from my pelvis I bum-walk my pelvis away from my feet. For some reason this helps me get my arms further underneath my shoulders. I can remember the not so distant past when I would practice late evening and not be able to get my head anywhere near the floor in Supta K. Although I'm still sweating buckets by this point atleast in the last couple of practices I've felt a little bit more comfortable and a lot more relaxed. I've had a couple of nice pops in my sternum on the way out. Opening coming.
Was nice to get back into the shala this morning after a somewhat boring weekend, though it's always nice to do very little for a change. Next weekend sees the restart of the Teacher Training program so lots of helping out to do this week in prep for the newstarts. Something new to get stuck into.
Posted by graeme at 8:11 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2008
a spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose
I've come across the blog of the leading singer of my favourite band. Someone made reference to it on another site and said you had to go read it to get a fuller picture of the man behind the voice. The guy's singing's up there with the best of them, but his prose is something else entirely brilliant too.
Keep reading to the bottom, he makes some interesting comments to say the least, but it's the way he says half this stuff that's pretty darn neat.
Posted by graeme at 2:14 PM | Comments (0)
Alligators versus Crocs
Apparently in my dream state I'm brave enough to fight crocodiles and smart enough to know that they aren't crocodile that I'm fighting but alligators. Which strikes me as odd for I sure don't know the difference between the two in the real world. Apparently, in the dream anyway, you can tell the difference by the markings in the underside of the belly near the head. Mid fight I actually picked one up and said "no this one's an alligator, see". Strange but true. I'll need to go off and google the difference now.
Class this week has been tough going. My knee's been bothering me pretty much all week. In fact it's been aching for quite some time now. I keep getting this feeling the whole thing's just going to blow on me at some point and I know I'm wary of certain things I do with it. It's been an education to find out which postures put more pressure on the outside of me knee than I realised, and in jumping back it's helped me learn to get more weight into my hands instead of using my feet to help with the takeoff part. Still, I'm due for this ache to be over already.
H. has started to try and leave me bound in Mari-D on my stronger bound side to see if I can hold it on my own. He's helping in the twists for Mari-C as well which is helping to open up my back a bit for the bind in D that follows. It's coming, slow but sure. One thing I know is certain. The flat change and consequential cleansing out of the crap from my diet's helped an awful lot too. I'm trying to swap in bagels in place of the vast quantities of bread I normally eat, even cooking double the amount of food I would eat in the evening so I can bring the rest in for lunch the following day rather than resort to the ubiquitous sandwich. I'm not feeling so bagged up as I normally do though energy wise I've been feeling a bit done in. There's no seating at all in my flat, other than in the toilet, though I'm beginning to think that my lower back's not liking all the floor sitting I've been doing too much. I really need to work on my posture more as I've too much of a tendency to slouch. Not good. Of course, sitting all day at work doesn't help though I've taken to squatting in my chair from time to time.
I also discovered the joys of those outside trim tracks, y'know the sort of park area which has 8-10 static exercise stations with various pieces of pole, wooden beams and ex-17th century torture chamber devices scattered about. It's funny so see people come in, swing their arms about for a minute, stretch their legs on one of the poles then jump in to doing one of the harder sets on the equipment. I spent about an hour trying to work out different passive ways of stretching on each piece, completely ignoring the up-beat go-get'em instructions that stand by each point. If nothing else it was a load of fun to try something else and to get outside for a change. I did find that I've a rather large naught sitting under my left shoulder blade just waiting to pop open. I could feel it in a deep squat that I was doing on one of the incline benches where I held the end of the bench with my hands and used to slope to pull my buttocks away from my hands. Something new to work on.
Ah, here we go. Those great people across at Wikipedia came up with this one...
"An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The name alligator is an anglicized form of the Spanish el lagarto (the lizard), the name by which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator. There are two living alligator species: the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis). Alligators are characterized by a wider snout than crocodiles". So there you go. Learn something new every day.
Posted by graeme at 7:24 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
Shameless piece of advertising
Just as I was about to leave work last night the phone went and for some reason I decided to answer rather than walk out the door. It was a good thing too as the vinyasa flow teacher was in a bit of a panic. She'd done a middle page spread article for a leading Scottish Newspaper and wanted to get something up and running website wise before it reached the newstands the following week as she'd been told. The only thing was that the paper had pulled the article forward and she was holding it in her hand without much of anything new set up on the website. So I unpacked my things and got reconnected to the web. An hour later I was done and the teacher was happier than the earlier frustrated call.
As she had a look at the site she exclaimed - "Hey there's been 127 hits already". Err, that's not very many. I'd just read an article about a retired couple in America who's website regularly gets over 3 million hits a month. There's a bit of a ways to go. In any case. If you'd like to see what yoga teachers in Scotland get up to in their spare time take a gander at this site. Energy In Season. The newspaper article appears here.
I've been thinking recently about setting up a new program. TSFL. Teaching Scottish as a Foreign Language. I'd been online to a yoga teacher's website and found she could teach in 4 different languages fluently. Kinda impressive. Got me thinking about all the Learn English, and Teach English while abroad courses. How comes no-one gets the chance to learn some Scottish? After all, why should the English have all the fun.
Or should I say - "why shud the inglish hay aw ra fun".
Aye right!
Posted by graeme at 7:29 AM | Comments (1)
April 16, 2008
Could be that sort of day
I was wondering this morning if little acorns, when they first push their heads through the soil into the open air and find it lashing with rain, or howling gale, think to themselves that they kinda wished they'd just kept their head stuck under ground and not bothered with all the effort.
I guess there comes a point where there's no real turning back, you're either in or your out, playing or watching from the sidelines, being responsible for your own destiny or letting it all wash over you as and how it may come.
It's one of those sorts of day.
I've stuck my head up and had a good look around, but rather than find it chucking it down with rain I've come up to find that it's a scorcher of a day, sun blazing down, cracking a crystal clear blue sky. It's a good day to be alive.
And it's not even that anything good happened this morning, rather just the thought of something good that might happen. A little toe in the edge of life's misty waters. There's the top of the bend in the river when you get just at that point and you can see where the river's leading you down to next. Or atleast as far as maybe the next turn.
So I'm filled with enthusiasm for the day, things are all heading in the right direction, all my sun flowers are open and facing the warmth of the day.
Oh, and apparently in my dreams it's perfectly ok to lean over a fence and grab a leopard by it's neck and hind quarters to throw it out of the hall in the house. I think I need to get a T.V. My mind's having too much fun making up it's own stories!
Posted by graeme at 7:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2008
House on the end in the river
I've been getting up in the middle of the night so often now that even when I don't get up I've started to dream about it! Thought for last night's dream I happened to be visiting the smallest room in the house down stairs in the cellars of all places, with the toilet mounted up high on the wall covered in painter's plastic protective sheeting. When I finally got up there, and dusted the seat all off, I could see that the floor had been completely swept away by the river that was running underneath, or as it appeared now, right through the house. I could see right round the bend in the river round the other side of the small island to where the sun was coming up over the fields, Zeebras or some form of antelope crazing in the fields. It was quite stunning, and by far the best view from any shunky I'd ever seen. On getting outside the cellar I could see that the house seemed more of a bridge over the river as it snaked underneath it but rather than touching either embankment the house was securely settled on two inlets lower down on the river bed floor so that the cross you'd have to go up the west tower, across the middle of the house, then down the east tower, very much like tower bridge in London.
Of course, it's all very symbolic.
In practice this morning H got a nice pop out of my left knee in Marichyasana D much to my alarm. Ouch, I said, more out of default than actual pain.
Good or bad pain, H asked.
Good, I think. Least it didn't hurt. He enquired about it again as I was leaving but it's been ok. Was a nice touch for him to ask all the same.
And at the job this morning I've been landed with some development notes for the 3rd party piece of kit I'm going to be integrating with next, all 500 pages of it. Gawd, this going to bore me to tears.....
Oh, and by the way, a 'shunky' is scottish for 'toilet'. Add that to your 'word of the day' lists.
Posted by graeme at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
Go slow
In the office this morning there's little or no work to be done, which gives me the chance to catch up on some of the things I've wanted to look at in the apps I've been developing over the last year but never had time to get round to doing. Unfortunately, everything here's run by projects that need a code that I can book my time against. I have to book this stuff down to Education or Idle, and I was thinking if I have to do that I'd rather be outside where the sun's shining than in here. The globalisation of the company I work for, as well as bringing the benefits of the parent company in the States, also, unfortunately, has brought across some of the downsides too. Most of the managers here are so focussed on results that they can't see beyond the next quarter where the cycle then repeats. Try getting something signed off that takes more than a quarter to turn a profit and it's an uphill struggle all the way.
Practice this morning was nice and open. Shala seemed really quiet and there was plenty of space in finishing too. Having taken class yesterday afternoon I was a bit more open than normal on a Monday morning which was nice. I'm finding it hard to find a decent led primary class around here. I seem to have the nack of turning up at class when the replacement teacher's covering so it's not easy consistency wise. I really beginning to understand how good the teacher in Miami actually is these days, and I'm missing his style of teaching these classes.
My mind's still having fun. The last couple of nights I've needed to get up in the middle of the night and when I get back to sleep I've been having the best of dreams. Motorbikes of all things keep turning up in them a-la Terminator styley. I think I might've been a Hell's Angel in a previous lifetime. Part of the dream had me back in the orphanage in Mysore where I spent Xmas morning helping J hand out the gifts from the students, and generally there to play with the kids for a while. It'll be 2 years this coming winter since I was there. I wonder how the kids are getting on?
Posted by graeme at 7:42 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2008
Darn that green frog
I tell you something, it's the weirdest thing to have running through your head mid-practice.
I woke up this morning with an Evanescence song running in my head, which for me's kinda unusual as my mind's usual a blank fog bank until atleast the shala door some 25 minutes or so after I get up. My mind must be in a good mood, playing all those tunes, scratching from one hook to another, from this to that. But when it started on the Mnnamma Nas I had to laugh. I'm sure the adjuster thought I was weird or something this grin coming over my face.
Doot do dee-do dooo
But the thing is it put me in a really good mood for the end of my practice, turned on a wee light in the corner of my soul
Mnnamma Na
I had the thought of that green frog doing his own little practice, Miss P adjusting perhaps (great down dog adjustment). How about getting adjusted in Marichyasana D by Animal, now that'd be fun! Arms flaying all over the place.
Doot do dee-be dooo
The the old guys sitting in their chairs in the balcony, Pattabhi Jois styley
Mnnamma Na
And if you can't get your head to the floor, there's the mad Swedish Chef with his massive cleaver to give you some incentive. Choppity-choppity!
Doo-be-doo-doo doo-re-doo.
:>
MNNAMMA NA!!!
Posted by graeme at 7:48 AM | Comments (1)
April 10, 2008
That ain't polite
Recently I've gotten in to the habit of heating up some soup to go with whatever delicacy of the day I'm having for lunch. Ok, the odd bananna sandwich, or two. I'm easy pleased. And this entails a trip down the hall to the toilets to wash out my bowl after finishing with it.
I was standing there yesterday washing away quite happily when this guy, who I didn't know, came in to go to the toilet. So, he's like standing there at the urinal when his mobile phone goes off. And he answers it! So he's standing there with his mobile phone chatting away grand style, finishing off what he started. It was as weird as the time I was in another toilet and this guy stood there and took his trousers right down to his ankles before going. Man, have some common decency.
I can just imagine the person on the other end of the mobile ...
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I'm busy, got my hands full".
Yeah, cheap toilet humour. It's a slow morning.
Posted by graeme at 9:23 AM | Comments (1)
April 9, 2008
Progress
This morning in Mari-C H worked his magic on the twist. He's got this knack of being able to find just the right spot to put his knee to really get the twist into that part of me psyche that starts to go 'ohhhhh'. It feels really good. It's been interesting to try and work out patterns of adjustments in the same posture over time, doing that 'cit' thing of trying to put things into categories. As the weeks pass it's been getting easier and easier for H to get me in to D. At the start it would take 2 or 3 attempts before my arm would be far enough across and down before I could get a good grip with my fingers. H was putting in an awful lot of work just to get me round. Now, he's getting me to bind on the first attempts, and thankfully having to exert less effort to get me in. Today I managed to hold the bind for the first time after he let me go. Normally my arm pings off the top of my knee.
It's nice to take the bus along to work after practice these mornings. The sun's up and there's not a cloud in the sky. Sometimes I feel like just staying on the bus and not bothering with work. Roll on the bank holidays!
Posted by graeme at 7:29 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2008
Regular?
I got talking to a girl at the end of practice yesterday, sitting at the shoe change area near the door, when she asked me
"Are you a regular here?"
No, I've only been coming here 9 months.
I guess in the greater scheme of things, seeing the same faces every day and knowing they've probably been here for a good few years, I still feel a little fresh faced to it all. I've been through a good few studios/shalas in the last couple of years and I know the next change is no doubt just around the corner so there's a part of me that still feels a lot like I'm still visiting, though I've been made extremely welcome by H, D, and the assistants.
It's like your first every girlfriend/boyfriend. Like the say in Highlander - there can be only one.
I've been away from the studio in Glasgow now for over 2.5 years now though I still think of it as home. It's a funny sort of a feeling.
Recently I've taken to practicing beside the heater, firstly because that was the only spot that was available, but with the recent discovery of a quicker route to the shala, now by choice. I can feel the heat from the radiator when I get into standing postures but the extra bit is helping me get through a somewhat sticky patch. I know it's not the right thing to practice a-la-bikram, the double heating and all that, but I knew I didn't much like being there the first time because I got so hot that here was something for me to face, something else to get over. It's also helping me appreciate the quenching capabilities of water when I get to my desk at work. I'm drinking gallons of the stuff, or so it seems, so that's helping too. Sweats dripping out of pretty much every pore by the time I get through supta kurmasana. Seems like I've a lot of cleansing to do!
Posted by graeme at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 6, 2008
OOooooh
Well, I've got to hand it to Mr Freeman. He well and truly managed to point me in the direction of finding my psoas. When I rolled over this morning to get out of bed I could feel them standing out, stiff as cardboard. Owwww. Wasn't expecting the feeling to be so pronounced, or so deep, especially as with each and every posture Richard didn't particularly push as very hard. At most we maybe did 7 or 8 repetitions and those he didn't hold too long. The 2 ones I think that got me the most was the way he instructed navasana and backbend setup. For boat he had us lift out bums off the floor first, feet still planted, then lift our feet, bums up. For backbends the idea was to lift up the heels and get the knees way out over the feet before straightening the legs as the hips come up. It worked a treat in getting my arms much straighter but it seems to have knocked my psoas for six.
It's going to be a fun practice tomorrow!
And for good measure it snowed here this morning! Was a bit like waking up on Xmas day :>
Posted by graeme at 8:23 PM | Comments (1)
April 5, 2008
You're a long time in savasana
Well the 3 sessions with Mr Freeman went very quickly, the sign of a good class in my view. The guy's quite amazing, I must say, had some very amusing analogies and metaphors and was very quick to point out that it's the stiffest of students who are closest to the great realisation, as they are closer and more in tune to the sound and vibration of their own bodies though its stiffness than the more flexible student who can plop down straight to the floor without much thought. That quickly set the tone for the weekend, a light humoured approach, but with lots of insight thrown in
In fact. Richard spent a great deal of time on the very basics of the postures he covered, sun salutes, standing, forward bends, mari-c twist and back bends. He liked so say that we would do each asana 1000 times or in multiples of 108, often saying there was only 104 repetitions to go. He has a good sense of humour, it definitely comes over in his teaching and his voice carries that distinctive tone of authority of someone who obviously knows what they're talking about, linking anatomical phrases with subtle levels, anecdotes and facts of life as effortlessly as reading the lines of a page. He's good. Very good.
I particularly liked the fact that he said he preferred to look at the parts of an asana that others might skip over or pay little respect to. In Padangusthasana, for example, he made lots of comments on the small intake, backbend and setup prior to the exhale forward as you go down to grab your toes. Details, the little details, and there's a 1000 of them. Then there's the counter arguments, and their counters, and the counters to that, and so on.
Anyways, here's some notes I made. Again, these are my reflections on what I heard and interpreted rather than an accurate verbatim of what Richard said...
Render service to the cessation of thought
Yoni Mudra (forgive the spelling) like a candle flame but as bright as 1000 suns but as cool as 1000 moons (a typical sort of example of his metaphors).
The key to the key that is Mula bandha is ... DRISTE!
It's that aaaaaaahhhhh moment where your mind isn't focussed, locked down on naming and categorising the thing we are looking at
Feel the pelvic floor and the 'bounce' of energy as it comes back up
Alignment is the pairing of prana and apana as the come into balance.
Bandhas come in the gaps (ends) of the breath.
All four corners (angels) (coccyx, public bone, 2x sitting bones) moving in the same direction
Consider yourself when breathing as a "connoisseur of air"
It's Raja (royal) yoga, so carry your postures regally. Practice as if you were Patanjali him very self. Always be looking down from on high (like the gods in Olympus) as this helps the head from going back too far
Richard has an interesting theory that the psoas is the true root of the arm as it's origin is the 12th rib (insertion on the lesser trocanter)
My favourite quote of the weekend.....
"Yoga is Kung Foo when there's no opponent!"
Posted by graeme at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 4, 2008
Some guy called Richard
It's one of these prophetic days when my path's crossing with someone of imminent importance. I've seen pictures of him, seen clips of him practice, listened to his soft tones discussing the Gita, and talked with many other students about their experiences of meeting him and hearing him speak. I got paid a remarkable compliment once so I'm very eager to see how I react being in his company and listening and working through what he has to say in real time, how it sits with me and any gut reactions and instincts I get from the experience.
It's going to be a fun weekend.
Not only that but the Ashtanga teacher's on the train down from North to come take part in the same event. Her connection with him goes back to '96 and she recalls his influence on her getting started on her ashtanga path from those early days with a certain fondness, again for someone she's never met.
It's interesting to see and feel the influence that people can have on us through the various different mediums of text, image, sound and movement, though as ever, as with even the simplest of text messages, it's the subliminal information that can't come through there that I'm looking forward to experiencing most when in his class.
This guy's an icon to many people, and by all accounts rightly so, though I'm hoping to simply sit and let it all wash over me.
I feel I may be melting a few pens this weekend....
Posted by graeme at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2008
Better day
My left hip gave an almighty pop in Marichyasana A this morning on the transit out which was most unexpected. It's been a while coming and it's long over due - they've been coming roughly every 6-8 months or so but this time it's been almost a year.
Then I realised across the room that one of my friends that I met in Mysore was in class. I thought I'd missed her earlier on in the week as she transitted through on the way back to India but apparently she isn't due to leave until the weekend. Which was great for me as it meant I got to hang out with her and her friend for a quick cup for breakfast. It's great seeing people again, and especially those that I became friends with on the last trip East. She's hoping to be out there for a good stretch of time so with any luck I might be able to see her out there sometime soon.
At the J.O.B this afternoon I heard some good news that lifted a bit of doubt over future project work here. All in it's been a good day all round.
Posted by graeme at 2:53 PM | Comments (0)
April 2, 2008
Fat Wednesday
According to the free paper this morning today is known as 'Fat Wednesday', or the day we eat the most after Christmas Day. I'm not sure where these surveys get their information from, or whether in fact it includes dates like Thanksgiving or 4th of July - though the survey may be UK specific, I don't remember. It seems such a strange thing to do a survey on. Mind you they may be getting their statistics from the food sales of leading chains of supermarkets for all I know rather than doing house-to-house questionnaires or the like.
I think if anything, knowing that today everyone else is tucking into their second slice of cheese cake I might just be tempted to do the same....
And it begs the question. What day of the year is known as 'Skinny Monday', when we forgo food the most???
Posted by graeme at 7:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2008
Stats
Since I started the teacher training course back in Glasgow in 2004 I've been keeping a track of the hours I've been doing yoga. Well, it was part of the course that we kept a log and I just kept it going. Now, some 1300 days later, it makes for some interesting reading. Ok, if you like those sorts of things....
1300 days
691.3 hours which works out as 31.93 minutes per day (roughly)
246.5 hours adjusting (either teaching my own class, assisting in class or helping with the teacher training courses)
March 2007 was the single busiest month (51.5 hours of yoga) and I did more yoga that month than I did in the entire 3 months of the proceeding year (jan-march)
If I add up the 12 busiest months I get grand total of 489.75 hours.
Yikes, that's rather a lot.
June is always the worst month with an average of only 17.5 hours per month. Ah, roll on June !!!
It's funny as I can recall the conversation I had with Nathalie who got me in to yoga in the first place.
"Yeah, soon you'll be doing this stuff 2-3 times a week".
Me: 'Yeah right'
Weird how things come to pass.
Here's to the next 1300 days!
Posted by graeme at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)