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June 27, 2008
Project news
A friend wrote me an email today in which they said....
"I spoke to ABC briefly about your project, ABC seemed enthusiastic, said we should talk about it some time. Trouble will be pinning ABC down, ABC does 101 things each day (or should that be 108? ;-)"
I was holding my hopes out for much on this, but perhaps I should start.....
Posted by graeme at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)
Falling down
but deserving it.
I forgot my cotton mat this morning for practice which meant only 1 thing. I wet, drenched practice, and a particularly slippery end to backbends when H did his best but I ended up on my back my hand having slipped on the mat and there being no other direction for me to go but down. I felt a bit embarrassed by it all, not that I made a loud thump, or that I landed on my head, just that I was flaying about on my mat like some wet squid out out water. Thankfully H is good at dealing with these situations, he even said he knew he was going to drop me anyway. He quickly found a second, drier mat, and had me up and down the 3 times before I knew it. Whew. No damage done, other than to my ego.
I had a great chat with one of the other guys over breakfast across from the Shala. Seems we were both in Mysore at the same time almost 18 months ago now. It was good to hear him recount new tales from Saraswati's class, running into Princess Leia mother and italian women (and the chasing there of).
Work's been slow and steady this week and I'm glad to be finally out of the dungeon of an office I work in. It's a real "I.T. crowd" affair where the people who live upstairs only come down to see us when they need something fixed (like paper in the printers and the like!). Still. It means for an easy life sometimes and when it's warm I can sit with my bare feet in padmasana with no one complaining.
Let the fun of the weekend begin.....
Posted by graeme at 4:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2008
Bound
In class this morning the assistant dropped in to help with binding in Mari D. The last time she helped must've been a good few weeks ago, perhaps even as long as a month, so it was interesting to see how she got on, to see if I'd made any progress. What was surprising was not only that she got me in further than I'd been before but on my more open side she actually got up and left me there with my arm bound around me knee. t felt super good to be in there, absolutely no pain at all. I'm so curious to see how I'd manage now if I was doing this in the evening!
There's been a lot of talk at work these past few days about the customer for the project I'm working on going down the tubes. It seems I'm one of the few developers actually working on a paid for project and it can get quite annoying to hear people talk all day when I've to plod on through the 330 page functional spec. Today I reached page 50 when I was informed that there was another version of the spec coming out and I'd have to review all the stuff I've already done. Bummer.
This weekend has a return to the countryside in store for me as I go back for module 3 on the teacher training course I'm helping out on. It's been almost 2 months since I last saw the trainees so it'll be interesting to see what changes have come to them during that time. It's going to be a busy weekend.
Posted by graeme at 8:55 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
It's not every day...
a beautiful girl smiles at you when she rides past on her bike. It's the sort of thing that can change an otherwise quite ordinary day into one of the better ones. It doesn't take much but sometimes it's just enough to make that little bit of difference.
You ask any yogi that's had an injury and they'd probably have a pretty good idea when it was that it happened. The thing that I noticed this morning is that my left knee, that I hurt 2nd week of February and has been sore ever since, has stopped aching as much, so much so that the last few practices its hardly complained at all, other than in the more obvious postures. It's such a nice feeling to actually believe that you're mending and getting better. Having said that, I seemed to have tweeked my right ankle, though I know in Mari D yesterday I could feel it giving a little within the posture. I'm hoping it's nothing more than a bigger stretch than normal.
Posted by graeme at 5:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2008
Mind boggling...
I got talking to some friends over the weekend and as usual we ended up talking about practice. Then one of them pointed out how much ballerinas practice. As an example, on a show day they may have a 1 hour practice in the morning followed by a 3 hour rehearsal then the 3 hour show its self. Ok, they're maybe not active that entire time but they do have someone taking notes for rehearsals and the actual performance to see where things can be improved. Imagine that for an Ashtanga practice. An hour of exercise in the morning, then a 3 hour 'rehearsal' primary series followed early evening by the 'real' thing, all the time a couple of student taking notes on where your feet were out of position, or your breath missed a count, or your focus was off. Yikes, that's like intense. I've heard stories about how in the early days the yogis would do second (or third) in the morning followed by first (or second) in the afternoon. Man, that's gotta be a killer. I bet my hips would open up quickly following that sort of regime.
Of course, I reckon you'd be pretty susceptible to injury, which is why I'm sure the quote 'you have all day to take rest' comes to mind. I know on course I've done a few extremely long practices, with Paul Dallaghan and Sean Corne for example, and although I'm stiff for the next few days, the body quickly recovers.
Posted by graeme at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2008
Owwww
I got an adjustment in supta kurmasana this morning that I thought was going to break. The adjuster, standing at my head facing me, was using their knees to basically pin my shoulders down whist they worked my arms underneath my knees. I've been carrying my bag to and from the shala and work for the past 9 months and my shoulders are kinda sore and tight, but the pressure I was feeling just at the tops of my trapezious was getting kinda painful. I nearly suggested "hey, gonnay no dae that again" but I bit my lip as the teacher's pretty advanced and the pain didn't last very long. It's certainly not one I'd be showing or suggesting any of the teacher trainees add to their toolbox of adjustments. Owwwweeeee.
Still, other than that I had a good practice. I'm that close to the shala here that if I wake up early enough in the morning in 2 minutes I can be in class, so it's kinda a waste if I don't make use of the place whilst I'm living so close to a decent studio. Ok, so my practice week's running Monday-Saturday, and I know I'm supposed to have Saturday's off, but I think this schedule's more accomodating. I've spent the last month or so messing with my start times and what days I practice. I guess I've been kinda restless of late, too much of the Gemini in me itching for a change of pace and scenery. The recent changes (later start time, practice saturday not sunday) seems to be keeping me a float, atleast I don't seem so tired, and I'm sleeping a lot better.
Today was a 'holy crap' sort of a day in that I read something in the paper which, if it happens, and I manifest like crazy, might just make a huge change in my life.
Posted by graeme at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2008
Late mornings
This last few days I've indulged myself a little by staying longer in bed and taking my time to get to the shala, rather than getting up and rushing out the door in order to get a decent spot before they're all gone. By doing this I've had to deal with the fact that the shala's noticeably warmer by the time I do get there (a little over 80 minutes later than usual) though I'm enjoying the extra heat that's there and the extra sweat produced.
Back bends are coming on. I may even have managed to straighten (one of) my arms this morning, and it felt a lot more open across my chest than normal. I did almost head butt H when I came up from drop backs, left my head too far back then had to snap it forward when I came up. When I apologised he said he'd been hit a fair couple of times. Ouch.
The other good thing about starting later is the cafe across from the shala is open by the time I finish, ok I had to sit for 5 minutes before it opened this morning but that's no real problem. They do the most wonderful smoothies and cooked breakfasts, though their porridge is a bit on the runny side.
So it's the weekend. Yippee. Glad to be out of the office and away from the desk. Typical, the nice sunny weather that's been around all week has been replaced with dark clouds and the prospect of rain.
Oh, happy 90th Mr Mandela.
Posted by graeme at 4:06 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2008
Having a baby
My friend the Hairdresser, who emigrated to Ozland about 2 years ago now, sent my a couple of emails during which in one of my replies I asked her how her pregnancy was going. She replied "I'm due today". Yikes. There's a thought. I'm hoping all goes well for her delivery. She's another one of my close friends who swore blind they'd never have kids, but there you go, life has a funny old way of throwing in something to spice things up. She's gonna make a great mum, too.
Posted by graeme at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2008
Nowt much going on
It's all gone a bit drab here recently, nothing much to write home about now the weekend's over with. I guess I could moan about a good couple of things, mostly how boring this blog's become over the last few months, but that's probably a pretty good reflection of the state of affairs for my life at the moment. All I seem to do is yoga, eat, work, eat, work, eat, go home, work on the personal projects, go to bed. I need to get out a bit more, though work's beginning to get busier and unfortunately go the same desparate way the last project went before Xmas, too much to do, too little time to do it in. Gads.
Thankfully I sorted the mattress problem (it was leaking - I sleep on a blow up bed, which I know isn't good but I wasn't about to splash for a mattress when I would be leaving it behind after I move out) so atleast I'm sleeping a bit better. Mr Mouse hasn't be picking up anything I've been leaving him, so I'm a bit worried that the last really hot weather might've been a bit much for him. Either that or he's just getting to picky or too fat to get out from under the fridge.
Yogawise my back's been aching a bit though that's my own doing as I'm trying to get more into my backbends at the end of practice. Matthew Sweeney's in town this weekend and I'd love to go but I've been spending way too much money on workshops these last couple of years. I'm looking forward to the next teacher training weekend coming up in a couple of weeks. It's about the only chance I get to unwind these days.
I was thinking the other day that most men my age probably have teenage kids by now. If that was me I'd be totally lost about what I was about. It seems so weird, life just keeps on ticking over and nothing much ever changes. But of course it is, just slowly enough that I dont really notice, other than the fact that time's passing. I really should be making more of my life...
Posted by graeme at 4:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2008
Another year older
A quick review of what I got up to on my birthday on Saturday. In the morning I went to the local studio for morning Mysore and had a nice long adjustment in Supta Kurmasana. The guy taking the class has been running
the adjustment workshops I've been attending and whist his teaching is very quiet, he does have a great set of hands and you can feel the years of body work he's done in how he goes about helping you.
I followed this with a leisurely breakfast and a long read of the paper before heading off in to town for a walk. It's a huge city and there's always new avenues and routes to explore. I had a bit of bad fortune just before I headed in to the hairdressers for a quick cut (there's not much to cut but what is there grows too darn quickly). I misjudged my footing and caught my right flip-flop on the kerb and promptly broke the strap at the base. I'd had these pair of slides since
the very first days of my round the world trip and I really liked them as they were an unusual silver/black pair of Haviananas. When you break a pair of flip-flops, they're practically useless to walk around in so I had to just bin them and walk around bare foot. I tell you, you dont half get some funny looks when you've got no shoes.
Still, there's plenty of shops that sell them, so I quickly found a replacement pair. That's the one good thing about Haviananas - they may be expensive but they are super comfortable. When I stepped out of the book shop after a quick look inside I was faced with a sight I didn't
expect to see. Hundreds of cyclists were out taking part in the 'World naked bike ride'. Yup. Naked cyclists! Well, most of them had painted different slogans or flowers covering their bodies (thankfully in some cases). It was fun to see the reaction of some of the tourists standing watching as another man rode past on his bike.
To cap the day off I went out to eat at London's oldest Fish and Chip shop. Ok, not the best of things to eat I'll admit, but it's been ages since I indulged myself. Man it tasted good. To think I used to have one of these probably about once a week. Within about an hour my stomach was
reminding me why I'd given up eating this stodge.
Posted by graeme at 8:56 AM | Comments (2)
June 13, 2008
Friday the effin 13th
Can't believe what happened at work today. Just after lunch an email popped in from payroll saying that their records showed I'd been paid during my sabatical in 2006 and please would I be so kind to refund over $10,000 to them within 7 days. Oh very nice. [expletives deleted]. It was the line at the bottom of the email "sorry for any inconvenience...". Yeah, right!
Needless to say there'd been another mistake whilst trying to rectify their mistake in paying me, and, of course, the money was supposed to have been accounted for by the fact that I'd worked for the company whilst actually on sabbatical, time I should've been enjoying myself! ArrggggggghhhhH!
Posted by graeme at 8:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2008
Sleeping in for ever.....
this morning my alarm clock in it's infinite wisdom deemed it necessary for me to have a long lie in bed, and who am to argue with that. Seems I must've forgot to set the thing before going to bed. Oops. Oh well, worse things have happened.
As compensation for my tardiness, the 307 page FSpec I had to read was replaced this morning by a newer 313 page version that I had to resubmit the completion estimate on. Ugh, no fun.
I think my head may explode. After trying for some 10+ years to think of a computer application I could develop and market on my own, and coming up with zilch, nada, nothing, in that time, I find myself sitting with the outline for 6 applications, 3 of which popped out of my head within 15minutes of each other on Monday. In a creative sense it's driving me nuts, I've never had so many zany ideas before. Maybe there's more to this backbending than meets the eye!! If I can get one of them to market I'll be well happy.
On a more drastic note. I turn another year older on Saturday. One year closer to that morning lie in becoming permanent! Now there's a happy thought. ha ha !
Posted by graeme at 9:58 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2008
306 pages of bliss
The day before yesterday I was sent the latest version of the Project Spec at work. Weighing in at just over 300 pages it would normally have depressed me to the core, but as the weather's been so nice I thought "I'll read it at home". An of course, by 'home' I meant 'in the park'. So along with a nice day in the park, not having to rush in to work meant I could take my time and go to class later than usual and hang out have some breakfast before getting stuck into the pages. As it turned out I managed to arrive at a very opportune moment, got a nice spot too and had a nice, hot and fluid practice.
When it gets warm enough and I sweat buckets my mat gets slippy enough that I can almost do jump backs though I really have to drag my feet across the mat. Ok, I know I'm supposed to lift my feet but atleast I'm getting the feel of how it's supposed to go. Needless to say my abs are feeling it as I sit here and type.
And the sun was nice enough to stay in long enough for me to get through most of the pages of the Spec, and I managed to stay awake for most of it, which is always a good sign. Unfortunately, the 7 pages of questions I made isn't. Ok, it's an early release but I wasn't expecting to make so many comments.
Urgh, tomorrow I've to go back into the office. Working's so over rated......
Posted by graeme at 7:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 9, 2008
Ouch
I kinda overdid it a bit at the weekend. Me and my delicate skin (ha!) spent too much time out in the fresh air and picked up a nice dose of sunshine. A bit too nice in fact and the back of my shoulders are a somewhat nice shade of crimson. I was sure to splash on enough sunblock, though it's obvious I didn't put on enough. It's funny as the backs of my legs, usually the first to go, are fine. In any case, it's an obvious reminder to me how I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing and how long I'm sitting in the sun. Thankfully I kept my top on most of the time, so I've developed a nice Glaswegian tan (where most of you is white other than your red arms). This lesson is one I really do need to learn.
Posted by graeme at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)
June 3, 2008
Paul's workshop
Here's some of my notes that I took from Paul's workshop at the weekend. As ever, these words are my interpretation of what I think he said...
Marichyasana A: If your foot is in close to your pelvis your closing off your hip
Marichyasana D: Develop the 'reach' in Janusirsana A as it's the same movement for binding
Breathing
- dont pull under your diaphragm
- support from the lower abdomen upwards
- "4 inches below navel" - SKPJ
- like an "accordion - process wise it's the same movement for slow/fast waltzes
- without support the breath will collapse
- there's lots of nerve endings around the navel area, so why would you strangle it?
- imagine a group of firemen grabbing a hose to put out a fire
- relax only at the top of the inhale
Practice is a bit like cooking. You follow the recipe to start with but after a while you just know the right amounts to chuck in
When you put your attention into something it grows. qf relationships if you're partner's always on their mobile phone
The more you look the more it makes sense
Having tight hips can be a blessing as they 'pull' you in to the moment
Primary area of effort -> pelvic floor to navel
In areas where you are in deep, expand the breath as much as possible - don't shy away from it
- Patanjali - 'annanta [???] = infinity
- SKPJ 'You think god' Paul: 'how am I gonna find that here ?'
Who's breath is it anyway? it's passing through each of us back into the global source
Water a plant and naturally it will become open
Practice diligently/regularly - problems become less of a problem as you're better equipped to deal with them
Food - it's all about when you eat, how you eat, and of course the quantity - "natural, fresh, simple"
- Paul does like his chocolate, though ;>
Backbends
- practice with elbows against a wall, open your armpits as much as possible to the wall
Asana is not the be-all and end-all, can become counter productive if too much
4 Stages to jumping back
1- can you get your bum off the floor by also raising your hands (ie into a squat position, feet crossed underneath)
2 - can you do this without taking your hands off the floor
3 - can you do it with lifting your feet first (then put them down further underneath you)
4 - can you flick your feet through so they hardly touch the ground
may take a few years. drop back a level, especially if you are getting tired, so you don't disrupt the breath
4 stages to jump through
1 - jump feet underneath, hands of the floor
2 - pull your legs out a little in front, then your sitbones to the floor
3 - sit bones down gently
4 - legs straight
Yoga isn't whimsical, you're benefitting from 1000s of years of human knowledge and experience
Posted by graeme at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)
June 2, 2008
Shutting down
Damn that was a long, hard weekend. Paul's workshop was fantastic, if somewhat hard work. He jokingly said at the start of the Primary Series that we had 6.5 hours with him on Saturday and we'd be going through the series "millimetre, by millimetre", which of course he proceeded to do. It took nearly 2.5 hours to get to Navasana by which point people were beginning to flag alot. Sunday's Mysore, for me anyway, was much the same - just over 2 hours long though he did let me go 3 postures beyond where I normally stop and gave me heaps of stuff to work with in backbends. Paul also led us through the basic of Pranayama for about 2 hours on the saturday and an hour on the sunday. I've left my practice notes in the house so will post them up when I get a chance later on in the week. He didn't have as much time these sessions for Q&A so my notes are pretty short, but I'll post what I have.
I think I've been pushing things a bit much over the last couple of weeks and my body's finally taking over and starting to shut me down. Needless to say I've come down with the cold and I ache all over, though that's probably due to the workshop efforts. Tomorrow's moon day couldn't come at a better time.
Posted by graeme at 8:05 AM | Comments (2)