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September 29, 2008
Back to the big smoke
I got back to the big smoke on friday, and settled in for one evening before heading out to the teacher training course that I help on. Mr Keil was down to give the anatomy lecture to the students on the course and although this was the fourth time I've heard him give this lecture there's always one or two things that crop up that make more sense than the time before.
As usual there was a couple of topics which the students brought up that took David away on a tangent from the anatomy he was teaching, though he admitted that was fine with him. As he said, it was obvious he had to say the things he had to say as why else were the students asking him the questions? They needed to hear his answers. We'd talked about this earlier as he'd given a really good introduction to his led class one morning and I wanted to tell him how good it was. He said he often just went with his train of thought and talked about whatever came up, almost getting out of the way of his mind and thoughts and just letting the words come out. So he was very happy to answer the many, many questions this class were asking him, it didn't faze him at all.
Now he's gone and I'm back sitting at my desk. It's all gone past so very quickly. Still, the students seem to have taken some inspiration from his visit, and the practice questions I need to ask got answered on the mat by observing the differences between what I was seeing and what I was doing, so I'm happy about that. It seems I've also worked out how to do jump throughts, to a degree. I'm still kinda 'crash landing' a little, though I'm mostly getting my feet through. happy days indeed.
Posted by graeme at 8:31 AM | Comments (1)
September 25, 2008
Character building...
I got called in to work in Glasgow when I was up here on holiday, partly to see the consultant I used to work with, but moreover to look at the problems she'd found with the network. When I turned up there was a wee list of things waiting for me to look at and after talking for most of the morning we came to the conclusion that if I could, would I stay up in Glasgow and work on them. Well, with Mr Keil being in town, and a morning practice with him as an incentive, I had to agree! Nice.
Now, 4 days later, and aches in my sternum and hip joints from all the extra adjustments I'm really happy I made the trip up here to see David in the first place. One thing he's certainly been asking us to embrace this trip is working on and with our breathing, especially when jumping back and jumping forward, breathing through the motion not at the start or at the end only. It's taking a little bit to get used to.
One thing that came up in discussion in the workshop part of Sunday was moving people on (or not). When we got into the topic again after class one evening as we were eating I told him I'd spent 10 months at Mari D and I was 8 months into supta kurmasana, though H now has me sitting up with my arms through in padmasana as the first part of the next posture. "Character building", he said. He also commented that H probably can see something that's going on with what I'm doing that he's waiting for me to work through before moving on. As H said himself only last week, "one step at a time".
So tomorrow David's running a led class with the two Mysore groups together then after breakfast with the troops I'll be jumping on a train back to the big smoke, though I'll only be down there for a week before heading back up here to start application testing with work. I'm actually looking forward to being up here.
Posted by graeme at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2008
Back home
I've come back up North for a workshop this weekend. It's always nice to come home and see the folks and hang out for a while. I had an interesting chat with them over something I'm not going to talk about here but it was one of those sorts of conversations that needs a big hug at the end of it. Our family isn't the best at sharing 'touchy-feely' things with each other and sensitive stuff you otherwise might shy away from in typical conversation so it was good for once to be able to do that. For sure I've grown a lot closer to my parents over the last couple of years, hopefully my growing up a lot has helped in that area, and it's really nice to hang with them of an evening and talk.
Today I'm back at my home shala for a workshop and I'm really looking forward to seeing many of the old faces I used to practice with. It's always interesting to see how things have changed and whether the energy's still as good as when I left.
Ahhhh, big happy smiles this morning, though I did have a weird dream about the yoga teacher splitting the class up on religious lines. very strange.
Posted by graeme at 7:44 AM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2008
8 and a half months later...
Yesterday at the end of practice, before backbendings, H came over and helped me with Supta Kurmasana. At the end, he stood there and asked "Can you do padmasana?"
Err, yeah
"Ok, sit in it for 10 breaths then put your arms through and take your chin".
Well, I can get them kinda through though folding them back's a bit of a problem.
"We can take it one stage at a time. That's the easy leg, try the other side..."
8.5 months after D first said I could have a go at kurmasana and supta Kurmasana, after all the thoughts of "this is never going anywhere", all the different variations of help and assistance, and just a day after I thought "how long have I been doing this posture now?", the adventure into the next posture begins....
Posted by graeme at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)
September 16, 2008
I'd forgotten
what it's like to walk up stairs. The hostel I'm in now has it's reception on the 4th floor, but it counts their's a blocked floor on the 1st floor so the 1st floor's on the second and so on, so walking up to reception with my bags was a bit of a hike. Then I had to go down to go out for something to eat and back up again when I came back. By the time I crawled into my cubby hole I could feel my quads aching a little. Having stayed in a 2nd floor flat and a ground floor house over the past year I've kinda got a little lazy when it comes to stairs. Even the office I work in is on the ground floor. Dare I say I was a little out of puff.
So the night went as expected. The 3 Russian guys I'm in sharing with went out then in, then out and in again practically all night, and as my bed's right beside the door I got quite a lot of the glare from the corridor every time they opened the door and slammed it shut again. So this morning I was a bit later to class than normal. Still, as it was quieter by the time I came to leave I did have a chance to speak with one of the newer adjusters and H himself before leaving. It's always nice to connect with them as they're in and out quite quickly when they're helping the students out and talking in class isn't really the done thing.
I'm looking forward to the walk 'home' this evening though and as I've got nothing really to look forward to other than bed when I get back I can take my time getting back there.
Posted by graeme at 4:48 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2008
Moving on again...
So tonight's my last night here in my flat. Since I started moving, when I first moved through to Glasgow, this is my 6th flat I've stayed in. It's been fun being here. The summer, not as warm as I would've liked has been ok, but it's really time to move on and actually to be honest, back to a level that I can afford and feel comfortable with. I've been kinda living beyond my means, the rent here is so steep, and it's been good to have some money in my pockets again as I've had no rent to pay this month as you always pay a month up front. I've got 6 weeks worth of deposit coming back my way so that'll set me up nicely for Mysore at Xmas time.
This coming week's going to go so very quickly. I put the finishing touches to the personal project earlier this week so once the contracts come through and I get the go ahead to release what I've done it'll be quite exciting to see how whether it gets accepted or not. In the meantime I'm going back up home to see the folks then over to see the Miami teacher that I spent so much time with last year. He's over doing his yearly tour round europe so I'm keen to spend some time with him again. I've got friday afternoon off, which is my first break from work in what seems a long time.
Im glad there's a moon day tomorrow as it gives me an extra day to get settled in to the hostel I'm moving too. Not quite sure how it's going to effect my start time at the shala, I did find it quite hard to get up so early when most of the hostel's still awake way after I'd been going to bed. I may just resign myself to later bed time and a later start time at the shala. It's only for a couple of weeks so I'll just have to see how it goes.
Posted by graeme at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2008
No, no, it can't be !!!
I can't believe the sign I've just seen. I took the bus home from work ending in a nice stroll across the park. There's guys there playing touch rugby, the boxers running up and down the hill, and the joggers huffing and puffing round the circuit. At the far corner of the park there's a bar with the usual assortment of drinkers sitting outside, surrounded by the now familiar haze of smoke, and there on the wall, beside the restaurant menu and the sign looking for work was the most incredible thing.
Christmas Menu.
Man, is it really that time of year already?
As far as practice goes I'm having a whale of a time! In backbends I'm finding extra room from somewhere and actually managing to get my arms straight. Just after I came back from my 2 week 'vacation' I could only manage 1 or 2 before collapsing in a heap. Now I'm up to 7, admittedly a 3-2-2 combination but it feels so much easier and stronger. I'm putting in less effort but getting more out of the posture. I stopped doing a lot of the prep work before hand as I felt they were just draining the life right out of my legs, and now I feel really strong and nice and stable. I've a nice, shorter time-wise practice, and apart from the usual problems in supta kurmasana, it's all pretty much fun these days. Oh, apart from when I bounced on my shins this morning before even starting and thought I'd pulled something. Can never be too careful!
So it's all coming together quite nicely. The Miami yoga teacher's in town in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he thinks things are going for me. We've a lot to discuss and he's always very straight with you, not beating around the bush. He taught me a fair few things when I was with him last, even to do with stuff away from the mat, and it'll be nice to be back with him again.
Now, if only I could get another inch on my arms under my shoulders!
Posted by graeme at 7:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 8, 2008
Waiting for that lady to sing....
So I'm packed and ready to go, all there's left to do is wait it out until this time next week when I'll be official homeless, and with 4 less bills to pay. No rent, electricity, gas or council tax, well, atleast until the New Year anyway. This is going to save me a small fortune!
Posted by graeme at 6:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 6, 2008
Facing forward
I guess there's a few things on here I'm not prepared to share yet. Stuff's been going on recently that's coming to a head, stuff I'd like to get off my chest, but the world being the world it is, I'm not convinced that talking about it here's the right thing to do. Self censoring, well, that's a new one for me. Usually I just open my mouth and let my belly rumble. Interesting times ahead, some hard work, perhaps a bit of pain, even some bad news and a lot of disappointment, but on the other hand, if the planets align themselves correctly and it stops raining long enough for the grass to dry it might just be a good day to go outside for a walk in the fresh air.
Some stuff went down on Friday that will make Monday's practice a bit of a struggle mentally, I can feel it coming. That train coming round the corner heading straight in my direction. It feels that way for a lot of things. Work, personal projects, yoga, teaching, teacher training, yoga shows, about the only thing not firing on all cylinders these days is the social side of life, not that I've really any time for it right now with so much going on. Still, today showed splinters of sunlight can still find there way through now and again, especially, it seems, when I least expect it.
Posted by graeme at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2008
You want to do what?
I got an email at 5.30 tonight just as I was about to head home. The estate agent was wondering if it would be ok to pop round to show some prospective tenants the flat. Sure, if they don't mind the fact I had my yoga stuff mostly all over the place - back of the seat, over the heater, on the drying screen, in the kitchen. Atleast I had made the bed (my mum will be happy about that!) though following on from yesterday's late night following the 1-2-1 I did with my friend I was lucky to get out of bed this morning I could've still been there at 6pm!
So the next move is on though thankfully I've the hindsight to know this time by far the easiest way is to get as much stuff as I can out of the flat before the last weekend, then move all my clothes and remaining bits and bobs out in the 3 big holdalls I've got. And rather than try and ferry the stuff back and forth, go grab a taxi and take it direct. It saved so much hassle moving in here it was well worth the taxi fair.
I guess the yoga stuff maybe the last stuff out of the flat....
Posted by graeme at 7:40 PM | Comments (0)