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October 29, 2008
Yoga Show
Jeez, I'm a bit tired this morning. I was up late last night helping the Yoga Flow teacher sort out some stuff in prep for the Yoga Show this weekend down in the big smoke. I'm really excited for her. It's been a really intensive period for her over the last year to make her dreams turn into reality with the launch of her book and all, and I'm sure she'll be delighted when it's all ready to go come the weekend. From the sidelines it's been an education to bear witness to the steps she's taken over the year without having to shoulder any of the problems or pressures she's been under. It's the sort of experience you can't really buy or learn from a book. It's all in the doing. I hope it brings her lots of success.
Posted by graeme at 8:35 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2008
23
One other thing that happened over the weekend was I got a call late Sunday morning from one of my friends. She told me she'd been asked to cover the Led class later that morning but that she'd been terribly sick during the night (she sounded terrible) and wondered if I wouldn't mind covering for her and taking the class. I was down to go along to the class anyway to practice but after a short moan about missing my own practice I said I'd do it. I knew the class had been fairly busy over the previous weekends from what I'd heard but wasn't expecting 23 students to turn up, the place was practically full, and other for the space up on the stage area there wasn't much room left on the floor.
It's been a while since I've taken a led class, other than the 1-2-1s where I've been helping out some of the students on the teacher training course, and as far as I remember even when I was running the Mysore group here in Glasgow there was only ever 6 or 8 people at most turning up. It's a good sign to have so many students turning up for Ashtanga, it's really taking off here.
Class itself reminded me that I really outta press on quicker when I'm leading. Ok, I did a fair amount of talking at the start of the class to get everyone settled into a breathing rythmn, but I was only half of the way through seated when I noticed that time was pushing on. Oh, and what's becoming more common than I'd like. I forgot ardha baddha paschimottanasana yet again. Ooops.
The concert last night was really good. Bryan started by coming out at to sing at the back of the standing area, right in front of the seated area. He pretty much got a standing ovation for that, and then for running the gauntlet of outstretched hands as he made his way through the audience back to the main stage. All the familiar songs were there and there was a fair mix of acoustic only numbers in the mix with the show starting and finishing with Bryan playing on his own. I hadn't heard some of his new tracks from the recent album '11' and they all pretty much had the same sound and feel as his original stuff, so for sure he's playing to his strengths and sticking to a working formula, though he needs to work on his Scottish accent a little bit more!
Posted by graeme at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2008
Counting time
This evening I'm off to a rock concert with my friend from America. We're off to see Bryan Adams, someone I've seen a couple of times in the past, and I know puts on a good show. He's one of the bands I've seen over the years that I like because he likes to interact with the audience, have a bit of banter with them as they say around here. I've been at concerts where it's lucky if the lead singer even introduces the band let alone say 'hello, Glasgow'. Yeah, and he does do that 'rock god' thing where he'll pull out some girl from the audience to go sing with him on that Mel-C track he released a while back, which is all good fun. Then he'll go that extra mile and come back out and play an acoustic set on his own when the band are back stage having a breather, not for like 10-15 minutes but 45 minutes or more. It's that little bit of effort to connect, to cross the divide between rock-star and audience, that seems to make the evening so much more enjoyable, atleast for me. Oh, and Bryan sure can belt out a good tune or two, which obviously helps... The guy's supremely talented. I even heard him phone in to a radio station once to tell the DJ that the record player playing his song was spinning too slowly as his tune was slightly out of key....
But it got me to thinking to the last time I saw Bryan play in Glasgow, back when my friend from Switzerland was across visiting and we arrived late not realising there was no support act and Bryan was already on stage. It must've been a couple of years ago now. I dawns on me from time to time, that I mark the passage of the days like this. I haven't worn a watch for near on 10 years now though I often find myself marking out time based on the occurrences of certain things. It started when I broke up with one my girlfriends. During that 'time will help you get over it' stage following the fall out, I found myself counting the number of times I'd taken the garbage out since she left, then the number of times I'd seen a certain film on tv, the number of cars I'd had, the number of times I'd seen a concert. Time in a different dimension to hours, minutes and seconds.
I guess it's the cyclic nature of things, and coming back to Glasgow this time certainly feels like the completion of one, another cycle older, another cycle on. And with the weather certainly changing around here as the new season kicks in, I've a certain sense of clearing out, of laying old bones to rest, and moving on to begin the next cycle. And where that leads, well, I'll just have to see.
Posted by graeme at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2008
Trip out West
Over the weekend I went with my friend out West to one of the harbour towns on the coast line. It's a great wee place that sits on a sheltered harbour that serves most of the Islands further off the coast, and the ferry runs back and forth most of the day. After the meandering trip up from the Big City, and a quick spot of lunch, we headed to the distillery (as you do) for a tour of the Whisky making process and a couple of samples of their products (yum). Here's a couple of snaps of the scenery...
Sunshine on a rainy day
Town front from the harbour
Parking
Posted by graeme at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2008
Deja deja vue
Haven't I seen you somewhere before?
Well, yeah, kinda. My good friend Chuck arrived from the States this morning, across to help out on the project that I've been leading up for the past 8 months or so. We're at that stage where it's coming down to the final wire and it's all hands on deck. One of the other developers is going off on holiday at the end of the week so to have any chance of getting this project delivered I asked for some hands on help here in the UK.
This is his 3rd, no wait, 4th (or is it 5th??) trip across here to help out with this customer, and I'm happy to say he's become a very close friend. It's a bit strange to see us both change over the years, and in many ways grow up along the way, as in many ways he's like the 'little' brother I never had (he's taller than me, but he is younger, though not as young as he'd lead you to believe). In any case, it's great to have him around and I'm hoping we'll have some free time to get out and play. Last time he was here I ended up dressing up as a woman for a burlesque night out. Darn, did I just admit that ????? And darn sexy I looked too!
So if that's anything to go by, I'm looking forward to the shenanigans we can get up to this trip too, though I'm sure they're more than likely going to be lower key.
But you never know......
Posted by graeme at 2:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2008
Like I'd never gone away...
This week's been a bit surreal. Having been away from this place for almost 3 years, to be back behind this same desk looking across the room at the familiar sights, it's a bit weird to think about all the water that's gone under the bridge since then. It's been a bit of a roller coaster, though I've enjoyed the travelling and the challenges that have come up along the way, there's times for sure that I've wondered how things would've turned out if I'd just stayed put and never left this place.
Anyways, it's nice to be back in familiar territory and to wander around the town and meet up with friends over lunch. It's also nice to spot the changes in the place that have sprung up, or disappeared, in the intervening years. The most obvious of the changes is the yoga now on offer here, it's almost as if it's everywhere. You can quite literally find an Ashtanga class every day of the week, which considering when I started there was only 1 led class on a Thursday evening and 1 introductory on a Friday morning, is a wonderful thing. In fact, I'm off to a class this afternoon!
Posted by graeme at 7:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 7, 2008
Hot Yoga
I dropped in on the hot yoga class this evening, a class I've not done since i was in Noose Heads way back on the round the world trip. It's always good, I think, to get out of the comfort zone now and again, and doing the postures in an unfamiliar sequence would be challenge enough on their own, but when they're done in a heated studio it really focussed my mind on my breathing. I actually managed a lot better than I thought I would and certainly found the postures at the end of the class a bit of a handful, and ok, I admit some of them I recognised from Second Series and to be sure I would have no real business doing them if they were anywhere other than in this class.
Still, it was fun, and as I've found with the hot yoga teachers I've attended class with, their instructions are pretty clear and helpful.
I got to talk with the teacher after the class and found out that she'd been teaching in Noose after I'd been through there. It's a small world indeed. Funnily, though, the subject turned more and more to Ashtanga and Mysore. Seems the teacher had recently found the studio's Led class and was having a blast with the series.
Posted by graeme at 8:30 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2008
harder than I thought
so here I an back in Scotland, sitting in a restaurant having just demolished a starter of potato wedges, and I'm thinking that at this rate of food consumption, and with someone else picking up the tab, that I'm going to have to be awfully careful else I'll go back to London double the size of what I am now. The hotel rooms not really big enough to practice in, and I know there's a bunch of classes I want to take part in during my stay, but I really don't want to lose any recent gains I've made in my Ashtanga practice by being 'away' from it for a while. They say a change is as good as a rest but the more food I eat around here the hungrier I seem to be getting.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to take in the new hot yoga class at the studio which should me fun. I'm beginning to get my social calendar filled up and there's lots of friends to catch ip with too. Life's pretty darn good right now
Posted by graeme at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)