No practice today, but I got a pressie!

I havn’t had time to do practice this evening, I got home to find the Postman had finally made it up the hill to us, despite the snow. No vehicle has got up the hill since Wednesday night. He delivered a completely unexpected christmas present from my friend in Yorkshire, she got me a book, Yoga Mala, how’s that for a thoughtful present, especially from someone who doesn’t do practice.

I have been packing for my trip this evening, though I am very worried if it will happen, its been snowing here since 3pm, when I left work at 5pm, the junction I have to cross was gridlocked with cars. At 9pm my front path has 6 inches on it, they say its going to stop, but can you believe them when tonights deluge wasn’t even predicted.

One way or another tomorrow is my last day at the Labour Camp until January 4th, I just hope the intervening days are spent in the Singapore sunshine, not Terminal 4, or at home, cold, bored out of my tree with no Shala’s open.

Quiet practice.

When I opened my door at 6.30am and found another layer of snow I wondered if I would get to practice, and once I got to the station no trains were listed on the departure Monitor, just a phone number to call that wasn’t being answered! But suddenly an announcement heralded the unexpected arrival of a train, it was even early, we should have snow more often it means we get a train that runs on time! Hardly any snow in London either. Thanks also to “Opening Slowly” for crossing her fingers and toes on my behalf.

AYL this week, so a 2 minute walk from Platform 6 to opening the door and my glasses steaming up as the heat hit them. Could not believe how quiet the Shala was, I could pick my space, I chose the one 3rd in from the mat cupboard, between two people who were into seated poses, so I knew poses like UHP would not clash.

I really wanted to practice today, especially after watching the Ashtanga, NY dvd on Friday, I wanted to feel part of something bigger, part of the yoga community and share in that wonderful energy only possible when practising in a hot room with others. It took a while to get going, head just about heading for knees after 10 Surya’s, nice adjustments from Louise in Prasarita C and in UHP, my hamstring felt safe, so that tension and resistance that can appear when you think something is going to be painful didn’t.

Seated were quite fast up to the Janusirsasana’s, Marichyasana always slows me down, especially when I get adjusted in Mari A, its a reminder I sometimes need, not to be thinking about the Mari D to come, the adjustment makes me present. When it came to Mari D, they were not great today, first side almost bound, but as I stretched my fingers, mentally pleading with them to find their partners my nail took a slice out of the side of one the opposite fingers, second side was nowhere near. Pose of the day was Supta K, I love doing that in a hot sweaty room, so much deeper, so much more satisfying

All todays adjustments were light, it felt like an end of term practice, not going through the motions, but just doing it without setting any goals, doing it for fun. Nice pressure from Louise’s assistant in Baddha Konasana.

Closing was the usual trial, Urdva Dhanurasana pissed my left wrist off, so I was quite glad when I started playing around with dropback that Louise came over to give me assistance, taking me down, walking me in and bringing me back up, thus saving my wrist from having to land on its own, there seems to be a time to back off and this was it.

Savasana laying by the radiator in the Finishing Room. I could of easily layed there for thre rest of the morning, just as I could have turned over in bed and given the snow a miss at 6.30am, but as usual I am glad I went to the Shala, shared that energy and motivation with everyone.

Home to the Farmers Market back in snowy Herts, collecting my Granola supply and some of her new Fudge, which is providing the energy to type this. A brilliant sunny, if very cold morning, our Castle looked a picture in the snow.

2 more days of slavery to survive, then I just hope the runway at Heathrow is clear of snow as I head for sunshine and yoga in a hot, humid Singapore.

Snow escape

We woke up to find far more snow than the weather Wench on the BBC had led us to expect last night (Bring back Wincy Willis!), I opened my front door to find over a foot of the stuff. Living so close to work I had to go in and endure a tedious day, before they threw us out at 3.30pm. Many didn’t (bother) attempting to come in, it’s always the same ones.

After a slippery walk home, I made a cuppa and decided to use the extra 30 minutes (we usually finish at 4pm on Fridays anyhow), to get on with practice. I knew I had time to do a proper Primary series if I got on with it. My Hamstrings are still extremely tight, but they are getting there, I was back to being able to grab my fingers beyond my feet in Triang Mukha and the Janu’s and managed to bind Mari D on the first side, my knee didn’t want to play on side 2. I was wearing too many layers to get far into Supta Kurmasana. I still wasn’t that warm by closing, Urdva Dhanurasana was a pain in the left wrist and after one dropback I thought better of it and decided to stop pissing my wrist off.

My Mum found she actually has 2 fractures of the kneecap, plus a crack in the Tibia, which they are worried may split further, she definitley has to stay off it for a minimum of 6 weeks.

It’s snowing again, I can’t see me getting to AYL on Sunday at this rate, they cancelled most of the trains today.

So it’s Friday night out here in the sticks, with a foot of snow and nowhere to go. A good night to stay in and watch my Ashtanga,NY dvd

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10pm why didn’t someone mention this dvd to me long before now? Its brilliant, it so puts into words why we do this practice,what we get both individually and collectively, what it brings to our lives and why some of us yearn to go to Mysore. i think I will have to get my Mum to watch it while I am away, its answers in so many ways the “why?” question.

Be careful what you wish for

In last nights blog I wrote that I hoped we would get enough snow for the car park snowball fight. Well its been snowing most of the morning, a thin slippy layer on the ground, though not enough for a snowball, but it was enough for my 67 year old Mom to slip over and break her kneecap. She is now in plaster for the next 6 weeks. WHY she had to go outside on a day like this I really don’t know!

Ready for a Moon day rest

Another full primary after getting home from the Labour Camp tonight, but I could feel I was running out of steam, it was a bit of a slog and the cold weather didn’t help matters. I am not sure if it was surviving a day at that place or just lots of practice and public transport the last few days, but I think  my body is ready for tomorrow’s Moon day rest. Urdva Dhanurasana was pretty dire, I only managed 1, the right side of my back just didn’t want to bend and I have a better idea these days of when not to push it and end up spending weeks if not months paying for it. Suffice to say I abandoned the idea of dropbacks completely.

My Ashtanga,NY dvd arrived at last today, so that will be my Moon day practice, if it will work on my dvd player that is, it seems to struggle with dvd’s from other regions.

Supposed to snow up here over the next few days, hope its enough for another foreigners versus Brits snowball fight in the car park!

5 more days at work to go, I am sure that place makes me ill. Weekends I can do Supta K and backbends, but 8 hours at the office in front of a screen leaves the backs of my legs aching and turns me into a cripple!

Stressed out just getting there!

I seem to be permanently stressed lately, work is crap, though at least this week its just the 4 days of GDM (Gross Domestic Misery), the Banks are ripping me off and London sodding Midland do their best to stop me getting to practice every Sunday. My practice, the one stable thing I have in my life that makes it worth going to the trouble of opening my eyes once a week on a Sunday morning, when it’s cold, dark and raining. We got into London 10 minutes late, which is a massive inconvenience and cuts my potential practice time down to 100 minutes at YP, if the train had been much later I would of had to divert to AYL, not a bad place to practice, but no doubt by that time it would already be full. So a run through the tube system, arriving at YP already glowing and out of breath, but my favourite spot was at least free.

When the commute has been like this I find it hard to settle down mentally and to take back control of the breath, partly because I feel like I have to rush practice to some extent, though on the other hand I know I can’t faff around as much and am more concentrated. It took all the Surya A’s to find the Ujayi breath, by the end of the B’s my head was threatening to reach my knees, but my hamstrings had not appreciated having to sprint up and down escalators just to get to being on my mat. I have to say I did appreciate Denise’ gentler approach to adjustments this morning Prasarita C felt safe and UHP, which could of become very painful on the hamstrings was nurturing and I felt able to relax to some extent even on the left side.

Seated was adjustment free today, it was nice to be able to release into poses like Triang Mukha and the Janu’s, letting the hamstring be where it wanted to be, Mari’s all bound with the exception of the second side of D, mainly because I forgot to take my little towel today, which I wrap around the knee to give me some extra grip, my fingers found each other, but I couldn’t keep the bind round the knee. At least I did Supta K, my pose for 2008, on my own, bound both ends and lifted before my feet frustratingly flew out, at which point I looked next door to see Susan sitting angelically stress free in Dwi Pada.

So we come to backbends and closing, Urdva Dhanurasana was quite strong for a change, that Wispa bar I had last night must have given me that extra bit of energy, then time for dropbacks, after a bit of experimenting I managed 2 on my own before Denise arrived to have me do 4 more. It feels strange now after 10 months of a teacher standing in front of me taking me to the floor, to have a teacher standing there, but telling me to go to the floor on my own, before getting me to walk the hands in and helping bring me up again. I am still finding it a bit of a mental leap to have to take the responsibility when the teacher is standing there. Standing up I still can’t get my head round, though D told me its not about “up” its about “Forward”, transferring more of the weight, first by walking the hands in, then rocking, I hope in 2010 something clicks (Not painfully I hope), but physically or mentally to let me stand up. At least going down I could rely on gravity!

So that was the last practice of 2009 at YP, they close for the holidays on Friday, boo hoo. On 1st January 2009 Cat said it was time I learned to do a dropback, 11 months later, after so much effort I finally stood in the same place in front of Cary and did one on my own, mission accomplished.

Local Cafe after practice with Mel, yoga socialising has been another highlight of this year. Have a great trip to India Mel.

Pendants for the Children

Some more post has improved the afternoon no end. My Practice for the Children Pendant arrived from the USA, wrapped carefully in its little box. These Pendants are raising lots of money for the children in Mysore. On one side is Guruji’s mantra “Do your practice and all is coming” and on the reverse Guruji’s dates 1915 – 2009. They are a lovely reminder of our practice and Guruji, as we go about our daily lives, while at the same time supporting a special cause. If you want one go visit Tracy’s blog, where you can order one.

I spent 30 minutes doing backbends this evening, they are easier than forward bends it seems.

We allegedly have trains in the morning, so an extra hour in bed before practice, I just hope it turns up on time for the last Sunday of the year at YP.

Backing off, then stopping to kill a Banker!

I shopped then came home to practice, my hamstrings are a joke, I really have no idea why they are sooooo tight, its ridiculous. I took it really slowly, forward bends are not happening, though the Trikonasanas are not so bad, Prasaritas are painful, I had just done a bent leg UHP when the Postman rang the doorbell. He delivered a letter from Barclays, saying the bastards had bounced a cheque, when the funds were in there and charged me for this “service”.

Yogic thoughts left my body as I got on the phone and ripped into them, being passed from one Muppet to another, until I eventually got some higher up Muppet who was no doubt busy counting his undeserved and soon to be taxed 25K bonus (What planet are these Tosseres on, some of us would like to get 25k in the first place for putting up with 40 hours of shit, never mind get it as a bonus). He had to admit they had ****ed up, that the money was in there all the time and they shouldn’t have bounced it. I then had to ring the payee to try and get them to represent the cheque, but the scumbags at Barclays had made the cheque null and void and unrepresentable. This is going to cause me a big problem, which I am going to have to spend my day off on Monday dealing with, rather than being able to enjoy a day of, give Bankers a bonus, I would like to hang the ****ing lot of them from the Lamp posts on Threadneedle Street.

What’s with my hamstrings?

Both my Hamstrings have now shrunk, or so it seems, I can barely get head to knee after 10 sun salutations. I think its a culmination of all the Triang Mukha and UHP adjustments of the last few weeks, plus doing practice in a cold house some evenings.

I did however plough through a slow full Primary last night, though it seems to be not only my hamstrings, but also hips and knees that have lost last weekends openness, Mari D was no way on either side, oh well, they come they go and hopefully they will come back. My lack of forward bending ability meant Supta K was a shadow of what it can be and what I have begun to expect, even without adjustment.

Backbends are strange, after Cristina sorted out my left side, the niggle is now in the right side of my lower back, still managed my UD’s and 2 dropbacks, though my left wrist is becoming irritated. Its because my left still lands too far back, due to the lack of rotation in the shoulder. Susan tried to correct this last Sunday, now that I have more control she had me keep my hands in prayer with straight arms for as long as I could before going for the floor.

My last 5 day week of the year is nearly done, just 6 more days of slavery to survive until I escape to the sunshine.

Monday on a Tuesday

Usually it’s Monday practice that is crap and stiff, but last night I did a half Primary and loads of backbends and 3 dropbacks which all felt good, but a bit surprised that I had done that practice, especially after a double shala weekend.

My bubble was burst tonight though, when my intention to do a full Primary fell flat thanks to being tired and for some reason having a really uncomfortable left Hamstring, where that’s come from I am not sure. I spent 45 minutes getting to Marichyasana A and just thought this is rubbish, so decided to stop. The Hamstring is really annoying, I have been sitting on my spiky massage ball at work half the day, but I’m not sure if that hasn’t made it worse. Think I’ll take tomorrow off to give the hamstring a break and everything else a rest.

I have finally gotten round to reading the book I won by Lucy Edge, which was waiting on the doormat when I got back from Australia. It has been a lot of fun reading a book, actually knowing the author and the identities of the characters  in real life, even though the names have been changed in the book, to anyone who knows them, it’s fairly obvious who the “Bad Ladies” are in real life. And then I came to the part of the book where Lucy talks about the Claire Missingham workshop in Norwich that I took part in and blogged about here. She obviously enjoyed the workshop as much as I did, but its quite surreal to read a description of an event I attended in a book.

I got my tickets for my holiday today, 9 more working days to go, the single digit countdown, never mind Advent calenders, I think I’ll get 9 of the mini bars of Green & Blacks and eat one every day!