Best laid plans (TFL Suck!)

Saturday was hard work, but great fun. It began with Mysore practice at TLC with Michaela. Only 4 people, so lots of adjustments and little comments. Michaela was the one who “found” my ujayi, and after one adjustment as she moved away she said “Good breath”, both Michaela and Cary have now made that comment! I enjoy practicing with Michaela, her adjustments are great, starting with a good squishing in downdog during Surya B. Marichyasana A & C are not bad, especially with some help, really good twist, you know sometimes it just feels really comfortable when a teacher is taking you further. Supta Kurmasana I already had my hands but she helped bind my feet, once there I can hold it and to my amazement they were above my head and I managed to lift up and keep them crossed, but the effort sucked the life out of me, the following Titibhasana was more like a crawl! Baddha Konasana was a journey on its own, I can comfortably get my knees to the floor, but keeping a straight back going forward, ie not rounding to get there is a struggle, Michaela gave me one of the best adjustments I have ever experienced in this posture, I was a bit apprehensive as she used more and more pressure, but surprisingly it didnt hurt my feet and I was able to go with it as she got my head to the floor, it felt amazing, really different. She was busy adjusting another, so I sneaked in my Ustrasana and Laghu Vajrasana’s before 4 x Urdva Dhanurasana’s, she didnt do drop backs with me this time, but let me go as far as I could on my own and then a bit of wall walking. Sirsasana was stable, but I think Cary needs to go through the Ardha experiment with me again, I can bring my feet down with legs straight to the point that I can see my toes, but cannot seem to get the weight in the right place to raise them back to vertical. A nice long Savasana, before a hot shower, I do like TLC for having decent showers. I really must make the effort more often on a Saturday to practice with Michaela, I always seem to have a decent practice with her.

A nice brunch at my cafe then a manic afternoon setting up the hall for the 130 people who came to listen to talks on Travels with Herodotus and Jonny Bealby on The Silk Road. Jonny is a brilliant speaker who runs his own adventure travel company. Once the punters have gone home we have to take the whole thing apart, which takes quite a while and left me running late, which I’m sorry to say meant I couldn’t joing the other yogi’s saying bye bye to E. before her trip to Rwanda.

Which brings me to TFL and London Midland not to mention my knee, though I plan to investigate Susan’s suggestions about supplements to see if they would help. When I woke up at 4.45am it was chucking it down, my knee was complaining, but the replacement bus was supposed to be coming, but TFL in their wisdom had seen fit to shut down the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith&City tube lines and then to add insult they shut the Central Line at Liverpool St, which made trying to reach YP out in E2 a joke. I could have taken 2 buses instead from Euston and got there at gone 9am, which is a total joke after setting out at 5am. So I am sorry to say I abandoned it and went back to bed and slept to 8.30, which was nice I have to say. I did the standing postures when i got up, mainly because Waitrose don’t open until 10am on Sunday, not being in London meant no pain au raisin or newspaper, so I had to venture out into the rain. With luck I will practice later when the house warms up.