Graciously

I love springtime, and although changing the clocks and having to get up this morning was pretty dire, I feel really energised by the light evening. Well, it’s making me rather restless actually, I want to leave to the office right now and run along the river bank, or something equally mad. I certainly don’t want to be at my desk. But somehow, work must get done also.

Practice this morning was stiff; for the first time in ages I was at at the side of the room, very close to the window, so it wasn’t that warm. It felt like it made a difference to my mobility, back bends in particular were not fun.

My later arrival time again today worked reasonably well, I waited for a few minutes, but was chatting to V anyway, so it didn’t bother me. As I caught the 6.42 train I remembered how I used to take this train last summer, but ended up going earlier as I always had to wait for ages when I arrived. I wonder how the springtime will effect arrival times this year?

I had a really lazy morning today and didn’t get up properly until midday. I stayed in last night, although it was nice to do nothing, I still get twitchy about staying in on a Friday night, even after going out every night last week. It always feels like something fun must be going on out there which I am missing out on.

Practice was fine, I went in at 7.30 again, this works OK as it isn’t too busy and lets me lie in until 6.15, which is great when I am out late in the evening. I am having to let go of my attachment to being in the office early, which is probably good for me. I always stay later, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter that much. I am in the office again today, trying to catch up, but it’s fine because I will only be in for a few hours and I am going out in the area this evening. One of my business partners came and had a word with me last night telling me that I shouldn’t make a habit of coming in at the weekend. It was nice that he was concerned, but he needn’t worry, I don’t intend to make it a habit!

Hopefully tonight will be fun, it’s a charity party in a club near the Savoy, organised by a friend of a friend from choir. I like meeting other singing people. I have some silly new jewellery to wear too, big butterfly necklace and matching earrings. I like shopping I was going to post a picture of my new shoes last night but the battery of my camera was flat. It’s charged now, so I’ll try and get around to it tomorrow.

Happy weekend everyone!

My morning yoga, working day and evening singing/social life seems to be catching up with me and I am shattered. I have been out every night this week and it looks like it will be the same way next week too!

I had a lovely meal out with friends last night but ate far too much (for me anyway). The veggie main course option was a bean and mushroom cassoulet which was lovely but left me feeling really bloated for practice this morning. I did a late practice though, arriving at 7.30. I got a space right away and sweated my way through my usual practice. It was lovely to see some sunshine this morning, it felt almost spring like!

I am out again tonight meeting up with my brother who is back from Moscow for a couple of days, and going to a choir friends leaving drinks. I’m feeling tired already. Not good.

I was going to work late but felt sorry for my bro who was bored in his hotel so have agreed to meet him for dinner at 6.30 before I go to the drinks. I’m not sure when the work is going to get done as I haven’t finished a report which my colleague wants tomorrow, probably because he has promised it to our client then… oops. I think I will have to do some work at the weekend just to catch up.

After a moon day and ladies holiday I was looking forward to getting back to the shala this morning. I managed to drag myself out of bed, onto the bus and on to a train. At 6.10 am, the train stopped between Edgware Road and Paddington. We waited, and waited. Finally an announcement from the driver ’signal failure’. Great. So, we wait some more, and some more, then, another announcement ‘actually, it’s points failure and there aren’t any engineers awake at this time of the morning’. We wait some more. Finally, another announcement ’some men in official clothing have appeared, they are about 20 yards in front of the train, doing their stuff’. After an awful lot more waiting, the train finally pulls off very, very, slowly, juddering and jumping along the track. Finally, at 7.10am, the train pulls into Edgware Road station. A two minute stretch of track, covered in 1 hour!!! The driver then makes another announcement ‘I don’t know what this train is doing now, and I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting off!’ We wait patiently and are advised by platform staff that we must wait for a new driver. We finally pull off at 7.20am, an hour and a half after I got on the train. Needless to say, I didn’t go to the shala, but arrived at the gym just in time to do their 7.30 am ‘yoga’ class.

I am a terrible student now, especially at classes pitched at a low level. The teacher starts by telling us to lie on our mats with our feet together. Well, this pose has a name doesn’t it – supta baddha konasana? We then did 4 sort of vinyasas, had a rest in childs pose, then did the ‘dancing warrior’ sequence, which was basically warrior 1, then warrior 2 with spinning arms ! Then onto parsvottanasana. Then to the floor for shalabasana, dhanurasana and a half bhekasana, back up again for some balances, then trikonasana. It seemed like a rather strange way to order a class, but I suppose it was better than no yoga at all. She also missed the ‘n’ out of the word asana, which I have heard teachers do before, and may well be correct in some schools of yoga, but I find terms like utkatasa and trikonasa mildly irritating.

Anyway, enough whinging… Work is busy, I have zero motivation and loads to do. For the last two days I have managed to do almost nothing. Not good. It is ‘year end’ in 2 days time and I need to finish everything off. Eeek.

The weather here is awful. It’s a 4 day weekend and I just don’t want to go outside. I ventured to the shops earlier but the wind nearly blew me over and it sleeted – gross.

I haven’t practiced since Wednesday. On Thursday morning I woke up, just, but felt too tired to move. I didn’t get back to sleep so should probably have gone to the shala. It’s funny how a 5 day week of practice was followed by a 2 day week – oops. Then it was Moon day yesterday, and obviously Saturday today. I can’t remember if the shala is open tomorrow or not and V, my AYL guru, isn’t around to ask. I know it is open on Monday from 7.30. I’ll practice at home tomorrow, may see if the neighbour wants to join me. She is just back from 2 months in Thailand and we were discussing all things Ashtanga this afternoon. She isn’t that keen on Ashtanga as she can’t bind Mari D so shouldn’t officially go further, even though she has a very good practice otherwise. I am preaching the practice and all is coming mantra, but she still isn’t convinced. This time last year I couldn’t bind both hands in Baddha Padmasana, had to be really cranked to bind my hands in Suta K. Could only wrist bind Mari A, but now I can bind all of these things and wrist bind all of the Maris. I really think doing the poses up to Mari D on a daily basis would help her… she isn’t convinced and certainly isn’t patient enough to try. Her thoughts are that she has been doing yoga for 8 years and if she still can’t to these things it is because her body is anatomically incapable….. I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusions on that….

I’m staying in tonight and enjoying doing nothing – bliss.

1. What is your occupation? Patent Attorney with aspirations to teach yoga, I have a Yoga Alliance certification but no time to teach.

2. What color are your socks right now? I’m not wearing any socks.

3. What are you listening to right now? The chatter of my colleagues.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? A stroop waffle.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, there are very few automatic cars in the UK.

6. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Green.

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? A Russian attorney.

8. What’s your favorite yoga pose? That I am officially doing, Supta Kurmasana, now that I have got to grips with it and unofficially, Parighasana otherwise.

9. How old are you today? 33.

10. Favourite drink? Vodka Tonic.

11. What is your favourite sport to watch? Rowing.

12. Have you ever dyed your hair? If so what colour? Yes. Blonde and bright orange.

13. Pets? None.

14. Favourite cake? Lemon Drizzle Cake.

15. Last movie you saw? No Country for Old Men.

16. Favourite day of the year? None in particular.

17. What do you do to vent anger? Bitch!

18. What was your favourite toy as a child? My recorder.

19. What is your favourite, fall or spring? Spring, it means summer is on the way!

20. Hugs or kisses? Both!

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry.

22. Do you want your friends to respond? Yes!

23. Who is most likely to respond? N/A.

24. Who is least likely to respond? N/A.

25. Living arrangements? Tiny flat in West London.

26. When was the last time you cried? Monday, tears of frustration!

27. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes in boxes, laundry bin, video recorder, suitcases.

28. Who is the friend you have had the longest? That I am properly friends with still, Chloe.

30. Favourite smell? Ummmm?

31. What/who inspires you? People who achieve interesting things.

32. What are you afraid of? Nothing that I can immediately think of.

33. Hamburgers? Nope, I’m vegetarian.

34. Favourite car? I’d like a convertible Mercedes.

36. Number of keys on your key ring? Three for my flat, but car key, office key and two bike lock keys lurk in my bag too.

37. How many years at your current job? Ten and a half – gulp.

38. Favourite day of the week? Saturday.

39. How many states have you lived in? None! But three different UK cities.

40. What’s your dream job? Singing or teaching yoga I suppose!

So, would it be mad if I got up at 5.00 tomorrow to get to the shala early? I honestly don’t want to do it, but I want to practice, I don’t want to wait and I have a client coming in in the morning so just can’t risk being late into the office….

I think I am officially crazy….

I can tell this post isn’t going to be much about yoga. I have been stuck doing an awful case all day, with a deadline today. I also absolutely had to make an appointment at 4.25 so had to take a half hour trip across town, then back to the office. I managed to get the work done in a three hour stint between 6 and 9pm. I went down to fax out the 57 pages of masterpiece and found both fax machines on the blink. Our receptionist has been away today and nobody had tended to them all day so there were hundreds of pages of faxes trying to get through, meaning I couldn’t even send mine until the incoming faxes were printed. Now I find out that only one of the faxes had a working paper tray, so keep having to swap from one to the other.

Practice was good, I woke up at 4.30 and after about 20 minutes of trying to sleep, I got up. I am glad I went to the shala a bit earlier as the place was heaving. I did get queue jumped into the main room, but it doesn’t matter that much considering I at least had a place to practice.

Right, now the faxes seem to have finally cleared. It has only been half an hour of waiting!

OFF HOME 9.30pm

I had a lovely practice this morning, really fun! I was right that 7.30 would be quiet; the early starters have all finished their primary, and the next batch are yet to arrive.

Being an hour and a half later really makes a difference in the temperature and humidity of the shala. I felt quite hot and sticky, which was a bit unpleasant. When the guy next to me was doing uttitha hasta pandangustasana he actually dripped sweat on me… urgh… although I was very yogic and ignored it. More amusingly, the bloke on the other side of me broke wind rather loudly, he actually seemed to have stopped to sit still for a second, perhaps thinking he might let it out silently; he, H and I had a good giggle about it!

I had one of my claustrophobic moments today, most days I couldn’t tell you who I practised next to, male of female, but today I really felt the male energy having men either side and in front of me. It puzzles me that some days I am totally unaware and other days it really effects me. I can’t even say if I always notice it, perhaps I was surrounded my men yesterday and it didn’t cross my mind….

My respite from drop backs was only temporary. As I was finishing today H tapped me on the leg and said that I would have to start doing them again. Boo… no like

I managed to do 5 practices this week too – I am happy about that. I don’t think I can make Sunday though as I have rehearsal again….

I don’t like factors that I can’t control, like buses. All of the other aspects of getting to yoga are constant and reasonably under my control. Anyway, I waited for far too long for a bus today and was lucky or maybe unlucky enough to get the very last space in the finishing room. Although I am happy to be able to practice at AYL at all, I find doing most of my practice in the finishing room rather unsatisfying. I finally got a spot at Mari D, but felt rather excluded from the energy in the main room. It’s rather like arriving late at a party and finding everyone is already drunk!

On the plus side, the shala was quite quiet when I left at 7.30, so I might do a late start at work tomorrow and practice at 7.30 instead, I could do with a lie in too! Sods law says I’ll get there at 7.30 tomorrow and there will be a queue… it shouldn’t be too bad though, being Friday.