THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BETSY
The saga of the little blue car continues, the gentleman who drove out straight in front of me one wet afternoon hours before the Bright Ideas final s that I slowly slid into the side of him and caused my car to be declared a write off (can you believe, it has not had a crash for 15 years and then within 4 months of me owning it, it is a write off, honestly, what next) has still not admitted liability, so I am having to liaise with the insurance company to set the record straight. Why people think they can get away with being dishonest about an event is quite beyond me, especially with karma and all that!
So of course my car is not looking her best at the moment, bought from a debatable character in Devon who had about 100 cars in all manner of states littering his garden, I must admit we have not had the smoothest of relationships, not always keen to start on first ignition, and not always the smoothest of rides, backfiring (or something like that) from time to time and the petrol light flashing within days of me filling up with petrol so that I am never quite sure exactly when I am at the bottom of the tank has done nothing to help matters. And then of course the crash, at a very low speed may I add, which has cracked the front bumper and done something strange to the back seat, well none of this has helped my stress levels of late.
In fact the ongoing drama of Betsy (as I fondly named her when we first met and I was non the wiser) has been a source of much amusement to my friends and family who are too embarrassed to sit in the car with me, indeed my brother actually burst into laughter when he first saw her sitting on our driveway, and when I was away in London recently my parents actually moved her and parked her in the back driveway so that she was out of sight of the neighbours - honestly, what has happened to the world today so that we feel such a sense of vanity about the car we drive, a car is a car surely?!!!
Anyhow the saga continues so that my friend Vicki has said that she will shortly call bulk refuge to come and collect it for me! You see I am not only having problems with the insurance but I have also had problems registering it over here, not that I will bore you with the details but not helped by the fact the guy from whom I bought the car never completed the registration process properly and the car being declared a write off means that the registration certificate I need cannot be given to me without an MOT, which means that when it all got too much recently and I offered it to a lady in the UK for free (a long story, she saw it parked in the village of Chagford in the summer and asked me to let her know if I ever sold it as she has one of her own and you can no longer get parts), she turned down the offer not relishing a role in the drama that is the blue car called Betsy.
So I am still stuck with the car, waiting patiently to get the insurance and registration issues resolved before the end of the year otherwise I will have to drag my mountain bike from the garage and work out a way to cycle with 7 Yoga mats on my back and a plethora of props to add to the load until I am able to buy a second hand car from a friend who is going travelling at the end of January - and fingers crossed no new car dramas in 2010.
So of course my car is not looking her best at the moment, bought from a debatable character in Devon who had about 100 cars in all manner of states littering his garden, I must admit we have not had the smoothest of relationships, not always keen to start on first ignition, and not always the smoothest of rides, backfiring (or something like that) from time to time and the petrol light flashing within days of me filling up with petrol so that I am never quite sure exactly when I am at the bottom of the tank has done nothing to help matters. And then of course the crash, at a very low speed may I add, which has cracked the front bumper and done something strange to the back seat, well none of this has helped my stress levels of late.
In fact the ongoing drama of Betsy (as I fondly named her when we first met and I was non the wiser) has been a source of much amusement to my friends and family who are too embarrassed to sit in the car with me, indeed my brother actually burst into laughter when he first saw her sitting on our driveway, and when I was away in London recently my parents actually moved her and parked her in the back driveway so that she was out of sight of the neighbours - honestly, what has happened to the world today so that we feel such a sense of vanity about the car we drive, a car is a car surely?!!!
Anyhow the saga continues so that my friend Vicki has said that she will shortly call bulk refuge to come and collect it for me! You see I am not only having problems with the insurance but I have also had problems registering it over here, not that I will bore you with the details but not helped by the fact the guy from whom I bought the car never completed the registration process properly and the car being declared a write off means that the registration certificate I need cannot be given to me without an MOT, which means that when it all got too much recently and I offered it to a lady in the UK for free (a long story, she saw it parked in the village of Chagford in the summer and asked me to let her know if I ever sold it as she has one of her own and you can no longer get parts), she turned down the offer not relishing a role in the drama that is the blue car called Betsy.
So I am still stuck with the car, waiting patiently to get the insurance and registration issues resolved before the end of the year otherwise I will have to drag my mountain bike from the garage and work out a way to cycle with 7 Yoga mats on my back and a plethora of props to add to the load until I am able to buy a second hand car from a friend who is going travelling at the end of January - and fingers crossed no new car dramas in 2010.
On a positive note however I have learned an awful lot through this entire experience, not least to trust my intuition and embrace the concept of least effort (i.e. when things become hard work, do you really need them in your life?) but also that other drivers in Guernsey seem far more courteous to those driving UK reg cars than local drivers, never have I been flashed and waved through so many filters than I have driving Betsy, I wonder if people are scared I will just drive straight through if they don't give me the option to filter first. I have found it rather amusing, certainly encourages me to smile and enjoy the driving experience over here!
ASHTANGA-D UP!
Well I survived the 40 hour Ashtanga teacher training course in London, not an ideal location for such an intense course in terms of energy, so manic, I am rather weary tonight!
While the course may have been rather hardcore, I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to learn how to teach the primary series with adjustments from David Swenson, he is indeed a wise man. I was especially inspired by hearing him talk about his life journey yesterday, about how he discovered Yoga and the way it has shaped his life, there are parallels as I am sure there are for others, and always fascinating to hear an other's story.
Plus of course he said something about fish and water and the bigger picture in words that actually resonated for me, so if nothing else I am wholeheartedly thankful for this wisdom, image and renewed awareness.
I look forward to teaching an Ashtanga course with Vicki (who is passionate about Ashtanga) in the New Year...not long to go now...and continuing to put into practice what I have learned.
So anyhow, David, thank you, truly, I am taller and brighter than I was at the beginning of the training. Tasmai Shree Gurave Namah .
MID-WEEK TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Wow, 5 days into the intensive and I know I am not alone in feeling it - body a touch on the achy side, shoulders in particular (although that could be lugging heavy bags through London), and an overwhelming sense of tiredness at the amount of information we are absorbing each day.
The course has been great in terms of learning additional adjustment skills to the poses in the Ashtanga primary series, but I have to admit, while I will forever be indebted to the teachings and teachers of Ashtanga for initially enticing me into Yoga, I am struggling with its current intensity. Still I am sure I will soon come through the other side and will incorporate various aspects of the sequence into my daily practice again.
As abreak from the asana aspect of this week, Charles invited me to his weekly meditation class in Richmond which is led by this wonderful lady from Hong Kong who is a Tibetan Buddhist. It was all about anger and attachment, very fascinating. She made the point that we always ask other people if a partner makes us happy, but we rarely ask if we make the other person happy...and that really, happiness must come from within anyway (obviously) and so we shouldn't necessarily be looking to another to make us happy, only to increase (perhaps) our degree of happiness...
It was fascinating stuff and so in contrast to my Ashtanga experience that day, reminding me of Nepal and the emphasis of living with clear intention from the heart and compassion and patience. Furthermore I was reminded of the joy of meditating to make the mind stronger and help to transform our experience of the world as a consequence, of loving and trying to make others happy, from a place of unconditional love without expectation of return. Oh and being mindful in action and thought.
Hmm. So all in all a lovely reminder of knowing when to let go, non-action, of living in the here and now and just being present (as we are, human beings that is, opposed to doings).
Namaste
x
The course has been great in terms of learning additional adjustment skills to the poses in the Ashtanga primary series, but I have to admit, while I will forever be indebted to the teachings and teachers of Ashtanga for initially enticing me into Yoga, I am struggling with its current intensity. Still I am sure I will soon come through the other side and will incorporate various aspects of the sequence into my daily practice again.
As abreak from the asana aspect of this week, Charles invited me to his weekly meditation class in Richmond which is led by this wonderful lady from Hong Kong who is a Tibetan Buddhist. It was all about anger and attachment, very fascinating. She made the point that we always ask other people if a partner makes us happy, but we rarely ask if we make the other person happy...and that really, happiness must come from within anyway (obviously) and so we shouldn't necessarily be looking to another to make us happy, only to increase (perhaps) our degree of happiness...
It was fascinating stuff and so in contrast to my Ashtanga experience that day, reminding me of Nepal and the emphasis of living with clear intention from the heart and compassion and patience. Furthermore I was reminded of the joy of meditating to make the mind stronger and help to transform our experience of the world as a consequence, of loving and trying to make others happy, from a place of unconditional love without expectation of return. Oh and being mindful in action and thought.
Hmm. So all in all a lovely reminder of knowing when to let go, non-action, of living in the here and now and just being present (as we are, human beings that is, opposed to doings).
Namaste
x
DAVID SWENSON ASHTANGA TEACHER TRAINING INTENSIVE
We are day 2 into the 7 day David Swenson Ashtanga teacher training intensive, and so far so good. Ashtanga was the first style of Yoga I practised and while I have since ventured off down the Dynamic-Vinyasa style and more recently traditional Hatha, I am still fascinated by the Ashtanga series, in particular the choice of poses and sequencing and the effect this has on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels over the course of time.
So on the one hand it can be physically demanding, pose after pose, breath after breath, never enough time (or so it sometimes feels) to really "get" into poses, feel them perhaps in the same way that I may do in a more floaty-hanging out style of class, but today, it felt different. Perhaps becasue my mental attitude has changed - less is more, lightness, finding the most energy-efficient way to hold a pose, or at least, to play around with entering and exiting a pose to find that lightness within a pose (a map of the body to find that lightness and energy).
We have run through Surya Namaskar's and also the standing poses, taking it in turns to talk and adjust a partner through the sequence, all good fun, I am enjoying the adjustments even if many of them are too strong for a general non-Ashtanga class, but great to have the awareness in any case - especially in my own practice (I always feel it helps our empathy as teachers, and indeed guides our teaching if we have personal experience).
I stayed after the intensive today to attend a general open class at the TriYoga Centre in Soho. The class was beautiful, so soft and nurturing, incredibly feminine, all about lightness again, but working from inside out, less effort, more lightness, I could certainly feel the energy today, and left the class feeling incredibly chilled out - no mean feat in central London on the build up to Christmas, it is crazy!!!
More later.
until then, Namaste!
So on the one hand it can be physically demanding, pose after pose, breath after breath, never enough time (or so it sometimes feels) to really "get" into poses, feel them perhaps in the same way that I may do in a more floaty-hanging out style of class, but today, it felt different. Perhaps becasue my mental attitude has changed - less is more, lightness, finding the most energy-efficient way to hold a pose, or at least, to play around with entering and exiting a pose to find that lightness within a pose (a map of the body to find that lightness and energy).
We have run through Surya Namaskar's and also the standing poses, taking it in turns to talk and adjust a partner through the sequence, all good fun, I am enjoying the adjustments even if many of them are too strong for a general non-Ashtanga class, but great to have the awareness in any case - especially in my own practice (I always feel it helps our empathy as teachers, and indeed guides our teaching if we have personal experience).
I stayed after the intensive today to attend a general open class at the TriYoga Centre in Soho. The class was beautiful, so soft and nurturing, incredibly feminine, all about lightness again, but working from inside out, less effort, more lightness, I could certainly feel the energy today, and left the class feeling incredibly chilled out - no mean feat in central London on the build up to Christmas, it is crazy!!!
More later.
until then, Namaste!
606 Club
My friend Charles took me on a surprise outing on my first night in London to the 606 Club, which, according to the Sunday Times is,
“A (late night) basement club hidden behind an elusive doorway...Here young up- and coming musicians are encouraged to play alongside more established names. The good food is a must at this relaxed and informal club where musicians come to eat, drink and join in the impromptu sessions”.
I have to say it is a great place, such a cosy venue with fabulous energy and friendly staff who really went out of their way to make this such a special night out. We were blessed with Manteca Feat and Martha Acosta on vocals, a 7 piece Salsa band which is rumoured to be one of the best Salsa bands on the scene with some of the most famed Latin musicians.
Needless to say there was lots of toe tapping, clapping and smiling faces, we even managed a little Salsa dancing even if I did struggle to remember the steps. Martha was wearing this wonderfully glittering sequined top which danced rays of mutil-coloured light around the stage and was enchanting in its simplicity and served to encapsulate the energy and feeling of the whole evening. Well done guys and girls, you have something special going on with the collection of your creative energies.
It was a fantastic night, truly inspiring, so lovely to do something so completely different, so thank you to Charles for going with your intuition on this one. x