Ok, I admit it. I’ve been slack.

Ok, I admit it. I’ve been slack. It’s been a month since I left India and I haven’t posted the last few stories (nor the photo of me in the SKD).

Terribly sorry folks – will get onto that this weekend. : )

I am now working in Thailand… its not as exciting as being a wannabe yogi in India but I’ve got bills to pay so it must be done. At the moment I’m scheming a trip to Bali on the way home to New Zealand (if I have enough time/money)… I might not be able to pull it off, but I REALLY hope I can!!! The idea is to spend a week working on my tan and doing yoga classes…bliss…

Ok – enough from me. I must be back to reality (work).

The pretty blue S.K.D

Oh my goodness, you will not belive what happened today.   Jennifer and I were wandering down Deveraja Road on a mission to pick up my contacts and I saw a really pretty swazzi thing (aka Salwar Kamaeze Departa or S.K.D for short) in a shop window.    I was so drawn to the S.K.D that I had to try it on.    This is amazing, I swore I’d never wear one of these things (in fact I scoffed at the idea in Sept)…  But, alsas…because it matched the earings I was wearing (it was a sign) and because it was SO pretty I just had to buy it!   

Typical… the week I leave India I finally open my mind to the possibility of the S.K.D!  

Anyway, we rocked up to bajans (chanting) and I was wearing my new contacts, the pretty bracelet I bought in varkarla, the pretty earings I bought in Rajastan and of course my brand new (also pretty) Swazi thingie (the SKD).   I personally thought it was hilarious…  Me dressed up as an Indian girl.   BUT… in defence of the S.K.D it was very comfortable and I felt pretty for the first time in months.    

So, it seems the novelty of being a smelly backpacker is wearing off, I believe I am starting to make a [slightly skewed] transition back into the western world!     

I took some photos… will upload them in a couple of days.    : )

Yoga photos

Jeanne (Charlies partner) was taking photos of Charlie during his last back bending class and took a few sneaky shots of me – she makes a great paparatzi!      It was really freaky to see myself in the back bending poses… being upside down is really disorienting so you don’t really have much of an idea what you look like!   

These are the two poses I was talking about in this blog entry.

Here are the photos [big thanks to Jeanne for taking them]:

The upwards bow

Vinnay helping me reach my feet after I bent back on my knees

The final pose... once I was there it was actually really relaxing!

Time is ticking…

Well… time is sneakily ticking a long… I only realized yesterday that I have LESS than 2 weeks left AND to make things worse (kind of) we have a moon day on Sunday which means no yoga on Sunday as well as Saturday!   Usually I would be happy about this but with only 9 yoga days (includiong today) left… I could do with the extra day!

News on the body front… Ive been noticing my muscles are coming back, it seems they went on holiday when I was traveling around the north.   My hips seem to have moved as well – this is good news (they were uneven and one was tighter than the other) but in the process I have pulled a muscle which is causing pain.    This means I cant do the full yoga series at the moment… : (    With only 9 days to go this is ‘rather annoying’.    

My reaction to the pulled muscle has been pretty good though…  possibly a sign of a more chilled out Julia?!?    Earlier when my yoga was being restricted by always feeling sick and dizzy in class I got really frustrated and angry (to the point of tears).   At the moment I am occasionally feeling annoyed that I can not practice my yoga properly, but on the whole I seem to be a lot more patient with my body.

In fact, I think generally I am a bit more chilled out than when I arrived in Mysore.  This is something my masseuse commented on the other day….he said my energy is a lot more settled than it was.   I wonder how long that will last?!?  I will have to make a real effort not to let life back in the rat race put me out of balance.    

No other news really, same old – same old.    The kid in the internet café has just cranked up some annoying sounds so I am going to go home for a big bowl of post yoga porridge!

Happy New Years!

My New Years was VERY quiet… but during the day I was thinking about everyone in NZ partying away… I was with you in spirit!    A few of the yoga people from my school went to some Bajans (chanting) but because I went to the evening back bending class I was too late to join.    There was a few parties in Mysore but I decided I didn’t really feel like partying with people I didn’t really know… so in the end I went out for dinner with a couple of people from my class, then headed home and crashed!    I woke up in time for midnight and watched the fireworks from my balcony.  While it was an unusually sober and rather solitary New Years it was a really nice one….   I felt peaceful and happy.

I have had a fantastic year in 2008 and have a really good feeling about 2009 -  it is going to be awesome, even better than 2008!

Today was a holiday – so no yoga classes.   I decided to do my own practice and for the first time I did the primary series all by myself.   I did it on the balcony in the early evening (when it was nice and cool) and it took me about 1hour 45mins (this is about right I think) – it felt like it took me 40mins though, the time went so fast!!

Other than the yoga session I haven’t done much today.  I just pottered in my little apartment….  I wrote out my recipes from cooking class, sorted out paper work, did housework and read – it was so nice just to chill out and relax.

While eating my coconut on the way to the internet café I realized that I have only got 2 weeks of this yoga lifestyle left… I’m going to enjoy every last bit of it –  I must also start taking (and posting) some photos!!!   : )