PS. I got Ustrasana & Laghuvajrasana Today

I think my Teacher's just cramming as many poses in as she can before I go.

HAHAHAHAHA.

Just when I was thinking today in that last Dhanurasana after the Parsva Dhanurasanas "OH! I have some strength to lift these legs higher!" and then gave it my all, she came round and said "Next pose".

Dammit. Should've saved some energy!

Ustrasana's OK. No problems here (er... I used to practice some Bikram, remember? You do it in every single class. Heh.)

Laghuvajrasana on the other hand... can go to hell. I have found my least favourite pose EVER. (I felt like screaming out today "LAGHU YOU PIECE OF SHIT ASANA! WHY WERE YOU EVER INVENTED?!??")

When I've practiced this pose before, you walked your hands to grab your knees (like how Swenson has it in his practice manual, if I can remember correctly.) (Sorry, all my yoga books are being shipped to Cape Town right now, I only have Maehle's on me).
Kinda like this:

(Picture credit here)

So you get more of a backbend.

But today, teacher insisted on having me keep my hands on calves and bring the head further back (kinda like where Arjuna's hands are in the pic above). So it's less of a backbend, more of a leg strengthener. HOLYMOTHEROF$#&(($%@#&(*%&. My legs were burning.

I was confused how/ where the hands should go and she got annoyed and kept saying "Keep your hands where they are!" I guess I kept fiddling with my hand position then she got even more fed up and also used Guruji's phrase "BAD LADY!" as a joke while she brought my hands back to where they should be again for the umpteenth time. It cracked me up WHILE I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE POSE and then of course everything went downhill.

I can go down but I can't come up. The amount of quad & core strength this takes blows my mind.

To top it off, she made me do it AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN... I think I must've done it about 4 or 5 times. On top of this, she showed me some variations for how to practice on my own to build leg strength for the coming-up part. And then she said "Do it again".

Farkin ell.

One of her Assistants was practising next to me and she said "Giles, show her!" Poor Giles had to stop where he was to do me a private demo... Bloody hell, he made it look so easy! Grrr.

Then after class she asked when I was flying - I said tomorrow night. She said I should just practice Primary only tomorrow then. Only a "light practice" when you've got big travel ahead of you. HAHAHAHAHA. Only in the world of Ashtanga is full Primary considered a "light practice". But after today's ass-whipping, I'll be looking forward to it.

This will probably be my last post from Sydney. I've gotta be the chambermaid now and spruce up this apartment (so the landlord has no reason not to give us back our full deposit), and then I'll be tearing around town tomorrow before handing back the keys and heading off to the airport. Probably no time to write I think.

I'll be home in Singapore on Wednesday and spending a few days here before heading off to Cape Town. Will be practicing at The Yoga Shala, so more of an ass-whipping lies ahead with Teacher J!

B'bye Sydney... You've been good to me (and heckuva lot of good to my yoga practice).