Sunday, May 9, 2010

Upside Down Practice Times + Giromania!

My practice times have done an about-turn. Maybe it's coz I'm now in the Northern hemisphere, after having spent the last 3 years in the Southern hemisphere in Sydney and Cape Town. HAHA. NOT.

What I mean is - I seem to be practicing in the afternoons and evenings these days, rather than at the crack of dawn that I got so used to. I used to think "there's NO WAY I could practice any other time than at the crack of dawn anymore!" ...and look at me now, eating those words.

In the past week since I've been trying to get my ashtanga practice back up to speed again, I've just come home from work and done evening practices. This morning, since it's Sunday, I thought I might as well do a nice and leisurely early morning practice.

No such luck.

Monkey mind to the max. It was really unusual coz isn't your mind supposed to be less busy early in the day? ...I got up to Pada Hastasana only and jumped right off the mat after that. I couldn't concentrate AT ALL. The body felt so stiff and sloth-like... Hmm, I'd had about 9 hours sleep, maybe those comments on Susan's blog about more sleep making you less bendy have a point.

So later in the afternoon, I decided to go for Round 2 of my practice and what do you know... everything fell into place! Quiet mind, supple body... got through all of Primary without a hitch. Except for Marichyasana D - I've been trying to work both sit bones down on the floor, like Cary at YP had adjusted me in... taking the Mari D a little further. Sometimes I'm anchored on both sit bones only on the left side, but most times, I end up rolling around on the mat and having a good laugh. I'm blaming my rotated pelvis. Ha.

On the Amsterdam front, I decided to go watch Iron Man 2 at the cinema yesterday. The only time I go to the movies on my own is usually when I'm watching a chick-flick or a rom-com (they're kinda sorta almost similar innit). But over here, I'm Billy-no-mates... or how does that phrase go again? Johnny-no-mates? Billy-no-mates? Whatever... I had no friends to go watch a movie with, so I went anyway.

IRON MAN 2 SUCKS.

Sorry Rob. I love you and you're hot, but this in no way matched up to Part 1.

I had to fight my way to get to the theater though, coz the roads were all closed up. There were people cheering at what looked like cars with bike racks on the top whizzing past every other minute or so. Or from what I could see amidst the crowds, that is. It took me 15 minutes to cross the road via an overhead pedestrian bridge, and it was only then from the high vantage point that I realized what was going on.


It was the start of Giro d'Italia, the cross-country bike race!


I have a confession to make. All month, I've seen the huge banners all over town that said "Giro d'Italia!" or "Giro Mania!" and just assumed that it was for a food festival. HAHAHA! I mean... Giros... kinda sorta sounds like Gyros... y'know, those wraps? I mean, even its nondescript logo conjures up images of food more than a Tour de France rip-off. No?


On top of the bridge, I finally saw that it wasn't just the cars with bike racks on top whizzing past. Those cars were actually following behind the bikes in the actual marathon! Check out the picture below - on the bottom left corner you see a guy in a blue lycra suit on his bike? And behind him is the car with bike racks.


So here's the other question... if it's an Italian bike race, why the heck is it starting in Amsterdam?!

Anyways... tomorrow morning I'm off to London for about a week. I'll get to see Kelly for the first few days, YAY! But it'll be a little bit sad too coz we'll be attending another Memorial for his dad in London. After the Memorial, I'm back to work on the edit of our commercial, also in London. So... if it's a tad quiet around here, you know I'm busy.

Have a great week ahead, guys! x

2 comments:

  1. Evening practices?! You're going native!!! :-D

    I would have assumed that Giromania was about food too. Maybe they start the race in Amsterdam so they can ride back to Italy? Sorta like homing pigeons?

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  2. Haha! Glad that I'm not the only idiot in the village who thought Giromania was food-related.

    Greetings from London! I'm still working and trying to hang out with Kelly at the same time. So a little bit frazzled at both ends. I need to practice too. Arghh!

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