Moon Day What Day?

According to the ashtanga.com moon day page, Saturday was the moon day.

According to some people's moon phases apps, Friday was the moon day.

So there was a bit of confusion in the twittershala whether to follow Friday or Saturday as the Moon day. This was a twitter-conversation that took place on Friday.


My moon phases app said Saturday was the moon day, and since the ashtanga.com site said so too, that was good enough for me that Saturday should be observed as the moon day. I follow rules, remember?

BUT... Even with the double-confirmation, I STILL PRACTICED ON SATURDAY!

Haha. I think a bunch of us #rogueashtangis did.

I remember in Sydney, if the moon day fell on a Saturday, my teacher would still take either the day before or after as the moon day. She called it a "teacher's holiday". HAHAHA.

Everyone needs a break every other week, right?

So, interestingly... According to the ashtanga.com moon day dates (and my moon phases app) - the next few moon days will be on Saturday again.

I'm curious to see - How are you or your shala observing the Saturday moon days?

RAIN-SUIT UPDATE: I went to another cheap-charlie joint to look for one, and again they only had "L/XL" sizes available. I think the Universe is really telling me an ugly poncho is NOT the way forward. I might just *have* to buy that Nike rain-jacket I just spotted. (No, this does not de-rail my plan to finally visit the Mon-Wed-Fri shala tomorrow morning. I hope.)

MYSORE UPDATE: KPJAYI just emailed me again saying they've just put up an online registration form and may I please re-submit my application AGAIN for 2011. So I just did. FINALLY! They've hit the 21st century! ...and between the number of applications I've had to deal with between them and the Embassy, I'm really learning a lesson in patience here. :p

Oh and - have you seen KPJAYI's pretty new website? :) (They've added a moon app on their site, and on their shala schedule, it looks like they're also observing the Fridays as their moon days.) Hmm...

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Eenee-Meenee-Mynee-Moh Visa + Final Bike Look

So on Friday last week, I made my way to the Indian Embassy. I think I've just about recovered from the experience and now ready to write about it! HAHAHAHA!

It was a really lovely 1-hour train ride out to The Hague, or Den Haag, as it's called in Dutch. If you follow me on Twitter, you would've gotten blow-by-blow accounts of my trip there.

Here's a quick recap...
On the empty train (after rush hour)


Passing through Dutch countryside (with real cows and sheep!)


The tree-lined streets in Den Haag:


My Holy Grail (Thank you, Google Maps!):


So... Remember how I was bitching about consular hours for visa application were only between 10am - 12pm? And blahblahblah... what do these people do the rest of the day, drink coffee all day?!

Well... I take it all back now. I was a complete judgmental twat when I said all of that. If I worked behind the consular desk of the Indian Embassy in The Hague, I would probably become The Incredible Hulk, roaring in anger at all the pushy, idiotic people who are there to apply for visas or renew their passports. There must have been about 100 people crowding the tiny room, with 2 small counters with ONE person sat behind each.

The lady behind the counter was a TRUE YOGI. You could see she was completely frazzled and frayed at the ends a little bit by all the SAME QUESTIONS everyone had for her ("Local Dutch? Apply for your tourist visa through Visumdienst." "...Yes, that's outsourced now." ..."Ma'am, if you read the brochure, you can also see there's another company in Amsterdam you can apply through." ..."No, we. don't. do. tourist. visas. for. dutch. people. here. anymore." ..."JUST. READ. THE. BROCHURE.") At no point did she snap under that kind of pressure from pushy people who were all about the ME! ME! ME!

It didn't seem like there was some kind of system at first - people sitting down/ standing around every which way. You had to elbow your way to get in and then figure out if there was some kind of queueing system. Turns out they've gone "high tech". You take a number from a ticket counter, and watch the digital counter overhead. Even within this "system", there was no system.

There were TWO counters - one with the number "57" on it, and the other with "79" on it. Every time the counter buzzed up to the next one, BOTH counters would click up to the next number.

My ticket said "80" so I thought "BINGO!" I'm next in line.

HA! Fat hope. Apparently there was a glitch in the matrix. Both counters click up at the same time, but really only the counter with "57" on it was the one that was working (You find out by becoming chatty with the people around you). Within the first hour, the counter clicked from 57 to 61. ARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! You know patience is not my virtue... so thank goodness I could play games on my iPhone4. I had 4 scrabble games on the go with friends in Australia and Singapore. Heh.

Long story short: When I got to the counter and explained my story, even the Patient Lady at the counter said "Once you hand in your application, if we need more documents from you, we will call you to let you know, then you can come back with them only AFTER we've contacted you. Please do NOT call us until we've called you. It can take 1 to 2 weeks."

I said "Can't I post the outstanding documents once you've decided what you else you need from me?"

She said (tersely) "No Ma'am, as I said before: You have to come back in person."

That was my cue to just SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN. Move along now lady, while we're all still *nice* to each other.

So I have no idea if what I handed into them is good enough... And the saga continues while we play the waiting game now.

Just so you know, this is what I brought with me:
1. Passport (DUH. She took a copy so I got the passport back. Ain't no way was I gonna leave it there!!)
2. Letter from KPJAYI (confirming that you are a student there and also requesting the Embassy to issue you with either a student visa or a yoga visa).
3. Letter from my office (confirming that I have a fulltime job here - detailing what my company does and what my job function is. This is so India doesn't think you're going there to look for a job.)
4. I had a salary statement with me too, just in case... But... she didn't ask for it, so I didn't hand it over. (Maybe this will be their Part 2 document request from me)

And I paid €33 in cash (No debit-PIN machine there, sorry!) ...This is cheaper than a tourist visa (€50) and also cheaper than a student visa (€99).

So... now I'm really confused what kind of visa this is that I've applied for. On my form - I requested for "yoga visa/ student visa", so let's see what I come back with!

Now... One of my friends currently in Mysore says that people who came on student visas had hassles getting registered with the Police Commissioner .. and some people couldn't even get student visas .. so some people are there on tourist visas. Both seem to work... But for NOW only. Who knows when they'll change the system again and start cracking down if some higher power decides to get a bee in their bonnet about something else again.

It's all so very unsettling, innit? I still have no idea what I'm applying for and whether or not I'll run into even more problems later on arrival in Mysore!

WELCOME TO INDIA!!!

The visa saga continues...
(Hey LiAsh: What's your visa story?) :)

On the bicycle front, my white wicker basket arrived! YAY!!! But I didn't like the elastic ties it came with, and since I discovered a ribbon shop near me, I changed the ribbons on the front.


This place would be Liz's heaven! (top to toe ribbons and curtain-hanging-thingamajigs)


And this is the final look:


People in my office have said "Very Nice!" ...And are also taking bets that she will be stolen again within 3 weeks.

FUCKERS!!!!
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Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Today would have been the day I'd be leaving Cape Town for Mysore, to start a 2-month practice at KPJAYI. Instead, I'm in London, sat in a dark telecine room grading pictures, checking visual effects and getting through a multitude of revisions to be done before we deliver this TV commercial on Sunday. This spot has been 6 months in the making, the longest I have ever worked on ONE commercial.

What a difference a few months makes...

Yup, in case you forgot or are new around here... When my freelance gig in Amsterdam became a full-time job offer, part of the job terms was to continue working through the rest of the year. I wasn't able to take a fluffy 2 months off work to go to Mysore for Ashtanga and then start the full-time job contract in November as I'd requested (oh yeah, I lost a boyfriend along the way too.) BAH HUMBUG!!

HA.

It's all good, I have zero complaints here. I saw a brilliant opportunity and jumped for it. Mysore will always be there for me (unless commercialization starts to eat its way through it before I get there, just reading about the way things are panning out in the Ashtanga world since Guruji's passing. Hrmph.)

Still... even though this was a conscious decision I made, I can't help but feel a little bummed out today. :(

To top it all off, while I'm coasting through the rest of my practice, my Supta Kurmasana bind is STILL not back. What the hell is going on?! I feel like a chubby lump in the pose - Why can't my hands find each other again? Did my arms become shorter? Do I have a bigger belly roll in the way?

...So fucking frustrating.

Fucking Friday. Working through another weekend this week again.

SO. OVER. THIS.

Therapeutic Blue Underpants & Mysore Registration

Hello again from Amsterdam! (Sorry, that post title combo is still cracking me up.)

HAHAHAHA! Yes, I am back here again. Basically, at the end of the work day on Friday in London, we were told we weren't needed in the edit suite till 3 days later, Tuesday morning, the following week. So I deliberated - stay in London over the weekend or head back? Heading back to Amsterdam would've worked out cheaper for the job too (see, I am ever the Producer here)... but to be honest, I was sick and tired of staying in a soulless hotel room with windows that can't open. The thought of possibly staying sick in bed with a cold there just gave me the heeby-jeebies and I was outta there on the first flight out on Saturday morning.

I am coming to a realization about myself. Much as I love the buzz and vibe of London, I think I'm getting old coz it all just gets to be TOO MUUUUUUUCH after more than a week there! I realized this after touching down in provincial little Amsterdam... I was really glad to be in a place that had less people, zero billboards and surrounded by water all over. Boy was I glad to have flown back. :)

I think maybe I missed having my morning routine of ginger lemon tea and muesli with soy milk. You can't quite make your own breakfast in a hotel, and looking at the room service prices just makes me lose my appetite anyway. Even though it could all be expensed on the job, it just doesn't feel right to be paying so much for a simple meal. Know what I mean?

So what have I been doing the past couple of days? In between blowing my snotty nose and resting at home (ie: watching TV), I'd get my arse off the couch and go for a walkabout when I got cabin fever. I think I watched too many episodes of makeover shows like "How to look good naked" and "What not to wear" while on the couch, coz I suddenly got a bee in my bonnet about... er... my underwear.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Y'know those terrible makeover show hosts ALWAYS do that? They raid the poor Before/After Lady's wardrobe and ALWAYS, ALWAYS make fun of her grandma knickers, bras with holes and any undergarment that's short of "stylish". Not like I'm planning to take part in any makeover reality show soon, but I suddenly got panic'd about the state of the stuff that's sitting in my underwear drawer. The fact that I couldn't remember when the last time was that I'd gone bra & knicker shopping meant that it was time to TURF IT ALL OUT!

See... I HAVE been watching too many makeover shows. HAHAHA.

I contemplated taking a picture of my haul, but that would just be a wee bit too close for comfort. Nobody's allowed to picture me in my underpants.

What really struck me was the overwhelming majority of what I bought was in the colour blue. OK I confess: I didn't buy JUST underwear... got some summer tops and scarves too and EVERYTHING was some shade of blue to it. It wasn't a conscious decision at all, I just gravitated to those colours. I wonder if there's something Ayurvedic about that? ...I mean, I've got a cold and sore throat and blue is the colour of the 5th/ throat chakra. Right?

Maybe that's why I felt better after that retail therapy... I got me some colour therapy at the same time!

I've been a bad yogi. Haven't felt well enough to practice... but then come to think of it - I've been out SHOPPING?! Tsk tsk. Thing is, every time I get into a downward dog, my nose gets ultra-blocked and I can't breathe at all! And breathing through the mouth feels WEIRD. So... then what? (yes yes, I've gotta find me a neti pot.)

But in the meantime, I did the next best thing other than physically practicing yoga. I thought about practicing the yoga. Hehe. And I finally printed out the registration form for KPJAYI. And filled it up, ready to head to the post office tomorrow.

Yes folks, I am finally knuckling down and... GOING TO MYSORE!!!! For 2 months in September. WOOHOOOO!! Yes, that's TWO MONTHS. Coz I've been convinced that one month is not enough. And yes, this is also my first trip to Mysore... I figured: Go large. Heh.

Of course, I've gotta wait till they reply and tell me if they've got a place for me or not, but I finally pulled my thumb out and filled up that registration form. Not like it's a difficult form to fill, mind you. I was gobsmacked impressed at the brevity of this thing. It's just like a traditional led Primary class: brief and to the point. But I'd been stalling for a couple weeks now in filling it up coz... I dunno, maybe I'm nervous? I'm nervous to FILL UP THE FORM! HAHAHA!

Can I please confess what an absolute DORK I am? I was so excited to fill up the one-page form (with only like, 5 lines of info on it)... that I kinda messed up the spelling of my name.


Is that "M" or "N" or... am I just retarded?

So I printed out a brand new form to start over again. Coz it had to be PERFECT. Y'know, coz it would have been completely dorkier to have to use Tip-ex (or Liquid Paper) to white-out over my own name. There I go, completely over-analysing this simple one-pager that KPJAYI only uses to make their administration process easier... whoever picks up the form probably wouldn't give a toss how my name's spelt (they'd probably misspell it like everyone else anyway - Jamie)... and I've gone and stressed myself out, wasting a piece of paper in the process, making mountains out of molehills.

Hey, I'm a Mysore virgin. So shut up! I'm excited. OK?

The last thing on the bottom of the form made me laugh. The line says: "Please, keep this form clear of any unrelated comment."


See... there are other people who are more chronic than me, prompting a footnote just like that. It made me wonder what kind of nonsense they've received before to have included such a clause in the form. HAHA.

TA-DAH! Completed form. It's a no-brainer. Please excuse the awkward blacked-out lines. I've just realized that on this Mac I've got no Photoshop for tweaking my pictures. Ah, the irony... my PC had Photoshop Elements on it but not this Mac.

Who cares?! I'm (applying to) go to Mysore!
P.S. I'm back to London again tomorrow morning so will get to see the UK yogis again this weekend. :)

KPJ, In Da House!

*Here's where the cheezy DJ goes... "Make some noiii--iiise!"* (if there'd been a cheezy DJ in da house, that is).

Well... at least the spirit of KPJ was in da house and alive & well today. (How many "in da house"s was that again?!)

Yeah - it was the official opening of the KPJ school at Bondi Beach y'all. Yee-har!


A few people (read: strangers) came up to me today and said "Hey! It's you with that blog!" ...so now I'm thinking twice about whether I should've written that cheezy Yee-har phrase in the previous paragraph. Ugh. Or maybe I shouldn't have even written about the crazy-talk that goes on in my head during practice in all the previous posts. Double Ugh.

Thou shalt not self-censor.

Note to self: to remain anonymous, stop with the cam-whoring (too late now, innit) or suck it up and just get over yourself. It's only my internal monologue that you're all privvy to now. Dearie me.

Anyhoo... the whole school & retail store are looking GORGEOUS!! And amazing how the store apparently came together in a flash... People who drove past last night said construction was still going on late into the night and didn't look close to being done. But you couldn't even tell any of that at all this afternoon when the doors opened for all the invited guests.



A coupla drummers sat outside getting people into the mood with their awesome beats.


I dutifully carted around trays of food in an attempt at helping out - papaya salad, spring rolls, chestnut & coconut desserts and drinks. Sorry, no pix of these. Too busy to take photos!

But guess who came? ...the 2 ladies who were practicing in front of me during Sharath's 2-week workshop! YAY! Finally got a picture with them. (A & R, sorry about the lack of flash)

(One of them's decided to start a blog too. Yay! Another Ashtangi blogger. AN%, I can't find your link though, send it to me and I'll link to you here). And yeah... she's also the same person Sharath said "No coffee, no Prana" to as well. SMALL WORLD.

Guess who was the VIP guest of honour? None of us knew this before... Saraswati and her daughter, Sharmila! (Yo, that's Sharath's mama, aka the Guru's daughter, who also teaches, for all you non-Ashtangis)

Surreptitious Saraswati & Sharmila photo-taking in action...


But I took a pic for @Ashtangikali who's practiced with Saraswati before. This one's legit.

(What's weird is, because I hadn't ever met her before let alone practiced with her, I kinda felt it wouldn't be appropriate to ask to take a pic with Saraswati).

A couple of priests led the puja blessing for the school chanting a few mantras. It was quite hypnotic listening to the repetitive melodies. I looked over at Saraswati occassionally, and she was smiling and singing along at some points too. Very cute!




Guess what?!

Midway through the Puja, I saw someone scurry in with 2 takeaway coffees, leaping over people to get to the VIP bench. She was taking them to the Jois' family!

HAHAHAHAHAHA! How classic, especially after my last post?

And in her opening speech, my teacher related delightful stories of Guruji and her close ties with the Jois family. One of them was a coffee story. Hehe. Apparently Amma, Guruji's wife, used to have a pot of strong coffee ready for all the yogis to drink after practice (in the old days in the smaller shala). Apparently Amma said with a strong practice like Ashtanga, they needed strong coffee to keep up.

Heh. I like Amma already. :) :) :)

Another story was about how even though she knew the Jois' family for 20-something years, it took about 7 years before Guruji and her really connected. Apparently for 7 years, he would call her "Amy" (her name's Eileen). Even Sharath would correct him saying "no, she's Eileen". But Guruji would say "no, I know you're Amy".

She would frequently travel around India with the family, and once, Guruji insisted she came along for an opening of a temple and stay for the full 3 days of opening festivities. At the end of it, when they were back in Mysore, Guruji said to her "Amy! Where were you? Why you no come?" Teacher said... "but... I was there for the 3 days like you asked me to!" HAHAHA.

She also announced that Saraswati & Sharmila would be teaching in Monday's mysore class! YIPPEE! How blessed am I to be able to experience this so soon after Sharath's workshop?



Saraswati and Sharmila both also gave really moving speeches. They were both moved to tears when they spoke about how great it was to walk into the shala to see pictures of their father/ grandfather and mother/ grandmother on the walls, seeing how Guruji's legacy of Ashtanga Yoga is being passed on. And also that he had given his blessing for this school, another branch outside of Mysore.


Now, here's a corker for you yoga dorks. No, I mean ASHTANGADORKS.

Eileen and Mark gave a demo of the advanced series!! It's breath-taking strength in action. There was a live band playing kirtan throughout as well. I got a couple of videos, so knock yourselves out!

<






Duuuuuuuuuude. Check out their transitions. Bandha POWER.





Best part is... after the 20-minute demo, Eileen wasn't even breaking a sweat. Her face was still perfectly matte-powdered. It wasn't in the least shiny!! (?!?!!!) Mark was glistening with sweat. But I suppose it doesn't take much for an average guy to break a sweat. And with a body like that, who's complaining if it was glistening? ;p

And then she announced their line-up of teachers. Between the 8 of them, there's about 130 years of yoga experience. Aiiight.


It's no longer gonna be just Mysore only from 6-9am. It looks like there will be classes on throughout the day!


Mingling in action...



...and then someone else from my shala came up to me and said they just found my blog too. Didn't know whether to be proud or embarrassed (y'know... the "OMG! I know this lunatic! She's from my shala and I practice next to her!" moment). But can I just say... P hung out with Sharath while he was here and her husband even has Sharath's digits! (Am I a Fangirl-SharathSpotter or what? NOT.)


It was kinda cool to see everything coming together. My teacher said every new year for the past 20 years, she would write down that her vision would be to have a yoga studio in Bondi Beach with a retail outlet. It's so cool to see someone's dream become a reality. And even more fabulous being a part of it.

...And somehow I suspect we'll no longer have as much space between mats as we've had for the past couple of weeks. In an unselfish world, that's actually a pretty awesome thing.

Om Shanti.

Evolution of a Backbend (After Much Rambling)

The new shala is great. It's got a light feel to it, we're facing a balcony that has gorgeous plants and a water feature... the whole space feels like it's a lot bigger than the previous shala (coz it is!) It can now comfortably fit slightly more than 30 people, with loads of room to move around in (I'm sure if we squeezed we could get 40 - 50 mats in. But why would you wanna do that?)

BUT... I guess this is also part of the teething problems/ working out a new space issues. Today I felt like I needed to put on my sunglasses and sunscreen during practice. That would've been funny. Get my bling on.

I've been moving around, practicing in different spots of the shala, just to get a feel for the different areas. I don't like being in the center-front of the room. When the sun rises, it hits directly onto that spot where I was at today and I kept having to move my mat around, running away from the sun. (I build up a lot of internal heat already, no need to also feel my skin sizzling on top of that!) I hope they're planning on getting window blinds! (maybe the dark corners will become "my spot".) (Yes yes, I have to conquer non-attachment.)

What I like about it is there's no more separate room for the closing sequence, we just move to the back of the room after backbends. Which means that after practice, I now have the chance to look around the room and people-watch. Yes, totally illegal, but hey, I don't stay and gawk either... so it allows me to take a quick glance around the room without having to feel like I need to leave asap for the next person to take my spot.

There are a lot of "new" faces. "New" only because maybe I never noticed them before (since the shala got super packed and as explained before I had to leave immediately for the next person to take my spot)... so maybe they've always been there I just never noticed. But... I recognize a few faces from Sharath's workshop. Maybe they ARE new and came to our shala because of it.

It's kind of cool that our teacher is not charging for these first couple of weeks while they work out how the new space works. There are workmen still fixing up the showers and retail space downstairs (they start drilling whenever I get to Savasana. Ugh). There'll be an opening party next weekend which I've volunteered to help out at, so maybe I'll get a chance to show you pictures of the lovely new space!

At yesterday's practice, teacher's assistant (let's call her TA) wouldn't let me do handstands. "Not until you dropback on your own." (She's HARDCORE! Teacher had been helping me with handstands!) But yes, TA is also right. ...so today, when it came to dropbacks, TA said "OK, let's see how you're going today"... she didn't hold onto me at all while I dropped back, and at that last part as I dropped into the abyss, I felt her hands on the sides of my legs, a cue to bring more awareness to them.

And I didn't fall onto my head. Yay!

She said "You did it!" She was being kind. I know I didn't. If she hadn't been there, I would've dropped onto my head.

It's weird dropping back with less assistance - I think I'm locking my elbows coz my landing suddenly felt like rock solid concrete. Not at all soft & gentle (if I bend my elbows, I'll drop on my head!)

I dunno how many times we did this now - 3 times? 5 times? My head was spinning by the end of it. I needed her help to stand up from backbends coz she was making me turn my feet in and that's so much #%^$%!@ harder. (Dammit Feet! Stop splaying out!) So... less glutes, more quads & core! DAMMIT! ...yeah, my solo standing up from backbends have been a case of CHEATING since my feet splay out.

I will nail this. Today is just another day... by the way, this is also the 10th day in a row I've practised full Primary. While Sharath was here, we practised on the Saturdays so my last break was that last moon day. No rest for da wickid... looking forward to this Saturday!!
P.S. Check out the Kapotasana of the guy (?) in the electric-blue... um... hotpants. Yow-zer! (both the asana and the outfit)

(Photo credit here)