Friday, November 10, 2006

do the ocean motion

A red letter day! My first swim of the season, in the crystal blue waters of Little Beach. It was even worth the two hours driving there and back and having to drag myself away from Elsa and Freya in full beach mode so I could come to work. Let's hope there will be many more days and swims just like it before another crazy year is out.
Dreaming of storybook cottages www.storybookcottages.com.au and weighing up the prospect of renovating (ie huge mortgage, stress, chaos) versus moving (ie not-quite-so-huge mortgage, stress, chaos). All weighty issues really, not to be taken lightly. But exciting, nonetheless.

Friday, November 3, 2006

in alignment

You know how some days the stars just seem to align and a spooky sort of symmetry prevails? Doesn't happen very often at all any more, but today it kind of did.
I decided to get take-away for dinner (while I'm at work) from the Hare Krishna cafe, which always makes me feel very calm and at-one-with-the-universe, especially if the lovely little monk-like man behind the counter smiles serenely at me when he asks "Pappadum?". Anyway, I digress. So there I was in the peace cafe, ordering my meal, when I saw a pamphlet about yoga classes being run in Newcastle. I am in the market for a good yoga class, having found one that was very convenient and run by a lovely 70-something-year-old lady named Shirley but then having to schedule swimming lessons for Freya on the same day, at the same time. The physiotherapist I've been seeing has recommended I return to yoga "as soon as possible". When she told me this, she gave me a concerned look that seemed to imply I might a) be completely incapacitated by back pain and general inflexibility; or b) have a nervous breakdown if I didn't heed her advice.
The very exciting thing about these new yoga classes, run by another monk-like man, is that they are on several different days and at different times (excellent for my no-routine type of life). I have not yet run this idea by my dear husband, but there seems a definite possibility I will be able to attend at least one yoga class a week! How very decadent of me.
This seems particularly decadent because I have just started an eight-week singing course, because it is something I have always wanted to know how to do properly. Apparently anyone can sing, or so the course outline says. We shall see. In the meantime, it is nice to see it as an emotional outlet, a way to be joyful, a social activity and even a two-hour reprieve from the daily grind. Of course all this is tempered with the mother guilt, the curse of selfishness, the washing that still needs folding when I get home.