The Royal Wedding

Yes, I watched Kate wed Will on the tele and I am not ashamed to admit it!

Not much else has happened today. Sometimes it is good to have a lazy day.

Being in the moment

D and I went for an early morning walk this morning. This guy knows me too well sometimes!

I wasn't in a great mood - I don't know why, weird dreams maybe. Anyway, towards the end of our walk D pointed out to me that I was not in the moment and basically shame on me. Just to note - it WAS a gorgeous morning - clear blue sky, the birds were in full song, the river that we walk along was literally sparkling from the sun hitting it. Absolutely perfect.

So what is wrong with me?

Of course his comment put in a pissy mood. But at the same time he WAS right! I wasn't in the moment, I was thinking of work and blah, blah, blah. And then he topped it off by saying what's the point of all this yoga if you can't enjoy being in the moment? Ugh - he can be so spot on it's sickening.

I need some re-evaluation on my life priorities.

lack of focus

Struggling to stay focused at work yesterday and again today. Obviously having such an awesome four day week-end has had it's affect on me and to put it simply I need more downtime from work. Since I started this gig in September of last year I have barely taken a break. The only time off I had was over Christmas and that was spent back in Portland with D. Plus it wasn't much downtime as there was so much work dealing with moving over here to the UK.

So after seven months with everyone moved over, D, Mooshi, and Juju I finally was able to relax. The four days off were great - I just need more! I went home over lunch hour today and went for a short walk with D. I was complaining how I was lacking any focus at work; he laughed and just said of course, we've been having so much fun - what did I expect? I relaxed. I'm doing what I need to do at work and not much more. It's all good.

I am leaving at a decent hour so that I can do my solo yoga practice at home. I was thinking of doing the split as my teacher wants me to. But since I didn't practice yesterday I really want to do my full practice. I'll see how I feel.

Tomorrow is a full day at work - a lot to do. Kind of glad to have so many meetings - it will make me focus more. I'll take whatever help I can get.

the close of a four day week-end

Work life balance is so simple when one only works three days a week. At least I get to live that life this week. Actually, I cannot complain (well I can and generally do, but I'm in a good mood).


Last week was a four day work week,
This week is three days,
Next week is four days,
Following two weeks I'm on holiday with my sisters in town
After that I'm off to Shanghai for a week (ok - that's work).


That takes me to the end of May.


In June I will most likely head back to WHQ for work meetings; but of course will tack on some days off to be with my sister and her family. Come back and it will be July. I hear July and August weather in England is generally wet and not so nice; so am planning to explore Spain and Italy with D.


I am so incredibly fortunate.


Decided to go to yoga class tonight even though I was tired and wanted to lay on the couch and drink wine. Of course, once I was there glad I made the effort. While not a great practice, it wasn't bad. I got my shoulders touching in kurmasana. I've always been close, but with such damn long legs it's hard to get legs totally flat. Plus all those years of running doesn't help. Yasmin gave me one more pose Ardha Matsyendra. While the pose looks easy, I definitely feel it in my shoulders. And here I thought my shoulders were open - I guess there is always more opening....


After class Yasmin told me I get to split my practice. My first words were yeah! As it is I completely rush through my entire practice and it takes me just under two hours. By the time I get to the end where I should really be working hard, I'm exhausted. By splitting, I can cut out more than half of the primary series and go straight into 2nd series. This will allow me to really work on my backbends which need a much more work. Plus, I  would like to get all the foot behind head poses which would help me with supta kurmasana.


okay D needs my help with something - gotta go.


I haven't proof read - so hopefully this isn't too sloppy.

what a gorgeous land....

Over the last two days we've been exploring.
Friday morning we were up early and drove over to York for the day. Love that city and look forward to returing with my sisters. We bought some pottery from a couple at the local market there and we got to talking to them, they told us to visit the York Art Gallery as David Hockney was showing his Bigger Trees near Water. The painting is composed of 50 panels - it covers the largest wall at the museum.

WOW! truely amazing - this is a must see for anyone living or visiting England. We've always loved Hockey's work, but neither of us were aware of his time spent in North Yorkshire and his series of paintings he did. What a suprise! We watched the entire film that they were showing as well.

So, how do you top a day like that?

Yesterday, we drove over to the Peak District and had a few more wows! Thanks to J from Macclesfield we were able to navigate over to the Chatsworth area; but we actually never went to the Chatsworth house! I know, I know, but we will be back. Instead we went for a beautiful walk near Cubar and Calver area - I'll post pic's later, the rocks and cliff edges provided us some amazing views. We stopped for a much needed jolt of coffee at Ashford in the Water at a cute little tea house where she had an outside garden with chickens of course. Got home around 7:30, thankfully had some great leftovers and I was in bed reading by 9!

Need to clean up before yoga and plan today's itinerary.

off to a good start

Slept in this morning until 8! This is so unheard of. Of course, woke up at my normal 4am but just kept snoozing; so nice. I needed the sleep. Even D stayed in bed which happens maybe five times a year - the guy only sleeps like four hours a night. I decided I was going into work late this morning. I've been putting in a ton of hours lately. So we went for a nice walk in our backyard park. D made a great breakfast, eggs (I cannot be vegan here as the British eggs are seriously the tastiest!), some spelt toast covered in my current favorite of New Zealand raw honey and then heavily sprinkled with cinnamon and a big pot of tea. Some serious yum. I finally strolled into work around 10:30.

I even managed to get my critical work stuff done.

So, off to a good start.

Conference calls

I'm halfway through a two hour conference call with WHQ. So far I have said six words; three of which were "good morning everyone" (it is morning over there).

I just want to document this. Such bs.

HQ's calling...

Received an email from headquarters in Beaverton that basically said stop everything, do this and send back in 24 hours. Which for me means I have today only. So, I've cleared my calendar as much as I can and need to get after said task.

It's probably the last thing on my list that I want to do.

Now if I could just find where I put my focus? Maybe it's in the coffee shop...

Stop littering England!

This morning D & I went for an early morning walk at the park in our backyard - called the Carrs. It has a lovely river that you can walk by; the sound of the water is very meditative. Unfortunately we've both been suprised how much litter is in the river and in the park itself. Okay, it's not a ton, but still enough that you notice. We both figured it was lazy kids not throwing their trash away.

Well, this morning as we were walking; a lady came out with her little dog and he was carrying some used plastic food container that someone had left. She was telling her dog to drop it and let it go; but hey, this was a new toy to him and he was having fun. After we passed her I looked back and just happened to see her pick up the plastic container and throw it into the river!!!!  OMG - I was shocked. There was a refuse bin not five steps ahead of her. I wanted to go back and say something to her; but wasn't feeling up to a confontation. I have to say though it really pissed me off!

Maybe it's having lived in the great Pacific NW where seriously I just didn't see such carelessness. But I have noticed in the sidewalks of Wilmslow - this supposedly nice little richy town, that it's really dirty. (in fact I think I have written about it before) There's little pieces of trash everywhere - the sidewalks are not kept clean at all. I don't know what's up with the locals here;  do they not care what there surroundings are like?

Stop littering England and use your trash bins!!!

week-end rewind

Friday night-
Came home and was in a bad mood due to work. So went for a walk by myself over to the Old Mill Quarry. D had already walked for two hours and didn't want to go. It was for the best; I just wanted to clear my head anyway. Came home and wasn't feeling so great. We decided to stay in. Since I was planning to go to yoga class in the morning I didn't want to practice that night. Plus; let's face it, my ability to do home practices are pretty much non-existent. Instead I did some lazy yoga and stretched a bit. Knowing that Y would crank me into Kapo I thought I should do a little prep work; was using the blocks to help mimick the posture. Not such a great idea; although it felt okay I don't think I was warmed up enough for such a deep back bend.

Saturday morning -  (be forewarned this is a yoga practice report)
Sure enough the back felt tweaky. Practice felt fine until Kapo; and it was just too much. Y got me into it, but then wanted me to do it on my own; but my back had a different idea. Didn't happen. Yet, for whatever reason Y still gave me two new postures (in ashtanga yoga, you're teacher decides when to move you along and will add postures given your ability). So, now I am up to Bakasana. There's actually two parts to it - A and B. The A version you just press your knees into your armpits and up you go; then jump back. The B version is more challenging, as you start in downward dog and then jump into it landing on your arms - the feet are not to touch the ground (mine did). Grimly here does a beautiful version of it. Of course, by the time I got here I had already done all of first series; so energy level is beginning to wan. By the time I got to backbends after all of this; my back had said enough. I did my normal back bend routine and then Y had me scoot up so that my head was against the wall; so that my wrists would also be against the wall when coming up. Then I worked on walking my feet in and placing my chest on the wall. When it came for standing and dropping back - couldn't do it. My back said nooooooo.

Went straight to closing, but by then I had practiced for an hour and forty-five minutes and D was waiting for me. So, I rushed through closing (which I hate to do; I love the closing postures) and then I barely did my seated meditation, laid down for savasana for like three breaths. When my body really needed a good 10 minutes.

When I was changing I could already feel my left side of my lower back screaming at me. I was pissed at myself. If I were at home I could go to my naturalpath chiro and he could do his controlled force technique and put me back together. This is one of the pitfalls of living abroad and not knowing the system over here or getting good recommendations from people you trust. So instead I took a salt bath. Tried to find castor oil; but it seems no one knows what castor oil is here.

After Saturday yoga there was a little market going on in Chorlton; both D and I got some vegan paella - yummy! And then we picked up some lemon cake and a chocolate brownie. This is addition to the cakes that D had bought while waiting for me. (oink, oink). We then set off for a drive. I had wanted to drive over to Chatsworth house - but I couldn't bring it up on my sat nav. So we just set off to somewhere over in the Peak District. Unfortunately, my back was killing me plus I felt like crap. So, when we hit Bolton and spotted a Waitrose we stopped to get me some allergy medicine. I took it and it did nothing! What I thought was allergies was indeed a cold. We found a spot for coffee - chamomile tea for me and we enjoyed our cakes (we only ate two!). Then we headed back home.

D got me some cold medicine and we stayed in Saturday night. We watched Manchester City beat Man United! Of course, working at Umbro here I was going for Man City. However, that doesn't really matter since I really work for Nike and Nike owns Umbro. But hey, I guess I felt something for the local team. D made me my yummy raw salad of carrots, red cabbage, onion, avocada and some lettuce - it was delicious!

Sunday -
Breakfast was a giant pot of tea with toast; I top mine with butter, honey and then heavily sprinkled with cinnmamon. I devoured two slices. It was 6:30am; so after food I was tired and laid on the couch - watched the London marathon. By about 10 I was ready to get out of the house. We did our walk over to the Quarry Mill and into the Northern Woods; the walk was cut short as I was getting hungry - it was 1:00. Came home and D made a giant salad. We both wanted back out (it was sunny!) so after a drive around going nowhere we ended up driving into Manchester. Had a nice walk about, picked up some soup bowls and decided to eat Thai food. It should be noted that I parked somewhere incorrectly and ended up getting my first parking ticket! £35.00. Oh well.

Last night was low key - laundry, organizing the spare bedroom and then off to bed.

All in all, it was a good week-end considering my back and having a cold. I feel slightly better today; I can tell the worst is behind me. Hopefully I'll be back to normal in a couple of days.

I really need a break from work. I'm burnt out.

must be allergies

At least that's what I'm sticking with. As long as I tell myself it's allergies and not a cold I don't really consider myself sick.

Somehow managed to eek out my yoga practice last night. It wasn't very pretty but at least I did it. Something is definitely going on with my back. I like to think in a good way - things are shifting and moving around.

I have to focus here at work and get the rest of this China RFI out.

Allergies or head cold?

UGH!

Monday night I started feeling like I was coming down with something; felt it in yoga class. Chose to ignore it. Tuesday early AM like 3ish could barely swallow; throat was sore. D made me a cup of tea with a big dallup of Manuka honey - went back to sleep. Wednesday woke up with a killer headache and just not feeling well. So for the first time in this gig I took a sick day; which for me translates to working from home. So glad I did, by end of day felt much better. This morning came into work. Was fine, but am feeling really exhuasted now and just want to go home and take a nap.

I just need to hold on until 3:30 when I will have finished last critical meeting. Rest of meetings for the day I can put off - there with WHQ anyway. I can call into one meeting late in the day. Rest and then go to yoga - I don't want to miss another day. Already skipped the last two days. I wasn't planning on skipping last night, but ended up putting together D's desk.

We decided just to go with a cheapo desk for our time here. Went to Staples, picked out a decent looking desk, once home D unpacked and carried all the various parts upstairs. Of course none of the parts were labeled and the directions completely sucked. Somehow I managed to stay calm and we put the desk together with relative ease. For some reason I'm pretty good at things like this. I figured out all the pieces and slowly each portion of the desk emerged. Nice!

okay - gotta get back to work.

Great wall of Chester

We drove over to Chester this afternoon. Not really knowing anything about it; but I do remember someone telling me I should go there.

What a nice suprise!

First, the drive there was awesome. Definitely staying off the main motorways is the way to go. We took A51 or is that M51? Such a nice scenic route. We plugged  in the Chester Castle as our destination point for the sat nav. We were almost there when D say part of town that he wanted to stop so we parked the car and set off exploring. What a history this city has. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_city_walls

Sitting on part of the old city wall.

The town is really cute. Being Sunday late afternoon most of the shops were closed. But the sun was out and we enjoyed walking around. Definitely will be back.

English country side

Finally after living here for six months we finally took our first journey to the English countryside. The key word is WE.

Simply put it was a fantastic Saturday. D was up early and made French toast - yum! Cleaned the house together, went and got his UK cell phone, and then off to my yoga class. After yoga we stopped off at Unicorn to pick up some food for the road trip. I have learned my lesson not to travel with some food that I like. We were off to the Peak District. I really had no idea where to go so we just drove. Sometimes it's good not toto have a final destination. We ended up in a small town called Dewsberry, which did not feel like an English village at all. Here's why:

It was a community of people from Kashmir, complete with their own bazaar. As we walked through the town it didn't feel as if we were in England at all. It was a great suprise and we enjoyed walking around and people watching.

After a cup of tea and coffee we took off again.

We changed the sat nav for the return drive home so that we were not on the motorway. This turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. At one point we stopped off and went for a short walk and took some pic's. What a gorgeous day.

Cannot wait for our next outing!

MIA

It's been a week since my last post, jeesh what have I been up to?

Well for starters D arrived last Saturday! So, incrediblly happy - I don't even know what else to say. We spent the week-end hanging on each other. Was hard to believe that he was here for good and not just for a week or two and then going back to the states.

Wednesday I had my birthday. Which I my age is not a big deal - I worked (at least I had a good day) came home and D had lavendar roses for me and cute box of grape hyacinths just about to bloom. I love that my birthday is in early spring - my favorite season.

The weather has been gorgeous here - so sunny and warm. I thought England was gray and rainy. What's going on here?

Trying to figure out what to do this week-end. Want to get out to the country for a nice walk. Thinking of driving over to the Peak district for the afternoon. Frankly I don't really care what we do.