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.
7 comments:
Hi,
Good to see you get out and about. For Chatsworth try putting in Baslow,Derbyshire in the sat nav its only about a mile from there and should be sign posted. From Stockport its heading out on the A6 towards Buxton and Chapel en le Frith. Which is also the nicer part of the Peak district than the bit around Manchester and Yorkshire. The nicest part is the area known as High Peak which includes the pretty village of Castleton, which is close to Mam Tor and Dovedale.
This sounds a bit like a tour guide but if you like the peak district you absolutely must checkout the lake district which is prettier more mountainous and less bleak than the peak district - its about 1.5 to 2.5 hr drive north of Manchester (depending on which parts of the lakes you are going to) straight up the m6. I recommend getting away for a weekend and staying near Grassmere or Ambleside in the south lakes area or Keswick in the North lakes - if you get of the motorway its also a lovely drive between Windemere up to Keswick via ambleside (though not as quick as smaller roads).
The other thing is you wont see any litter in the lakes (or I hope not!). I agree with your other post about us Brits and dropping litter - have you ever read the American author Bill Bryson's view on it and how he became president of the campaign to protect rural england as a result of our shameful ways?
John, Macclesfield
John -
Thanks for the great tips on the Peak District! I will be sure to report back.
And yes, the Lake District is on my agenda. I have two sisters coming out in May; we will be doing all kinds of roadtrips. Cannot wait.
I know who Bill Bryson is, but have not read his stuff. But I am now inspired to do so. It really is a shame, because this country is soooo beautiful. I don't understand this filthy habit.
Oh and one more thing on the sat nav. Totally agree with you on getting off the motorway - thankfully the sat nav has that option! Much more fun to go a bit slower and I can practice driving on the incredibly narrow roads. We've also been known to stop for snapping pic's of sheep, flowers, or whatever we find interesting.
Nor do I understand the littering - we have two young sons that we've always taught to pickup after themselves and not to drop litter, yet the other day we were in the car and some very expensive BMW was coming the opposite way and the driver threw what looked like a used McDonalds bag out of the window. What got me was the driver also had a young child in the car - I mean what sort of example is that .... he properly didn't want to mess up the no doubt well manicured inside of the car!!!
Brilliant on getting out and about makes a refreshing change for foreign visitors to see that there are places to go outside of London (not that there anything wrong in going to London!) - hope you have a great time .... staying on the tourist guide bit if you go for a long weekend and take in the lakes you could then carry on north for a couple more hours and turn left and get to Edinburgh. I work there quite often and its probably my favourite city in the UK (which is quite something to admit as and Englishman with the old Scots English rivalry!!). Just avoid the fringe festival time in August unless you are lucky enough to get somewhere to stay when it is on. I always think Edinburgh is good place to go at Christmas time.
p.s. glad you decided to support the blue half of Manchester football - my wife and I will be trying to get tickets to the final but I doubt we will be lucky!
John
Thank you so much for all the great travel tips! I do love London, but I'm very much a country girl at heart. After all I grew up on a big farm in Iowa! My sisters are so excited to visit. I definitely have Edinburgh on our list of places and I like the suggestion of staying in the Lakes and then up and over. We'll probably just do one day in London - there's too many other great places to see.
You've got me reading the CPRE web site. Lots of great activity which is good to see; I want to better understand the laws here. I just can't think of anything more stupid than littering. Seriously.
Like my India cricket friends like to say - Bleed Blue!!! Works for us too.
Iowa -that's something else you have in common with Bill Bryson. Reading your other posts I presume you are a vegetarian which must be somewhat of a rarity for someone brought up on a farm!
John
Love it - another fellow Iowan!
Oh and I ate meat growing up as a kid; I don't think I had a choice. But I so looooved all the animals. Once I left home and realized I had a choice I stopped.
Driving around England and seeing all the cute sheep and their babies I just can not imagine having one for dinner.
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