I’m about off to breakfast and I’m starving today. I fell into a coma last night at 7pm Seattle time and slept for a good 12 hours. This means I missed any sort of class this morning. Oh well, I can’t say I actually feel like practice anyway, I’m still adjusting to everything.

The weather again is gorgeous! Clear blue skies outside and it looks like it’s going to be quite pleasant weather for the rest of the week. As I’ve been joking around, I think I brought Perth weather with me!

Ok, so no practice this morning, but I might get a quick session in this evening. Too bad I didn’t bring my mat (weight restrictions), but I have a spare towel I’ll use as a makeshift mat.

In the meantime, this is a photo of me (in my new hairstyle) with Seattle in the background.

and tired.

I think I look like a train hit me, I certainly feel that way. Haven’t had any proper sleep for about 24 hours now. The most I slept was 2 hours in a row. Kept waking up with knee pain and swollen feet etc etc.

We’re waiting in the lobby for our room to be prepared, my request for an early check in didn’t seem to have made it through the system, so we wait for a couple of hours before we can go up for a hot shower and a lie down.

Umm… obviously no yoga news. I did stretch a little in the toilets, but that’s not really yoga is it?

10 hours to go before we board a plane for a 10 hour flight to Tokyo, then a 9 hour flight to Seattle. Best bit of all this… I’m not even packed yet. Joy.

I’ve had to ease up/stop practice for a few days again, I re-activated that nuisance back issue of mine. The right erector spinae is completely tensed up and I have no time for a remedial massage before I go. I’ve been surviving on my massage ball, but I don’t know what I’m going to do on the plane.

My hamstrings are somewhat screaming at me too. I have to take so much care in warming them up properly. Maybe it’s good that I’m taking a break for a few days.

Well, Seattle here I come…

Many little things are bothering me in the past couple of days. Firstly, I feel a cold coming on. I’m going to be stuck on 2 long haul flights and I’m starting to feel sickish. I’m stuffing in the vitamin C rich fruit and garlic laden foods in my efforts to not get a full blown case of the cold.

The other sucky part is that I’ve just found out that there’s a mini-workshop in May during the time I’ll be away. Sugar, honey ice and tea. I was looking forward to a workshop in Perth since I seem to be never around when they’re on. Wish more teachers would venture to Perth for workshops, I know we’re only a small city, but our Ashtanga community is rather loyal! It always seems like the east coast gets all the workshops and Perth gets left out.

Enough whinging, I’m off to eat more mandarins.

Five more days to go until we make the trip to Seattle. I haven’t even had time to look up if there are any studios near by. At least we’re not homeless anymore, the hotels have finally been booked.

My back hasn’t been very friendly with me, but my hip has been much better. It feels as though the whole right side of my back and shoulder are tight or tense. It’s not painful or sore, just uncomfortable. The wounds are no longer an issue with practice, yay. I had the dermatologist appointment and I’m getting referred onto a plastic surgeon now. The appointment is in June, so another long wait to go.

Perhaps I should go for some manipulation of my back before we leave for Seattle. The thought of a long plane trip with an uncomfortable back is making me go blearck.

Yoga life has been quiet lately. It would be nice to go back to a studio to practice with others. Perhaps I’ll look into that when we’re back from our US trip.

I’ve been neglecting almost everything to do with yoga recently. Too many things happening to me recently and not enough time for anything else.

I’ve started getting interested in gardening which is taking up a lot of my time now, I’ve just come back from an overseas trip to Malaysia, and now I’m planning to head off to the US for a work conference. Gah!

I’m still practicing, but at a greatly reduced rate. I’m no where near my former flexibility level but it’s not bothering me anymore. I’m over that almost-obsessive-compulsive need to be more flexible and stronger and just enjoying my practice. It’s one of the few times in the day I get to forget everything else and enjoy something I truly love doing.

Haven’t been back to class yet. No time, no time. Haven’t even blogged much on here either! Oh well, hopefully as things settle down I’ll have a more stable practice and blog once again.

News on the scars: Saw the dermatologist who is referring me onto a plastic surgeon, that’s another 2 months wait before any sort of scar reduction treatment starts. In the meantime I’m using silicon gel, which is pretty good, but the dermatologist recommended that I go with the silicon gel patches that are meant to be more effective.

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve written here. Unfortunately my time off yoga from the accident has fostered a bad habit of lack of practice. I’m not beating myself up over it, but I do think it’s time to get back on the saddle seriously. The mat is calling…

I’ve been so busy with other things lately. I decided to do some house-y things recently to organise my life a little better. I just finished stripping the paint off an old table and repainting it a shiney, shiney glossy white. Took me about a week in all, spending one or two hours a day on it.

Right now I’m into gardening. I’ve bought myself a frangipani cutting, two asiatic lilies, lavender seeds, perennial candytuff seeds, a variety of pots, gardening tools, potting mix, perlite, mulch etc etc etc. I don’t have a yard, so all my gardening stuff is geared towards container gardening.

I’ve been trying to grow some cherry tomatoes from seeds too. I was so eager that I didn’t check when to plant them and started them in late summer instead of early spring! Oops. Well, we have fairly mild winters here, so I’m hoping for a miracle to happen and for cherry tomatoes to sprout. I started out with 7 plants, and now I’m down to 4.

I don’t even know why I’m enjoying gardening right now. It’s not as if I’m any good at it! Oh well, I guess that’s not the aim of the game here, it’s about enjoying myself in the end.

Man, this was a big tangent from yoga I hope to be doing a little practice tonight. Nothing much, maybe just sun salutations and finishing lotuses.

I actually got up at 6:30 am! Ok, so it was really 6:45 am because I spent 15 minutes debating with myself whether to get up and practice or sleep in just a bit. The good Sue won this morning and even though it was a little on the chilly side, I got dressed and yoga-ed. Mind you, I didn’t do much today because I just didn’t have it in me physically. I was sore and I was so, so, so weak.

I’ve been told not to be so hard on myself recently, not specifically in yoga, but in general. So as I was monitoring myself during this morning’s practice, I noticed how much I was struggling yet determined I was to do my practice, even though I wasn’t happy doing it. So for once I listened to my body and mind and “cut [my-]self some slack”. I did sun salutations then the three closing lotus poses and that’s it. Ok, so that’s not it, I had a bit of play-yoga after a short shavasana, just a headstand and marychi C.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the hypertonic right butt muscle is back. I’m not doing something right and it’s resurfaced again. I think it’s from over-using my butt muscle (most likely piriformis, maybe… I don’t know) but how do I figure out the culprit? I think it’s utthita hasta padangushtasana, but I can’t be sure. I haven’t done any primary series yet, just sun sals, standing and finishing so it has to be limited to asanas in those sections. I’m almost certain it’s something in the standing postures. Oh well, I guess I have to pay even more attention to my body to figure this one out.

This morning was my 3rd practice in a row. I’m going strong, well sort of. I didn’t get a chance to write about yesterday’s practice, not that there’s anything interesting to report. I did sun sals, all of standing and finishing and it took me an hour to get through it. I had to take many “breathers” and I deliberately went at a slower pace with longer breaths.

Noticable ouchie areas are hamstrings (when are they not?) and the left inner thigh. The rest of me is in it’s “usual” constant achey soreness, nothing too bad.

Since I felt quite good this morning, I repeated the same as day 2′s practice and added in paschimottanasana. The forward bend in sitting isn’t so pleasant on the hip wounds, but it doesn’t hurt, just some pressure.

Which reminds me, my favourite pose, ardha baddha padmottanasana is a killer again. Not only do I lack the strength in my legs to do it, but the foot in the hip crease plus bending forward really puts bad pressure on the wounds. Again, it doesn’t hurt, but it’s the most uncomfortable pose.

I’m doing pretty good this time around. 3 practices in 3 days, all in the mornings. I have an early 8:30 am start tomorrow, so it’s either wake up at 6:30 am to practice or sleep in til 7:45 am and practice in the evening. I’d like to keep up with the am practice, so we’ll see whether I can convince my lazy butt to get out of bed at that time.

Had my first practice since the accident. Nothing spectacular, nothing long, just sun salutations then the 3 closing lotus poses.

I had lost a lot of flexibility. Chest to thigh is far out of reach again and even sitting in lotus is a little tight around the hips. No biggie though, it’s to be expected after 1+ month of no yoga and besides, it’ll all come back in no time.

Mindfulness and respect for my body will be my focus of practice for the next few weeks. I have to keep in mind not to push my body too hard in order to achieve the level of flexibility, strength and stamina pre-accident.

It was nice to feel the moving meditation after such a long break. Depending on how the body responded to today’s quickie, I may add in standing poses tomorrow morning.