A Blinding Flash of the Bleeding Obvious

Yoga is never going to get easier.

The whole philosophy is that you do as much as you can, and then a bit more. Even if I get good enough to cross my ankles behind my neck, I'll always be trying to touch a spot that's just outside my reach.

Of course I could always make it easier by settling for what I can do already, but then I won't improve. And you know, the main reason I wanted it to get easier was so that I could feel I was improving.

An Unusual Tree

I'm getting a little more organised. Over the weekend I managed to get the last of the Christmas cards in the post and to cook industrial quantities of lentils and chicken stew, so I've got ready meals in the freezer.

Last night I managed to get to yoga. Only three students turned up, so the teacher asked what we wanted to do. I said, "Relaxation," since my head was buzzing with everything I need to get done. The other two said, "Stretching."

So of course we did stretching. But since it was rather cold, it had to be energetic stretching to warm us up. And since the other two are far more advanced than I am, a lot of it was stuff I couldn't do at all. And boy did I ache this morning!

On the other hand, it reminded me that I used to have almost that much trouble with stuff I can do now, so obviously I've made more progress than I realised. I'm now merely very bad at yoga, instead of absolutely terrible.

The Christmas decorations are up in Santa Cruz, and most of the villages too. I particularly liked this Christmas "tree" outside a shop on the main street in Santa Cruz. It's made from the dead flower stalk of an agarve plant.

More on the Gastric Flu

I'm over the worst of the stomach upset, but I still have flat batteries and occasional shivers and dizziness. I'll be giving yoga a miss tonight, although I'll probably do a little on my own, at home.

Specifically, I'll be doing the pose called Shavasana or Savasana, which means "The Corpse".


Photo: wikipedia

How to Look Ridiculous

1) Sit at your computer a lot, nibbling away until you acquire a serious case of Writer's Bottom.

2) Go to yoga.

Just visualise a very large rear end wobbling over a very fat tum, while the inelegant legs desperately try to straighten out and reach for the ceiling.

Of course if I keep up with the yoga, I'll eventually stop looking ridiculous.

New experiences

Last night I finally got to see the dancing horses (caballos fufo) during the fiesta in Tazacorte. I wanted to get photos, so I made sure I charged up the camera battery, and tookthe full kit. When I got there, I found that the horses were dancing in pretty dark streets, and that they move really fast. So I was really pleased that I'd brought along my big flash gun, the one nicknamed "the tactical nuke."

I put it onthe camera, but it wouldn't switch on.

No batteries.

*head-desk* *head-desk* *head-desk* *head-desk* !

So I went in for creative use of blur!

The photos are on my blog at http://lapalmaisland.sheilacrosby.com

The other new experience was my first ever yoga class tonight. It's much harder work than it looks! But I had a nice surprise.

Some months ago, a friend tried to teach me the yoga salutation to the sun, and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't even do it badly. My spine was too stiff, my arms too weak to lift my upper body off the ground, and my hamstrings too short. So I settled for doing a few gentle stretches a day. And for the last six weeks or so, I've been spending a couple of minutes a day lifting weights to strenghten my arms. Yesterday I noticed that I've got tiny biceps for the first time in years.

And tonight I could do the salutation to the sun! OK, I did it badly, because my hamstrings are still too short, and by the time we finished, my biceps were trembling. But I did it!