things i love thursday (5)

A special edition in honour of my return from holiday :)

* Staying in beautiful hotels with blue bathroom lights (see above).
* White fluffy robes.
* Old fashioned afternoon teas complete with little sandwiches, scones and cake.

* Finally visiting Haworth after years of meaning to. Above is the house, below is the walk down to the church through which Emily, Charlotte and Bramwell's bodies were carried - Anne was buried in Scarborough. I cried when I saw the little stool Emily sat on to write Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is my favourite all time novel.

* Sleeping and reading whenever I want.

* My new tattoo (see above). Yes, it is a possum. It's my Australian sun sign. It means I can carry a little piece of Australia with me wherever I go.
* Coming home again to two disgruntled cats.
* Sleeping in my own bed.
* Meeting Kiki for coffee.

one last thing before i quit

Off on holiday tomorrow. We're staying this hotel for the first couple of days and apart from a necessary pilgrimage to Howarth I intend to do nothing at all. Then off to Leeds and Derby for ink!

So Radio Silence until Thursday, when I will be back with an interview with Fiona Robyn in celebration of her New Book (go on, buy it, you know you want to!)

Namaste Bloggers :D

love & links

Well the cold slowly descended lung-wards over Christmas and now I am stuck with bronchitus. Hurrah, hurrah and thrice hurrah! Still I scrubbed up yesterday to go to Ma and Pa Yogini's for food and presents and to treat them to a cacaphony of coughing. This is what parents are for.

I'm loving these coloured opaque tights from M&S - apart from this green colour they have red, purple, pink, stripes, leopard skin.... and probably more. The green shoes are handmade by Ren over at Fairysteps. She's updating her shop right now, you should go and check it out. New shoes and bags for a new decade!

So how has your yoga practice been going over the long weekend? Sadly yoga and meditation are not conducive with paroxysms of coughing so my yoga over the last few days has mostly been about looking after myself and my poorly lungs. Those of you who are feeling better than me but struggling to keep up a routine over the holidays might like EcoYogini's hints and tips on DIY Holiday Yoga!

Have you chosen a word for the new year? Mine is mindfulness, I keep promising to elaborate on this and I will. Soon. In the meantime find out why Kathleen's word is courage.

It's resolution time over at Read Write Poem. I particularly like the resolution about aiming to get 12 rejection letters this year. That seems do-able!

I suspect many of you, like me, feel that there's a small chance you've eaten too much good stuff over the last couple of weeks. If you combine this with the treacherous ice we've had here and the treacherous state of my lungs, I haven't had a power walk in nearly a fortnight, and I'm feeling it. Sally over at Already Pretty gives a nice little pep-talk for all of us feeling a little out of shape.

Finally, Anna at Much Love asks three important questions about love. So here are my answers:-

1. One thing that you loved in 2009. Oh there were many things! But top of my list has to be Lyrica. Strange I know to choose prescription medication as the thing you love but my life turned around this year thanks to these little pills. I'm not saying there wasn't a lot of hard work on my part but the Lyrica certainly kick started me into being able to live the life I want in spite of my Fibromyalgia rather than merely exist in its shadow.

2. One thing you're loving at this very moment. Ooooh the smell of spicy parsnip soup which is cooking in the kitchen. Also Himself for still thinking I'm beautiful despite the cold sweat glistening on my brow from the effort of coughing!

3. One thing that you'd love to do next year. I'd love to have continued good health really. I'd also love to go to Dublin.

I'd love to know your answers to these questions dear reader. Let me know if you post them in your own blog.

I hope you all continue to have a wonderful holiday season and that none of you have to go back to work just yet!

Reasons to be Thankful

This week has been all about work, work, work so I guess I'm thankful I have a job (although I am looking forward to work being not quite so busy!)

I spent half the week in training about new Government objectives in funding for people with disabilities. So I am thankful to live a in a country where people with disability and ill health do get finanicial help and opportunity. I am also thankful for the life I have.

The rest of the week was spent putting the final touches to a fundraising art exhibition which I have organised. It's been incredibly hard work and ridiculously frustrating but watching it all come together for the grand opening yesterday was awesome!

And a couple of other little things that make me smile right now:-

• Lovefilm sending me the first season of Frasier - I had forgotten how funny it is!
• Working out holiday plans which include going to see the new nephew.
• Finally owning a vinyl player again, which means that I can dig out all my old vinyl from my parents' attic. It also means I can listen to 125mph again (which never made it onto the remastered CD for some reason - master tapes lost I presume?)
• My dad's 71st birthday today (which he always reminds me with much delight is also the anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's resignation in 1990!)
• A shot of JD over ice before bed.
• Florence and the Machine
  
• Yoga every day.

Good thoughts for a lovely new week for one and all - I have a very good week coming up! :D

Day 10 - Being in the Moment

After years of practice, it becomes relatively easy to be in the moment when you are on your mat. Each breath and each posture follow one another easily and on most days my mind stays on my practice, and the rhythms of my body.

However, when it comes to being off the mat our ability to stay in the moment depletes! How many times each day do you find yourself wishing you'd done something in your past (immediate or further back) differently? How many times do you find yourself planning for an imagined future - wishing away the now for some time when everything is bound to be better?

This was brought home to me particularly yesterday as I drove 100 miles north to Cambridge to see my parents for the Bank Holiday weekend. It being the day before the long weekend, the world and his wife were off in their cars and we had a 2 hour delay on the M25.

I spent most of this 2 hour delay either declaring how bored I was, wishing I had never left or wishing I was in Cambridge already. There probably wasn't a single point in the whole 2 hours when I allowed myself to be in the moment. Yes, the M25 isn't the nicest place on earth but I was alone with my beloved listening to some very good music. And really, that's not a bad place to be is it?

Sometimes it's important to look past the frustrations of the now and find the good parts within those frustrations. The past and future do not truly exist; all we have is right now and we need to make the most of it.

Namaste!

Day 9 - Easter Baking

This is going to be a bit of a fly-by post, and not really about yoga (unless you count eating cakes and chocolate with mindfulness a form of yoga off the mat!) as I'm off to Cambridge to see my parents in a few minutes, but I thought I'd leave you with some pictures.

Firstly, the herbs I planted yesterday:
We planted, rosemary, thyme, chives and basil (the first three need to be wrapped in plastic for the first two weeks).

Then we did a bit of Easter baking - we made chocolate cornflake nests and sheep cupcakes!

Hope everyone out there has a great Easter weekend!