I’m really not keen on the upside down poses (‘inversions’ is the proper term) that we have to do at yoga. I don’t like the blood rush to my head which eventually makes me feel quite dizzy and sometimes nauseous. We do hand stands, head stands, shoulder stands, forearm stands and sometimes hand upside down from ropes. In the advanced class we seem to do quite long headstands however the teacher noticed I haven’t really been taking part the last few weeks so said I could hang upside down instead for less strain on my neck. That’s not really the problem but I took up his offer anyway. It’s actually quite relaxing and you can feel it’s good for your back but I can only do it for a minute or so, not 5 minutes like others can.
I finally asked the other day what the point of all the upside down stuff was – what’s the benefit of all the discomfort on my part. Seems it’s an ‘opposite process’ i.e. you’re always on your feet and it’s good for the soul to take an opposite view of the world now and then. And physically, with your feet above your head it forces new blood from your heart to be pumped to your brain, which is a good thing. Flushes out toxins and exercises blood vessels by forcing your blood to flow a different way.
These are good things for me, so I’ll approach it with a different feeling now, one of ‘this is good for me’ instead of dread!
I didn’t realise The Avon Lady was still going strong! A few days ago we got home to find an Avon catalogue in our mailbox – first time since living in the building. Perhaps we’ve been saved from these type of catalogues over the last few years in the same way we’ve avoided trick-or-treating kids – apartment building glass doors with a security pad are a great deterrent!
However it seems one of our new neighbours is an Avon Lady. I perused the catalogue and it was nothing like I expected. I thought The Avon Lady sold make-up, hand cream, floral smelling body wash and such. However in this catalogue there is a range of stuff – Christmas brooches with ‘precious’ stones, ‘slide and glide’ all-in-one plastic scissor apparatus, angels and fairies book, strange African lady statue, Noisy Surprise Thomas & Friends push-button book, jandals, watches, sundresses – however, still the hand cream for $2.49, pot pouri spray and foot deodorant. What a world of discovery!
Oh, I’ve just looked at their site, http://www.avon.co.nz, perhaps it was a Christmas special catalogue because the one online seems to be more like what I expected. Just make-up and stuff.
Since I’ve moved up to the more advanced class, our teacher kindly sends out an email reminder each Wednesday for the class the next evening. I guess now that he’s operating on a month to month basis he has to do what he can to keep attendance up.
Lately in his emails he’s started putting in little ditties, proverbs, interesting bits so I might keep them. They make me smile. Here are the ones from the last couple of weeks.
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What on earth do vegetarian meatballs have in them?
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A short selection from the recently announced IgNobel prizes:
The physics prize went to a study of why pregnant women don’t tip over. Usually.
The chemistry prize was awarded to scientists who turned tequila into diamonds.
The veterinary medicine prize was given for finding that cows that have names make more milk than those who remain anonymous.
The medicine prize went to a physician who, for fifty years, cracked the knuckles on only his left hand to test his mother’s contention that knuckle-cracking causes arthritis. His conclusion: mother was wrong, although his study was self-controlled and not blinded.
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When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing that you say to yourself?
Pooh’s answer: What’s for breakfast?
Piglet’s answer: I wonder what exciting thing is happening today?
Pooh’s riposte : It’s the same thing.
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I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
I’ve long thought that I’d like to be a person who always has champagne in the house. A couple of years ago we managed to stockpile to an impressive 18-bottle high when an unexpected box arrived but now the racks and fridge are bare. Oh if only we were rich enough to make popping a couple of bottles into the trolley (cart for my American friends) part of the normal weekly visit to the supermarket, but alas, that is just a dream.
So I will graciously accept bottles as gifts. Any size, any Champagne house. The tiny Piccolo and larger 375ml bottles taste just as delicious and are often more useful, thereby offering a range of price points!
So it’s been 6 months without or with low salt and am gradually, well actually sometimes head first, getting it back into my diet.
What I’ve missed:
pizza
potato chips (haven’t actually had any yet)
(close your eyes Steph) pancetta fat
mashed potatoes with salt on them
parmesan cheese
Won’t say peanut butter, as the low salt organic stuff we found is pretty good
So the good news is I don’t have anything nasty lurking in my head (physically that is!) but there’s probably too much stress and anxiety rattling around in there. Amazing how emotional ‘conditions’ can manifest themselves so physically. Might have to make some big changes next year … as I type this I know I won’t!
I love the little tie-up place for dogs at Moore Wilson’s ‘Canine Parking’ – and there’s always a couple of pooches sharing the hooks and looking starved for attention. Which of course everyone gives them.
City Gallery is opening this weekend after being closed for 9 months for earthquake strengthening. Nikau was run off their feet today with people around for this and the WOW Awards – World of Wearable Arts. The Gallery is decked out in spots for the occasion.
More coverage from the NZ Internet Industry Awards that we appeared as as Xero’s celebrity couple is on the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation website. The photo of us as the glam couple, but also a video of The Mister’s acceptance speech for Xero’s award. Isn’t he great? (click image to play)
Found an awesome spot on a rock beside the runway today to watch planes and feel the rush as they took off, especially the 737’s. I managed to get high enough to feel like I was eye-level with the windows as they began their roaring run-up to lift-off.
In the wind and spur of the moment before lift-off I just can’t help waving, just to the plane really, never mind the people on it who probably think I’m a 5-year old trapped in a 30+/-40 woman’s body, however The Mister was on one of them today and he reported from Auckland that’d he’d seen me waving to HIM 🙂
And if you’re the people that tooted and waved at me from a white car (some kind of Toyota I think) I’m sorry if I should’ve recognised you and given you more than a confused ‘who me?’ wave back. Actually I rarely get over to that side of town so went for a walk along Lyall Bay, and the small villiage that Wellington is had turned everyone out for some air – I saw those ‘friends’ from the white car, bumped into other friends and we walked together for a while, the Xero car drove by and another car carrying a couple more friends.
Another reason not to park under a tree, apart from avoiding bird poop, is to avoid it being used as a stage for a pigeon to lord it about over the other pigeons pecking around on the ground, and in fact humans. We practically came eye to eye and you could tell he was pumped to be in such a staring contest although as The Mister pointed out he probably wasn’t staring at me given that his eyes are on the side of his head – probably the person standing next to me! Hopefully whoever owns this car doesn’t come back to a whole lot of pigeon claw scratches on the roof from his strutting about.
