So Cute & Romantic!!!

I think the guy actually works in Disney for him to organise the whole proposal

Heather Graham in Eka Pada Koundiyasana

A Happy Dog

Glad to say the little Terrier I found at Pantai Meragang, is now with a new owner.  Super, super happy she's got a new home now..................Kudos to the new owner!

Rodasana

26th Oct, 7.30 pm ...driving home and saw a terrier dog running into a beach area.  Reversed crazily backwards to catch up with it.  Friend lured it in and we brought it home. Beautiful white blackish grey terrier, 7 to 8 years old with big dreamy eyes.  Wish I could keep it but landlady says 'no'. (Landlady= Mummy dearest).  Reasoning- we have 5 dogs, 3 terrapins, 1 chicken and uncounted fishes in a pond. 

Detective Brain says dog has been either lost or abandoned for at least a few days or more. Fur is ruffled and tangled.  Bad BO.  Poor dog starved, finished 3 bowls of rice and chicken. (Got scolded later by Vet not to feed too much to a starving dog or else will create ulcer....crap!)

27th Oct 11am...drove to Vet and asked him to assessed and health check it.  Vet says no problems with health....just loads of fleas....eww, eww, eww......(need to vacuum car)  ...Paid Vet to get her groomed, washed and de-flea-ed.  Text few or more friends to help find a home for poor terrier.  Temporary solution, leave at another friend's house.  Learned from friends Animal Shelter not fully functioning....Why oh why, would anyone abandon such a beautiful dog.  Still calling dog 'baby' only.  Baby very quiet and shy.  Also gets edgy and scared when someone walks past. 

28th Oct 6am...feeling restless and can't sleep.  Got up and changed into lousy track pants and baggy shirt, went into attic and marched my ass on the threadmill.  Speed at 5.9 (short of 0.1.......my feet was finding problems with the speed already) inclination 0 .....20 mins later.........enough sweat to cover a face towel was good enough for me....got off and had a nice warm shower...........

10 am ......have decided I have road rage today.  Yoga can't cure me today, not this morning anyways. Bizarre that I'm encountering drivers cutting closely enough to cause an accident! Hormones must be up.  Wish Patanjali had a pose for anti-road rage. We could call it Rodasana.  It could be a modified version of chair pose with arms bent, at 90 degrees....

12pm .....lunch with hubby, told him it's my turn to feel 'Bruce Almighty' .  His answer was ' Meet in Le Taj, eat and relax.......

1.30pm ....Chicken Kashmiri and Spinach Rice worked the irritation and annoyance away.

Life is good again..............

Photoshoot with Hani Sham

Always Amah To Me (1918-2007)

Yesterday was my grandma's second anniversary in remembrance since her passing on October 24th 2007.  She was always a special nan to me and still is, purely because she had this amazing love for all her grandchildren and we were all treated equally in her eyes.  I love the hugs she gave me (when I was little) whenever I went over to see her, she would just cuddle me up and give me kisses on my cheeks.  Something about her is so 'Shri' in my life.  She's all the goodness and love that never ceases even when she's not around with us.  Her essence of  love is still here like the soft wind that blows softly on your skin, just like embraces from a loved one.

 

I called her 'Amah' and believe it or not, I think, because Grandma was always happy and she had this abundance of love and energy in her, her home cooked food were amazing! I loved her stir fried chicken in sweet plum soya sauce and the lovely 'Ang Gu Kueh' or nickname 'Tortoise Soft Dumpling' Cake.  There was always so much food on the table whenever we visited Amah at her house.

But really, Grandma gave me the best present ever.  My dad.  And to think I have the best of both worlds, my mum's side of  Anglican Christianity and on my dad's side, of Buddhist taoist faith.  Even then, I embrace both religions even though I was brought up as a Christian.  Purely because looking at my dad's side of the family, they are just so kind, soft spoken and light hearted.  They hardly speak ill of anyone and believe that all faiths are good.  Anyhow, what's even better is I get to celebrate the Buddhist culture as well as the Christian traditions all year round.

So, last night at my Aunt Sa Chim's house, we gathered together as a family again to pay our respect and in remembrance of Amah.  It wasn't a sad occasion, we all know Grandma had a wonderful peaceful life when she was alive, instead it was more of joyous occasion that we could all still love each other as cousins, uncles and aunties. And with Aunt Sa Chim's cooking, it just reminded us very much of Amah being with us in spirit.

The Sneezing Panda

        Yoga   Makeover  Workshop

    

Just as the title describes, this workshop will give your yoga practice a whole new makeover.  Starting from our foundation of sun salutation poses following into backbends, arm balances and inversions we will discover ways of easing into the pose with our breaths, how to deepen into each pose using our core muscles and better backbends using our heart centers to lead us through in any vinyasa.

Join us on 15^th  November at 9 am till 12 pm! It is a definitely an ‘out of class’ experience!

For more information, contact Jac at 8930886

Venue : D'Music Motion Studio, 1st Floor, Kiarong 

Fees per person $20

Experiences in Sun Salutations necessary

Freedom in Inversions & Backbends

Getting into inversions is scary for first timers.  I remembered being in awe of people who were able to do headstands and how they were able to hold the pose with ease and steadiness.  It was super scary to lift the legs off the floor the first time round in Sirsasana but in time, with practice and 300 falls, I was able to master the headstand a little better.  It was more of a triumph to practice without the wall.  But it's like you feel you can do more poses like Feathered Peacock or Scorpion.  And getting into these poses for the first time is again like getting into Sirsasana for the first time. Scary!!  It took countless falls and bruised nails to finally ease into the pose without feeling a somersault was on its way there.

But just like any poses, everything takes plenty of practice unless you were born with super elasticity in your body. I admire those who work there way through the asanas.  That shows a lot of determination and self-will.

 

 

Yesterday, a student went into headstand, and from Sirsasana, she went into half splits in headstand, followed by dropping her feet to the back of the mat into Urdhva Danurasana, while she remained on her forearms.  The transition was smooth and the back bend was amazing.  I thought to myself, it's been a while too since I haven't practice the headstand-wheel.  So, this morning, after a little jog, I decided to practice a little inversion.  Somehow attempting the transition from Sirsasasana, you can't help but be excited but scared at the same time.  But I kept calm, breathed and went into my headstand half split.....then without gripping into my pose, I released my footing to the back of my mat....YES! It felt exhilarating! The drop was little heavy but I figured in time, I probably land a little softly next time round.


I think in time, without feeling too fixed into the pose, if we release our innermost fear about falling, and with a lot of practice, we can bring more ease into our balancing poses.


" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" Confucious

Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

I enjoyed reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, but having watched the movie starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Jason Patric, I wasn't too happy with how they've made the movie out of the novel.  I guess because I have read the book, I felt the film lack the deeper emotional issues each character had in the novel.  The film had a different ending to the book.  It leaves the film with no essense to remember it by.  I just had dinner with a close friend last night, and told her I have a short term memory at the moment.  So, thinking the ending in the film can't have been right, I re-read the book's ending.  Both endings were different.  I don't know, I guess I preferred if they had stuck to the story line instead of making such a drastic change to the original ending.  Well, I would give the film a 6/10.  The book is definitely better.

Time Heals & Strengthens

Life is transforming and for me, it's time along with patience and full awareness I have been able to see the physical spiritual and emotional changes taking place.  Maybe not each day, but once in a while, I learn to realise, if I face my fear, I deal with the challenges a lot better rather than avoiding the issues.  That's the beauty of yoga, it takes years of practice to come into any pose without compromising any particular part of the body.

As a teacher, I'm still refining my asanas, finding which part of the muscles I can actively engage to maximise my full potential in each pose.  But there's a fine moment where I need to ask myself this,"Am I pushing my body beyond it's limit? To which part of my pose do I put a stop so I don't hurt myself? Do I find this  pose therapeutic for my mind and body? Who am I proving myself to? Is my ego hurting me?"

But it's amazing to see each time when I practice, my poses feels better and stronger, not because I'm pushing myself to 'get there' but rather I'm working with my breaths and the 'lines of energy' that exudes our of my body axis.  Imagination and visualisation is powerful.

I even have to admit, even after years of practice, there are times when I get aches in places where it frustrates and annoys me as a yoga teacher.  But I'm honest with myself, I try to find a 'way' to 'free' the part I find stuck.  All of us have unique bodies, different make.  I find a map to 'freedom' in my pose when I practice.  And even if I don't find the answer, I let time do the work and be my healer.  Like in life, even when someone or something else hurts me, I give myself time to calm my anger.  And when I've turned calm, I reason my hurt with love and grace.  I find my importance to find peace not only in myself but in the people around me, cause if I can't peace in others, how are we ever going to create a better world to live in, right?

Easyoga apparels in Brunei

Finally, 'easyoga' brands are now selling in Brunei at Ref Station Sports shop in Kiulap.  Look for the sports station at block A, shophouse number 9, ground floor.  I queried with whom I assume is the owner Angie Chan, and she's hoping to get next stock of yoga mats by the end of the month.  But do check her place out, she just shipped in a box of yoga apparels.  Good thing we don't have to lug the premium mats back from overseas anymore! 

A break from blogging......just for a while......

I haven't been filling the blog for a few weeks, and the truth is I feel like I'm having a mental block with blogging.  I guess my blogger 'time out' has also given 'me' time to do other things like reading books that I should have read months ago, cleaning out my oversized wardrobe, writing emails to distant friends, watching my favourite movies, e.t.c

My latest yoga news was doing Vincent Tam's workshop.

It was intense.  The flow sequences he creates in each workshop is enough to make one lose weight in just less than two days.  It was interesting to see arm balancing poses he did, it was done with poise and steadiness.  Honest truth, I ached as much as the students when the workshops were over. His inversions are not for the 'light hearted'.

Guiding Wan Ching into Handstand.

Besides sweating out in yogasanas, it was really nice to get all dressed up in an evening dress (which I haven't done do in a long, long, long time) to Pete's company annual dinner at the Empire theatre.  The table settings were nice and I was pretty impressed with the stage show performed by local talents.  Had this 6 or 7 year old kid playing the violin accompanied by Lily Chiam from Expression Music.  This kid was super talented, she was the mini version of Vanessa Mae.  In any case, I was busy stuffing my face with cakes from the buffet table.  Yup, after 6 hours of Vincent's hard core yoga, I needed sweets to boost my energy level.

 

P.S Grey's Anatomy is all tears, tears, tears for Season 6.  You really need a box of tissues for the first 3 episodes at least.  ..........sigh..........George O Malley...so unfair.....