I went to yoga.

I have never felt so much like a wet noodle. (This is not me. This is just what I did.)

Improv Class!

I've signed myself up for an 8 week acting improvisation class! It is the follow on from the two weekends that I've done and the first class was last night. There are about 15 of us and each class is three hours long. I gather that a number of different people from The Spontaneity Shop will be teaching us. Last night we had Claire, a lovely woman from Chicago. (There were 3 American women in the group, we had some USA love.)

Because it is level 2, it means that the group has self selected to be even more awesome. Level 2 is one that you can just hang out in for as long as you want, continuing to work on skills and playing and practising. It's a class but it's also a lab, if that makes sense. I think about 50% of the group has already done level 2 at least once before. Of the two weekends that I did only three of us managed to persevere this far. You do level 1 if you're curious or want to work on breaking out of your shell or whatever. You do level 2 if you secretly love this stuff. (Oh wait. Is that just my reason? Not so secret now.)

At one point I was telling someone about the improv choir that I did this weekend, and I think was also drawing parallels between what we were doing and contact improvisation. They asked if I had had an abnormally structured childhood...

ps. Yoga brag: I hung out in a head stand today. Just 'cause, you know, I can. Whee!

Yoga Class: Bragging Again

I'm not good at this pose. I have a lot of trouble with it. Normally I can catch my ankles, and if I'm doing really well that day I can catch the outside of my feet and then hover at 60 degree angle over my legs.

But today? Today my yoga teacher turned the lights off, had us close our eyes, and just relax into the pose. Something about the environment or the prep that we had done throughout the class or just how my body was today meant that I just melted. I kept realizing that I had just a little bit more, so I would shift and...melt. It wasn't a strain or anything, I mean, definitely a stretch, but not a strain. And then I felt my bangs brushing against my knees and realized that if I just flexed my feet then I would be able to... just a little bit farther...and there! There! My forehead touched my knees and then rested there. My hands were still wrapped around my feet, not out on the floor like that guy, but the rest of it? That's what I did.

I was so excited that as we came out of pose I whispered "did you see that?!" My yoga teacher thinks it was because I wasn't trying as hard. How very Zen.

I haven't been this psyched during a yoga class since the first time I did a headstand. And this time I didn't even end up breaking my glasses!

Improvised Soup

Today was a soup day (as some days just are) and without a particular recipe in mind and quite a lot of random ingredients around I came up with some delicious deliciousness.

Ready?

A kettle of water, boiled
two stock cubes (they don't do canned broth in this country, so things are automatically saltier due to the stock cubes)
two medium carrots finely chopped
hand full of runner beans, sliced
One chicken breast thinly sliced
hand full of baby leaf spinach
two eggs
salt
pepper
Glug of chili oil
glug of sesame oil
glug of soy sauce


And tah dah! Put things in to the pot in the order they're listed. When the chicken slices turn white then you're ready to go and the chicken will still be all moist instead of tough and chewy like it will be if you let it cook for much longer.

See How I'm Posting This?

This blog entry right here- see how it has come up on your computer? Isn't that so cool?!

You may think "Oh, that's not so great. We've seen these blogs before..." and be all unimpressed. But hmmph. This blog is *special* and want to know why? Because last week our downstairs neighbors whom we had been sharing internet with abruptly moved. This means that we were abruptly without internet. Alas.

So I got online at a friend's house and ordered The Internet. Well, I ordered the modem and the router and all that jazz. And THEN, because I was feeling both all cheap and all feisty, I clicked "self install" which was 20 quid less than getting a guy in to come do it for me.


So this internet? That I am using to write this blog with? Yeah. I installed it all by myself. And it WORKS! WOo! And it was delivered in a giant red box by UPS!

Thanks. I just wanted to share.

YOGA

I love my yoga class. With a maximum of four people, it is always so intimate and filled with personal attention.

Things I have learned- I've been doing triangle poses wrong for...going on nine years now. Basically you stand with your feet apart and your arms out at shoulder height, then reach one arm out over your front foot as far as you can, fold over, and rest your hand on your knee or shin or whatever. "Rest" was where I've always gotten that wrong because I really do just support my whole body weight on my hand there and it's not so very hard. What is actually supposed to be happening, however, is that your abs are both folded and holding you up. This is so very hard. My core aches today.

The other thing I learned this week is that I LOVE and adore arm balancing postures. Okay, I knew that already, but we did a new one on Tuesday and it involved hooking a foot around one arm, blancing on your hands, and then extending the other leg back behind you. And I did it! (This is pride right here. The whole point of this post is to be all "look at how cool I am!" and brag about the types of poses that come easily to me. Notice I'm not saying anything about forward seated folds because I am rubbish at them. But arm balancing? Looks impressive as all get out and works well for me.)Also I think it is cool how well you can feel your body's weight when all of it is resting on your elbows.