Galfromdownunder Yoga

As you can see I'm hard at work, and practicing my yoga routine  ... (Photos below from the YogaJournal.com site) This picture was taken during my recent, oh-so-brief 5-day stay in the Bahamas, thanks to Bike Friday customer Hilge Hurford for generously inviting me to her timeshare.   My take on the Bahamas . I got caught up on plenty of reading, including fully digesting the current issue (as opposed to being 3 issues behind) of Yoga Journal, a nice, tight publication with a very long history.  I've been doing regular practice ever since putting my back out in November  at the end of my Japan trip, and it's really paid off. After some emergency chiropractic, then letting the pain subside, I went to a yoga class after 3 weeks and was amazed that 75% of the pain and stiffness had disappeared by the end of the class. Wow! Sacro-iliac joint pain is so utterly common, than when it hits we seriously worry if we've done something drastic. It just needs some rest ...

I have proof: Yoga works. It really works. Remember how I put my back out in Tokyo last month? I was crawling around like a ninety-something, unable to even put my socks on, and having to get out of bed on all fours. As you will read, it is likely I suffered sacro-iliac joint pain, that is, the spot that joins the sacrum to the pelvis got locked up from walking by favoring my right side, and the muscles on the left lower back started spasming, trying to yank my pelvis back into alignment. Here's a very good article about the sacro iliac joint pain . After some chiropractic treatment then three weeks of making excuses so I didn't have to do anything, I gingerly took myself off to a yoga class. To cut a long story short: 90 percent of the stiffness and pain miraculously vanished after that class. In my Yelp Review of the studio where I did my Yoga teacher training, Joschi Body Bodega , I reported that true to Joschi's claims, Downward Dogs do wonders to one...

Above: My mother is a big Sesame Street fan. She carries a photo of Bert and Ernie in her wallet. Shot in FAO Schwartz - where you can create a muppet of any kind but the one you're actually a fan of, due to "copyright". What's up with that? I want my own Prof. Bunsen Honeydew , the most Chinese of all the muppets! My mother celebrates 71 years on the planet today - here in "the center of the universe" (as my NY friends call it). In a week she's practically walked the entire length and breadth of Manhattan. Twice. Not surprising - she's recently done belly dancing, quigong, pilates, tapdancing and yes, poledancing with me ! Read the full montymedia about that. I wouldn't be surprised if she enrolled in breakdancing like the show we stumbled on in Central Park last Friday - c heck out my movie . My mother's hero? "TINA TURNER". She even took yoga and pilates mat classes at Joschi , where I'm currently enrolled in a 200-ho...

Picture of the moment: Speaking of bodily use-by dates (see below), this Will kit for Singles caught my eye - clever marketing, since it probably contains little more more than a Post-it note to pencil in the solitary name of the person you're leaving your stufforama to - that's right, Thou Thyself Thou! Highway robbery at $24.95 - how stupid do they think we singles are? OK, I admit I did turn it over and over and wonder exactly what it said inside ... I paused in front of a Chinese Massage/Acupuncture clinic today, and decided to go for it. I've been suffering from a bit of a stiff upper back, plus a disturbing recent development where my skull and neck make a loud "crunching" sound when I look down. It's probably everything to do with my work and play - I ride a bicycle for a living, I spend too much time laptopping, and I'm going to be 50 in 5 years' time. Despite conscientious efforts to stretch and remain flexible, poledancing classes...

A downward dog with a building up your butt? That's Yoga at Bryant's Park. When I travel I try to pretend I've been in the place I'm visiting for years. That is, rather than rush about seeing sights, I try to do normal things that I or anyone else would do at home. Like eat, sleep, work, buy groceries. I might take in a museum or show or two, but I don't run around with this great long list and a Fodor's duct-taped to my chest. In fact, I don't run around at all. I've been known to spend days indoors in the heart of a NYC summer, the MOMA, Met, Cooper Hewitt, and Century 21 clothing store beckoning, glued to my laptop. What's the fun in that, I hear you ask? In this way, I don't get so much of that 'gotta tear myself away' angst and 'get back to real life' letdown when my stay comes to an end. This *is* real life. Or as a friend put it, 'This is not a holiday, this is my life.' So my attending a free yoga class i...