"I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Face, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from."
Same-same but not the same! :)
My last entry was Bali with the Teongs. It was wonderful as it was our 1st visit back since we spent 1 month there in 2005 for my yoga teachers training. We loved it so much in our little house in the middle of the rice padi field, we were actually going to stay on. Alas, reality set-in and we came back to Spore.
Lahu village friend, Kerod, came to visit after Bali. It was great catching up with him and eye-opening for the children. Kerod is an advocate of the simple life and is very different from most of our Spore friends; he doesn't own a mobile phone, a computer, a TV or a car! The boys were astonished that people could actually live without what at their tender age they consider necessities in life already. I wish I had more time to spend with Kerod but I was busy"sorting out my life" and only had a few short hours to spend with him each day. We did however manage to squeeze in a couple of great highlights though.
Amma, the hugging saint from Kerala, was in town so we spent the weekend queuing up for Dharshan. I can't decide how I feel about Amma; There is definitely a positive energy around her and she does a lot for the poor and needy all around the world; hospitals, orphanages, schools..... I just can't get over the hundreds of followers and minders that follow her around (90% of whom are westerners!). Are they exploiting this simple Indian woman? There is a whole industry around Amma with the sale of Amma dolls, Amma mala beads, oils, teas etc... The money all goes to a good cause but it still feels quite strange.
Another great highlight was Pulau Ubin. We took Kerod on an off-road cycling trip on a little island off the little island of Spore. The cycling was quite limited as we had Stephan with us on his tiny bike and he found the slopes abit of a challenge. That being said, he did terribly well and we managed to show Kerod something of Spore that even Sporeans don't get to see very often (Bum boats, kampong houses.....) We didn't have much time to cycle as we had to rush back to sing Bhajans with Amma. The kids were a little sceptical but they enjoyed themselves.
Well, the Ubin trip sparked off some sort of interest in mountain biking and I have actually been back twice. I love the kampong feel, exploring the trails and the yummy coconut juice. Can't decide if I should invest in a mountain bike though. Afterall, I hardly use my road bike!!!
Oh, on that note, I did a 70km ride 2 weeks ago. I have not been on the bike since, but felt pretty chuffed that I survived it. I am really quite awful on a bike. I hate slopes, have bad saddle burns, sciatica pain post rides and complain non-stop..... I wonder how my friends put up with me!!! I try to ride with a group that ride Saturday mornings 6.45am from Longhouse and they are a really nice bunch of people and soooooo very patient with me. They are now training for the 320km ride for Mersing though so I don't think I will be able to keep up. Chin and the girls ride on Sundays at 8am and do the Coastal Road and I have been meaning to go, but there has always been some excuse of other. It is just so difficult to sort out a schedule; I have to take the boys to rugby, teach yoga, go to church.....
Well, the really really big thing about the past month is that I started work (and quit within the week!) I joined Outdoor Vetnure with very good intentions. I was supposed to do marketing and they gave me the flexibility to work 8.30am - 2.30pm at the office and do catch-up time at home after. Well, it all sounded very nice on paper, but it did not work out! I felt like I was working all the time (and the office was in bloody Kaki Bukit!). It would have been great as they had many fun brands to work with (Sugoi, zoot, Running Lab, North face etc....), but getting paid peanuts and working my butt off just didn't make any sense. Anyway, I was getting massive headaches everyday. Furthermore, I wasn't spending enough time on the boys and I had this awful cancer scare the same week. We had more tests done, and I am fine , but I asked myself what kind of life would I want to live if I only had a couple of months left, and that really helped me decide what to do. I am still working for Outdoor Venture now but on a project basis and just to organise The North Face 100 race. It is quite a challenge to do since I am not used to working without a whole marketing team of people to delegate to... haha
The ID Band business is pretty much on auto-pilot. Quantities are increasing steadily. I have been studying a new method of engraving. We found that the CO2 laser burning process was not as long-lasting as we had hoped and the fonts were fading after usage especially with the use of chemicals. We now have a new etched design which I find quite sexy!!! I now have to make a big decision to invest another couple of thousand dollars in creating new molds.......... sigh. Hope it will be worth it!
On the yoga front, I have a steady stream of regular students that I practise with. I generally do an early morning class and an evening class totallying about 15hrs a week. I find this work the most rewarding and am grateful for it. It doesn't leave me much time for self-practise but I try to practise even when I am giving a class and there is a special energy which comes from giving that actually has great healing effects for the giver! On the other hand, the massage work really has not progressed much. Tim bought me this super-duper massage table (extra wide with wooden legs!) I have only taken the table out a couple of times. I guess I am still trying to define my practise.....
Well, that's all for now. I am trying to slow down and stop running around like a head-less chicken all the time. SINGLE MOMENT SINGLE ACTIVITY!!!! I definitely do not want God to give me another wake-up call a la "Tsunami - God cut off my right foot" incident!
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