Warm and sultry

April 29, 2014

Autumn has fully settled in, and my skin – slowing drying out as the Highveld turns from green to yellow to all shades of dusty brown – tells me that winter is just a few weeks away. It seems sudden this year, but maybe every year I have the same selective memory and the same disbelief at the rapid passing of time.

These crisp Joburg mornings make me long for December, which must be my favourite month in South Africa, with its lazy heat and countrywide inactivity. In an effort to recapture those carefree feelings, I went through my December 2013 holiday snaps – a blissed out, snooze fest of a time in Zinkwazi, on the Natal north coast.

Namaste 2014

VideoJanuary 14, 2014

Last year wasn’t much of a blogging year for me, but I’m hoping to make amends this year!

2013 was a fast and furious year. A new relationship, a new job, some surprises, some shitty news, some wonderful times, and some lovely trips. And, always, ashtanga, a ballast in the storm, even if, as I go into my fifth year of practice, there’s more plateau than ever before, backbends disappear and reappear, and sometimes just getting up and unrolling my mat feels like a very big accomplishment.

December is my favourite time in Joburg, even when I’m not actually in Joburg. The normal grit and pace is tempered by a mass exodus to the sea, a big heavy exhale, roads are calm, emails remain unanswered, and there is a collective agreement that work will only resume in the second week of January. And here we are in that very week, the slumbering giant awaking, industry cogs beginning to whir.

I inevitably feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of a whole new year, especially I guess this year with its lack of a job right now, and the relentlessness of time passing. I think though, if there is one resolution I’ll make a daily practice, it’ll be to let go of comparisons to other people and the perception I have of their lives. No good can come of it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFXqtITSQr8&w=420&h=315]

Summer loving

January 7, 2013

There’s very little that beats a proper beach holiday, especially one spent with your family on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. My childhood was spent in Natal – the Drakensberg, Ballito, Southbroom – and there’s something about those long, steamily lethargic days, palm trees, breezy sugar cane, occasional shoes and a wide assortment of creepy-crawlies that makes for a true mind/body break.

After the yoga/sea swimming/pool swimming/book reading/afternoon napping routine I established, I feel like I might have a handle on 2013. The overarching theme of my 2012 was ‘anxiety’, deeply coloured chartreuse.

2013 will be light, easy and the colour of drizzly Zinkwazi sunsets – stimulating, diverse work, health, love, a lot of humour and perspective, continuing bravery, some exotic travel, and steady, seamless flow. I’m ready.

Home

June 19, 2012

One of the reasons I work is to travel. And I’m going to have to keep reminding myself of this as I reintegrate back into the working world after almost three weeks out of SA. Bah!

Anyway. I really, really loved Copenhagen and Stockholm. I was as busy as a bee the whole time (with the result that I feel like I need a lazy island holiday real soon); but it was an amazing few weeks spent yoga’ing, learning, biking, laughing, talking, walking, shopping, spending, eating, drinking, staring, loving Joe and the Juice, munching pastries, thinking and generally feeling terribly lucky.