New Year

So, here in Germany it is a little over 12 o'clock. Therefore, the new year has started. In GB of course, that is not the case. I forgot that. But hey , so they have some time to party yet. Nice as well.

This year will be rather eventful for me, as I will finish my school. This includes writing a Seminar-Thesis, a Bachelor-Thesis and - hopefully only - two written exams. Well, of course I WRITE tehm..

Then, my Ayurvedic life starts and a long list of doctor's apointments as well.

Woah, they are burning down the world outside with their crackers. But the fireworks really do lookl nice, I can say that. Just had a look out of my window. Because it is very cold out there and I wouldn't want to stand there either.
Why am I at home and not at a party? Does that have anything to do with the changes in my life? No, it does not. I am not a party-girl. Never really was and so I have long since decided, that I can not be forced to party, just because people decide, that one time during the year is special.
If it is a birthday or something special to a person or persons, it is different. I don't like it, but it is a question of respect. Other than that: no. Why would I? Exactly. So, I enjoy the fireworks out of my window with something warm to drink and I do have a very good view of several fireworks out of my windows.

Now, back to my Ayurvedic life. This includes more movement, because as a Kapha I should not rest above the night rest. Instead I shall move. So I do more sports and I take care to have regular sleep. I will be doing restful things, like taking a wallk or learning or read my unread books. But I will do my best not to sleep in, like I did yesterday. As I wrote before: it won't be always easy, but if I have regular times, it should be easier.

AND I will be going to London with my sister, my niece and my nephew. And later in the year with a friend of mine. I just love London. Last year I only travelled through....

So, happy new year!!

Cool and the Gang

I am just listening to John Walker "Sound of the Seventies", an Interview with Robert "Cool" Bell (?) From the above-mentioned group and it is very interesting. My favourite song of theirs always was:  Good times. I loved the melody. But they had really many songs to be liked. Great talent there. Celebrate (good times) for instance. Great.

They are part of my lifes soundtrack. On my soundtrack, there is a sort of catholic taste apparent:

The Carpenters:              I'll never fall in love again
Peter Alexander:             Torrero der Liebe
Alanis Morissette             Ironic
(can never write the name right)
Petula Clark:                   You're the one
Comedian Harmonists:     Auf Wiederseh'n my love
John Denver and the        The Twelve Days of Christmas
Muppets:
Doris Day:                       Move over Darling, Shanghai. the complete
                                      last album, The Glassbottom Boat, Please don't  
                                      eat the daisies, Be prepared and many more
The Beatles:                    Nowhere Man
Catherina Valente:           Das hab' ich gleich gewusst
W.A. Mozart:                   Der Vogelfänger, Pa-pa-pa-pa-geno
Sinatra:                          You're awful
Dean Martin:                   Return to me
Sammy Davis jr.:             Gingerbreadman
Bing Crosby:                   Count your blessings
Eurythmics:                     There must be an Angel
Paul Gerhardt:                  Geh' aus mein Herz und suche Freud'

And much more. By the mentioned artists and by others. But I don't have the space and time for it, except:

Gilbert Bécaud:                Les tantes Jeanne

As to my Ayurveda-plan:    I did go to Yoga today and this time I was able to do more of the stretches and things than ever before. So I am getting better. Also I made an apointment to to change my training program. So, another step. I am getting better at it.

Starting tonight - hopefully - I will get some more regulare times. Be in bed by 10.00 pm, lights out and ready to sleep.

Oh: should anyone have recipes that use tamarind in them or ginger or kurkuma: just send them.

And the third day

Well, of course it is not correct to call it that, since I haven't started today either. But what the heck. Let's call it the third of waiting to get started..

I did get to bed early: 5.30 am.
And out of it late 1.45 pm.

BUT I enjoyed myself and I did do some cleaning up as well, so it wasn't all that bad. Didn't overeat either, so there.

I will really only start on the 2nd of the new Year. And until then I will use the time to learn more about it, Ayurveda, that is.  And some of the subjects I will learn tomorrow.

Tomorrow though I will go to Yoga and I will make an apointment for a new program with more training for my arms and keep some of the rest. We shall see. I will make the apointment and start next wednesday. Hopefully.

Whatever, I will see. Now I am listening to "Murder at the Vicarage" by Agatha Christie on BBC 4 extra...

Day two

And was I more succesful today? No, but I did talk to my tutor for my Bachelor Thesis on the phone and I went shopping. But apart from that this day was very much like the last one. So, I am  ashamed, but I must admit, that enjoyed it very much. So do I blame myself? Not really. I enjoyed it all too much.
Now I am waiting for some flowers to grow and I write here and maybe I download some stuff. We shall see. At any rate: this has been a peaceful day and christmastime is after all about peace. Though not that sort of peace I fear.
Something else into the bargain: I won't have this silent a week coming. Starting from the 3rd of January, there will be apointments and dates just about every day. I will just live with it. But that brings me to the turn in my plans: I will start proper (with the eating as well and the regular habits) on the second then. And enjoy the quiet days until then.

To all of you: A good change and a happy New Year. And peaceful and with lots of love and luck and what-have-you...

Starting. Day one

So, how did my Ayurvedic life start? By sleeping until about 12.00 pm and then reading until about 2.00 pm. Followed by cheese-melts and wild cranberries out of a glass. All against the kapha-decreasing diet.

So I fear, I can start earliest this evening, by being in bed at 10.00 pm.
What did I read? "Perfect Health" by Deepak Chopra. But it did give me some information, some part of which I will give over to you. Well, as far, as it concerns my plans.

There are two circles in the day, with three distinct times in it.
It always starts with Kapha, then comes Pitta, followed by Vatta.
Mornings start at 6.00 am and go on until 10.00 am with Kapha.
Then comes Pitta from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm, finished by Vatta from 2.00 to 6.00 pm. And from 6.00 pm follows the second circle only now it is pm and not am.

What I like about the description in the book is, that it is almost like the one I thought of:

mine:                                            the book:
meditation                                     bath
yoga                                             sungreeting
bath                                             yoga
breakfast                                      meditation
off                                                breakfast
                                                    a little walk.

So it is very similar in the morning.

For midday I did not have much of a plan. But according to the book I should eat between 12.00 am and 1.00 pm. Now that will not always work out with school hours, but we will see, what we can do.

In the evening I should be in bed by 10.00 pm. Exactly what I had planned. Dinner (very light) should be between 6.00 and 7 pm. Well, since I start my learning at 7.00 pm or my sport, respecting, that can be fitted in nicely.

So this part is in general doable, barring today, when I failed to get up in the morning. Ah, well. I will simply start over again tomorrow. It'll sort itself out correctly. My idea wasn't too far off either. So that is a good start.

So: Day one is more about learning the ropes, than actually doing them. A different sort of start.

Other than that I am obviously sitting at my computer and in a little while I will play, then read, then knit and watch a film and then go to bed at 10.00.
I do not know, if I will write every day, but I will try. We shall see, what happens....

New starts and resolutions

Do you know this feeling of not wanting to do, what "everybody" does?
I have that rather a lot. But I do wonder - sometimes - who "everybody" might be. I am not alone in not doing what this elusive group does. On the other hand, I am an "everybody" myself sometimes: I got a mobile phone, I watch Downton Abbey, also I use Facebook. But not all the world does. In fact, I know quite a lot of people who don't do or have one or the other.

Among the things I don't do, are New Years Resolutions. My resolutions can start at any time of the year. Going to the fitness-studio? Got enrolled in october. Starting Yoga? Septembre and a lot of other things.

Likewise, I do not do spring-cleaning, unless I get sick in spring, then I do it at the end of that time, when I get bored with myself and even rather clean, than read. You can read the desperation between the lines?

I did not read Harry Potter, until the Hype was over. Bollywood didn't reach me before. The Vicar of Dibley I discovered when the series had ended about a year earlier. The Sims 3 had started a while, before I started on it.

This is the reason, why my try of Ayurveda lifestyle-change start before the New Year. Some things I already started before christmas. Like doing a Gashana before the shower, reducing sweet, fat and sour stuff from my diet and replacing it by astringent (once I found out, what that was), bitter and sharp spices. But there was no use in starting before christmas, seeing that I would not do without the traditional herring salad.

At any rate: tomorrow is the official start and therefore - starting tomorrow as well - I will write regularly about my experiences. I will make mistakes and it won't always be easy, but it was never supposed to be easy. It is a challenge, and I am taking it. So, my winter-cleaning starts tomorrow, in my flat and in my body. I have already bought some new spices, the herring-salad is all eaten up and i shoved off some aspects in my life, that are not good for me. And people.

But I won't just take away, I will add as well:

- regular bedtimes
- regular meals
- regular sports

Next year school starts again, since I will get up early every day now, 5.30 am and I don't like the sound of it, I can use the time from 6.30 to 8.00 am to learn. I found out, that it is peaceful and quiet at that time and I can conentrate very well. So 5.30 am it is. After 30 Minutes of meditation.  Yes, Meditation is supposed to be sitting up, but I can breathe and let go and do anything, that has to do with meditation better, when I am lying down.

I have found this Ayurveda-Clinic not so very far away and will get more informations about it, I have books and the internet. The latter more for recipes. Just today I found another indian restaurant nearby. That is the third I know off. So it is meant. It really is. Therefore: let the new experiences for progression begin. Very Sattva... :-)

On a lighter note: since now I can watch You Tube again, I have indulged in "Little Lord Fauntleroy". The good version, with Alec Guinness and Rick(y) Schroeder. I just love, I love it, I love it, I love it. So let's end this entry with a picture of his Lordship, the Earl and his heir...

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or

 do without.
Not really my strong point, but I am always hopefull, that I will get the knack of it. It works with chocolate. NO, not in the "use it up"-term, in my case in the "do without". I can do without chocolate, I can't do very well without liquorice though. Fortunately my blood pressure - which is affected by too much liquorice - is rather on the lower side, so I can sometimes indulge. That will be less though, because the time of trying out Ayurveda ist coming nearer. It really is exiting, because it is something new. I like new things, which makes the "do without" a little hard.
But then again: someone has to keep the money rolling. :-) I volunteer.

Anyway, I will be trying out Ayurveda starting from the 27th of this month. After Christmas. I have started on some things already, to make it easier: I have started on Gashana a sort of dry massage. And I am doing Yoga and meditate. As to meals, I reduced breakfast to cappuccino and toast, but increased lunch. I also decreased evening foods. That will be interrupted on Christmas Eve for the traditional herring salad. It is too good to pass by and I can't have my uncle "overeat" on it, just because I don't eat a lot of it. It is some sort of samaritan work.. someone has to do it... :-)

So, I have started and I will do more, too. For instance find an Ayurvedic clinic around here, read more, change what I eat and drink and move more. Well, I had planned on that anyway...

As to my holiday this is really like the above saying: use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
I had planned a couple of quiet and peaceful days. What I got was a date on each day. Though I can say, that they were all nice dates and one did not happen at all. But still. No sleeping in, reading in bed for hours, then cleaning up. I do that around the dates. And it isn't even finished yet, the date time, I mean. Today, in a little while really, I am meeting to friends for a meal in a mongolian restaurant. Tomorrow I shall have to do the rest of the cleaning and I am meeting my walking girls for a last run. :-)
I also have to do some christmaspresentpacking (is that even a word?). On Sunday I can sleep in. Then I will go to Yoga with my niece. From there to decorate the christmas tree with my Dad and from there to keep my nephew company, while his parents have an evening engagement..
I do not know, if I sleep there, but I shall definitely sleep a lot on the 24th.
No, because I will prepare something for the 25th. Then at about 3.00 pm I shall go to church for the service and from there drive to my parents, where we await my brother and his family and my uncle and aunt. Both already mentioned. The dog will get his christmas before, a big bone too and then has to fight for himself.

Anyway we will talk and try to ply my uncle with cookies and chocolate. Then we go downstairs and sing the christmas carol "Oh, Du fröhliche" and then we exchange the presents. After which the most important part starts: we get to the Herring-Salad. Then we pack the presents, go home and sleep, until we meet the next day at my sister's place to reapeat christmas with my big brother and his family, as they have their Christmas Eve at home. And the next day is free for me. And I shall only take on Yoga on the 30th of decembre, but no more dates, so don't ask. Well, unless you life depends on it... 

Working late

I actually like to work late. At least when I started late. It is so peaceful and quiet around. And one can get things done.
The disadvantage, especially in winter is, that one does not really see sunlight and most of the day is done, when one gets home.
Today, because I didn't get here before 9.35 am, I stay until 6.55 pm. But it is only an hour more and I have something to do. So it is not as bad.

Other than that I am safe and sound and so I go on now, working, working, working... :-)