arup’s blog

This year I’ve been attracting private yoga clients again after a bit of a quiet period. Which is most welcome at the moment due to the great increase in my current costs. Today I got another new private client but a challenging one. He is old and has many aches and pains. He is very limited in his strength and mobility and found it difficult to perform even the most basic of postures.

When we first met I suggested that we do any half an hour when he asked how long a session should last. Soon afterwards I thought that I had shot myself in the foot and that it would be a waste of time visiting this chap for only half an hour but having seen how immobile he is I think it was a good hunch. He wants to continue and I hope that through the practice of yoga he can regain some of his mobility. And as for the money, well it’s still more than the zero that I would receive if I had stayed at home.

Teaching this chap at his home meant that there was a bit of gap between classes and I took the opportunity to go to Gabi’s Deli in Charing Cross Road and have a vegetable fritter in a pitta. This is what I used to do on Tuesdays when I had a gap between classes followed by an hour in an internet cafe. Nostalgic to say the least eating my lunch and watching the tourists walk by. It made be feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I am nothing, I am nobody but I live here and this is my town.

During the week I had been noticing that my gearing felt a lot harder. Was it due to the hills in SE London or that I’d got a little bit heavier? This haven’t changed that much over the last couple of months and I’ve been happily covering 150 miles a week with no problems at all. But I’ve been feeling it in my knees so I thought it best that I took a look at my drivetrain. It could be the bottom bracket or it could be the hub bearings. You never know. So I took it all apart and cleaned up all the gunk. That was quite satisfying in itself. One of my wheel clients had let me keep an old flip-flop hub which came with a fixed sprocket and that sprocket happened have 17 teeth. A dab of grease and on it went. The bottom bracket and hub were fine but the teeth on my current sprocket looked extremely worn like witches fingers. I know what you’re thinking: you should change all three parts of the drive train together. I know that the chain needs doing and I do have a new one but I’ll do that next week.

To test it out I went for a short shopping trip to Lewisham to bank a few cheques and get some ink for my morning pages pen. Wow, what a difference. It felt easier, smoother and a lot less irksome on the knees. I was spinning at a cadence that I only normally reach at higher speeds and the overall experience was a lot more agreeable. So I’m 43×17 now. I think that’s 66 gear inches. But you need to get away from those figures and just go by the feel. It feels good now.

The other thing that went well today was my sausage casserole. I was going to make a chicken curry but suddenly decided to make a sausage casserole instead. I have new Le Creuset pot from friends who came to visit a couple of weeks ago. All I did was fry the sausages gently, add onions and then carrots and mushrooms. Salt and pepper and a couple of teaspoons of cornflour. That was it and it tasted amazing.

It has been a month now since moving into my new place and here I am in the garden once again. I have been enjoying the garden immensely and trying to appreciate it as much as I can whilst the weather is still good. What a difference though to move from a single room into a two bedroomed flat with a garden. But the financial side of things do cause me some concern. The potential debt disaster is a lot higher than it would have been at the previous place but I seem to be less worried about it. Which leads me to thinking that part of the panic that I experienced when I first left my wife was to do with the emotional upheaval of the separation, whereas here the anxiety is purely financial. But I’m also a lot more confident. Over the course of the 18 months that I lived in that single attic room I built up all of my businesses and in the end managed to earn enough money to cover my costs. I can do that again here and there is no intense emotional upheaval. Just a great relief and a deep sense of satisfaction that after many years of wishing it to happen and then believing that it would never happen, I finally have my own place.

The other minor source of anxiety was how long it would be before I’d have to move again. My current landlords have moved abroad and at some point will want to sell this property and buy something there. But I have contacted them with this concern and they have assured me that I have at least 24 months before I need to move on. That gives me ample time to settle and enjoy my time here and also to prepare myself for the next move. But I would rather not have to think about that having just moved in.

Even though I’m living alone the flat feels much like a public place. As though it’s on display. It is a strange feeling and hard to explain, perhaps due to being on the ground floor or the layout of the rooms in the flat. I’ve also been having people round, one thing that I couldn’t really do at my last place. That really has helped me to settle as well as knowing the area previously. My daughter has been to stay many times already and perhaps that has also lead to the feeling of people being around. Even when I’m on my own I never really feel alone. At least for the time being.

The transitory phase is coming to an end and I am starting to feel like I live here rather than having just moved in. I still need a few larger items of furniture but nothing urgent aside from a desk. I have used a chest of drawers with the drawers removed for the time being. Hopefully for only a short time. It’s great to have a proper desk and to use my desktop computer rather than my laptop. And it faces out of the window into my garden so even when I’m not actually in the garden itself I can still see it.

So what about my goals? Now that the transitory phase is about complete what next? Continuation or changes?

120 miles

There has been quite a substantial drop in mileage since I moved here. I don’t have that 40 mile trip on Mondays for a start and all of my commutes are a tiny bit shorter. I think I made the 120 on one occasion but most of the time it’s been around the 105 mark. It means that I need to get out on a proper ride in order to make the quota. That’s good right?

Meditation

The usual restless 10 minutes but have just started to sit properly again rather than lean back against the headboard. With my back straight it puts me in a more meditative frame of mind and causes me to sit a tad longer.

Yoga

It’s my own practice that we’re talking about here and after a month in a flat with the biggest room dedicated to yoga I have to confess that I haven’t yet used it to do my own practice. Why is that? Well I’ve only just emptied it completely in readiness for classes. But I need to make an appointment with myself on those days off and then it will happen. At least I hope so.

Friends

Since moving here I have had friends over for dinner and have been in good contact with other friends. It’s been very enjoyable and rewarding.

De-clutter

I did end up bringing a lot of stuff I wasn’t sure about – small as well as large. What should I do? I keep thinking that I need to do a big blitz and clear all the clutter in one go. But as with anything else it’s ongoing and needs to be maintained. So I think that keeping up a regular schedule of small amounts of decluttering is the way to go. Perhaps I need a weekly slot or something similar.

Goalless

I seem to think that if I don’t have my baths and take my walks then I’m not spending proper leisure time. But I have been enjoying time with my little daughter which is great fun and also spending time in the garden. I’ve been watching movies and playing a bit of xbox. But still can’t quite let go and feel that I need to be getting stuff done. But without any leisure I wouldn’t get anything done at all. Breaking point would be reached very soon indeed.

Programming

Since my java programming course finished at City University I haven’t really done any practice or study. I have the slots in mind and I have made a list of things to work on to help me continue but that’s about it. And of course I am covering my costs just about so the urgency has gone. But at some point I will need to move out of this flat and I won’t find anything for such a good price and prices generally will go up anyway. So unless I want to continue to teach yoga I will need to think about another main source of income. It doesn’t have to be software of course but software development was ticking all the boxes. Find me something else and I’ll be happy to pursue that instead. But the passion is still there so let’s stick with it for now.

Health plan

My health plan, which I have yet to write up was all to do with increasing my BMR or basal metabolic rate. So even though I haven’t yet started doing the small meals thing I have started doing the strength training. I bought an Iron Gym chin up bar and have been working with it three times a week. So I’m quite happy about that. I’ve also been eating a bit more fruit and veg as well as my usual intake of junk food. I will gradually tip the balance I hope.

What went well

I still have the intention to do this one at the end of the day for reasons that I’ve outlined in previous reports but at the end of the day it’s just not on my mind. So again it’s about finding a suitable time when I’m in the mood for it. Morning is probably better. Or perhaps putting pressure on myself to do it every day is not the best thing. Every other day perhaps?

It appears that the main theme in this months report is that I still have the enthusiasm and intention to follow all of these objectives but it’s all about the day to day small wins and finding the right time for each particular activity. I do have the time but certain times of the day or the week favour the pursuit of certain activities. It’s all about that micro tweaking now. But generally it’s all going rather well I’m pleased to say.