Down...

That's how I'm feeling today. I've just had my 3rd driving lesson and, although Lee, my instructor, says I'm doing very well, I feel like I didn't do as well as I thought I would today. I KNOW how to drive! I do, but when I get in the car and have twenty-bazillion things to think about in terms of what gear I should be in at what speed, what pedal to press when and such I feel like I know nothing! Breaking is totally alien to me now! I can't just break, I have to clutch-down just before the car stops to keep from stalling and that is such a pain!! Like I said, driving is hard enough w/o having to add all this gear and clutch crap to it! I don't like manuals.

Talk about Defenestration!

I was riding home on the upper deck of the bus a coupla days ago and the driver was blowin' and goin' down the road. No biggie. These buses are so tall that occasionally they hit tree branches and there's a racket as the branches scrape along the glass and the sides of the bus. Well, I was sitting in the very front up top on the left-hand side (passenger / kerb side) when the driver must've been too far over to the left and hit a tree branch that was so big it broke the glass right above my head. I had tiny pieces of glass all over me! I got up, moved back a few rows and took this picture.




The crack is in the red square and goes the entire distance across the pane of glass. This is only the left half of the windshield.

I told Roy about this and he told me a story about a similar incident involving another bus recently. The driver hit a tree branch that was so heavy and low that it started to tear off the top of the bus! The people inside were not badly hurt at all, minor cuts and scrapes. BUT a lady waiting for the bus was KILLED by the falling branch! I guess I'll be a tad more picky when it comes to where I sit!

New things...

So, on Father's Day (last Sunday) our neighbors India and Hannah rang our doorbell to invite us over to another neighbor's, Atlanta's, for a BBQ. We had a coupla things to do before we could go over but we eventually made it around 3:30 or so. We got there and everyone was out back sitting around the patio table in the garden out back. There were a few people we didn't know but got to as the day progressed. Mick and Marie were there w/ their daughter Hannah. Atlanta, of course, with her daughter Leela and some new faces were there to greet us. Daz, Zav and Monica were 3 people we'd never seen before and the new neighbors Paul and his wife, whose name escapes me at the moment were there as well. Paul and his wife moved in next door to India.

We ate, had good conversation (well, Roy did. I'm too much of an introvert now. Sux.) and maybe met a few new friends. Zav, Roy and I had a good conversation about Photoshop and photography. Zav is a wedding photo'r and is looking for someone to teach him how to get good at Photoshop. Roy of course gushed about my MAAAAD SKILLLLZ!!!!

BUT THEN . . . Mick invited us over to his place (which is just next door) for a game of POKER!!! TEXAS HOLD 'EM, no less!! I've NEVER played poker of any type in my life and Roy hasn't played in 20 years. It was 2 GBP (Great British Pounds) to play. Neither of us had ANY cash at all on us or across the street in our house so Daz was kind enough to lend us the funds.

The players were as follows: Kev (who came later to the BBQ and is a good friend of Mick's and Atlanta's and poker freak), Zav, who's never played before either, Mick, Monica, Daz, Hannah P., Mick's 11-year-old daughter and the 3 of us, Roy, Hannah and me. We were a team since we were newcomers. The game started off well. We won a few hands and learned some of the terminology. Zav was hilarious b/c once he showed the table his cards b/c he thought the hand was over and it wasn't! Funnily enough he was one of the final few at the table!!

Well, we're chuggin' along and we find that we have very little "money" (chips) left BUT we're one of the last TWO remaining!!!! YEA, US!! We have something like 3 GBP left and Mick's got something like 65 GBP!!! So, to keep the game from going on for hours and hours, we just go ALL IN and turn our cards over and let the dealer deal. Low and behold we won that hand!! It was like that until the end!! WE WON THE GAME AND THE POT!!! We got 8 GBP in winnings!! There was a prize for 2nd place and 3rd place got their money back. WOW!!!

So, this is how the gambling addiction begins! :)

Unfortunately, I took no pics cuz I just wasn't thinking! I'm so mad at myself for that! I had my phone w/ me, too! OH, WELL!!

More later. By the way, today is June 18th and it is FREEZING COLD outside!!!!

Driving on the "wrong side" of the road...

...and car.

WHEW!!! I just finished my FIRST-EVER UK driving lesson!!! My instructor's name is Lee and he said the lesson was a pleasure!! He said I'm doing very well and moving along quite fast! So fast that he took me out onto main roads today! i have another lesson w/ him tomorrow for 2 hours. (I did 2 hours today as well.)

I was really quite nervous about it considering that I've never driven a manual transmission before. It's funny, but I felt like I was learning how to drive all over again. There's so much stuff to think about and remember when driving a manual , , , not to mention the whole "other side of the road and car" thing! One would think that one would have no difficulty judging distances b/w the car one is driving and the curb (kerb in UK English) or another car from the other side of the cockpit but, lemme tell ya, IT'S FREAKIN' DIFFICULT!! I hit the curb a few times and Lee had to tell me to pull more towards the center of the road more than once. PLUS the roads here are SO NARROW!!! It's amazing to think that double decker buses go down them and sometimes 2 abreast!! SHEESH!!

Anyway, I did fine. I take my theory test on the 26th of this month so wish me luck! That's really the easy part. It's mostly just common sense stuff w/ the odd "How many different types of pedestrian crossings are there and how do they differ" type question. (Incidentally, there are a few: Zebra, Pelican, Puffin, Toucan and Pegasus. Zebra is not light controlled and has zebra striped poles and ground markings. Pelican is Pedstrian Light Controlled -- ped pushes button and waits to cross. Puffin is Pedestrian User Friendly Intelligent which automatically senses pedestrians and controls lights for them. Toucan is Two Can Cross meaning both pedestrians and bicyclists. Pegasus is for pedestrians and horse-mounted riders and is just like Pelican only w/ one button at human height and one at mounted rider height. MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW, I'm sure!!)

Anyway, I'll keep y'all posted as to how things are going. And NO, I'm not working yet. I'm not looking for a job yet either. I've still got stuff to do around the house and preparation-wise before I do any of that.

Later, PEEPS!!

5 Rhythms

So, WOW!!!! I just experienced my first-ever 5 Rhythms class. This is a movement meditation practice developed by Gabrielle Roth in the 60s. It is so amazing! The class I went to was a 2-hour Wave class in which you flow from one of the 5 Rhythms to the next in a "wave" fashion. You begin with Flowing, then Staccato, then Chaos, then Lyrical and finally Stillness.

We spent the first 30 minutes in a warm-up where we just got ready to enter our bodies as much as possible. There was very little instruction from the teacher as we moved fluidly from warming up into Flowing. Flowing is circular in motion. The teacher allowed us to find our breath in the beat, the movement and our bodies and then she guided our meditation a bit by helping us to focus on a particular part of our bodies. Other body parts would then join the dance through the guided meditation and we spent a great deal of time "flowing" through ourselves.

Staccato is more percussive and linear in its form. Again, the teacher would guide us at first and sometimes ask us to find a flow to a partner. The aim is just to stay with the partner and experience the Wave together, in a rather empathetic way, not so much to follow their movements -- just to "be" together. That was difficult for me to do at first b/c I kept thinking too much about it. I also would stare at the chest of my partner instead of looking at their face and I kept thinking "This is just like when you play basketball and you're man-on-man: you can't look at their eyes b/c they can fake you out w/ them. Always watch their chest to sense where they will move next." Well, that was all fine and good until I partnered w/ a woman who was a little bohemian child. You know the kind: Buckwheat-in-a-headlock-NO-BRA-in-a-tank-top-BOOBS-JIGGLING-all-over-Tarnation kinda hippie chick. So I had to find another place to look. I think she thought I was staring at her boobs on purpose. I didn't even realize it at first, then after the 2nd or third time I did it I realized she kept looking directly at me. (Rather unusual in this type of dance situation.)

Chaos is where the "ART" happens. This is where the dancer just lets go completely and the soul expresses itself in whatever manner it deems necessary at the time. This is also the most aerobic of the 5 Rhythms. I really lost myself in this one. Time is so inconsequential here!!

Lyrical is neat because this is where the dancer really finds their own style of expression and being. I really liked this part of the Wave b/c I felt like I was really getting to the point, coming to a "realization" or a "self-discovery".

Stillness is just whatever is left at the end of the Wave. This for me was very revealing. I felt many emotions during Stillness. This like the "cool down" part of an exercise. For me, it differed in that emotions had taken on a different meaning. My self-view had become MORE, if that makes any sense, almost like I got a new prescription for my inner eyeglasses, if you will.

The 5 Rhythms is such an incredible experience and I thank my new friend Neda for the opportunity to experience it! She's been dancing the 5 Rhythms for 15 years and she says it really is something useful and inspiring. She almost tears up when she talks about it. Now I know why. I can't wait to have that much experience under my belt! And, YES, you dance the whole 2 hours!! It's really not bad at all! Not like you'd think! If you can find a teacher near you, I'd suggest going! It's really inexpensive!