Ummmmmmmm

So haven’t written daily as the days don’t really have anything to distinguish them. It’s a 6am rattatat and a cup of herb tea, followed by 2 hours of yoga, then breakfast. Then a massage or maybe some yoga philosophy followed by tea. Then lunch and maybe meditation. Then another cup of tea and then yoga for 2 hours. Then more tea. Then dinner followed by tea. Then lights out.

I have managed to do a headstand (!) and can sit for five minutes with my legs crossed without feeling (too much) pain. I had a consultation with the Ayurvedic doctor and we talked about cricket mostly. I forgot to mention my twitchy eye and my failing memory – I think I got nervous as it felt a bit like waiting in line to see the school nit doctor. Nearly everyone else has been given some sort of potion to drink or rub in…I feel like I should make something up next time he comes so I can have a potion. Not sure there is anything for failing memory though and my twitchy eye seems to have stopped. I had to stay back after meditation class today with another guest who is the same age (we could have mothered most of the people here) and we had a session on how aches and pains at our age were the result of some serious harm we had done to ourselves earlier in life. I have taken on most of the philosophy but I am not so sure I followed that line of reasoning. I don’t have so many aches and pains so maybe they are to come later…

Worryingly, I have read two of the three books I brought on holiday and I still have a week of holiday left. There is a library in the ‘Room of Requirement’ but I haven’t seen anything that jumps out at me – lots of yoga books so I could learn even more about yoga.

I did have a full body massage today which was fab. I even got to have the yellow and red smears on my forehead and neck. The masseuse was very good – it was quite oily and the head hole smelt a bit of spaghetti bolognaise – but it was really relaxing. I opted for the ‘steam’ afterwards so was taken into a curtained cubicle in which there was a cupboard with a round hole in the top. The front section opened and the masseuse gestured for me to sit on the wooden shelf inside. She closed the door and I was sitting up with just my head sticking out. She put a towel round my neck and said “5 minutes”, and walked off. I then started to feel steam coming from somewhere around my knees and it gradually got more and more intense. I suddenly felt a bit anxious that I would be forgotten and would shrivel up – there didn’t seem to be an emergency button or anyway to get my arms out… but then my new yoga meditation skills came to the rescue and I calmed down and started to enjoy it. However, I was mightily pleased when the masseuse appeared through the curtain and released me from the steam chamber.

Tonight, I also was allowed to visit the kitchen. The food has been outstanding – all vegetarian and with some Ayurvedic properties (wrong word but I hope you know what I mean). I met Chef who was busy making cauliflower masala and I asked him to show me round his spice cupboard. He was a local lad and had been working there for 7 years. There were two ladies prepping the carrots and cabbage for the coleslaw. In another room I met the guy in charge of the stores who was weighing garlic! Never seen that before so I had to take a photo…

There were loads of vegetables from the garden – including some monster ladies’ fingers, some snake gourds, something that looked like sugar cane but wasn’t and some green chillies.

On Friday we get to leave the village and head to a nearby temple where there is a big festival – details are sketchy but it should be good. Tomorrow is another day of yoga, tea and meditation. Time is running out and I’ll be back at the coalface before long….