Tuesday, July 28, 2009

July Highlights

Fell off the blogging bandwagon, in part due to a failure to maintain my self practice. I've found it so easy to lose the morning practice routine. A 15 minute lie-in would eventually lead to a reluctance to get on the mat, with the excuse that a rushed practice is not an ideal practice. Soon 15 minute lie-ins became a regular morning habit, and so went my morning yoga habit.

I took to relying on classes for my practice. Sometimes it is a rush to get to class, giving opportunities for excuses to creep in. With a scattered mind, even during classes, the practices have felt laboured. Still, there were times when I remembered the breaths and forgot my expectations - these were the times when my practices have felt light and joyous. These, though, have been few and far between.

Highlight for July has been the arrival of Manchester United in KL for a friendly match against a Malaysia Selection. I managed to get tickets for the match, and even got a Meet The Fans pass. Of course, I took leave off work to meet the players up close. As the queue got longer, it became embarrassingly obvious that I was the oldest fan. Well, there were other older "fans"; but these were parents accompanying their children. My excuse for not bringing mine was that they were not really fans - they had only heard of Van der Sar (see this post) and Christiano Ronaldo (who hasn't?).

But I did bring them to the match - partly to let them see there are so many other people even more fanatical about Manchester United than me. As it turned out, the stadium was packed with a sea of fans wearing red. The atmosphere was charged with excitement. It was a great match, with Manchester drawing first blood with goals from Rooney and Nani. Then, when Malaysia scored with a fantastic goal, the stadium went feverish with everyone chanting "Malaysia, Malaysia". And, the whole stadium almost went into a frenzy when Malaysia equalised. It became a very open game; with Malaysia trying for an upset win, and Manchester trying to restore their advantage. It was almost story-like that the match was settled with the winning goal from Michael Owen near the end of the match.

My kids now felt some connection with Manchester United - they now know more players, notably Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Owen. Although I did make a special effort to mention Paul Scholes and the way he reads the game, etc, but I think I tried too hard and lost them in the process.

August is now fast approaching. My next highlight will happen at the end of August, for I will be making a two week trip to Mysore! It will be exactly a year from when I made my first trip last year. I can't wait.

2 comments:

Grimmly said...

Thanks for the Man U post (my team) of course we were all delighted over here about the Owen goal (his first for MU). Sorry to hear about your practice, is it back up and running now? Even a 15 minute Standing is worth doing and starts getting you back in the habit again. How long does your practice usually take? Sharath's DVD was a revelation to me. He runs through Primary inc Standing and finishing in an hour. Might be good prep for Mysore.

M_in_M said...

Hi Grimmly. Great to hear from a fellow Man U fan! Yes, I'm really pleased that that Michael Owen scored in his debut match for MU. Pity MU was edged out on penalties in the Audi Cup final. Can't win them all!

My practice is, by any standards, still quite regular. It's just that the frequency is down to 3 times a week - that is when I make it to classes. Before, it was 5 times a week (classes and self practice). But I'm getting my act together - am starting to jump out of bed instead of hitting the snooze button! Thanks for the encouragement!

My practice normally stops at Mari D when I'm doing self practice - by the time, I'm done with Savasana, the practice would have taken 75 minutes. Is that slow? Yes, I just bought Sharath's DVD and it does finish in an hour!

Anyway, hope you are having a great holiday!