I bought a Groupon deal for 20 hot yoga sessions with a friend of mine. She has been on a quest to lose weight / get fit even though she is probably less than 90pounds (40kgs). Though I've dabbled in hot yoga before and not really loved it, I took this as a challenge to add to my Ashtanga practice and support a friend.
Yesterday was our first session at Fitness 4 Life in Dubai Silicon Oasis. I got through the 90 minutes session in a 40 degree room with ease. I even surprised myself when I wished it was a little more challenging.
This, my friends, is what Ashtanga does to you. This was my defining moment realizing that the Ashtanga practice is one of the most challenging and energized of them all. Hot yoga, Power yoga, Vinyasa flow, 90 minutes, nothing can wear me out like the primary series with all those vinyasas.
This past weekend, I was surrounded by fellow fit Ashtangis at a workshop at Yoga Room Dubai. The bodies that have been trained by this practice are truly refined and I can't wait to get older for this one reason. You see Mark Darby (probably in his early 70s) bringing his elbows to the floor in Uttanasana and it's so exciting!
When Darby lets out his "ommmm" at the beginning and end of a led class, the deepness of the sound resonates through your entire body and mind. I challenge you not to love Ashtanga.
Darby and his wife Joanne examine our Urdhva Dhanurasanas after giving us some helpful adjustments/ tips.
Like, Really. "How to hinge at your hips"
All of us AFTER the last day of back-bending. Spot me :)
It's just been one of those weekends where I constantly want to escape reality. When is it ever okay to complain without sounding like a completely ungrateful b*tch? Thank God for those friends that are family when family just doesn't cut it.
Thursday night was a time for reconnecting with my girls and concert-ing at Yas. I've known these girls since I was a wee little poop and I haven't been in their lives since '98 or something along those lines since I grew up in Canada. We went to a catholic school together and our parents were BFFs. So we are something like auto-friends. Friends by default. Family. You know, the ones you can't get rid of even if you tried. They are perfect!
We met this Emirati dude at the end of the night who kept me company while my friend went to use the washroom. Apparently he was "high as fuck" and been smokin hash. Alright, so the UAE is probably one of the worst places to be broadcasting this. But he continued with confidence; he worked at one of the leading banks in Abu Dhabi and he got a thrill out of smuggling in stuff. He was so very very keen on taking us to some after parties.
Hmmm I don't know where to begin! We didn't go, duh! And I don't want to make this a judgemental post, so I'll leave it at that. I guess I just wanna share this with my Canadian/American friends because they think Dubai isn't filled with fucktards. But listen, there are fucktards and sketchos everywhere. Thats an auto-unfriend.
Laidack Luke and Mister Outlaw (local DJ) were both on point for the entire night! A huge thanks to my beau for the tickets and chocolate xo
While your probably inspired and riled up (rightfully so) about the KONY2012 campaign - just get off the bandwagon for a quick sec to check this out. It's a one day event - but a lifelong campaign and cause. There are many ways to help, and this is one way I did and you can too. So maybe one day when it goes viral; you can say you were there all along.
Here in Dubai, charitable events like this are not easily accessible or organized. Laura Farrier, uber Ashtangi and teacher at Zen Yoga, explained this to me as I met her for the first time last night. As human "trafficking" is such a sensitive issue in this region, it's not easy to legally slap it around the media. Secondly, dealing with money in the free zone area - whether charitable or not - is not an easy task either. The authorities here are unfamiliar with us and the goal is to make them familiar next year - eventually getting a bigger event going to get Dubai on the map. Laura's intention along with the rest of ours was clear on this issue as we took off into our practice.
Anyways, after 10 minutes of mindful silence, she graciously took us through our asanas and let us challenge ourselves comfortably.We may have not done the traditional 108 sun salutations, but the energy in the room was an A+ for a whole 2 hours. Thanks Laura! xo
Make travel plans the night before; and definitely do NOT call ahead for a taxi. Clearly; the best strategy is to wander the streets in the dark for 5 minutes and split a cab with a stranger also heading to the marathon. At this point, BBM your bestie that you're now on your way to his/her house with your new-found friend at 6am. Be prepared for a text like "Sharon, we live in the UAE, don't do stuff like this". Noted.
Thank God for kind strangers from St.Catherine's, Ontario, Canada (it's such a small world)! Brian, if you're reading this, thanks for the awesome morning ride and motivation!! I couldn't have picked a better person to split a cab with. xo
Also remember to sneak in a pee at a random building to avoid the 15 minute line-ups at the venue. Be aware; the only way to do this is by convincing the security guard that you would be eternally grateful and indebted to him for such an exclusive opportunity. (I should be putting these skills toward my job search)
oh, and then you run a glorious 10kms =)
To sum it up... I would do it again. and again and again, AND I would do it harder faster stronger longer.
I definitely did not do my personal best. But, I made decent time and ran with people who gave me amazing motivation and kept me smiling through every kilometer.
I love this time of the year when we get visitors in Dubai on their lay-over to other countries (mostly India for us). Thank you to Emirates Airlines for the awesomeness! My Texan cousin was here for the weekend, for the first time in Dubai, and I really hope he got a good taste of the weird culture. It's very hard to explain the place and the atmosphere to most people. Dubai is not comparable to the west or the east. It has a little bit of everything.
here's a little taste:
-Eat an authentic lebanese dinner watching the dancing fountains under the Burj Khalifa
-Party with an intense crowd and TIESTO at creamfields on Yas Island,
-Watch christmas carolers and ski bunnies at the mall
-Take an abra ride on the Dubai creek while listening to the wailing muslim prayers across Deira
-Eat Mexican food on the Marina
It's always fun trying to explain the confused emirati culture of Dubai. Apparently it's more than visible with just a weekend here, thats for sure! Thanks for an awesome weekend @suganthpaul. Have a good christmas!
20 billion dollars worth of gold, diamonds, silver and any other shiney thing imaginable.
No, that's not my personal net worth - This is the latest most craziest archeological find in South India. Six secret vaults in a Hindu temple in South India is STACKED with chests of treasures dating as early as the 8th century AD.
Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple
My FIRST question was: "how the hell did the Indian buggars not loot the place clean?" Answer: 1) Nobody really knew about it 2) The one guy who did find out in the 1930s; tried to get his hands on it but landed in a cobra infested vault and decided it wasn't worth it (LOL - I'm sure his reaction involved a "ah HELL nah, fuck this shit!").
3) The priests and the royal family guarded it with their lives
Now, five out of 6 vaults have been opened and they keep finding the COOLEST stuff. "Bags of diamonds, an 18-foot (5.5 meter) gold necklace, statues of Hindu gods and 19 kilograms (42 pounds) of precious coins" They say opening the vaults might be a bad omen (death by cobras?), but honestly, if I could get my hands on just ONE chest, or even HALF a chest, I would definitely take on the task. Obviously, I would immediately outsource the task to an Indiana Jones, Lara Croft or Jack Sparrow. And I'm sure my greedy friends would pitch in.
Wham bham, thank you ma'am. Job Done. PEACE OUT.
That's kind of what the Brits did to India while they were there for over 400 years. Greedily outsourced the dirty jobs and stored the treasures back in England. Today (August 15th), India marks 64 years of independence from the British. I just wanna say - HAHAH; you forgot 20 billion suckers.
I have a thing for commencement addresses, and I have a thing for Conan. Even though, it's been a year since graduation, I'm still studying and broke. So, this still applies. Disclaimer: If your not a late-night TV fan, you may not get some of his humor, but this was the best 20 minutes I spent all day. If you don't have time to watch the full thing, just read my favourite part:
"In 2000, I told graduates “Don’t be afraid to fail.” Well now I’m here to tell you that, though you should not fear failure, you should do your very best to avoid it. Nietzsche famously said “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But what he failed to stress is that IT ALMOST KILLS YOU. Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting. What Nietzsche should have said is “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you watch a lot of Cartoon Network and drink mid-price Chardonnay at 11 in the morning.""....
"In 2000, I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality."
RIGHT? .. now watch the 2011 commencement address from Team Coco!
This has to go under "Things I miss about North America"
I don't think I'm hippy enough to completely embrace yogi culture- c'mon, let's just admit that it's a huge commitment to make. And what's the point in doing a half-assed job of it? I mean, chanting "om shanti shanti shanti om" just makes me feel like I'm calling out to my mom..(Her name is Shanthi).
But, that being said, I never fail to feel the positive effects of practicing yoga on my body. So, I indulge once in a while. And if your going to indulge in yoga, this has to be the BEST way to do it.
on the beach
with warm ocean breeze
at sunset
as the full moon rises.
(Actually, anything "on the beach" tingles my Canadian senses)
Al Qasr hotel's spa (Talise Spa) offers an amazing deal to practice your "downward dog" and "full cobra" on every full moon. For 200aed (96aed with cobone.com), you get valet parking, a bottle of cold water, a cold towel and a yoga mat on the beach. The amazing view of the Burj is just a bonus.
After sunset, we did moon salutations, various warrior poses and breathing exercises for 90 minutes. My favourite is and always will be the bridge! After working up a good sweat, we turn to the dark ocean, focus our minds and listen to the waves breaking at shore. I left my mat feeling so energized and blissful under the bright full moon.
My view for most of the class (before we turned to the sea). The three guys on stage led us through the practice.
Easter went by really fast. What I missed the most were Cadbury chocolate eggs!! - in all forms - mini-eggs, creme eggs, caramel eggs, minimini eggs.. etc. You get the point!
Well, I also missed having an Easter Sunday! My butt had to be at work for 9am (Dubai has a friday/saturday weekend remember?). So our day went something like 5am church service, work, MASSIVE lunch, dont go back to work. sleep.
HAPPY EASTER from our fam to yours. Better late than never! Right?
We be stylin. Dress from Koton.
Happy Easter!! - That's a little Lindt chocolate bunny. We tried to get in the spirit.. know what I mean?
"In The Maze Of Our Minds"
DAA IB Art Exhibition 2011
This one was my absolute favourite! By Katerine Hanna, acrylic on canvas - inspired by photography. Makes me wanna draw and paint again. It also makes me wanna just fall into a pool in a flowy dress and vogue.
Like all good stories begin.. I was driving with Nishanth. This dude gives the worst directions EVER. "Just keep goin" is his favourite line in the car. Clearly, I know nothing about Dubai. Let's just say we ended up at Terminal 3 of the Dubai Airport.
Driving here is the worst... every "Khalifa" will flash their high beams at you and possibly blow u kisses as they drive by (Look out for a blog on that story)... So, this day was no different. The words that were coming out of my mouth were truly noteworthy. We were heading to "Irish Village" for St. Patrick's day. And no, it wasn't to drink and to have fun... it was to see if we won a trip to Ireland. Nishanth had a 1 in 18 chance of winning - and the luck of the Irish was definitely with us that evening. For one, we made it there on time even with our several detours - if that wasn't lucky enough, Nishanth's name being pulled out of a hat was UNreal!
So, I guess we're going to Ireland! And the trip is sponsored by Turkish Airlines, so maybe we'll visit Turkey as well. August needs to get here sooner <3
These pics are from the rest of the night at a bar called "Barasti" at the beach- I won those hats for pouring the "Perfect Pint". Scored a 10/10 .. i'm going back to win the guy's shirt ;) .. and here's a little video from St. Patrick's Day at Irish Village..right before we got up on stage!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I know I've totally abandoned my blog for Christmas and New Years - but I promise to make up for it through this month and this year. So here's a quick update on life ... December was mostly filled with family, food and INDIA..
My brother and I left to India for a week on Christmas night and got back after new years. We literally went prepared to camp out for a week- we were going to be trekking it to the mountains of southern India for about 5 days with a bunch of our cousins. A few words to describe this once-in-a-lifetime experience would be - illegal travel, illegal flowers, excessive food, leeches, a water snake, spiders, mountains, a taxi strike, rivers, frogs, elephants, beauty, family and cameras. I'm pretty sure there was tequila somewhere in between.
The Wayanad district of the state of Kerala (where we were heading) is about a 12 hr, overnight train journey from the city we landed in (Chennai/Madras). Since we booked our trip so late - there were eight of us and only six train tickets. Clearly, that didn't stop us - So, let the games begin. We planned our scam better than Ocean's Eleven and illegally got to our destination with sneaky smiles on our faces.
It was 4.30am and pitch dark when we got off at our stop to meet our driver for the next 4 days. His name was Shafoor and he was a noob to say the least (keep reading for an explanation). We got to our "resort" on the mountain at around 7am just as the sun came out, had breakfast, and confidently went off to explore the forest.
The mountains as we entered Wayanad
Here are a few excerpts from our adventures:
Leeches.
-"Oh Hey, what's that thing by my.. omg.. is that a worm? .. omg! WHAT IS THAT?!" *shriek*
- "!@#$%^&*" -"i'm bleeding"
-"OMG IT'S ON ME TOO" *voice cracking*
-"GUYS, its DOING SOMETHING!!!!" *kicking the air really hard* - "I need to salt this fucker"
-"Shit, it's in my socks!!"
Lesson: If you want to get a leech off you - pulling it off is a bad idea. It leaves an enzyme by the area its on which does not allow your blood to clot, so you would bleed for a longer time than necessary. The best way to get a leech off you is to SALT it. It will naturally release itself from ur body and die.
Exploring, right before we got leeched.
The leech sucking on my cousins foot
The leech post-salt
Elephants. We woke up at 4.30 am and drove for almost 2 hours to a wildlife sanctuary. Ofcourse, we lose our way to the point that we ended up in a different state - all thanks to Shafoor. As we were figuring out how to get back, the sun was rising and the fog was clearing up on the roads that were surrounded by forest. Just as we headed back, my cousin spotted a family of elephants through the fog.
It was so beautiful! The baby elephants were the cutest! They moved really slowly and graciously. We watched them for a while through the mist, took some pictures and left before they noticed us there. No camera can really capture this moment.
Rivers Shafoor drove us in and around the mountains, I guess it would have been really pretty, but I slept for the most part. Finally, we got to the place everyone at the resort was raving about. I imagined the place to be a serene jungle with vines and rivers and cool animals - I was upset that I had forgotten to bring my bathing suit.
In reality, we got off the car and it was SO crowded. I immediately felt naked in my shorts and tank top since every other woman/girl was fully covered with Indian clothes. I'm pretty sure I would have been arrested for indecent exposure if I had worn my bikini. We hurried off to get a guide and then followed him clumsily while he expertly walked through the rivers and forest. As we got deeper into the forest I asked him if there were alligators or crocodilios in the river. He confirmed that there were, but they were more upstream and didn't ever bother to come down to where we were. NOT comforting at all.
Overall, this was an amazingly fun day! We had a small snack while playing in the water inside the forest and then later stopped off at this tiny little shack to have a meal on the way back to the resort.
Spiders and illegal flowers I hate plucking flowers, but we were kayaking at a lake close by one morning and found a million water lillies - I just had to. Little did I know that I was going to get fined for plucking it. Yes, we paid 50 rupees for deflowering the lake.
We also found the COOLEST spiders around town and unfortunately, one was inside our room as well. Even though I hate the thought of one of these creeps beside me or on me - they were pretty fascinating in the wild.
Taxi Strike Strikes in Canada involve a few picketers and maybe a couple of news reporters scouring the area for a decent story. Strikes in Kerala,India = being stoned. Lucky for us, we were a huge family with women and children (sort of), so they were kind to us. However, we did get pulled over about 3 times by the picketers. And each time, Shafoor got yelled at for not supporting the strike. It took about 10-15minutes of reasoning with the strikers to get us off the hook. One time, the cops came to rescue us too. It was scary at first, it later become funny and annoying.
It's Christmas time! And do you know what that means in the UAE? .. nothing really.
Well, my family likes to keep traditions strong. Considering the fact that we are hungover, tripping on decorations and sick of christmas songs within the first week of December- I think we are doing an exceptional job this year.
We went away for a few days to beautiful Fujeirah for the Eid holidays last week. Gorgeous beach, loads of sun, mountains and endless amount of fun. But let me tell you folks - outside of Dubai, the other emirates in the UAE are not so welcoming to shorts and tank tops - atleast not outside of the resorts. I wish I could understand the words people were muttering under their breath (and i'm sure out loud as well) when I walked into a grocery store in Fujeirah with my cutest pair of yellow shorts and a v-neck tee. I imagine they were saying "wow, nice legs" or "whoa, that girl has gorgeous hair" or maybe even "i love those shorts on her - wonder where she got them" or "the colours yellow and salmon are surprisingly a great combo" .. yea, i'll keep dreaming.
Women in their traditional garb were literally covering their children's eyes and men stopped mid-sentence to stare. I have never been more uncomfortable in my life! This is officially the moment I realized I live in a conservative Muslim country. Hope y'all enjoyed the show Fujeirah.
Other than the events that week, we got a new TV and like all customer service in Dubai - this was no different.I can't, I'm over it now...it was from SharafDG #justsayin
The christmas tree is up and the carols are on loop, but we're still decorating
Time's flying right now- can't believe November is almost done! Nothing really significant has happened but I have a lot to look forward to...
The next two weekends are jam packed with Rugby Sevens, Akon and Creamfields and CHRISTMAS! Stay tuned folks.
Enjoy the rest of my bloggity blog for the next little while. xoxo
You go TRIBAL!! I just had the best birthday dinner with the family at "Tribes" in Dubai. Yes, you guessed it, African food. AND they sang and danced for me!! If you are vegetarian (Leanne)- don't even think about it. It is meat galore!
Camel, goat, ox, calamari, beef, lamb and even chicken was on the menu. So ofcourse, we tried a little bit of everything .. camel sausages were delish.
Their birthday songs were SO good and if u listen closely you can hear them sing something about "hakuna matata" and then finally wakka wakka at about 2:52 ...Nishanth sings along (I apologize).
Our massive and delicious salad
Chicken, Camel, Beef and Lamb sausage (from left to right) with fig&onion dip
My African brudda and I
Nishanth's lamb. umm there's something growing on it....
Peppered Beef Potjie. i like the bowl more than the food
Dad's baby calamari with goat cheese and potatoes. exotic enough?
We took a walk and said hello to the chefs who were really nice!
African art on the menu. aka. my new bf
Best server ever and my beef packed to go (which I forgot at the restaurant)
Nishanth's girlfriend.
We are family.
Me, brought to you by: 22 yrs of smiles, love and good food.
THANK YOU! - I loved reading everyone's wall posts/messages and hearing voices from all around the world today. love love love
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