Dreamyoga.co.uk Blog

Waiting for the last leg of the trip at Singapore Airport.

This unexpected 24 hour stay in Singapore worked out well. I found a wonderful part of the city I hadn’t been to before called Katong, only 10 minutes from the airport and holding all my hearts desires. Went for an early swim in the outdoor pool, enjoying the 32degrees, then  a lovely reflex treatment, visit to a fabulous Ganesh temple and glorious South Indian lunch, all less than five minutes walk from each other.

I’ve been in a fair amount of pain since a balcony collapsed under me three days ago and I was nearly plummeted 120 foot to the ground (*see foot note). I was in Melbourne and in the house by myself, it was a beautiful sunny day so I thought I would go out and sit on the balcony. As I walked across the tiles 2 rows of them dissappeared underfoot and I went with them, with only my boobs to stop me falling, I knew they’d come in handy for something!  I was worried about struggling to get off and out as I thought the whole structure might crash on top of me. When I realised that the railings would take my weight I hiked myself up, using a HUGE amount of strength I didn’t know I had and managed to pull three quarters of my body weight out of the hole of masonary and back into the house.

I lay on the carperted floor totally freaked out, trembling all over and in a great deal of pain, a huge haematoma came up on my right shin and there were cuts all over the lower half of my body, 3 days later I have a rainbow coloured bottom! Nice

So hobbling home tomorrow morning looking forward to seeing all those Lancaster friends

Footnote* It wasn’t actually 120 ft drop from the balcony it was about 12 but as a wise man told me  recently “why let the truth get in the way of a good story” It made it much more exciting though didn’t it?

Tasmanian politics may be even madder than the British version. There was a budget here a few days ago. The age to receive the pension has gone up to 67! They are closing the Government departments of Arts, Heritage, Tourism and the Environment, but paying $15,000,000 for Hawthorne Football club to come and play six games here (whoever heard of Hawthorn?)

A couple of nights ago I went to the Uni Reveiw, I got a cancellation, it is so popular here the seats are booked up to a year ahead. There was lots of nudity and political jokes and at the end a girl rushed onto the stage and said “read my lips, no more Bush” at that she lifted her skirt and showed us her shaven crotch, very funny!

Was taken  out on the boat today by my woofing host and his son, it was very cold and blustery with little squalls of snow and quite a swell on, but lovely to be out on the sea. When I got back we saw some birds wheeling about in the sky (we are high up here) so I went out with the binoculars. There in a tree right next to me was a pair of Wedge Tailed Eagles, they are quite rare world wide and  there are only 80 pairs in Tasmania. So they sat in a tree, very close to me and I sat on a wall watching them for about 10 minutes, after a while they took off, it was gob-smacking, HUGE birds with an enormous wing span,  just took off, it made me gasp they were so beautiful!

Yesterday I went to the Female Factory, it was a place in the mid 1800’s where female convicts were sent from England and Ireland. The area is freezing cold, there was snow on Mt Wellington behind, and the river close by often flooded at that time. The woman slept in tiny stone cells with no glass in the windows and no fires, they had very light clothing, were without socks or underwear and slept on hammocks because of the flooding. The Factory was used by pardoned male convicts and local men as a marriage bureau, but if the women did’nt please their new husbands they were sent back to the factory (often if they were pregnant, because the men didnt want to feed another mouth and the woman could’nt work) and the man could pick another woman up. When they came back they were punished for being unsuitable by being put in complete darkness in a tiny cell for up to 3 months, during this time they would wear a 3kg iron collar with spikes inside it so that they couldn’t lie down or sleep. The worse thing though was a display someone had made of 1,200 tiny baby bonnets, to represent the 1,200 babies who died in the female factory from malnutrition or by the cruel conditions, the 300 babies who survived were weaned at 9 months and taken to a childrens home and never given any details of their mothers, I had to leave at that point because all those tiny bonnets were just too much.

I have loved Tasmania, not as much as Great Barrier Island of course, but I will be back as I havent seen enough of it yet. Off to Melbourne tomorrow and my flight home two days later. Previous return trips have filled me with dread, nowhere to live, maybe not enough money and a real lack of confidence in myself. This time I am so looking forward to coming home and seeing all my pals and my Grandson, can’t wait! I really think that the 5 Tibetan healing rights I’ve been practicing have been so good for me.

So, moved from the madness of Ingrid’s House to Treea’s place in Melbourne. This is in one of the classiest locations in Melbourne. The house itself is three story’s and opposite a large park, it was great to stay there and was very quiet and calm, even though a few days before a possum had broken into the top-story room that was to be mine and made a bit of a mess. It had climbed up a very tall tree and in through the window and settled until the Possum-catcher turned up, charged $200 and departed with possum. Treea and her freind Sky are great company and have been really, really kind to both Louise and I.

So I arrived late evening, very tired after my sleepless stay at Geelong, and Louise was turning up at 2am.

We had to share a bed because there was no other spare bed in the house. So still laughing at 3.30ish we turned the light off.    Almost straight away there was a rustling in the handbags, light back on, and two very small, dark mice dashed back to safety.

Had a brilliant day, so lovely to see her, though she has changed since she’s been with her new man and is now more herself than ever - very refreshing!

That night off to sleep again, no night time disturbance, or so I thought, but when I woke Louise said “do you want the bad news?”. It seems she’d woken in the night to find a mouse in her hair - eek!

Next day she was back on the four hour trip to Perth, its a huge country isn’t it? leaving me alone with the mouse.

I cleared everything away from the sides of the bed and during the night I heard some rustling on the bedside table - they were obviously trying to build a bridge across, but didn’t succeed.

The next morning off to Tasmania.

The road from the airport to Hobart is one of the most beautiful I had been on anywhere. The autumnal shades of the trees, lots of oranges , yellows and reds against dark navy mountains in very bright sunshine, with a big expanse of sea(second deepest port in the world -46 meters) in the middle was simply stunning. Hobart itself has a lot going on, brilliant art galleries, a demonstration against the chopping down of the rain forest and two very good charity shops, what more could I ask?

I’ve got a woofing job with the Swanns, so David Swann picked me up after he finished work and we drove the 20 kilometers to their home in Aussie-bush-land. The house is stunning, high up with views over the North bay (ie facing the sun here), one of the loveliest gardens I’ve seen and a beautifully appointed house. I have my own suite with beautiful old iron bedstead and lots of lovely antiques. Outside the door to my room is a living area with a great massage chair, I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying it out already. Jacqui Swann is lovely and here where I stay is very near Kettering (this will impress a close freind of mine) Did quite a lot of hard gardening today, buggered my back - but hope they were impressed.

Here until the 18th, looking forward to seeing all the fabulous native birds, there is actually a very bright red robin, and today I saw a wren with a navy blue tail, there are sea eagles here too. David has promised to take me out with the torch tommorow night to look for wallabies and possums. Its 4 degrees tonight, the coldest I’ve expereinced in a couple of years.

Lots of love to all of you