London, the wonderful Julie Gudmestad and too much heat!

I have just spent a lovely inspiring and nurturing weekend in London, not only staying with one of my friend's, Hannah, but also attending Julie Gudmestad's Applied Yoga & Anatomy course at the Life Centre in Angel (www.gudmestadyoga.com).

Aside from my day trip to Redhill, I have not gotten off the Island (or rock as we tend to call it) since March, so a break was much needed - as much as I love Guernsey, one can begin to feel a little claustrophobic and trapped after a while, possibly a result of the lack of anonymity as much as anything else!

So it was fantastic to be anonymous in the big city once more (even if it was stupidly hot on the Saturday) and I managed to fit in a trip to my Ayurvedic doctor in South Croydon for a much needed catch up and advice about the ongoing saga of my skin since the tick bite in Nepal. As always Deepika was her usual lovely self, full of energy and wisdom. It is a pitta imbalance of course, makes perfect sense. Needless to say been doing/eating all the "wrong" things to promote this pitta imbalance - why does that always happen?!! Sigh!!

So no more running in the sun, no more spicy foods, no more tomatoes and carrots, no more midday sunbathing, no more chocolate and no more lettuce - argh, how will I cope, I eat lettuce with practically every meal, I love lettuce, it is one of my favourite foods. Yikes!! of course this isn't forever, just to find some sort of balance again. Phew. The worst bit is the smelly herbs I have to take for the next 2 weeks, about 6 times a day, it is awfully complicated and does encourage regular eating habits however!

Hannah is an angel and a most accommodating and welcoming host and I was spoiled rotten with lovely food, a comfortable bed, a lovely and hot shower and great company! She has gotten right into her garden recently and it is looking lovely - gone are the days where we tuck into a bottle of wine upon my arrival at her house - this time we were out watering and weeding the garden together, made me chuckle actually. She has this wonderful cherry tree overhanging into her garden, so we got to eat fresh cherries all weekend. Thank you Han, was really, really lovely to spend time with you.

The Yoga course was excellent too. I must admit that I sign up for these workshops and then I find that I get bored as the weekend progresses as I want to practice rather than simply sit there listening to the teacher. This workshop found the balance perfectly - Julie was very engaging, hugely real, truly inspirational and incredibly unassuming and humble. She is clearly a lady who not only knows her stuff, but has had lots of positive results putting her "stuff" into practice in both the physiotherapy and Yoga world. Of course I can't wait to out my new found knowledge and experience into practice.

Back on Guernsey now and the skin condition has kicked off again. I now have 2 boils...talk about excess pitta and fire in the body, no kidding. Quite unbelievable. Saw a doctor who actually made sense yesterday - thank you Dr Beverly (who also practices Yoga) - and so on yet another and final course of antibiotics to clear the infection. All from that tick bite. Not idea, the antibiotics kill all the good bacteria in the body and stress the liver, let alone all the other medication I have taken to numb the pain and the itching. And here I am trying to love a holistic life. Tested? Yes. Still all supports the idea of balance. No doubt the magical Ayurvedic herbs will kick in soon.

Of course being incapable of moving like this does have its positive side - what is it they say about blessings in disguise - means I get to lie around with hot compresses and nurture myself and try and do my bit for the healing process. Also means I have to let others help me (arggh, not so good at that one) and let go on all levels - so what is the recycling needs doing, or we need to go shopping, or the garden needs weeding, it can all wait until another day...how liberating!

Anyhow praying that everything comes to a head...and I can embrace my new relaxed and laid back attitude into my day to day life when I can move again!!

xxx