Yoga moves....

I'm back in Varkala, Kerala for the forseeable future - at least untill I get a few features placed - and I'm staying at a brilliant little guesthouse called 'Skyline'. It's perfect, management are fabulous, has a gorgeous, shady garden plus yoga and meditation each day.

The yoga teacher Harri is excellent. He's my kind of yoga teacher as he doesn't bang on all the time about being pure ie not drinking and smoking and really pushes the fact you can do yoga and live your life at the same time. Naturally I've befriended him. He's German and hilarous. Used to be a Buddhist monk, will happily talk to me about the fact he was celibate for over a year and doesn't mind my personal questions about the subject either. Fansinating! I won't go into the details but lets just say my jaw has been hitting the floor on a number of occasions.

I offered to add a bit of blurb on the Lonely Planet website forum. A nice thing to do you think - well, yes it is and frankly the more and more I travel the nicer I'm becoming. Shocker I know. Like you didn't think it could improve already - but it has. I've always had the opinon that in general nice things happen to nice people, you get back what you give blah blah and have to say it's true. Before I could write the peice Harri offered me free yoga lessons for a month. How could I resist? And he's taken me under his wing in the sense that if I don't go he asks why. So I have to go every day otherwise I get a bollocking. And I'm loving it. Who'd have thought it eh? but then the unusual and unpredictable is happening to me on a regular basis so rather than fight it, I'm going with it.

So yoga and mediation are now part of my daily routine. I've never felt better....or so I thought until one particular lesson.

We practice yoga on the roof of Skyline - it's incredable. The view is stunning and I have to admit to a certain smugness when I spend a Monday morning surrounded by coconut trees in a balmy climate, practicing yoga surrounded by the morning sunrays. Even the squarking crows sound hypnotic (and I have a fear of birds!).

So there I was, in the middle of my downward dog position, praising myself for my new found flexability when I felt something on my head. Didn't really pay much attention to it until I heard Harri howl with laughter. I looked up and suddenly noticed something dripping from my head. I looked down again and just infront of me was a 'present' from one of the crows. Yep, you've guessed it - I was shate on from a great hight. Right on my head. Crow crap dripping off my head onto the yoga mat. Harri was laughing, I was nearly crying but still holing my downward dog pose - now that's dedication for you...