Pilates

23 may 2013

Spring at The Common Park, Southampton, UK

Hoje escutei cedinho no rádio que estamos tendo a primavera mais fria desde 1979. Tava fazendo 12.5 graus celsius de manhã cedo, baixou para 10.5 e agora a temperatura em Southampton é de 8 graus. Que primavera é essa? O dia está lindo, o sol brilhando, mas frio. Ainda ando com meu casaco de inverno, agora com roupa de manga curta por dentro. Como ando parecendo uma estranha no ninho, vou trocar por um casaco de primavera mas caprichar nas mangas longas. Eu sinto frio, saio de casa cedo da manhã, volto quase sempre de noite, e não quero correr o risco de ficar tremendo de frio por aí. Vejo gente de camiseta nas ruas, mas a grande maioria ainda é de pessoas bem cobertas, com casaco, apesar do clima / desejo já ser de verão. Para mim tudo beleza nessa primavera de dias lindos e felizes, e frios. Esse meu registro do frio não é uma queixa. Ele anda bem suportável.

Gostaria mesmo é de falar de uma aula de pilates que tive anteontem, terça-feira. Valha-me Deus, como achei difícil. A aula aconteceu na sala de artes marciais, três andares abaixo do terreo no prédio SUSU ‘University of Southampton Students’ Union’, no campus principal – Highfield. SUSU é um prédio imenso onde acontecem muuuuitas coisas relacionadas a e oferecidas aos estudantes da universidade, incluindo cinema, algumas das atividades físicas e alguns restaurantes / lanchonetes. Lá vou eu, como sempre, quase meia hora adiantada para a aula que seria das 5.30 às 6.30 da tarde. Troquei de roupa no banheiro e vaguei um pouco pelos corredores. Depois sentei no chão do corredor para esperar o povo da aula. Passaram por ali várias pessoas, rapazes e uma ou duas moças, vindos de uma aula não sei de que, usando kimonos. Aí chegou mais uma senhora para o pilates, conversamos um pouco e ela sentou também no chão do correder.

A professora e mais outros alunos chegaram e começamos a aula. A Professora, esqueci de perguntar o nome dela, veio falar comigo só para um cumprimento simpático antes da aula, com umas doze pessoas, apenas um homem. Comecei até mais ou menos bem nos movimentos, mas logo logo ficou claro que preciso de muito treino só para desenferrujar, para começar. No que eu levanto o quadril um trisco acima da cabeça (isso aconteceu várias vezes durante a aula) me dá ânsia de vômito e tontura. Impressionante como esse movimento, e outros, meu deu uma sensação de perder totalmente o controle de mim, de achar que ia cair (como, se eu já estava no chão?), vomitar, desmaiar. E pensei assim: ‘quem vai socorrer esse corpo moreno se eu desmaiar?’ e preferi, quando não conseguia fazer o exercício, sentar e ficar só tentando ‘aprender’ a respirar. Achei dificil até jogar / botar os braços para trás. Eita! Sera que é assim mesmo, eu chego aos 50 anos de idade precisando aprender a respirar? A professora orientando ‘inhale’, ‘exhale’ e eu só pensando que não estava fazendo o serviço da forma certa.

Não consegui fazer muuuita coisa da aula, mas a professora disse no final que me sai bem para o primeiro dia, ‘you did very well for a first time’. De noite tava toda quebrada. Achei muito bacana e a professora é excelente, sabe muito do que tá fazendo. Esse é o tipo de exercício que me atrai, muito mais do que coisa bem excitada e com música torando os ouvidos. É como se fosse um momento bem especial, de concentração numa atividade apenas. Eu adorei o pilates, agora tô torcendo para ele gostar de mim também. Depois da aula fui caminhando para casa numa caminhando animada e aquecida, e feliz. Fiz o trajeto em menos de 30 minutos. É incrível como quando a gente faz o movimento tudo acontece de bacana nessa vida.

my daily fiber

1 nov 2010

at least monday through friday i have this as my breakfast: cereal plus oats plus some fruit plus yoghurt plus milk plus 3 or 4 drops of sweetener. i buy different types of ceral, but more or less around the ones i already know and consider to be digestive and tasteful to me, which are basically the bran and the swiss alpen ones, but i also like the cereals with red fruits like strawberry for a change sometimes. after the cereal i have a nice, warm and fresh cuppa tea. it is the perfect start for my days. then, i walk to uni or to wherever. this start makes my whole body function satisfactiorily. 

at weekends i sometimes vary my breakfast. i then take the time to make coffee and toast with butter, sometimes even a scrambled egg is added to my meal. very good indeed. i like to enjoo my meals, to respect food, and to give each the right amount of time to both prepare and eat it.

sticks and stones

21 june 2010

yes, this was a quite difficult day. i got to the office around 10 o'clock in the morning with a not so immense but still daunting list of things to do, everything under tight deadline and of high importance. this alone sort of makes me feel a little numb at times. i started off the day at the office, as always, with a nice of super hot cup of tea, from the mountains in taiwan these days. then, i had a large cup of water. it does prepare my mind and body for the journey.

i had to check out the final version of the ethics documents to be sent out to the office but decided to work on my course plan instead. i have been working on it for many days now, and also on the other pieces: questionnaires, interview with the secretary of education, and on other minor details. i was so slow and feeling overwhelmed by the papers and books and course plan on my table, plus having to make choices about the content of the course. i am supposed to write down everything making sense, but where was my mind? for a moment i felt i could collapse. i felt dizzy and really, really ill. i had this clear feeling my neck was going to, i don't know how to put it, but that it was going to break / fall to one side and i felt i could barely move. i nearly left the office and came home because of that. i actually planned to leave for a moment. then, i took a deep breath and thought: 'hang on, kalina. you'll be ok, and you need to stay and get your things done today as much as possible'. now i remember i had this neck problem once when i was in tennessee. one fine day i woke up with a very hard neck to one side. i couldn't move it, i felt a horrible, and i couldn't go to work that day. i remember i called the writing center and spoke with rob. i went to the doctor at the uni clinic. i also remember the problem was gone almost in the same way as it had come: out of nowhere. we do the tricks in ourselves. we should as well work on doing the right ones.

thank God i did stay. i took a pill to make me relax and went for a 5-minute walk right there around north and south corridors. i didn't even went down the stairs. the short trip and the deep breath away from the desk made me feel quite renovated and i felt a new perspective was there for me. i may sound very insane for someone who is not in the same situation or cannot understand what i talk about here. i think it is insane to an extent, but basically all my friends are going through all the same estressful kind of feeling these days. we all talk about fear and nerves.

i went on working, slow paced as always, but doing it, and that's what matters. doing is what makes me feel good. the photos with the collage of the little strips of papers are my assembling bits to put my course together. it is weird because i have the course in my mind and it is not a totally new experience, but when it comes to writing a coherent and cohesive piece, with the pressure of the PhD, everything gains a new weight and high level of difficulty. well, i cut the bibliography reference by reference into strips of paper and literally pasted one by one in the draft to the syllabus to visualize some order and balance in the content of the course. i like my method of work. it is very personal, it is like art craft, because i like and need to touch words, to draft, and to go through phases before i consider the job finished. it needs to maturate.

after a while it all made so much sense, and the pain was turned into work only, no more difficulty. i was happy at the end of the day with my work, which has been sent to ros, my supervisor. i also sent other document i drafted yesterday at hartley. we should talk about them all tomorrow morning. the meetings are always enlightening to me. i am stuck in the questionnaire part now. ah, have also sent the ethics documents to the office. help me God.

the day was nothing easy, but manageable. it was good in the end. if we don't quit, the moment becomes one of possibility. i am certain the neck pain and all of the nerves and general 'symptoms' talk about success as well. it a giant tide of emotions, of accomplishment, of moving towards goals, of becoming a grown up. and i think there are little undesirable feelings that come on the way to disturb me. i should always be able to try and understand what is in fact going on, because it is not difficulty in the sense of tough only. it is also difficulty in this beautiful, magic sense of getting life on my own hands. it is empowering, wonderful, and frightening. amem!

film: “Brasileirinho: grandes encontros do choro”

5 june 2010

Brasileirinho - Grandes Encontros do Choro (2005)

Director: Mika Kaurismäki
Writers: Marco Forster & Mika Kaurismäki
Release Date: 23 March 2007 (UK)

Cast
the great brazilian musicians and singers: Teresa Cristina, Paulinho da Viola, Ademilde Fonseca, Zezé Gonzaga, Guinga, Paulo Moura, Luciano Rabelo, Elza Soares, Marcos Suzano, Trio Madeira Brasil, Yamandu

Runtime: France: 90 min
Country: Brazil / Finland  / Switzerland
Language: Portuguese
Filming Locations: Brazil
Company: Marianna Films
Source for info above: imdb

To finish up well a difficult day I decided to stay home and watch a movie. It is the documentary “Brasileirinho: grandes encontros do choro” . the great film directed by Mika Kaurismäki is a pearl among the good documentaries about Brazil and about music. It tells of the beginning of choro, and shows some big names telling stories. It is nice to see the new generations wanting to study and play choro. it wa so nice to listen to the stories and to the fantastic sounds of the music of my Brazil. it might be obvious, but especiallythat day it was super nice to watch the film. if i am not mistaken they did not talk about chiquinha gonzaga, which was a bad surprise to me.

anyway, i was impressed by the young musicians learning from the older generations and much into the spirit of the music. i love Yamandu. i would love to be able to play a musical instrument, preferably the guitar. wish i could sing, too.
*sigh*

domingo no parque

28 Feb 2010

I like to name my posts after songs. This is why sometimes the title of the post's language and the language of post itself don’t match; but, trust me, there is always a meaningful connection between them all.

I went for a nice walk in the Common at about 9 o’clock this morning. When I woke up it was raining, not really a heavy rain, but wet enough to make me change my mind. However, not much later it stopped raining and I decided to go. It was so good. I am little by little becoming familiar with the park. I like it when I go and I see many people over there. There are people of all – all – ages, both alone and accompanied by all sorts of company: (a) dog(s), whole family, beloved ones, little children.

Once in a while it is possible to for us people at the park to exchange warm ‘good mornings’, along with a smile. In this sense there are two categories of people: the ones who greet you and these are the ones I love; and the others who ignore you’re around. This morning something interesting happened: I entered the park at the same time as this old couple did, in a way we walked together with me being ahead of them about two minutes, but I knew all the time they were there. Well, the park has many roads that I can follow and I decided to come back half through towards the road the lead to the Cowherds. I don’t know exactly why I did this. When I turned to come back and passed by the old couple the man smiled and asked me “are you giving up?” I found it so cute. I smiled back to him and said: “well, sort of, but not exactly, just going another way”. Later on (15 minutes later) we met again at the end of the same road, but I was coming a different way.

I believe if I go often and at about the same time I will get to meet the same people sometimes and perhaps make friends. The walking has made me feel very good about myself. I walked for 45 – 50 minutes today.

Once again I need to go shopping for fruits and milk but don’t feel like it. I was thinking I needed it so bad I didn’t have food in the house to eat for lunch. Then I thought it was not possible that I had no food at all. I went to the kitchen and found still some good stuff for my lunch: a salad with stuffed zucchini, hearts of palm, olive oil, and some veggies: Chinese leek, cauli flower, and broccoli. To accompany the salad I had pasta with green pesto sauce, mushroom and a little bit of cream cheese. It was quite good and I still have some left over in the fridge for other meal.

Note: I thought I was going to speak about the walk in the park only in the post. For this reason I did not take any photo of the food. :-)

oh happy day!

1st Nov 2009

oh happy day!!!!

                                             
i was planning to go for my inspiring walk in the Common this morning, but the day came up rainy and windy. i don't mind the rain, i can happily walk through it, the wind is a little problematic. moreover, it was pouring early in the morning, it was not really good to walk in that rain. so, i decided to stay home instead.

i have not even gone to avenue campus yet. i might go later on, but i doubt it. well, i stay home but that doesn't mean i have the whole day free to watch movies and have fun. actually, i am super busy with different materials to read for my research and also materials from the classes i am teaching now. the good thing about staying home is that here i listen to my soft jazz at itunes, from apple. right now listening to Carmen Mcrae. sooo good.