All's well

I stayed at home as, for once I had no need to go out! Waited for a call from one of my housesits, it came an hour late but we sorted out a few things. Hurrah! Have now booked my ticket to London, and also an.urban retreat in Camden for Easter Monday.  Such a relief to have these things sorted.

I also started planning a writing workshop that I am running next week, and finished reading my book, The Healing Power of Chanting by Nikki Slade. I have to admit that it's not the best-written book I've come across, and the lack of proof reading is atrocious, as is the curious decision to use American English and even explain terms such as 'fuddy-duddy' for US readers. Nikki Slade is British and works in the UK!

Nonetheless, it is a riveting read because NS has had an extraordinary life. Born a year before me, she grew up in the leafier districts of London, but suffered severely from bullying at school. Her family was theatrical, and it wasn't long before she found appreciation for her singing voice and performances. This led to a career in theatre, as well as a growing problem with drink and drugs. She'd tried meditation and chanting, and while out of acting work, she immersed herself in chanting, which culminated in such a state of heightened bliss that she suffered a separation from ordinary reality and began to see her own past lives, and foretell future events. This could either be called a spiritual emergency, or a psychotic episode, depending on one's point of view! Her behaviour at a fashion show in Cardiff,  that she was supposed to be presenting, was so alarming, that she  was sectioned and sent to a mental hospital in 1989. On her release, she found work in the theatre once again, but eventually realised that her true calling lay with voice work and chanting: inspiring others, where they be Romanian bankers, chocolate factory workers, Saatchi and Saatchi,  the inmates of Wandsworth Prison, or the patients at the Priory hospital in North London. So that's what she does now, with considerable fair. The actor Lenny Henry is a fan of her voice work methods.

So hers is the workshop/retreat I've booked at Easter! Exciting! Unfortunately for me it is at a yoga centre, ant also involves yoga, which I've only ever done once!  As I've done Pilates,  it shouldn't be impossible. Did I mention that I am dyspraxic, and Nikki Slade is too? That means we have a unique talent for doing physical tasks upside down and backwards!

Anyway, all this reading and sitting in the cabin, and planning and making chicken kebabs and apple crumble was so exciting that the photos got lost somewhere along the line. My phone is also full up, and playing up. Like that's an excuse, even!


So here's a sunset I've galloped into with PhotoDirector and the grunge effects. Make of it what you will. It's been a gorgeous day.