Week 5 draws to a close

The time is flying by. I am more than halfway through Term 1. The workload is ridiculous!!! There are a number of factors for this situation: I am condensing a year's work into two terms which means that the Solo pieces normally learned and performed at the end of the year must be done now, I have to join the fourth year's for the teaching as the BA class only consists of two students, so I am doing their workload as well as the BA's pieces and then there is the work for the performance with the Stage Troupe for the centenial celebrations! This all adds up to intensive 7 - 8 hours a day of Eurythmy and a total of 14 pieces that I have to learn simultaneously!!! Yesterday we started a piece and then I went completely blank! Just stood there unable to access the file for the piece! My teacher laughed and sympathised. I think she is amazed that I am still standing!!

Sometimes I feel like a Whirling Dervish!

Still doing some great beachtime in the early mornings on the weekend and still loving the Cape.

Here are my classmates:

Shereen, Maya, Elizabeth, Laura, Mynda, David

(Absent Emma)

We have a lot of fun together and you would never think that I am old enough to be their mother or maybe even grandmother! We are classmates and we gossip and laugh and giggle and share.......They each have amazing stories to tell, including how they got to be studying Eurythmy. I am getting very close to them!

Those of you who know him will recognise Peter Smith in this pic with me and Ros. He lives in Germany and is visiting here and we had a wonderful al fresco dinner on Ros's deck. He is such a great guy and it was wonderful to see him.

And here we are at dinner - an that's Kevin Ovenstone on the right!

Kevin has been a great buddy to me since I have been here - he is a really amazing guy and we had a lot of fun and conversation together. He left yesterday for Angola to join a research vessel offshore on which he is employed as a Medic. I now have the use of his car for some weeks!

Gotta go to school........xx



Here comes Monday!

I have to be very disciplined about resting on the weekends. From Monday to Friday I demand so much of my body (and mind) that I have to promise them that they can recover on the weekend. So I dont make too many arrangements and ensure that there is plenty of time for sitting about and having a few naps.

So one way to really enjoy sitting about is to drive down to St. James or Fishoek beach and sit on the sand and watch the water and the birds and the people and the clouds and gaze raputrously at the mountains, behind the beach, around the bays and stretching out on the horizon of False Bay to Hangklip. After some frolicking in the water, it is time to sit again.

Another way to sit and recharge is to go out to the other coastline, just beyond Camps Bay (non-South Africans should google these divine places) climb down the rocks with a picnic bag and a blanket and a good old friend, Patrick, and watch the waves and the birds and the clouds and the rocks and the setting of the mighty Sun.

And then to sit some more and watch as the darkness increases in the dome of the heavens, to observe, out of the inky vastness, the emergence of the scinitillating stars.

Also sitting at the outdoor table on the deck, looking out over the beautiful garden to the valley and mountains beyond, reviewing the weeks' work and preparing for the week ahead. This is a very productive form of sitting.

So here comes Monday and I am ready to twirl.......

The Pics from Millers Point

Those of you who know them - here they are:

Karyn. Me, Candice, Ann, Thalo

Anni and I

Whence went the week?

So its Sunday again. I think that this blog will only be updated on the weekend as from Monday to Friday I hardly touch the ground!

The training is intense. On Tuesday I did seven and a half hours on the floor! Could hardly speak when I got home, let alone move. Sat massaging arnica into the soles of my feet. So it is really a stretch, physically, but also mentally as there is so much inner work that has to go on - and Silke, my teacher, has got the sight to see all that etheric stuff.  But I am not complaining - I LOVE it.

We started rehearsing for the big Centeniall Performance on Friday - met some other Eurythmists who will join us for some of the pieces.

I have chosen two pieces for my Solo work - for Music I am doing a Chopin Nocturne - Opus 9 No. 2 (you tube will play it for you) and it has a form choreographed by Dr. Steiner himself. It is a real challenge to match the form to the music and during my solo time with the pianist, Tim, who seems very Tim-id, I ventured to say "At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I reckon that Steiner was just doodling in the part of the form." Well, Tim gave a great big chuckle, so I discovered that he has a sense of humour and I can work much better with  him now!

For my Solo speech piece I have chosen a poem by Solovieff, A Russian poet, would you believe. I am going to write it here - as I have to learn it and I think I know it now:

To thee, Oh Earth my Goddess, now I kneel
And through thy Being's fragrant cloudy veil
The flaming of they deepest heart I feel
The beat of the world-pulse I hear and hail.

The noonday beams are sending their strong glowing
With blessing heavy from the light-dome down
And in their silent glare, the voices I hear growing
Of freedom-thirsty stream and songful forest brown

The Mystery of Marriage is here revealed, I trust
Between the Earth Soul and the Heaven's Light
And, burning in the flames of Love'd delight
All  earthly pain is blown away like dust.....


Wow!

Llandudno beach is my current flavour of the week. What a heavenly spot.

And here is Patick on the rocks...

I am living in a bubble. Reality is here and now and there is another bubble somewhere holding my other life.... my beloved family.... and friends.....xxx

A Sunday Morning Stroll along the Beachfront

You can drive to Muizenburg and park the car at the station and then duck under the railway line and head for the pathway that borders the sea/rocks/shoreline/beach. The breeze blows the chi from the sea through your soul. The swells of the water crash over the rocks, swishing and swirling, creating amazing energy. Along the way, on a sandy stretch of beach, you can jump into the water and catch some excellent body-surfing waves. Then a quick fresh-water shower and moving on past St James, Dalebrook to Kalk Bay - which has to be one of the most delightful, trendy, happening places on the southern tip of Africa!

Breakfast in a French Cafe up a cobbled side street, an amble along the main road, venturing into shops with enticing wares. Then home again home again...

Today was 37 degrees! Stay in the shade and drink drink drink.....

And here comes week 2.

Saturday Morning at the Old Biscuit Mill

In the suburb of Woodstock, in a disused old mill and bakery, you will find everyone who comprises "trendy, foodie, Capetonians" milling around in two massive food tents and consuming and purchasing the most delicious goodies.

And I wondered around there and had (a good cup of) coffee with none othere than
SARAH and RODERICK!!!

And here they/we are:

So we had a lovely morning together and we all hope that we will have many more together times whilst I am in Cape Town. It was SOO good to see the 'Wakins"....

At the end of the week the fourth year and BA students gather with the teachers for a Review of the week. It emerged that everyone in the class was feeling battered - physically - after coming back from 2 months holiday and diving straight into some serious work. I was really pleased to hear that they were all suffering too, as I thought I was the only one and I thought it was due to my 'mature' years!

It was a fantastic week of Euryhtmy and whilst I am planning to rest by body for the rest of the weekend, I am looking forward to next week.

Will dine tonight with all the Baraks.......

A Millers' Point Surprise

A Millers' Point Surprise

I was in class and the secretary knocked on the door and said that there was a phonecall for me in the office. Huh? "Hello Mynda, this is Candice (my cousin and god-daughter) and I am in Cape Town. I'm leaving tomorrow. Can we meet?"

I told her I would call her when my class was finished. Class resumed and we were then told that all our classes from 11 - 4 were cancelled as my classmates were going to do a performance at the Constantia Waldorf school. YAY! "Hello Candice. Come get me!"

So we had a joyous reunion, a coffee in Kalk Bay, and then she said that more family - Anni, Karen and the kids, were at the beach. Miller's Point is a small, secluded, protected, exquisite beach on the way to Cape Point. And there, tucked behind a massive boulder, were these beings that I have not seen for so many many years. Thalo was in my class in Class 1 - she is now 19! We were all overjoyed at reuniting - I sat blinking furiously trying to comprehend how all those threads came together to create this meeting.... It's beyond me. Literally!

School is fantastic. I am in my element, my bliss, my twirling, whirling, radiating, wondrous bliss..... and my calves are complaining.

Candice will send pics and I will post them.....
Saw my boy on Skype today - he looked so handsome.... Dominique is in Sydney - have a blast sweetheart.

View of Scarborough from Chapmans Peak

The Big Old Pink House

Inside this big old lady, I spend at least 3 - 4 hours a day on my feet, moving, moving, moving. My body is wondering what happened! I move and sweat and sweat and move, and I dont seem to be more puffed than my 20-something classmates. So either I am going to be incredibly fit when this stint is done, or.....

The level of teaching from both my teachers is superb. Silke specialises in Tone (music) Eurythmy and Michelle specialises in Speech Eurythmy. They are world renowned and students come from overseas to train with them. And working with them now, I understand why. So besides the purpose of the mission, the BA Degree, I am enveloped in a wondrous world of learning and experiencing a whole new depth of Eurythmy.

The Cape still mesmerises me. It has a magic that is powerful and beguiling. Hmm....

I miss my family and friends. A lot.

xxxx