It’s summer
solstice of 2015 and we have the pleasure of experiencing a rare warm &
sunny English day as the Fuller boys & I wind our way down the M3 to our gorgeous
cottage in Devon. George Harrison’s currently on Radio 2 being interviewed
about why people weren’t so receptive of his spiritual sounds on his solo album
‘Living in a material world’ …
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| Castle Park, Bristol |
it’s funny when I was having a conversation only
last night about how the acceptance of spirituality has moved beyond a passing hippie movement & accelerated so much in
our generation. Despite living in a
material world, there exist so many collaborative souls and minds that drive
its creation… and through moments of presence we can start to
understand what’s beneath the fine stitching in-between the fabric.
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| Sake Sesh's, KL |
Today, have
a conscious moment … close your eyes, take a really deep breath and follow it
from the bottom to the top and then alll the way back down again. During this
time of complete chaos as we all indulge in our summers and coordinate plans,
festivals and holidays, it’s so easy to get swept up in the spin of the wheel,
a little breather is sometimes quite nice.
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| Mum & Dad, KL |
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Looking way too excited
at a study sesh with L & D :p |
So since the last post, I found Neverland and didn’t really want to come back… so I
flew to Malaysia, found my bag of marbles and had a groove with my great loves.
It was exciting to see the music scene in KL (Kuala Lumpur) moving beyond
T-Pain and Beyonce as we bumped into many old & familiar faces in Nagaba;
grooving and grinding to deep house with the sexy Australian duo ‘Blondish’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsADwQIk7iw).
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| @ Mr Scruff |
Basking in nostalgia, sunshine and rainforests… studying didn’t
really take priority; so going back to Briz required a little more focus… But my
studious mentality had been swayed a little and when exam period came around,
amidst running through piles of note cards and the odd sunny study sesh in the
park… the vibrations of the speakers called forth and the week turned into a
bit of a bonkers bender… :s
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| Bristol :) |
My parents always said to me uni would be
the best time of my life… and while it was probably not
the most appropriate time to realise this, I started to really feel
why. While it’s not all a walk in the park, the sweet liberation of minimum
responsibilities is pretty special…
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| Portugal! |
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| <3 |
After successfully scraping through exams,
my KL girls C, J & I managed to land ourselves a cheeky trip to Faro/
Portugal in D’s beautiful holiday home with L & J…
it all felt like a
complete illusion, getting on the flight hungover from T’s birthday evening to
lounging around in flowy dresses on empty beaches, wandering through quaint
café’s & seaside restaurants, sipping on ‘Super-Bok’s’ and smelling a
mixture of sun cream and sea breeze with the melodic sounds of Nina Simone in
the background (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Y11hwjMNs) [or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ALJ38LdbEM if you like nicolas jaar's vibes more] .
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| I spy Spain through the fly-shmear |
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| The holiday gang |
Slipping over the border one evening for actual tapaz in Andalucia/ Spain… the sun
set slowly and created a textured sky of rich Spanish oranges, Portugese
yellows and sea blues - proving a stark contrast to the lines of beige, uniform
houses.
Due to the warmth and countless vineyards that attracted masses of tiny
black flies, our windscreen was continuously coated with their last remaining smears,
of which the wipers did not help at all..
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| Faro :) |
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| T's birthday night :) |
We were treated to dinner that evening by
D’s mum and after accepting another drug-induced
loss of one of my favourite possessions L my
senses were quickly distracted by the little clay dishes of tapas that were
slowly placed on the table (I can’t say I was ecstatic about being a vegetarian
as I tried to avoid the mouth watering aroma of calamari and chorizo). I love
the leisurely elegance of the Tapas culture, it’s kind of the Spanish
equivalent to Chinese Dim Sum … one meal can stretch out for hours as you pace
yourself, slowly enjoying each dish, processing the individual flavours as
opposed to the short duration of gobbling down one meal. Each day lazily merged
into the next and the excitement all got too much for my immune system as my
nose started to stream and I blew my way through all the loo roll in the house
:s… With a departure time being our only limitation, we split into two cars and
made our way back to D’s place in Cascais near Lisbon … I was the first to fly and as I stood in line waiting
to board the plane on my holiday high, I somehow ended up in a very dark
conversation with the woman standing next to me… she happened to live close by in
Bristol on the notoriously dangerous ‘Stapleton Road’ and as the line shortened
she proceeded to describe her awful situation; from a twisted background with
no family support, she got glandular fever, ended up with M.E (best described
as chronic fatigue that’s not clinically treatable) and winded up in a council- appointed room
with no windows, getting repeatedly stabbed by her drug-crazed landlord… The
plane ride spun me into a whirlwind of thoughts ranging from the degree of my
naivety to being thankful for my circumstances.. It’s fair to say my holiday
high was grounded pretty fast :/.
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| Love Saves the Day! |
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| The Love bus :) |
It seems despite however much travelling I
do, I still manage to make every trip by the skin of my teeth; After a delayed flight, I rushed from
Stansted airport (bloody nightmare to get to, I don’t recommend it) to Victoria
coach station, to get back to Bristol & catch the last few hours of the
fundraiser at the Full Moon for St. Pauls Carnival… With 5 minutes to spare, I lugged off my
backpack with far too many clothes and looked around the station where masses
of people were waiting for their buses that had been delayed by 2 hours… my
housemate T. had just arrived back from France and we ironically landed
ourselves on the same bus home, with lots of stories to share. One drunken evening
& a dirty kebab later, I awoke to V. sprawled face-down across my legs and a
crowd of boys in the garden as everyone prepped for the next 2 days of
Bristol’s annual ‘Love Saves the Day 2015’ in Eastville park – after a much
needed chill sesh, I slid passed the lines of people & through the staff
entrance to the main stage, where Groove Armada happened to be performing – mm
musical ecstasy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgCLURcZUuw). In return for free tickets I worked a
3 hour shift each evening, which wasn’t too bad until we were given the task of
stopping drunkards pissing off the side of a steep gorge… my lack of
assertiveness didn’t do me any favours but the policeman on horses thankfully
joined our side (as I hurriedly placed the spliff back into my pocket)…
The highlight of day #2 as I walked past
the roller disco and let my head swing back to feel the last warming hours of
sun on my face, was opening them in front of a slightly aged but oh so
memorable Horace Andy, as he sung those lyrics we all know and love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHTAu4In70). A fun & grimy night in
timbuk2 followed, with a few of the boys who were taking the last tokes on the
benders ends.
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| Boys, out. |
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| The last recital :) |
Boxes of dominoes, movies and clouds of
smoke later, my 7am alarm shrilled (a few days too early) and the working week
began. Smashing out 11 hour shifts for the weeks ahead, I crawled my way back
into bed at the end of each day waiting for the last blanks on my time sheet to
be filled. And sure enough, the time came around and I was rushing past Colston
Hall with a few minutes to spare, on the megabus to London for another whimsical
adventure with M, J & T. Arriving just in time to catch the magic of T’s fingers speeding up and down
his bass as he performed his last jazzy music recital in the steamy room that
was a like a hypotonic cell ready to
burst. It was magic seeing my best friend complete the next stage of his
journey, we sat, in our element, surrounded by flowers in the nearby park and
laughed together at the absurdity of life.
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| Sexy Kitchen Party.. |
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| Fish n Chip madness |
3 days whooshed by and after another
gloriously drunken night at Gordon’s Wine Bar, it was time to reunite with my
Peter Pan family and return to neverland … in Brighton? 60 people chair-sharing
at a tiny Fish n Chip restaurant with frazzled waitresses weaving in-between
the excited crowd. The Captain lead us into the grimy delights where we were
met with cages, red velvet and chef hats? Haha, we raved away in a converted
Swingers Club and come 7am, followed Captain H. to brighter skies as we drifted
sea-ward with speakers and sunshine and the rave continued amongst bottles of
Champagne on a secluded section of Brighton Beach (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8w5brfBqEM); roping in strangers, children and the most curious of
characters on their way to work that couldn’t resist a little boogie to the
funky sounds. When the generator conked out, we all flew away, quickly sipping
on a cuppa and alongside my fellow bristolites, deliriously managing our 6-hour
journey home.
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| Bringing Sexy to Brighton Beach |
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM) From one to the next (with a few deep breaths of the wrong stuff inbetween), our last ‘Secret
Garden Party’ became a scrambled success, despite special K interfering
with the BBQ’ers ability to cook the burgers :p … But A. kept the tunes going
and the sun remained on our side, highlighting our patchwork garden of
colourful hippie sarongs. Monday became Thursday and with much appreciated
help, I was moving my life out of my room, rubbing off the last of the blue
tack and stuffing everything into C’s tiny white car… the last few minutes
approached… We hugged out our summer goodbyes and A & I made it to our
coaches on time (I sat down, felt the hum of the engine & realised I had 3
hours to go with no water and a salty Indian take-away) so with a gentle sigh,
and images of water bottles floating around in my head, my eyelids drooped into
oblivion… opening with a weary freshness in London where my beautiful family was
arriving in a similar state after a long plane journey from Malaysia… time for
a little breather as the spin of the wheel slows a little and we all enjoy some
much needed t.l.c J
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdiRhzTsSnk)
Happy Solstice <3
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| @ Our family cottage in Dev :) |
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The party don't stop
M, C & J's joint 21st/50th 2015
<3 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lA
The restaurant Can Cires was sweet; typically Spanish, quaint and rustic. As R and I waited for the owners wife, V to appear, a bright green parrot that was perched on the top of a chair looked at us with its beady red eyes incessantly repeating 'hola, hola, hola'. Bloody hell, what was I doing having a job interview after a session, I covered my head with my hands and took a deep breath. V came over to us and sat down; thankfully, she spoke English so half the pressure was off. I told her my story and she explained her vision. She wanted to bring the community together and create something different with the space but she needed someone to help create it. She showed us the beautiful, new outdoor yoga studio in the back garden with a view of the pine forests; a light breeze blew through and the cry of crickets began. We sat down on a wooden bench and began brainstorming ideas about holding yoga classes, workshops, talks... R mentioned that I loved to cook, the seed was planted and suddenly we were talking logistics of how to host an Indian themed dinner for 30 people... in one weeks time... what!? We left that restaurant 40 minutes later feeling completely baffled and overjoyed. That went better than expected, I thought. A creative opportunity to teach yoga, bring people together and hold creative events!? Yes. Manifestation: the process of giving energy to your dreams and turning them into your reality. It is a beautiful thing. 
As we walked home I felt grateful; the heat didn't matter now, the nerves had gone and the calm was setting in. We walked passed a small opening in the pine trees and I held R's hand and lead him through the gap into a clearing in the forest. The floor was covered with a bouncy layer of dried pine needles. We lay down and looked up through the circle of blue sky above our heads. I could feel the special quality of this island, it is built on crystal rock after all... I get the feeling that it has the effect of amplifying your intentions and I was learning to just be patient and let it happen. I was no longer in the rat race and things flowed at a different pace now, it was OK to slow down. The branches of the trees swayed lightly in the breeze; after being vertical on the tarmac road in the heat of the day, surrendering to gravity brought a real sense of relief. I felt like I was looking down on us lying there in the dappled sunlight, surrounded by pine needles; it was like the closing scene of a movie...
After a while, we stood up and began wondering back. Around the last bend on a stone by the side of the road sat a little, old Spanish lady, Una Abuelita. Her face was worn and full of brown wrinkles from the Spanish sun. She wore a simple, blue dress and a pair of sandals and was sat in the shade with her hands on her knees just observing life. What a beautiful scene, I thought. So simple and symbolic of local life here that functions at its own pace and pays respect to the importance of stillness and rest. It was a nice contrast to the non-stop movement of the parties, the glitz and the glamour. There is so much magic to absorb every moment here. R and I have carefully created our space of stillness within the locomotion and we are now diving head first in to the deep blue waters of this Mediterranean paradise. Over the next few days we began to discover what was beneath the surface as we engaged in our first creative pursuit, a night in India. To get there was a wavy journey to say the least but I'll save that for next time...
