Mysore Birthday - thanks Facebook

...while my birthday crept up I was mixing with a group of people I'd known only a short while, in most cases less than a month...I was thinking that maybe my birthday would arrive and it would be my secret...then Facebook intervened and my new FFs suddenly knew it was my birthday...3 sisters for late lunch, with a nice chorus of happy birthdays...then a cafe - can't quite remember the name, for a surprise cake, thanks Kalei!!!

the pic is from the first time I went to 3 sisters for lunch, but it gives an idea of the place...thanks Oden, Frederick, Elizabeth, Alex, Kalei, Lee, Natalie and Harold for singing happy birthday :)

then, when I got home, I was pretty spent from lack of sleep, a big lunch, big lassi, big piece of cake...and Hanuman and Simone had decorated my room with balloons and bought me a gift...awwww, thanks to those guys...Hanuman and I then used my present for a couple of games of Carrom, kind of a snooker board game, with 4 players...I'm new to it, so it might be a future blog topic

another night of not great sleep on my birthday :((

but then...

i've been having a daily Ayurvedic treatment - 2 hour hot oil massage and hot herbal packs, my 3rd one was yesterday, April 28th...3 indian guys, virtually no clothes (on me), lots of oil and deep massage. Lee's quick to point out, I think in jest, that it's a bit much for a homophobic aussie like me (only part of that description suits me, I'll take the aussie bit, some of my best friends aren't gay)....besides that, yesterday i felt great after it, really relaxed...then in bed by 6.15, for 10 hours of deep slumber...

my practise today was a bit tight though, but I've settled into a spot in the shala - front left, next to Javier, joined by Lee today. I've been there the past 3 days and I like it...my Pasasana isn't getting any better though, but Saraswati's soldiering on and wrestles me into it every day. touch wood, with all this Ayurvedic massage work, my left knee, which had been bothering me, is getting more comfortable by the day.

there's one blog secret that I've been keeping...Mum, I've got a scooter, but I'm being very careful on the roads. This admission is strategically at the end of this post, but at least I can tell my Mum that I told her...Getting the scooter has given me much more independence...so much so that I'm breaking up with my rickshaw driver, the subject of my next post...