“Oh, I do like to be beside the Seaside! “

Saturday 1423 - 20th April 2013

Hello everyone,

Today I could have written about the demise of Margaret Thatcher and how her death and the type of lavish funeral she was given has divided the nation again; in death just as she did in life.   In fact I’d intended to and if I did get started I’d be writing rather a lot!,  but then I reminded myself that this blog is about what I do on the rest of the Saturdays I have left, not just what I’m thinking about so here’s what I did today.

Yesterday I noted that the weather forecast for today said it was going to be calm, sunny and even warmish later on in the day. Now taking advantage of this was not to be missed because here in England it’s been a long, cold and mostly grey winter; enough to get even the most optimistic of people feeling down. 

So in my determination to enjoy the weather I decided to get up at 4.30 a.m, ( yes I DID say 4.30!) to drive up to a “local” beach to catch the early morning golden light. Local is about  and hour and a half away.  I arrived just after 6 and didn’t see another soul until nearly 7 when the fisherman and the bait digger?? arrived . It was wonderful, not least because as a Social Worker I deal with people all week and sometimes at the weekend I just like to be alone with my camera.

So no more talking,  I hope you will just enjoy the photos and imagine the joy I had as I was soaking up the sun ( it was still quite cold) listening to the gentle lapping of waves on shore and the calling of gulls. Being in nature is food for the soul.. It was heavenly. 

As John Masefield said – “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky”

If you click on any of the photos below you can see a larger version and can scroll through them all. Enjoy!

A bit about the cliffs from wikipedia - “Hunstanton is notable for its stratified, fossiliferous cliffs: lower reddish limestone, known as ‘red chalk’, which was laid down during the Lower Cretaceous Epoch and is topped by a white chalk layer from the Upper Cretaceous Epoch.”

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Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside
I do like to be beside the sea!
I do like to stroll upon the Prom, Prom, Prom!
Where the brass bands play:
“Tiddely-om-pom-pom!”
So just let me be beside the seaside
I’ll be beside myself with glee

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That’s all until next Saturday. I hope you get a chance to go to the seaside soon :D

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You can find my photography blog Photomania here I hope you’ll pop over and take a look if you haven’t already. I’m sure there will be more photos from this trip over on there.

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Free-form Dance and Meditation – what a great mix !

Saturday 1424 - 13th April 2013

This Saturday was a busy one and I had planned to go out in the evening with my daughter, but I was very tired and didn’t really feel like going. This is where this blog comes in and was one of the reasons I started it because when I have in my mind to do something new, to both experience and write about, I am way less inclined to rather lazily think I won’t bother. So on this occasion I DID bother and I’m very glad I did because I had a really great time.

Way back in October last year I wrote about The Buddhist Centre in Cambridge where I was learning to meditate.The post was called “An Oasis of Calm in all the Madness” and you might like to read it here. .

The centre has been hosting monthly events by Danceitation, a fusion of free-form dance and meditation.. Sounds odd?  That’s what I thought but I love dancing and at my age ( big Ahhhh of sympathy please !) it gets harder to find places to dance that don’t involve pubs or conventional clubs.  My daughter was up for it so off we went, though I would have gone alone it was good to have her company.

The night didn’t start too well because this dancing is done barefoot and I can’t do barefoot because of a problem I have with my right foot/ankle so I should have made it my business to find the organiser ( would you call her a DJ ?? ) and explain beforehand that I would need to keep shoes on. Foolishly I waited until we were in the room and then spoke to her which was all a bit awkward in front of everyone but it was resolved and off we went.

The room used was the beautiful old theatre and it was dressed with candles and fairy lights to give a lovely warm feel. The evening was led/DJ’d by the lovely Jayagita Kirkbride and started with standing meditation which helped us all relax and feel comfortable. 

The music was a great mix of east and west, drums and bass and all sorts in-between. High energy club type dances and slow eastern melodies.  You could dance alone or there was an option to wear a white wrist band to indicate that you were happy to dance with others. I didn’t wear one because I wanted this to be a very personal experience; my daughter didn’t wear one either ( we’re not really standoffish ya know!)

We were encouraged to really feel the music with our bodies and move them in whatever way we wanted. It was a wonderfully intense experience just going with the music and I loved it all. It was great fun jumping about to all the high energy stuff ( lots of water was needed !) and dancing more sensually to the slower music..

Jayagita didn’t talk too often just occasionally to remind of us of the breath and to be very much in the moment.. I needed no encouragement on either!  You might imagine that it would feel a little awkward dancing around in a very free way with a room of strangers but everyone just seemed to throw themselves into it.  About half the people had been before the rest of us were danceitation virgins!

There was a wonderful feeling of connectivity dancing with others as even though we were very much doing our own thing there was, as my daughter pointed out afterwards, also an element of mirroring what others were doing and she felt you could see little waves of similarity in movement.

Jayagita very cleverly bought the dancing to an end by slowing the pace right down to a more contemplative one , finishing with the sound of waves which I loved. Everyone was then just still for a while before they gradually started to leave the room.

Evening ended with a cup of Chai and chat out in the reception area of the centre which was again light with candles.. Very relaxing

As 1500 Saturdays go this stands out as one of the best things I’ve done purely for myself and I’ll be making this a monthly routine.  I think my daughter will be joining me too.  If you get a chance to attend one don’t be shy it’s a great feeling to throw off inhibitions and dance; utterly, utterly natural.  You’ll find dates on the website which I’ve linked to below.

Danceitations Facebook Page is here http://www.facebook.com/Danceitation?ref=ts&fref=ts

 and their website is here http://www.danceitation.com/

As ever I’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to comment below.

That’s all until next Saturday. Go on have a dance this week

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You can find my photography blog Photomania here I hope you’ll pop over and take a look if you haven’t already.

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