A combination of two GPS systems, two printed map routes, one full size map book, four pairs of eyes, words of encouragement to Jaqui’s car and maybe a few too many u-turns got us to the Bath country house for our Bodacious Bonfire Yoga weekend.
The journey from London was fuelled by celery sticks, carrots and peppers (expertly prepared by Roxy’s other half) and yummy cake (thank you Noras) and a lot of girlish excitement. We were met with warm chai and cake on arrival which left us suitably refreshed for a gentle evening practice. But cake was not the order of the evening, but of the weekend! This was a yoga weekend that was defined by good food and a lot of eating.
It was great to stretch out the cramps and aches from the car journey, and get acquainted with the yoga studio – but we only had time for a quick hour and a little bit of flying before getting ready for supper. After showering and settling in we ate pumpkin soup and freshly baked bread, and ended the evening feeling very content!
Saturday commenced with meditation at 9:00 followed by class at 9.30, a very reasonable start time indeed. The yoga throughout the day was great; a fast paced start to get warmed up that was later capitalised by by inversions and Acroyoga. Headstands, handstands and forearm balances were all worked on, as well as inversions balancing on people’s backs and in between their knees! It sounds strange, but looks great! And some more flying which I really enjoyed.
We also focused on standing balances and arm balances: for example practicing going from bakasana into tripod headstand. As usual – it’s all about the core! Ooouch!
Between morning and afternoon classes we ate (a lot!), dozed (only a little!) and cuddled up with the very fluffy cat Flicker, and enjoyed saunas. Those who like it hot (Vaclav!) were very happy to be in charge of the water bucket and we soon warmed up our winter bodies for the afternoon session.
Saturday evening was a really nice night – we had intended to go to a Fireworks display, but it was cold and dark; we were in the middle of nowhere and quite happy to be just there, after all we were full, sleepy and spent. So with little enthusiasm for fireworks we decided to play board games! We settled on Cranium – a team game involving trivia and word / spelling questions as well as drawing, charades, singing / humming and modelling things in clay. This is what Saturday nights are made for. Seeing fellow yogis jump around like Michael Flatly (Chris), trying to mime a parrot (Stefane) and humming ABBA’s Dancing Queen or Sister Sledge’s We Are Family (Shahana) caused me to laugh to the point of exhaustion. Without a doubt our evening Craniun frolics warmed us more than a Bonfire ever could.
Sunday started with a massage for me, great relief for a stretched shoulder I had been nursing all week. I love massages and to have one so easily and as part of the weekend was very welcome!
The rest of the day was spent doing lots of yoga puncutated with eating and sauna. A bit of crazy impromptu dancing to the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling warmed us up for the penultimate yoga session before we unwound with partner massage, our final workshop. We finished the weekend with another big delicious feast. It was hard to leave; the weekend went so quickly, but felt like were there for days and days, and the thought of returning to work on the Monday was hard to deal with. The best thing about leaving was looking forward to the returning.
By Natalie Smith
