A Somewhat Regular Blog Series #9

I have, like most of you, been staying indoors recently… It’s super hot now in Dubai so spending May – September mostly inside isn’t wildly different from my last few summers. Of course I miss so many aspects of my normal life (yoga classes, matcha lattes in cafes, seeing friends…) but I’m trying to stay positive and keep myself busy. Maybe it’s an only child super skill but I am seemingly incapable of getting bored or running out of things to do! 

Life In Lockdown

Unfortunately (but for obvious reasons) I’ve had to cancel planned trips to Istanbul and London, it’s really sad to not be able to make these trips and see family and friends in person. I don’t think 2020 is going to be much of a travel year for any of us…

Otherwise, staying indoors is not the worst. I will always be grateful not to be working at my last lawyer role so spending my days at home, turning the living room into a yoga studio, attending online bookclub meetings and generally pottering around is never going to feel like a punishment! Being able to chat to friends all over the world on Zoom has been so much fun – before Covid-19 I’d probably had a handful of video chats in three-plus years in Dubai and now I have weekly catch-ups, happy hours and yoga sessions with friends. The world feels smaller in a lot of ways?

The lockdown in Dubai has been lifted somewhat but I’m not rushing to go to the mall or the salon anytime soon… it’s just nice to be able to pop to the supermarket without a government permit and to enjoy the simple pleasure of grabbing a takeout almond milk matcha latte from Starbucks! Keeping to a routine and making sure weekends still feel weekend-y has been key for maintaining our sanity – on Friday we hopped in the car and picked up a collection order from our favourite weekend breakfast spot, Myocum, to support them and enjoy their delicious food now that they’ve reopened.

A Look Back

It’s been a year since I left my last law firm job! Since then I’ve completed 200 hours of yoga teacher training, taught over 250 hours of yoga classes, relaunched this site, become a holistic health coach with IIN, met so many new friends and stepped out of my comfort zone a million times over! It definitely makes a nice change from feeling like every year was just the same slog of billable hours, eating at my desk and breaking up the boredom with endless ASOS deliveries… A lot can change in a year!

Yoga Teaching + Training

My online teaching is keeping me busy! I decided to offer only private one-on-one classes and do shorter sessions aimed at those working from home during. I’ve really enjoyed teaching people who have never practiced before and coming up with short (30-40 minutes), fun sequences. I’m almost at capacity but do have a couple of slots, drop me a line if you are interested. Your first class is free and I’m keeping my prices affordable.

I had planned on doing further teacher trainings this year and have always felt quite called to working with teenagers and young people so I’m doing my Kids’ and Teens’s teacher training at the end of this month. I’m doing it online (via Zoom, of course) with Move On Yoga.

I am still taking a lot of classes as a student, too! I posted about my favourite (free and paid for) online classes here. 

May Goals

I’ve set myself a few goals for May:

• Branch out with my baking. I’ve made the pictured vegan banana cookies three or four times now (recipe here) but feel like stretching my baking wings… It is Harry’s birthday at the end of the month and I’ve promised a cake!
• Read one fiction book per week. Being out of my usual routine has really disrupted my reading as I find it hard to carve time out of the day to sit and read a book. I really want to bring more reading back to my life and read four books during May.
• Add two more yoga clients. I’m really enjoying teaching yoga online and it’s currently my main income source as I’m not able to teach my usual group classes. Two more clients would be amazing.
• Carry on moving (walking, barre, pilates, yoga – I love anything low impact) for two hours a day (I was teaching 3-5 daily yoga classes before so this level of exercise is what my body is used to) and add a higher impact workout in twice each week.
• Learn more about my astrological chart, I’m good with my sun, moon and rising signs but I’d love to delve deeper into the planets, houses and elements. 

Reading/Watching/Listening

Reading – I am slowly but surely making my way through The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I don’t often read classics and I’m sure that a lot of the context of this is going over my head… but I’m actually enjoying it! Each chapter is an almost self-contained tale within the broader narrative and I love that one of the characters is a giant, vodka-drinking black cat.

I’m a Patreon (/Patron?) of Laila and I’m really enjoying their content during lockdown, the mix of serious and lighter posts on gender, race, astrology, ideas of things to do on rainy days and general updates are a lovely treat in my inbox. 

Watching – Killing Eve and The Tiger King (very late watching this, I’m only on episode three). No explanations needed.

This cute YouTube video by CGP Grey about lockdown productivity. 

Listening – I’ve followed Sarah on Instagram for years and her podcast Non/Native is so good! With a focus on female expats, immigrants and the joys and challenges of living abroad, the episodes are super interesting, very relevant and… last week Sarah interviewed me for an episode of the next season! It was so much fun to chat to her (after navigating the crazy San Francisco to Dubai time difference).

I always enjoy The Skinny Confidential podcast and the quarantine episodes have been so good, a mix between informative, motivating and funny. I am perpetually fascinated by Lauryn Evarts, her life is so entirely different to mine and yet I always learn so much from listening to her.

The Deliciously Ella podcast is releasing new weekly episodes weekly, the episode “Checking In and What We are Loving” had me scrawling down so many notes for podcasts and books to look up.

How have you been spending your time in lockdown? What are your (indoor) plans for May?