Okay, this is crazy: I actually MISSED this blog, like the same way you’d miss a person. I’ve been teaching in Courtenay on the weekend and am just now returning to the regular pace of Sjanz Life, which is to say like watching the lemurs at the zoo: not as manic as promised. My laptop adaptor remains somewhere in the wilds of eBay shipping; pray for its soul.

I have lovely pics of the workshop and of all my wicked awesome experiences but of course like any great diva I gotta leave you wanting more. In lieu of a proper post, here’s Courtenay Blog #1: The Courtenaying, a sampler of all of my favourite things about Courtenay.

10. The fact that some of the links I wanted to post here still say “New Website Coming Soon!” That’s Island time, my friends.

Duuuuuude.

9. A fantastic little space in Cumberland, The Asana Room, where I got to self-practice after we were all done, and I did silly things like Eka Pada Padangustha Dhanurasana and tried wide-legged press handstands against the wall, which I can’t really do, in the spirit of getting one’s ass kicked. Thanks to Catherine and Alistair for having us for dinner. We’ve got some sweet beauty shots of that meal to be posted, stat.

8. <sings> Edible Island….Keeping Courtenay HEAL-THY!

7. Phillips Beer and its apparent ubiquity in all places of both fine and ill repute throughout the Comox Valley.

6. Haven’t been skiing on a Monday afternoon since last Christmas. Was obscenely pleasant to be bombing around w/o little helmetted child-pylons in the way; I love kids but seriously, a big train of those little suckers snowplowing their way through their intro lesson can get wild sometimes. My colleagues in snowery took it easy on a poor East Coaster [that's what they call people who grew up east of Regina] who only has the stamina for 1.5 minute Ontario runs. We got to the bottom of Whiskeyjack and Kristen was all like, “That’s the fastest you’ve been all day!” and after I put my eyeballs back into my skull and stopped quaking in my mental rental boots I was like, “I KNOW”.

5. Yoga on Rosewall has provided the space for my last two Courtenay workshops and it is fabulous. It is an Iyengar studio which helps me get on the good foot before I do my thing. I just look up at the picture of ol’ B.K.S. and give him a salute and get down to business. It’s good for me.

4. The pace of that town just works for me; it’s like my breath and my heartbeat just settle and I can be there without strain.

3. The way the good folks at Harbour Air kinda tease you about whether you’re going to be able to get on the floatplane on standby, and then they let you on, and it’s basically half empty. You crazy kids.

2. Maya and Sperling [sp.?] at the Freakin’ Coffee Shop and their excellence at, well, everything: conversation, philosophy, smiling, playing disco in the early morning, double espressos, purchasing vintage furniture, hazelnut soy lattés, &c. &c.

1. Oh man, #1 should so be Tita’s. And it sort of is. But the real #1 best thing about Courtenay, and there should really be some violins for his part, is how many great people I’ve met there. This last weekend, although intense, was so deeply moving and inspiring that I’m still kind of processing it all. Courtenay is one of those places that you blow past on the highway and you think, “Meh, whatever, a 7-11 and a Taco Time” and then you find out that every second house hides a Qi Gong master, or an abstract sculptor, or an heirloom seed collector, or [conversely] some of the most legit country folk I’ve seen since I was a little girl, only like West Coast styles: detailing their teal green Corolla in their yard and drinking Coke Zero instead of beer and with an ashtray but not smoking and with a cat instead of a dog. I will follow this link farm up with a proper post sometime in the near future, but for now I’ll just say: COURTENAY WASSUUUUP <makes fake gang sign>

1 Comment »

April 15th, 2009 Tubing | Heavy Metta Says:

[...] I was in Courtenay this summer, before this blog was born or thought of, I indulged in the arcane and sacred art and [...]

Leave a comment