More yoga in Ashvem

We decided not to travel too far as we were both still exhasted from the course, so we booked another yoga place to stay 20 minutes away… however all was not what it seemed when we arrived…

Arambol

After leaving Sanpoorna and becoming a YOGA TEACHER (blog on this coming soon) myself and Lizzie, a girl I’d met basically on the course, decided to travel north to Arambol, north Goa with two of the lovely teachers we met at Sampoorna, Sue and Jennifer. The journey was really good as we shared a taxi that had aircon (thankfully), we even stopped for gorgeous samosas and Indian cashew sweets on the way.

Moments in Mumbai

Arriving in Mumbai was extremely exciting, we prebooked a taxi through a website, we thought this was the sensible thing to do – and I would recommend others to do the same.

After a long and much needed sleep we headed out in the evening to get some food, using the hotels taxi service, we were driven 25 minutes away to Bandra.

Time for a new adventure

What a year it’s been, I can only describe this year as a roller coaster of emotions, riding extreme lows and thankfully experiencing extreme highs – the highest of all being my mum’s amazing cancer remission news …

This year has taught me that nothing is certain, and that life will take you on a journey whether you like it or not, so you have to learn to ride the wave. Something that helped me work through the anger, pain, bouts of depression and anxiety teamed with spinning thoughts through this time was attending yoga classes.

Bye cancer, my mum’s a warrior

Two weeks ago was a really memorable day for me and my family – the day of my mum’s last (hopefully ever) chemotherapy treatment. It was a day I had spent 8 months dreaming about – telling myself everything was going to be okay and we’d get to this point, imagining the feeling when my mum rang the bell. 

7th January 2019.

You never think it will happen, until it does.

My mum had been ill for a while, something definitely wasn’t right. After countless trips to the hospital, often late at night, various drs appointments she was finally told that she had a blockage and they were going to cut her open and remove what was causing her pain. No one mentioned cancer, it didn’t cross anyone’s mind. In fact she’d been told it wasn’t cancer 6 months prior to this.

The day after the operation my dad was asked to be at the hospital early to speak with the consultant – I naively thought the worst was over. But the worst was yet to come.

That evening my dad came home from the hospital and he made me a brew, he sat me and my 12 year old sister down and his face crumbled as he told us that mummy’s ovaries had gone bad, she had cancer.

Then we waited for my brother to come home so my dad could tell him too. It was like a surreal slow motion film watching my family cry and hold on to each other.

We all cried. It didn’t really hit me properly. I told the people closest to me. I promised my sister everything was going to be okay. We cried some more and then we slept.

The next day my younger brother, sister, my dad and I went to see my mum. She didn’t look sick even though she was recovering from a serious operation. They’d removed a lot of her organs – ovaries, Fallopian tubes, part of her bowel, to name a few. The surgeon was confident he’d removed the bulk of the tumour but there was still some left that needed further treatment.

It hurt, it hurt me so much but I had to think about my mum because she was the one going through this, but it was a pain like nothing I’d ever felt before.

I quit my job which was a sad moment but they understood. And I’ve moved back from London to help and be there for my family.

You realise how precious life is when something like this happens. I don’t think anything will ever hurt this much but I know that my mum, with the family, will fight this and we will all come out stronger.

In the next few weeks my mum will start chemo, it’s going to be a big journey, and there’s going to be really hard days but there will be good days too. Knowing this information is the first step to getting my mum better and that’s all everyone wants.

Note: if anyone has any advice please share, me and my family would be grateful for any extra information at this time.

Your mind matters

I saw something awful a few weeks ago. A woman jumped from a car park and I witnessed her fall. Suicide. I don’t think I’ll ever erase the memory from my head, but it’s a reminder to how precious life is and how important mental health is.

Travel Epilogue

13 friends down to three, four countries, 19 hostels and places, 12 hikes, over 70 ice creams and endless amounts of laughter later and it’s time for me to fly back home.

3 Days in Kuala Lumpur

When we got out of the airport and into our grab cab (if you’re travelling Asia the grab app will be your saviour – it’s like Uber but better) I genuinely thought that I had gone deaf. That’s because it’s incredibly quiet, there’s no beeping of horns every second compared to the crazy streets of Vietnam.

Last Stop In Vietnam

We arrived really late to our hostel in Ho Chi Minh, because our flight was delayed 3 hours. Although we were really happy about the beds here because we have two pillows, a curtain, under bed storage and a shelf (it really is the small things in life that make you happy).