Life of a land locked surfer.

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

- Bruce Lee

The life of a land locked surfer girl consists of missing waves, wanting waves, yearning waves and getting frustrated about not having waves. As a Buddhist apprentice (this is my unique way of saying I'm an uninformed wannabe Buddhist) I return to Buddhist philosophy remembering that attachment to contaminated karma i.e. lust, greed, anger, fear and desire are root causes of suffering. Rather than trying to eradicate these from our lives by ignoring them, it is through acknowledging there existence that we are able to find mental peace. 

In other words, stressing about not getting waves and focusing on the fact that I don't live by the ocean, won't help me feel better about being a land locked surfer. 

So when I'm not near the ocean I live my life trying my best to be present and enjoy the beautiful ordinary moments. With this in mind I've been instagramming incessantly my week in pictures so I could create a photo diary on this here blog. 

So without much further ado: 

THE LIFE OF A LAND LOCKED SURFER GIRL (in pictures). 

Its so easy to miss things in life, these are roses from my garden I happened to take note of thanks to my yoga practice, which I've taken to doing out there. How beautiful are they?! 

  

The selfies above and below are taken in one of my favorite places, this is sat up in my parents garden on the rocking chair (supervising Bruh the bunny having free time)! I go up there all the time hence my different outfits, its a small everyday pleasure that brings me much mirth and happiness!  

Meet Holly the cat, she belongs to my neighbors but is often found hanging about our garden. She's another sentient being who happens to make my life a tiny bit more awesome. 
I'm really embracing the veganism these days and have been trying some new recipes. Above is orange & apricot cous cous with dessicated coconut and nectarine. Below is walnut salad with spinach & seed pesto with a couple of veggie sausages. Don't let me fool you though, I've also enjoyed bourbon biscuits and vegan ready made pizza! Life is all about balance so a little of what you like isn't going to hurt you! 

 

A large part of my life is spent with the delectable Mr Sunny the boyfriend, as we're both explorers we love nothing more than jumping in the car and having a mini road trip somewhere rad. Being that he's not from here originally we have a lot of fun investigating the local area. Amazingly this beautiful castle and gardens was a mere 40 minutes away from Birmingham city center! We had a lot of fun on our date day out, climbing the ruins and finding interesting spots to take photos. 

 
 

This is one of my favorite photos of Mr Sunny and I, because it was taken on a really beautiful day in the sunshine (rare in September in England)! 

 

I know, I know not another food picture! Sorry but this has a nice little story to it- its vegan Thai curry that Mr Sunny and I made together, its always something to talk about when a vegan meal goes down well with a carnivore!! 

*Prepare for unprecedented amounts of soppiness* 

I love Mr Sunny with all my heart, these photos were him just being him really! Obviously the gold camera bag (below) was posed but the photo above was him just sitting down watching the world go by...yup he's that cool (makes me look like an escaped hippie vagabond all the time)! He's a massive consolation of being land locked and makes every day amazing- ok, gush fest over!!! 

 
 

The photo above and two below are from around Birmingham city center, I'm still amazed after years of moaning about this place that I discover beautiful areas like this and actually learn that I quite like the place! Wearing my favorite hat again! 
 
 


I couldn't talk about a regular week without mentioning my beloved Bruh Bunny. Me and him are latch key kids ferrying between my home and Mr Sunny's house, he is however the most unflappable rabbit I've ever encountered. Today I was cleaning and happened to put Mr Sunny's skateboard down, which Bruh then promptly climbed upon - he most definitely takes after his owner! 

Whatever your circumstances, whether a sea dweller or a land locked surfer like me I hope you find great moments of extraordinary ordinary in your life. Live it well saltwater yogis! 

Until next time 

Stay strong, surf well

Love

The problem with hard work.

the cure for everything is saltwater.

sweat, tears and the ocean.

Ever noticed how in feel good films when the main character strives to achieve something, the hard work part tends to be a four shots montage? Cue emotional music, scenes of sunrise, shadows against sunset and high fives...

The hard work part lasts all of about ten seconds and voila, hero is suddenly skilled and goes onto win the game/girl/day.

This is no better illustrated in the film Point Break, a surf movie which I admit to loving (despite never having actually watched the end). Keanu Reeve's character Johnny Utah learns to surf in what looks like a day, with the help of gorgeous surf girl Tyler (played by Lori Petty).

This delusional idea of being able to surf in a short amount of time accompanied me to Senegal, where I worked as a yoga teacher for three months. I thought by the end of my stay I'd practically be a surfer.

I was not.

In fact I was possibly worse, because I inherited 'the fear' having had a board whack me in the face splitting my lip and numerous waves hold me under. Surfing is difficult and beginners can often reach a plateau after initial jubilation subsides. I got frustrated and still do. I know the basics i.e. where your feet are supposed to land and that paddling is the most important part, but the consistently standing up part eludes me.

Lets be honest. Surfing is cool. The people who do it are cool and they make it look cool. So you'll forgive me for thinking that it takes ahem *balls, to paddle out into a line up knowing your going to look like a toddler taking its first steps, when you try and catch a wave.

Whatever your putting your heart into it takes hard work and commitment. At the moment I'm not in a situation where I can go surfing everyday, so with hard work and determination I need to/can amend this.

Being a 'youth of today' I can identify with the now culture we seem to have, we want things yesterday. The achievements and goals we aspire to we want immediately, which combined with a recession don't make for good feelings. I've been chastising myself for not having things sussed when in actuality what I need to do is find a passion (i.e. surfing) and work dam hard to achieve it.

If this means slogging my guts out as a dogsbody then so be it, because every stage of the journey leading up to success is important in the grand scheme of your life.

Don't give up kids. Keep on working.

I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work

- Thomas Edison