Thanks for all your lovely birthday wishes on facebook, text, email and on skype. That was part of the beauty of the day. Another part was arriving in Australia. Last year I ended up in Darwin, this year I got to celebrate in Brisbane. I went on a ride on the Citycat, had coffee and cake on a deck at the riverside, worked-out with suitcase & trolley – lugging them between addresses, read a tarotspread, and had my favorite meal: sushi. Have a look:

Australia provides the much longed for opportunity to sit outside in the sun on my birhtday, something that is impossible in the Netherlands – it’s just too freaking cold over there. I have always been jealous of my sister and brother with their respective birhtdays in July and August. Not any more!

A Row of Buddhas

Having the weekend off after a busy time, Graham and I were contemplating what to do. Hearing on short notice that my sister was visiting Bangkok, Graham started telling me how fascinating this city is and about this great golden Buddha that had really impressed him when he had seen it years ago during a stop-over. So we decided to fly up from Singapore to meet with my sister for dinner and enjoy some sight-seeing.

We just got back after a wonderful 2 days over there. We have walked around the city, rode on the bus, experienced the real China Town,

ChinaTown

and saw an amazing amount of Buddhas, from very small 1cm carvings to enormous statues, one a sitting Buddha weighing 5.5 ton in pure gold and another one, reclining, measuring an amazing 46 meters in length and 17 meters in height. Very impressive!

The 46mtr Reclining Buddha

As we really liked the atmosphere of the city, we have decided to plan an extended stay over there at some point to check it out further. Even more so, since amongst all those Buddhas – none of them was the one that Graham had seen before…

As soon as I get the pagelinking sorted out there will be more Buddhas to watch on the 2010 Album- page

No better way to get rid of those blues than to meditate on the magic moments of 2009. What an amazing year… I have created a video so that I can watch them over and over again. And share them with you! Do you like it?

It’s 6am and I lie awake in bed. Have been awake for some time. Thoughts are flying through my head. I feel dreadful, stressed, tired, my head is spinning, tears are stinging in my eyes. SO many things to do, to think off, to handle; there’s taxes and money issues, keep an eye on the bouncing Euro, physical- and e-mail, read up on my niche, listen to this new audiobook – and there’s that other one – confirm facebook requests, tweets to put out, check statistics, branding to consider, finish my video editing, when am I ever going to get to do my Spanish lessons or play on my keyboard, did I put this in toodledoo? can’t remember, the lack of internet connection over the past weeks is taking its toll… And on top of that, there’s the show… only a couple of months, how am I ever going to do that… the tears are flowing now. Singapore doesn’t help. Much hotter than Australia, and a frantic, driving energy. Around our current address there are 2 building sites with EIGHT 12-story apartment buildings nearing completion. There’s cars and high-rise everywhere. HELP…

A few days ago I was seaching my harddisk for a file, and I came across this video of  my skydive. I had just left Namale in Fiji after 2 months there as crew and logistics manager (as a volunteer) at Anthony Robbin’s Life Masteries  and I felt absolutely amazing. Looking at it just now, the memories come flooding back to me: the fun, the beautiful location, the wonderful Fijian people that quickly became friends, the extraordinairy participants, the fabulous crew (previously known and newly befriended), the privilege of working with Connie Schottky and Linda Thomson, the steep learning curve and so much more.. wow, I love my life! And I am eternally grateful to myself for taking the opportunity when it presented itself. Well done me! Have a look and always remember to LIVE WITH PASSION!

Meet the New Me!

2009 felt like an enormous spin. After plenty of ups and downs, going through fears and failures, smoothing out massive uncertainty regarding how to go about spreading my message with comfort eating, it wasn’t untill December that it all finally started to move into place. So much so, that at the beginning of January 2010 I found myself wondering: where am I going to take this over the next 10 years? This needed some serious brainstorming!

I mentioned to Graham that I felt like taking a break from it all, and be on my own for a while to gather my thoughts. When a few days later Graham got invited to fly over to London on a job, we both celebrated the window of opportunity that was opening up.

With that in mind, I spend some time seaching the net to find a silent retreat somewhere. Feeling frustrated when nothing interesting turns up, I leave it for a couple of days. Then, out of the blue, a housesit request for Sydney appears on the site, and in a nice neighbourhood at that; exactly for the time span that Grahama is going to be away. As soon as it is confirmed, I decide to have my own silent retreat there, combined with a physical cleanse.

Arriving at the house, my jaw almost drops to the floor. The lady of the house turns out to be a painter/photographer, and the house is literally stuffed with art books, poems, paintings etc. etc. Her studio upstairs, that also houses the guest room, has two glass walls overlooking the entire neighbourhood, and looming in the distance is the outline of the Sydney Tower. What a perfect place for my goal!

From the next day onwards, I am alone in the house with the dog and the cat. After vacuming my “temple” and a visit to the health store for veggies and Udo’s Oil, I am set to go! The silence is overpowering. I sit on the bed subcombing to it and feel enormously grateful for this opportunity.

It doesn’t take long before I drop the idea of silence as in “no distractions at all to keep the energy inside”. Cleansing takes time and effort! Only the creating of juices every couple of hours requires planning next to the physical preparations. It doesn’t really matter, I have a great time being on my own. I enjoy the juicing, meditating, walking the dog, having a slimming body-wrap, hanging in the shade on the balcony, listening to music and, above all, letting go…

Ten days later, I have had a complete make-over inside and out. I present the New Me, Cheta Urmila, the 2010-model! I have gained 5 kg of thinness in the process and have a clear picture on how I am going to create my upcoming theatershow in May in the MoonScout series. From this week on, you can read all about that on the femaleXperience blog . De MaanScout Serie in located in the Netherlands, daarom is er ook een Nederlandse FemaleXperience Blog versie.

I have documented my cleanse on video; I am editing it at the moment and will put it up shortly.

After Graham returned, we took the train down to Melbourne, where we will be attending Clinton Swaine’s free Play to Win seminar. More about that later!