Laughter Yoga

     Today I had a rather unusual but happy experience.  What had been billed as a Mindfulness workshop actually turned out to be a Laughter Yoga session.

      Laughter Yoga? What's that?  Yoga is all about beneficial breathing (morphing into a human pretzel or other impossible poses are more of an aside) and Laughter Yoga takes it one step further.  There is healing in laughter--natural endorphins and serotonin is released when one laughs--and the body does not distinguish real laughter from forced laughter. This makes laughter a natural therapy and antidote to stress of all kind that builds up in our daily existence.  

    Janni Goss- a physiotherapist, Wellbeing Educator and Laughter Yoga teacher-led us through some exercises.  Clap your hands while saying Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha [much like dancing- Step, Step, cha-cha-cha]  and  (clapping twice) Ha Ha (two thumps way up) Yes   and   do a witch's cackle while stirring an imaginary pot  and    Ha Ha  laugh while tossing an imaginary hot potato to someone else.  Did it feel a bit foolish or forced at times? Well, yes, but at the end of the session it was easy to see that laughter--real or forced--is quite the aerobic activity even if one is seated the entire time. My heart was pumping! (This makes it a good workout at senior centers and for dementia patients.)

Photo: laughteryoga.org

    This is not just something we at the far end of the planet do to amuse ourselves. The Laughter Yoga movement started with five people in 1995 and  has mushroomed into 16,000+ laughter clubs in 104 countries.  There is an international Laughter Yoga resource where you can find a club near you.  Here are the links for North America  and Australia.   Want to sample this experience anonymously and without pressure?  You are in luck.  May 7th is World Laughter Day and public Laughter Yoga sessions are being held everywhere. In Perth, the session will be in Kings Park between 12noon and 2pm. Check the Laughter Yoga International link or your local website for the location nearest you. 

     Laughter is contagious.  Can you think of any other contagion more worthy of catching?

Dining Out in Victoria Park

     Cities are no more static than the individuals who live in them. The demographics change, the main drag changes as do our tastes in food.  Victoria Park, just south of the river that rings Perth, has a rapidly changing face along its main road, Albany Highway.  So many more restaurants are there that one is spoiled for choice.  Don't prefer the current choice? Wait a bit, some of the restaurants have changed owners/styles of food three times in one year!  
     The following current review was written by my own Kev. Not big on blogs or writing in general, he was moved by his own curiosity and research into the various eateries to report on the current state of Dining Out in Victoria Park. (I have made minor changes like proper punctuation, capital letters--that sort of thing.)

Well, looks like Vic Park is trying to go cosmopolitan (for Perth that is). There has always been  a unhealthy choice of restaurants here but now the choice is getting more exotic.


When I got here there were the usual cheap Chinese and Italian  & a few pizza places, the local kebab shop, a couple of Indian, as well as a few other Asian  ones like Thai, Malay, Viet and one long standing overpriced Mexican (plus the pubs).


But now there is an explosion of choice, Nepalese, Japanese, vegan, a few other Asian but most of all Korean. We seem to be little Seoul here. there has always been a bulgogi place (that is only open half the time), but now there are about five , complete with hot plates at the table so you can cook it yourself (seems to defeat the purpose?) and exhaust fans for the smoke (doesn't work but it makes it really high end??). There are about ten Korean shops of one sort or another so Kimchi  and gochujang are readily available. Also all the bottle shops have Soju on sale, and the odd Korean Beer. I did try Soju with my friend Wally years ago, Wal wrote it off but I was prepared to give it another go. So in Korea I tried a few and different flavors ( pomegranate- cough mixture, blueberry - Boones Farm (cheap US rotgut), peach - not so bad) at best it was  cheap and not so nasty. The only good thing is it comes in small bottles, The Wal was right , I notice in Korea they would drop a shot of Soju into their beer, would help improve both.


The Chinese Restaurants have gone high end as well with the hot plates and exhaust fans and specific styles or regions to choose from  (A lot of Asian type restaurants have a short life span, particularly the Chinese, only the Chinese can see the snob value). But also there is now other types sticking their plates in. A Eritrean (same as Ethiopian) restaurant set up shop a few years ago and is still there, probably as there is nothing else like it, I get a take away occasionally.


Also unexpected (and a bit silly) is a "traditional American Tapas Bar". Yep, you can get a selection of sliders and mini hot dogs with your favorite bourbon, just like in the USA???. I went in and asked over a beer (Estrella, a Spanish beer!) and they confirmed it. 


Across the road from the Eritrean is a cuisine I never though I would see anywhere, particularly here, Silk Road Uyghur (WEE-GAR) restaurant (the far west of China, Muslim, splitists), more central Asian than Chinese. I had to go opening night (before it closes) and had the saltiest dish possible.


There is also a place just off the main drag for pop-up restaurants, a Peruvian place had a few goes there. There is also a Venezuelan in Perth doing well, although it is more street food than mains (and rum). Other Asian attempts and a regular at the pop up has Japanese burgers and rice???. One restaurant that started there has now moved onto the main drag (into a place vacated by a flash Chinese place) is a Caribbean restaurant, had to try it, particularly for their proper (AKA not Australian) Rum selection and buckets of Cuba Libra for $17, the chicken jerk was a bit bland but they have a gluttony challenge off which I had a front row seat, to watch some man try to eat a burger the size of a leg of lamb, plus chips etc,.  He failed. He was filming himself and was referred to as a pro at this. No one has done it yet (around 50 attempts so far, it's free if you finish.)   


Will have to go back for the goat curry.

     He'll be going to that goat curry without me.  I wrote up on the Silk Road Uyghur restaurant after that visit. (Click on the link to read.)  
     And now that you see that the selection is impressive, feel free to skip Subiaco's standard selection or Fremantle's Cappuccino Strip and come to the very friendly Victoria Park gastronome experience.

Opera In The Park

     My mother is a huge fan of opera. Youthful memories of opera programs on the old Grundig radio with the volume turned up full blast while Mom ironed clothes are easily summoned. And for a few years when we were old enough to sit still but not old enough to rebel, Mom would take some of her younger kids to an opera matinee annually to raise our appreciation of the arts. 
     Didn't she know that our art consciousness was being raised every Saturday morning while watching Bugs Bunny cartoons?  Mel Blanc must have been a huge fan of opera as some of the more memorable episodes featured operatic numbers.  What about TV commercials?  Pasta commercials would feature some Italian favorite aria on occasion.  And a true American commercial advertising icon, the No More Rice Krispies ad, cemented at least one opera song into the minds of even the least cultured among us.  [Go ahead, click on those links to enjoy these old favorites yourself.]  
     Wisely, Mom picked operas that were sung in English and contained a fair amount of comedic relief.  And all of us were amused by 'young lovers' portrayed by some two-ton Tessie tiptoeing coyly behind a trellis while her eighth of a ton beau bounded after her.  We sat, we saw, we survived the cultural indoctrination.

     Fast forward to the Opera In The Park, a 50th anniversary gala performance of the West Australian Opera company last night. [50 years! Perth is not a fishing village, thank you.]  It was the annual free concert held on the Supreme Court Gardens, a huge grassy area lying between the Swan River and the skyscrapers of the central business district. Simulcast to country towns that have limited access to opera, there are also large screens for the huge crowds to get a close-up view of the action on the stage.  Being a "gala", many people dressed to the nines or in costume...to sit on blankets on the ground.  I missed this rare opportunity to wear a sparkly sequined cape and fascinator. DRATS.  The capacity crowd makes one wonder: is opera (or opera curious) this big in Western Australia?  I think the "free" tag brought in more than a few thrifty souls, but that's OK.  People can nibble at the product for free and then maybe want to take a bigger bite by buying a ticket to an upcoming season performance.
    

Opera In The Park Instagram

     The program was a predictable mix of opera's greatest hits and this is OK, also.  People may not recognize the name of the piece but may certainly recognize the tune (thank you, Bugs).  For those keeping score, some of the line-up included: Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Carmen's Toreador Song, Il Trovatore Anvil Chorus, the Lakme duet, Tosca and Turandot's Nessun Dorma. The latter I've heard so many times I can sing it myself. The featured singers did  a fine job on a cool night and the chorus was as diverse as the audience.  Opera has moved away from the bigger-is-better mentality but the cameras couldn't hide the ages of the 'young lovers'  or what must have been some of the original chorus members.  And this too is OK. What was onstage reflected what was in the audience.  A nice touch was the encore, "With hope in your heart...you'll never walk alone" by Rogers and Hammerstein.


     And my annual arts appreciation commitment fulfilled, Mom.

 
 

Smooth Transition of Power

Donald Trump takes Presidential  Oath.  c.Getty Images

    Today's images and rhetoric about the inauguration of the 45th US President Donald Trump brings back the same memories and thoughts that every other presidential inauguration has.
    There is always talk of a  "peaceful or smooth transition of power". I always thought this rather odd  as if anything else has or could have happened. It has always been this way every time my young self mused. This youthful 'Duh'  response got its answer as I looked around the world and saw that not all transitions of power were easy and without mayhem. The outside world gawks at this docility (we're talking the inauguration here, not the less docile campaign seasons) while their own leadership eviscerates their opponents verbally, tactically or in more bloody ways. This smooth transition of power is still my expectation and it finds me gawking at all the rest of leadership transitions.
    In Australia, it seems Prime Ministers change more often than toilet rolls in an outhouse. A party is, in reality,  elected and if the current PM loses favor or is the object of some backroom political jostling and intrigue he/she can be replaced by a simple party vote. OZ had five PMs in five years--need I say more?  There is not a lot of fanfare going on with the actual hand over of power. My Australian husband is flabbergasted to hear that a US presidential inauguration (pre-, during, and post-event) is covered live  by all of the US television networks. Duh, again. Of course it is, it is a big deal.  In fact, Australian television (The public supported Australian Broadcast Corp.) had the inauguration on live as well but watched mostly by night owls  as the time difference put the event inconveniently in the middle of the night.
    Puzzling to me are the protestors in Washington DC and elsewhere. Celebrities and muckrakers calling for a 100 day protest. Really? And just what is getting angry and staying angry for over three months going to do? It will not and cannot produce change.  At least not any change protestors hope it will. Trump is in. Period. Screaming and burning things are not replacements for vigilance and constructive dialog. So you over-excitable and misled folks: take a breath, grow a brain and take the action that actually will produce results. So much energy so misspent so unwisely.
    Another, and final, puzzlement is how much I look like every US president since Abraham Lincoln. No really, I do. Over the years when traveling overseas or just out and about here in OZ,  I've been constantly stopped  and harangued about 'my' policy in Vietnam, Watergate, Irangate, Tibet, the Middle East, any/all military moves or lack of movement, monetary issues, roads, education, farming subsidies, slavery in the 1850s, etc.,etc., etc. What a chameleon I am to look exactly like whoever is residing in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave!  Or do people think that I am the puppet master pulling the strings of all  political being in Washington DC?  More wasted energy of people barking in my not-like-any-president's  face thinking it will make a difference.  
     And  for the record, I was not on the grassy knoll either.