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that is a good question! i suppose you wouldn’t know given how infrequently we’re posting stuff these days. we have been pretty busy, what with the summer holidays and all. here are some photos to show you some of the mischief we have been up to.

one night we made a fire on the beach.

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nayou has been very much into making fires these days. despite the stinking heat, we often gather up leaves and sticks from our backyard and have a little bonfire. its nice to cook potatoes in the embers too!

occasionally nayou will wash the dishes for us.

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last week brenda had a big burst of creative energy and our house turned into a giant art project. now we have some new splashes of colour in our already vibrant household!

you live pretty close to nature in sayulita. especially in the summer, all kinds of critters and random animals come out. we’ve been seeing fireflies, iguanas, hermit crabs, minnows, the occasional horse and loads of centipedes. check out this bright green guy nayou caught.

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some evenings once it starts to get cool we go down to the plaza and hang out. you can usually find someone you know there and just chill for a while.

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nayou and i have slowly been filming more footage for our next documentary. its going to be about food and cooking. our good friend narayani showed us how to make pizza dough from scratch.

the last time we lived here back in 2010, we came very close to buying some land that is part of an eco-community called tierra luz. we ended up taking a rain check because the project was in its very early stages and we just weren’t ready to commit. since then, the members of the community have done some amazing work on the land and it looks really nice. we’ve become good friends with the managers of the community and are very excited to see where they are going to take it. here is nayou having an explore on the property.

IMG_4284 IMG_4285oh, there was a children’s festival on the beach somewhere in there. brenda set up some really cool games for the kids.

IMG_3877 IMG_3878and i taught a yoga class for the ninos. i wish some of the adults in my classes would show the same level of enthusiasm!

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here is some gratuitous cuteness to finish off the post. till next time!

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three months. thats how long we’ve been in sayulita already. the busy season is over and the whole town is taking on that tranquil, sleepy feel as summer approaches. its a nice change from the busy vibrance of the high season, although it is getting pretty darn hot. we have tentatively set our departure around the end of june, which is close to the time our visas here expire anyway. its weird to think we’ll only be here two more months – i feel like we could easily stay for much, much longer. we still have no idea what is next for us. i think its time to start putting out some feelers to see whats out there… we shall see!

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we have been busy with all sorts of small projects, but things are winding down. i’ve moved over to a lighter schedule with my yoga teaching, and this friday is the last farmer’s market for us. i’ve also been helping out people here and there with computer stuff in exchange for massages. still haven’t cashed in on any of my services yet, but i am so very much looking forward to being kneaded and pounded by some incredible body workers!

i landed a semi-regular yoga teaching gig at this incredible retreat center called haramara. it is a big honour for me to teach there because it attracts world class teachers that really inspire me. i was rather nervous for my first class, but once i got into the groove of it it was ok. and i guess they like me because i’ve been invited back several times now! the retreat is located just outside of sayulita in a big area of gorgeous jungle. the two yoga spaces are straight out of a magazine. the photos below hardly do it any justice, but if you are interested there are some more online here.

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somewhere in between everything we also started a semi-regular cultural gathering to promote community and raise awareness on a variety of issues. our friend nathalie has a gorgeous gallery space that she wanted to open up, so we organise the events and she gives us the space. so far we’ve only had one event where we screened the documentary “waste land“. it was a small turnout but really mellow and fun.

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i think the next one is going to be on wednesday. we’ll prob do another screening since its easy, but we have lots of ideas about other things we could do (yoga, art, slam poetry etc). if you happen to be passing through sayulita and you have something to share, get in touch and we’ll make it happen 😉

we’re still building lots of lego creations too:

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the humble pom-pom has been taking sayulita by storm lately, with all kinds of shapes and sizes popping up in storefronts, on bikes, bags and even in people’s hair! brenda has been making some great ones for the house and people are noticing. the other day a bunch of friends came over for a pom-pom party (potentially the world’s first ever pom-pom gathering?).

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the ladies got hooked up with some beanies that brenda made, and now those beanies have pom-poms on them. the beanie on the left is headed to nepal next month and should get some good use 🙂

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nayou has been into watching youtube videos lately. its amazing how much random stuff is out there – lego reviews, lego stop-motion movies, video game playthroughs. i always wondered who bothered to watch all that stuff, and now i know! one of nayou’s favourite channels is evantubehd. its run by a nine year old and is full of toy reviews and other random things that young boys would be into. sometimes he likes to bust out his digital camera and do his own little videos:

some more cuteness from brenda’s ipod:

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i finally got around to editing some video off our cameras as well. its a hodge podge of random clips but hopefully it will entertain you. enjoy 🙂

 

 

there has been a slow burn of house-related activity in between my yoga teaching, our weekly stall at the market, and chilling at the beach. our favourite space to hang out is just outside the backdoor, where there is a palapa and a nice patio. brenda has put up a swing and made it a more festive place to be with cushions and tables and whatnot. here is nayou with his friend maximo (both obsessed with star wars).

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as i’m typing these very words, this is what is happening right behind me:

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we found an old plastic piggy bank in our backyard. so we spray painted it hot pink!

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oh, and guess who we saw on the beach? well, this was our second reunion but this time i remembered to take photos. rocky has a bit of a crazy look in his eyes because i had a stick in my hand. still as beautiful as ever, and packing some more meat on his bones too!

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nayou loves him some bouncy castle time. good thing there are plenty of them around town, including one in the plaza that pops up in the evening.

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little chappi is doing well with us. we took care of his fleas and his coat is all shiny and awesome. he’s a little more feisty with other dogs and people now but still so mellow in general. we had him snipped today so the por guy is comatose while the anaesthetic wears off. ouch!

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chappi’s story is that he belonged to this old couple in sayulita. they used to have him to catch chickens but then tied him up to a tree and fed him occasionally after the chickens were gone. so he wasn’t exactly neglected like some of the other dogs, but the owners were planning on dropping him off in the jungle somewhere because they didn’t want him anymore. so it was a good time to foster him.

he is super smart and likes to make sure our little tribe always stays together. old habits die hard though, and when he is off leash he runs away and eventually makes him way back to his old home. so we still keep him tied up when he’s at home which he doesn’t mind. we’re slowly going to wean him and see how he does. in the meantime, he is getting lots of walks as we take him everywhere with us.

these branches are nayou’s sunbrella.

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and some nice photos brenda took of things around our neighbourhood:

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i love this sign! so random.

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when its cloudy and windy with no waves, its time to fly the kite.

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… and do yoga on the beach.

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nayou came into the yoga room while i was doing my practice yesterday and followed along with me for a good ten minutes. it was so cool. i was trying so hard not to look at him but it was pretty much impossible. too cute! he’s got a pretty mean warrior a 🙂

first up, check out what brenda found lurking under nayou’s lego box two nights ago:

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this isn’t our first encounter with scorpions. when we used to live here back in 2009 we found the occasional one in our old house. they don’t move very fast so we just catch them and put them in the freezer. they’re in permasleep by the next morning. luckily their stings aren’t fatal, although they still hurt like hell. if you have chickens around they will eat them all but we don’t have any in our neighbourhood. just gotta be diligent, i suppose!

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brenda made matching beanies for herself, nayou and our friend liz. so cute!

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we took nayou to the fair last night. he had so much fun on the bouncy castles and this mammoth trampoline/maze thing. he was too little to go on them last time around, but now he loves them!

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its hard to think that we’ve already been in sayulita for three weeks already! in many ways it feels like our time here is just starting now. our first week was a bit stressful because there was a mix up with our accommodation. originally we had secured a place for a month through a friend of ours. he was moving out of his place so we were taking over. our friend had told his landlord manuel that a couple with a young child would be moving in. through just sheer coincidence, the day before we arrived another young couple with a child spoke with manuel and paid a deposit to rent his place for a few months. of course manuel thought the couple was us, so he promised it to them. so when we arrived, all travel weary and ready to relax, we found that we needed to find another place to live within a week. oops.

at least for that first week we were able to enjoy an outdoor kitchen and dining room 🙂

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of course as luck would have it february is the busiest month in sayulita so finding accommodation is not an easy task. we got our hustle on the mexican way and drove around asking people if they knew of any places that were available. we managed to find a couple of leads but nothing really jumped out at us. this was even after raising the amount of rent we were willing to pay by a considerable margin. the good news was that at least we weren’t going to be homeless. the bad news would be that we would have to live in a sub-par place for a month and then move again in march.

six days before we had to move out, manuel spoke with us and told us that he owned the house across the street from where we were staying. he offered to show it to us so of course we said yes. he took us across the road and my instant reaction was “uh uh, no way”. while the place definitely had potential, it hadn’t been lived in for over a year and needed a lot of work. still, both brenda and i thought it could be a nice two bedroom with some work. plus it had a big garden out the back which was cool too. manuel knew it was a ramshackle place and offered to rent it to us for very cheap.

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after we saw the house we went to play at the beach. we were discussing our various housing options and brenda hit upon the bright idea of offering to fix up manuel’s house in exchange for rent. initially i was against it but after thinking about the fun things we could do with the place the idea slowly grew on me. when we floated to idea to manuel he was all for it. so over those next six days we had the painters, the carpenters, the plumbers and the electricians in, plus the telmex people to hook up internet. it was nothing short of a miracle to see all of these people come in and get their jobs done in such a short amount of time! not only that but we got ourselves a king size mattress delivered the day we moved in! i’m still on awe over how much sleeping space we have. its so luxurious!

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so our days since we moved into the house has usually consisted of some beach time followed by some serious home improvement time. we’ve become very familiar with the layout of our closest home depot and also made many trips to (and i hate to say it) walmart and costco to get the essentials. its been a LOT of work, but also super fun. and the best part is that the house is starting to look really homey 🙂

here is our messy kitchen. hopefully it won’t be this was for much longer!

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we had a custom wood base made for a day bed we’re putting in. we painted it ourselves and are currently in the process of getting the top cushion made for us. i can’t wait until we can chillax properly on this thing. its going to be so awesome!

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there has been a fair amount of this going on. nayou has been a good help (when he wants to be) with all of this.

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this is the current state of our bedroom. brenda put some curtains in and it really made the whole room so much cosier.

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in between all of this madness we have also managed to get some other things done too! i’ve started teaching yoga twice a week at paraiso yoga and brenda has started a green juice bar at the weekly farmers market. the market used to be this half-assed thing when we were here before but now its a big proper event with lots of amazing stalls. last friday was her second time doing it and she has already been chosen as the star stall in the market’s newsletter!

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we’ve been going to the beach every day. nayou is an absolute rockstar in the ocean, jumping over and around waves like nobody’s business. i bought him a boogie board the other day and he has been catching waves too! its nice to go during low tide as the waves are very gentle but still have enough boost to carry him long distances. i keep on forgetting to bring the camera to the beach but one of these days i’ll get some footage of him doing his thing.

instead, here is a short clip of the nayoubizzle and his friend juan antonio having a water fight outside our house. nayou and juan antonio used to play together when we lived here three years ago. they were reunited today after all this time and picked up right where they left off. nayou started picking up some spanish words pretty quickly too so hopefully this will be the beginning of something regular.

aaaand, finally some random photos from brenda’s hipstamatic because they’re purrrty.

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this one was taken at burrito revolucion’s new location. its not as nice as the previous digs, but their burritos are still the best in the world!

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last week i turned 34. its been an unusually introspective sort of birthday for me this year, in a good way. a couple of days before my birthday i had this conversation with nayou:

nayou: papa, i’m luckier than you

me: why?

nayou: because i haven’t decided what i want to be yet

it got me thinking about the general perception that as you get older life presents less opportunities to you. there is definitely some truth to it, in the sense that you can’t go back in time and change all the things you wish you could. but at 34 i find myself really happy with where i am, for which i count myself among the lucky. i’ve got a partner i love so much, we have a beautiful son together, i have an interesting job that takes us all around the world and gives us the opportunity to take long stretches of time off. i’ve got a yoga practice that has give me profound insights into myself and shows no sign of letting up. sure life isn’t perfect, but then again no one’s is. and i have to say that i like mine. a lot. what more could i ask for?

skydiving.

yes, the one thing that was missing was a 30 second freefall at 220km/h (137mph) from an altitude 3000 meters (10,000ft). so this year i set out to fix that at the swakopmund skydiving club. last sunday we rustled up a big group of friends and took turns jumping out of planes. it was scary, exhilarating and really really fun!

check out  my “namibia” gang sign! looks like just an outline of the country!

i’ve also received some really thoughtful gifts. the kind that you end up using every day and thinking about the person that gave it to you.

one of those gifts is a super warm blanket from my mum:

i also got a big delivery of japanese food from my parents, plus another one is on its way from aya. we’ve already made a significant dent in the food stash. i’ve been missing those japanese flavours since we got here. hana has made something for me too so it looks like this is going to be the birthday that keeps on giving!

brenda and nayou got me a brand new backpack which was very much needed, and a massage. oh, and these beautiful works of art which now adorn my office:

thanks to everyone for all of their presents, well wishes and good vibes! its been a really nice birthweek 🙂

oh i know its been another long drought for our blog. not that there hasn’t been anything going on, but with the shoot in full swing its hard to find the time to do any posts. i wisened up and brought a couple of photos into work with me so i am throwing them up here on my lunch break. woot woot! i’ve got a bunch more from a camping trip we went on last weekend which i will get up here asap as well. in the meantime here are some snaps from around the way.

 

we’ve been having a grand old time this past week, despite me still catching up on sleep and getting over the obligatory post-movie cold. brenda has been amazing getting me back to my normal energy levels. i’m still a bit sniffly but i can tell that i’m going to feel amazing tomorrow. yippee!

here are some recent snaps.

i started drinking coffee again during the tough times at dr. d. now i’m completely hooked again. it doesn’t help that the best cafe in kings cross is close by. and run by some friends of ours.

an impromptu bath outside (the neighbours must think we’re crazy!)

… quickly degenerated into a mud pie factory!

today we spent the morning at boy charleton pool, probably the nicest public pool ever. just look at the view! nayou’s become a much better swimmer since i last saw him in a pool.

we practiced our handstands there as well. this little boy is super strong!

while i was out running errands this afternoon, the rest of my family was having a body painting party!