Dear Donors and Friends and Family, I have reached my goal of raising R10 000 for Home from Home and in 2 days' time I will complete my 50 days yoga challenge. I am flying to London today and I have identified a yoga studio near Fulham/Chelsea where I wil be staying, for my last 2 days. It has been a good challenge starting strong,with injury mid-way and finishing strong. I have learned that I can do yoga everyday, that I can stay upside down for 12 minutes, that I have great friends, that my family was my greatest supporter, that my daughter and wife have enourmous amounts of patience, that you can never underestimate our capacity to do good, that even when your body cannot take it your mind can.
Thank you for your donations, they will be put to good use.
i will make sure to include you in my mailing list for my 60 day yoga challenge in 10 years time... grazie e ciao marco

Yoooo, my body feels tired as the aching echoes across by bones... 36 days of yoga without one day break seems an eternity. On other fronts, I am happy to report that my friend Eros is now joing me for yoga 3xtimes per week. well done Eros.
I am also happy to report that very few people read my blog, which makes my first time efforts as a bloggist well rewarded. And lastly thanks to your generosity, I have alomost reached my fund raising goal
a presto

Yoooo, my body feels tired as the aching echoes across by bones... 36 days of yoga without one day break seems an eternity. On other fronts, I am happy to report that my friend Eros is now joing me for yoga 3xtimes per week. well done Eros.
I am also happy to report that very few people read my blog, which makes my first time efforts as a bloggist well rewarded. And lastly thanks to your generosity, I have alomost reached my fund raising goal
a presto

30 days of yoga every day, with 20 days to go. The official 30 day challenge is now over, but the show must go on. I am overwhelmed at your support and donations. R7900 so far with R2100 to reach my target. Thank-you. And now for an update of the yoga bit. Some of my non-yogi friends think that yoga is some form of esoteric-tree-hugging activity which cosists of candles, a mat, incense, chanting and some time a few stretches, of course wearing flowing robes, a beard (men only) and a turban. They are categoric that Yogis are in fact re-born new hippies which are the direct descendants of the 1960's free-love-no war-smoke-pot tribes. Often confused with Buddist monks and monks in a Shaolin temple, yogis are said to be able to levitate on top of mountains, speak in riddles and able to fight like Bruce Lee. Yogis are thought to be usually women who cannot handle real exercise or men who like folwing robes/beards and turbans. When yoga itself was re-born, it assumed the holy name of pilates which is the american improved version of itself like coca-cola is to wine. My non-yogi friends would like yoga to be declared a sect and its devotees registered as offenders.
Of course, it all true and I invite them to join me in a session to confirm their suspicions...
The point is that the physical part of yoga is gentle and soft...which brings me to lack of understanding of why did my doctor thought that I shifted something in my lumbar area some 7 days ago and requesting i stopped kissing the mat for an idefinite period. Come on! From a few stretches? you got to be kidding!!! Thankfully, I consulted my yoga bible and proceeded to continue my yoga challenge with an emphasis in healing my lumbar stifness caused no doubt by an excess of chanting/candles and levitation. I also focused on areas of my practice that did not cause pain, namely head balance and arm balances. Head balance, called Sirsana in sanscrit, is the king of poses. To achieve perfection requires alignment and cooperation from all of your bones, muscles, joints, teeth, hair and eyeballs. Clearly searching for perfection while levitating on top of table mauntain, I have set my goal to be able to effortlessly stay in Sirsana for 15 min by September 20. I used to struggle to be upside down for 3 mins, I am now at 7 minutes...the objective of arm balances is to impress my 2 year-old daughter and show my 2 boys that while they can beat me in arm wrestling there is still something that the old man can do better... ( sometimes I really scare myself with the depth of my objectives!)
If you have read this blog and want to encourage the writer either to stop writing or to stop wearing flowing robes, please feel free to comment. it would be nice to have your views...

Dear Donors and Supporters, as promised here is an update after 13 days of yoga everyday. I have been to various Iyengar, Asthanga, Vinyasa and Hot Yoga studios across Cape Town. I have also done 4 home practices of 1-1.5 hr. My body feels a bit hammered and I am now starting to wish that : 1. I did not chose to do 50 days but stayed with the programme of 30 days. 2. that you did not contribute so much so I would not feel obliged to go to the mat. 3. that the Charity in question was in support of the "mating habits of yaks in Southern Tibet" rather that a really worthile cause providing housing to individuals in need...in brief, any excuse to rest... :):) just joking!!! I am going strong and have no intention of giving up especially after your contributions. In fact this week, I feel particurlary inspired after the Games and am thinking of inventing a new yoga pose called Upward Bolt or Le-Clos-to-the-Wall or perhaps a slow starting Caster...I will soon post pictures of the man working for your money. namaste.

Update : 7 days into the challenge and all is well. 5 days of yoga classes and 2 days of own practice (with witnesses). My primary focus is to build up my body to the challenge and not having to deal with early injuries. Current niggles include a painful sciatic nerve and an inflamed tendon on wrist. By the way the bachelor's weekend was excellent but unfortunately I strayed in the alchoolic department... it might explain why I kept on falling duirng my head balance/ sirsasana practice.
As I go along this challenge to raise my target (which together with others will look after 6 orphans for 1 year!), I am thinking how can I get some of my friends to join me for mini-challenges eg 1 week of yoga and they in turn can be sponsored... what do you think?
i would be good to have company :):)

Ok. tomorrow I start this challenge. the plan is to take it easy at the begining to avoid injuries. I will collect my Yoga card tomorrow morning. The first challenge will be this weekend when I will be away in a farm for a friend's bachelor's. my yoga mat is packed and will get witnesses to sign my card. hopefully alchool will not impact my head balance...

the first R500 was sponsored by Eros Rossi into my account, I transferred it across. thank- you eros.