The joint practice that waited for years to happen...

After a number of years, the plan to attend a yoga class with Bernice finally happened. Haha!

In previous yoga-relate entries, I'm quite sure that I already mentioned that it was Bernice who introduced me to the practice. Before she left for the Netherlands several years ago, she would almost always arrive at our get-togethers with a yoga mat slung over her shoulder. This got me interested, and I started asking questions about it.

Bernice left for the Netherlands for graduate school, and I enrolled myself to the gym thanks to a fantab corporate promo. It took a couple of months before I had the guts to attend the yoga classes. But after my first yoga class, I knew I wanted more. That started my yoga journey. I even have a favorite yoga teacher at the gym. Whenever I miss his Saturday class in Glorietta, I would try (very hard) to attend his Sunday class in Galleria. O ha! I was also able to attend one class facilitated by Bikram Manila's Tristan Choa when our HR department invited the guy to hold a session at the office. He's soooo good! When the Global Mala Project happened in Manila a couple of months ago, I was totally happy. That deepened the desire to be practice yoga regularly. I have to say though that I've still got a long way to go. I may know the asanas, but to understand the yoga philosophy is a whole different matter. I know that I have to get myself into a yoga studio outside of the gym for that. We'll see, we'll see.

Anyway, going back to the get-together with Bernice. When she messaged me last month that she'll be in town for the holidays, I brought up the idea of attending a yoga class together. It's only right that teacher and student do that, right? Hehehe! I told Bernice I could probably get her into the yoga class session. We just agreed to meet up at the coffee shop right outside the gym in Galleria. We were both excited.

Fast forward to yesterday. After giving Bernice a big hug, we made our way to the gym. I gave my membership card to the guy behind the counter and told him that I'd like to have Bernice as a guest. The guy hesitantly tells me that my membership does not have that kind of privilege. Toinks!

What do I do? I do what every Pinoy does in similar situations - pakiusap. I gave the guy my sweetest smile coupled with a pa-awa effect and said, "Sir, my friend came from abroad and we'e been planning this for the longest time. We're not even going to work out. We'll just attend the yoga class." If needed, I was ready to make up a story that we came all the way from Alabang or some other area far from Galleria just to attend the class. Hehehe! I know, I'm evil.

Thankfully, the guy was nice enough and let us in. I kept on thanking him and I told him that this would be a one-time thing. (I hope!)

Bernice and I then made our way to the yoga studio, and I'm glad we agreed to meet up at 9 because the gym pushed the class to 9AM instead of the usual 9:30AM. For the next 90 minutes, Bernice, I, and some 10 to 12 people followed the lead of our teacher Pio. What I love about Pio is that he goes beyond the allotted time. Usually, it's just a 60-minute class, but he extends his class and I'm really thankful for that.

After greeting each other "Namaste," Bernice and I stayed behind. We waited for everyone to get out of the studio before I took out Hanschen and Tey's very reliable mini-tripod.

I set up the camera. Bernice and I agreed to do the easier poses - vrikshasana (tree), natarajasana (dancer pose), eka pada rajakapotasana(one-legged king pigeon pose). Wish we could have done some more complex poses but I only had 10 seconds to prepare for the photo. Haha! (The dancer pose could be waaaaay better.)

When we were happy with the photos, Bernice and I got ready to spend the entire day together. We headed to Shangri-la Mall, which I'm starting to really like after all these years. The day included brunch at Penang Hill, coffee at Figaro (why is there no Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Shang??? Why???), window shopping, and of course, a very good conversation.

I realized that I'm blessed to have a number of people in my life who I always find so easy to talk to. Bernice is one of that. We could spend the entire day, and we would not run out of things to talk about.

It was already late in the afternoon when we parted ways. We took the MRT together. I got off at Cubao station. Her station was GMA-Kamuning. We agreed to meet up again this Saturday. It'll be just as fun because we're going to meet up with former Magsaysay colleagues Noreen and Carol. Yeeey!!!