End of Week 5 - Geelong

Hi girls!

I'm currently in Geelong (and Will is sitting beside me doing his assignment!! Yay!). It's an interesting place here, a little bit like Redcliffe with a Melbourne vibe I guess. A bit bogan, but there is a beautiful waterfront that backs onto a bay called Corio Bay. There is a ferris wheel and a pier and lots of shops and places to walk your dog. Kind of feels like somewhere in America, a mix of LA and slightly a bit like New Orleans down by the water, and also like a place I visited in San Diego called Coronado.

Speaking of walking dogs, there are so many dogs here, everywhere you look! High percentage of golden retrievers and staffies and they are all very cute. Will and I walked past a spoodle looking dog and it just lay down on the ground with all its legs splayed out in all directions like 'I give up!'. It was hilarious and its owner laughed and laughed.

I can't quite remember where I left off my last post but I assume I was still in Queanbeyan. On Thursday we took the plane from Canberra airport to Melbourne airport. But not before we had visited the Australian War Memorial. It was absolutely beautiful! There was this big memorial garden which had a long rectangular pond with a flame. It also had gargoyle like symbols around the garden showing the major conflicts Australia had been involved in. The most impressive part of the memorial garden was the big kind of dome building at the end. It had tiling covering all the walls, with large stained glass panels showing various service people with words underneath like 'Audacity', 'Courage', 'Curiosity' and 'Kindness'. There was also big tiled mosaics on the walls making up the images of people from the different armed forces and a nurse. At the end of the room stood four giant pillers made of different materials (wood, steel, glass and... stone?). The roof was incredible, a big dome with different coloured rings and patterns like a kaleidoscope. There was a long stone plaque in the middle of the room for 'The Unknown Soldier' with some wreaths scattered around it from visitors. After having a look at the memorial garden I headed inside to the museum.

The museum included images from the major wars, stories and anecdotes from important war figures such as Victoria Cross winners and a massive hall called Anzac Hall where they do audiovisual shows using the huge model planes and movie screens. One of the most exciting/interesting things was walking past a Kittyhawk plane and seeing some familiar information panels behind it. The Battle of Milne Bay! (The hall where we practice band is the Milne Bay Memorial Hall and the street it's on is called Kittyhawk Drive). The posters that they had up were exactly the same as the ones I read every week in band while I have lots of rests or I don't have a part for a song! It was exciting to see a piece of home in Canberra and also they had some personal effects and items that related to these people (mostly pilots) who I had been reading about for years now. I felt a special connection to that part of the display. I headed into Anzac Hall and read about the 'aces', which were the fighter pilots who shot down a lot of the enemy aircraft. There was a display dedicated to the 'Red Baron' who was the most famous ace from Germany (I think?). There is some dispute whether he was finally shot down by an Australian or an American. They had one of his massive fur boots displayed and it seemed like something out of a war movie and not quite real. The other part that effected me in this part of the exhibition was the display of one pilot's good luck charm, a small stuffed black cat, as we often portray these people as brave heroes but in reality they were scared just like anyone else would be. I also felt sad reading about one of Australia's most renowned aces (I have forgotten his name). He was highly regarded for his efforts and had shot down something like 47 enemy planes. Eventually he was shot down himself and his makeshift headstone read 23 years. The information panel that accompanied this exhibition stated that this was untrue and he had not yet reached his 23rd birthday.

I headed back to the memorial garden for one more look and then we got a quick photo in front of Parliament House (there is a perfect view from the front of the war memorial to the front of Parliament House). We headed to the airport for the flight, said goodbye to our hire cars and boarded our plane. The in flight food was a bit disappointing (four strange tiny crouton-like biscuits which were supposed to be crackers, eggplant and tomato dip and a large stick of cheese) but oh well. At the other end we headed to get our hire cars which was a mission as the two people behind the desk were new and couldn't work out how to give us the hire cars as they were hired through a company not an individual. About an hour later we were on the road. Unfortunately just getting out of Melbourne was a task as Cam's GPS on his phone kept taking us to the wrong place. Neridah was driving and I think everyone had a case of the angry-hungry-tireds. Eventually we got on the road but by this time it was about 830pm and there was still 1.5hrs to Geelong. We stopped off at a Thai restaurant where I had the worst restaurant meal I've had in my life (I ordered noodles but because they were so overcooked and broken apart I thought they were rice??). On the menu was a dish called Poo Sarong - and I think maybe that would have been even better than what I got! Finally we made it to Geelong!!

The next day I took a walk down by the water and had another awful meal at a restaurant. Turns out I'd walked the total wrong way down the boardwalk and the restaurants and city centre were the other way! Fail! After a trip to Woolworths I waited for Will to arrive! In the meantime we had a lighting plot at the theatre. With perfect timing Will arrived just as we finished the plot and we headed back to the hotel. After settling in we took a very long walk to find a bottle shop! Just made some heat up pasta and sauce for dinner.

The next day I was up for 2 family shows at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre. The shows were great but it was a little different performing to a more rounded seating bank as we had to make sure everyone could see and was getting enough attention. Lots of little Tashi fans there. One little boy got so involved in the story that at the point where the villagers think they will lose their homes he turned to his mum and said 'Do we have enough money to buy our house, Mum?'. All the kids had really cool names too like Jemima, Milly and Ava. This venue organised colouring competitions and how to make a Tashi hat before the show and some of the kids had won Tashi books! The second show ended around nap time and there were a few mopy kids and disgruntled parents but I think they all enjoyed the show! Afterwards Will and I took a walk to find some fish and chips to eat down by the water.

Today we spent the day hanging around the main area of Geelong in front of the bay. We had lunch at a cafe/bar called The Edge, which was alright. We had some tapas, the best one was chicken and coriander gyoza (dumplings). After that we went to the Westfield to find me some new sunglasses (mine broke) - no luck, oh well. Back to the waterfront for an icecream and some dog watching. Besides the many beautiful dogs, there was also a vast array of cars to keep Will interested. Lots of kind of bogan commodores and lowered utes but also lots of lovely old cars. The one Will was most impressed with was an Tarana SLR 5000. 

Back in the room now, I practiced my yoga and my headstands/handstands are improving slowly but surely! We are having tacos for dinner and a nice night in. Was great to see Will and excited for when he comes back in 2.5 weeks in Melbourne where we get nearly a whole week together over Easter!

Hope you are all well!
Steph

First Race Day of the Year

So I know - two posts in two days! You will get sick of me!

Just wanted to post two pictures of the race day today. It was stinking hot and had so many flies but it was a good day. It got even better when I got home and took all the bobby pins out of my hair!

So there, I can still hear the music being played by 'DJ Curly.'  I know ridiculous name!!! :D

Love you all,

Erin xxx

Yo! Wassup!

Hi all!

Not much has been happening, I've had a killer week with most days being at school until 7/7:30 because of parent teacher interviews! (Ugh!) They went well though, no major issues and they are all lovely people! We had cross country today, so today was a nothing day really. We didn't do much work at all. However, it decided to pour down as my kids ran the track! I was marshalling and supervising the whole school with the year 3 teacher. So I didn't see my kids run, but they were complaining it was cold as soon as it started spitting, I was like 'it's 32 degrees today, you can not be cold!'

I'm off to the races tomorrow, I'll have to post a picture for y'all! It's going to be hot and dusty, however it's our race day so I have to be in attendance...

I have exactly five days until the Easter holidays, YAY!!!! Then I fly home on the next Tuesday (I think...) I can not wait! My mini break last week was great!! I was in Toowoomba for three days at a retreat, where I got a massage and had three naps! I went shopping at Grand Central and from there Mum and Dad picked me up and we went to Allora. This is where I spent Friday-very early Sunday morning. I again, went shopping, this time in Warwick and bought the nicest bananas I've had since January! (the whole fresh fruit and veges thing is getting me down at the moment!).

Anyway, I'm going to head to bed and have a sleep in! After three full on weekends, I'm going to appreciate it a lot!

Lots of love and hugs,
Erin xxxx

Hello from Queanbeyan! - Week 5 (already!)

Hi everyone!

I'm writing from Queanbeyan where we have been since Sunday. The drive to Queanbeyan was alright, we passed lots of scraggly trees and cows and sheep. This country really is beautiful. We arrived around 130pm on Sunday in what appeared to be the town centre. We had a burger at a pub (it was gross! Chicken was really chewy and way too much mayonnaise, too much bread!). After that we headed to our accommodation. Neridah and I are sharing a small apartment which is okay except the apartment feels a bit weird - like the laundry or downstairs rumpus room of a house. Quite sparse and the tv is in the totally wrong position to see if from either of the couches! But we have a kitchen and the beds are comfy so that's the big thing! Got some food from dinner at Woolworths, looking forward to eating from home so much! Made the green papaya salad from Noosa for dinner with some rice, yum yum!

It was so amazing on Sunday afternoon, I did some yoga and practiced my handstands (I'm doing a 30 day yoga challenge - although I think I might just keep doing it every day! - and a 28 day handstand challenge haha) and then I went for a run! It felt so good to run, I didn't realise I missed it that much. It was very cute, I was running around a big circle cricket pitch thing and there was this tiny little boy who liked to race me everytime I ran past. It was like an unspoken game between us!

On Monday we had one performance at 10am and the audience were a lot younger than our audience have been so far. Mostly from preschool, grade one and grade two. Also there is no smoke at this venue which means a little bit of the atmosphere is lost during the show. The students enjoyed it though and I think there were a few special needs students in the group. One teacher took a photo of me with two of these boys and she said that it was a big deal for them to even get to the theatre.

After the show we drove into Canberra and visited the CSIRO Discovery Museum. It was quite interesting to learn about all the things the CSIRO had invented including Wireless LAN and Aerogard! We all dressed up in lab coats and there were microscopes to look at and lots of animal bones and displays. It was like being at school again, like going to nerd camp! It was good fun, but quite a few of the displays were broken which was a shame. We had a bit more time so we headed to Parliament House. It was interesting to see the parliament in session, we were in the senate and they were talking about women's rights and the WA shark cull - all hot topic issues. The House of Representatives wasn't as exciting though. It was weird, the politicians all talk and look at their phones when the other people are speaking, sometimes we felt like telling them to be quiet! I don't think I could be a politician, lots of sitting around in rooms and they all looked very bored. I'm sure it's different when there are more people sitting. We headed back to the room and I made a thai red curry for dinner and we watched the documentary Vikings and some of My Kitchen Rules.

Tuesday we had 2 more shows (again all little people) and then I had a doctor's appointment to see if they could get to the bottom of my issues. Our stage manager Fi suggested I might be anemic so I got a blood test to check the levels of everything to see if anything was out of balance. Afterwards we all went to Manuka in Canberra for Cam's birthday. We had some beer at a pub called The Wig and Pen and they had lots of different types that they brew there. Then we headed to Tosung Korean BBQ for dinner. We were the only non Korean people there and Thom and Fi have been to Korea 9 times so they were in charge of ordering. The highlights were the kimchi (fermented cabbage with chilli), the dok boki (rice cake stew) and the korean pancakes. Nice drive back to Queanbeyan for a sleep.

This morning's show went well, again a younger audience. Afterwards I went to the doctor's to get the blood test results and they said all my levels were fine (and no pregnancy - phew!). I guess it was just a mix of lots of different things (fatigue, different food, stress, tired, no period) mucking me around but it's good to know that everything's okay. After a few days not eating out as much and some good nights' sleep I do feel a bit better. 2 more shows in Queanbeyan, one tonight and one Thursday morning. Will is coming to visit me on Friday! (It's good because I think he misses me, he is turning all soppy on his text messages!)

Hope you are all well,

Love Steph xx

First days in London

Let me start of by saying that it is incredibly surreal to be in London now. It's super trippy to go from talking about something for a year and then actually doing it.

Nick and I landed at Heathrow on Friday afternoon. That night we had dinner with Nick's Norwegian friend, Jack, and Jack's British girlfriend, Sophie. They are both sooo nice, so I'm so excited to already have friends here!

On Saturday we explored Shoreditch, which is one of the areas that we would love to live in. That's where Brick Lane is, which I love. There are so many cool shops and places to eat and drink in Shoreditch - it's my favourite place we've been so far :) We later moved in to our short-term flat in Paddington - it's tiny haha! We then met up with two of Nick's Aussie friends at a pub in Whitechapel called The Blind Beggar. Nick hadn't heard of the pub before, but I have because it's where infamous criminals used to hang out and do their 'business' in the 60s! Seriously, give it a google! Then we had amazing food at a Bangladeshi restaurant in Whitechapel, which is one of Nick's favourites from when he was last here. Steph, I reckon you in particular would have loved the food there :)

Sunday was just getting errands done. I bought a new phone - yay! For dinner we went to Sophie's house and she cooked for us, which was so super nice.

This morning I had a massive Skype sesh with the fam, which was awesome. I've been talking to mum and dad every day. I am sooo homesick - there are tears every day still. At least once a day I'm like, what the hell am I doing, I should be safe at home in Brisbane! But I'm also starting to get moments where I'm like, wow, I love that I live here now.

The next step is to find a flat - we're planning on finding a room in a flat with one or two other people, which should be nice once we find one. And soon I'll start looking for work, which I am so nervous about, but I'm hoping I'll feel more confident about it after a week or so of settling in. I keep forgetting that I've only been here three days!

Missing you gals so much xxx

P.S. Stop! Yoga Time!

Bec, I thought you might be interested, I signed up for an online 30 day yoga challenge.

30 Day Yoga Challenge

They are 15 to 20 minute videos focused on yoga for different things and the instructor is quite good I think! You mentioned you were interested in yoga and I found these videos really easy to access and they send you a video every day if you sign up. 15 minutes a day isn't hard to stick to (not that I have done it every day so far!!). I thought you might like it too!

x

End of Week 4: Wagga Wagga

Good evening girls (to two of you)! Time to update on the past week, which was slightly crazy and a bit of a blur, hard to believe I was in Parramatta one week ago, the week seems like an age but still hardly any time at all!

From Parramatta we traveled to Bathurst through the Blue Mountains. But not before I had the best fruit in my life from a cute back street cafe in Parramatta. The Blue Mountains. Wow! Beautiful and much more expansive than I expected! We stopped off briefly to take some pictures but had to travel on through to get to the theatre to plot the lights. The Blue Mountain area was beautiful, passed mainly through Leura and it was like a cute little town where I could imagine everyone wearing knitted jumpers. Would be fantastic in winter with a fireplace. Made me want to buy some knitted socks... I'm getting a craving for knitted socks lately.

We arrived in Bathurst and headed to the theatre. After we plotted the lights, we headed to our accommodation. My room was massive! I had one double bed and two singles in a big long room. It was very luxurious and there was a fireplace! That night we headed out to The Church restaurant and bar which serves pizza. It was a beautiful place in an old church, highly recommended, beautiful setting, vines and crumbling brick everywhere. I had some pimms and we ordered an array of delicious pizzas including one with kangaroo and one with saltwater crocodile. The kangaroo was my favourite but the crocodile was quite a tasty meat!! Kind of the taste of chicken but not stringy like chicken, more solid texture like... maybe calamari? Was delicious with lime. Some of the others ordered a chocolate and icecream dessert pizza and that was amazing! After dinner we had a few drinks and laughs in my room and then it was time for bed.

The next morning we had brunch at a highly recommended cafe called The Hub. I had ricotta hotcakes with persian fairyfloss and they were absolutely amazing! Not too sweet, beautifully presented, delicious strawberry butter and OMG green fairy floss on my breakfast! Amazing!

Had a look at Bathurst, a lot of things were closed on a Sunday but it was a very beautiful town with old pretty architecture. We also drove up to Mt Panorama and had a drive around the track. We found a motocross competition and watched some of that in the freezing cold. It was weird, I expected Mt Panorama to be just a race track but there were houses all around the track and it had a great view over the town. For dinner I grabbed a hot chook and had a salad from woolworths. I don't know if I was just starving but that dinner was amazing.

The following day we had a workshop at O'Connell State School, which was about 20 minutes away. There were around 30 in a class comprising of grades 1 to 3. We led them through a story drama where Fi (our stage manager) led them through one of the Tashi stories we perform and three of us (me, Cam and Neridah) pretended to be different characters in the story and modeled the behaviour for the students. It was great fun! In about 1.5hrs all 30 or so of us went on an adventure to the Mountain of White Tigers and stole the Baron's gold and bought our own houses! (NB: Read the story, it will all make sense haha). The kids had so much fun and didn't want us to leave (I don't think their teacher did either). They were coming to see the show the next day. That night we had a 630pm family performance and afterwards the venue manager took us out to dinner. We had a lebanese feast (literally) and it was incredible!! But way too much food - cue a stomach ache.

Poor Neridah still had stomach pains the next day when it was time to do our 10am show. Our kids from the workshop came to the 1230 show and they were very excited to be there! After the show we bumped out and then had the afternoon off. Some of the others went to have a massage and I went back to The Hub to have a brownie and a coffee. Afterwards I had a look at some of the shops on the same street and found a fantastic vintage store. I had a good chat to the guy working there and he let me take some photos of the store. It was a real treasure cave! That afternoon I went for a walk around the streets near our hotel and my goodness Bathurst is a beautiful place! I especially walked back to find this gorgeous old house and by this time there were two elderly people tidying the garden. I spoke to the man and complimented the house and he volunteered the story that it was a wedding present in 1897. He also introduced himself as Gunner (his Swedish name) and called his wife over to chat. The house was incredible and just across the road was this stunning school St Stanislaus. It was a boarding school for boys and looked more like Hogwarts! The town smelt like roses and people's fireplaces. After walking past the student accommodation beside our hotel and spotting the fattest grey cat on a verandah, I had a swim in the indoor pool and went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant and got a bento box.

That night I woke up at around 430am with stomach cramps!! I few warm showers and some stretches later I drifted back to sleep. Woke up the next day still feeling a bit shifty for the drive to Orange. Sad to see Bathurst go. The trip to Orange was only about 40 mins. We arrived at the hotel and I spent the rest of the day watching My Kitchen Rules and moping in my bed. The disrupted sleep really threw me off. We bumped in at the theatre and did the show. Even though I felt ordinary it was actually one of my best shows!! Home to bed, hopefully I'd feel better the next day.

Our stop in Orange was only for one night and two days so we had two shows on Thursday. Still feeling pretty ordinary the next day! Then disaster struck! In between the shows the crew didn't put the stage lights on and Neridah whacked her toe on part of the set. With only 30 mins left til the next show, we thought it might be broken. We adjusted some of the choreography and had a plan for if she couldn't finish the show (which was entirely possible as she couldn't even walk!). Incredibly she did the whole show, icing in between each half! Just another thing to add to this massive week!!

After the show Neridah went to ice her foot and the rest of us bumped out. The boys headed on to Wagga and the three of us girls went to the medical centre. While Neridah had an appointment with the doctor I had another brownie and coffee. After getting her all checked out we drove the 4 hour drive to Wagga. It was a beautiful drive through tiny, seemingly deserted towns, full of old churches, stunning sunsets and windy forest paths. We also saw a fox! At around 830 we arrived in town and headed to the nearest available Thai restaurant. After gulping it down we headed to our accommodation - The Carriage House Inn. My room literally backs into a paddock and the hotel is about ten minutes out of town. We think it might have been literally an old inn for carriages coming into town.

Friday finally came and there were two shows before the weekend! The 1230 show was a school audience and they were psychos! When we came back for the second story they cheered so loudly as if we were rock stars! And they even started to chant 'Tashi! Tashi! Tashi!' - it was quite frightening!! They listened to the stories though which was great. I think a lot of them hadn't read the stories and one boy said to me 'I thought we were going to see a real life movie today?'. He seemed disappointed when he realised we were 'just' pretending to be different people. The family show at 6pm was full of sweet families who were all excited to be there. One boy who was around 12 came up to me and asked if I had brought my dancing shoes today because he likes dancing in shows. I said unfortunately we weren't doing Tashi and the Dancing Shoes but there would be some dancing in the show. After the show a small girl (around 6) asked me several technical questions about the lights and the smoke machine and seemed to understand every technical answer I gave back. She was awesome! One of the crew even took a photo with me dressed as Tashi as his brother loves the books and would be jealous. We bumped out quickly (40 minutes!) and headed back to our hotel. I had booked a table at the restaurant at our hotel as it is the #1 restaurant in Wagga according to Trip Adviser. And it wasn't wrong!! I ordered a steak (which was surprising) and it was the best steak I have ever eaten! It was amazing and I cleared my whole plate!! There were even after dinner mints. It was a great meal and a great end to the week. As we headed back to our rooms it started to rain. Time to snuggle in bed.

Spent all of today in bed watching tv and ventured out to get some food for dinner and some coffee with the others. This evening we all put together a barbecue which was lovely. Tomorrow we're off to Queanbeyan where we get to stay for five days!! (Luxury!)

And it's only 6 sleeps til Will visits! 17 towns left to visit on the trip! 8 weeks, heaps of shows! We've already performed the stories 24 times, 39 to go!

But tell me how you are all going! Wow, if you made it to the end of that saga!!

Bec I want an update as soon as you can! How are the little ones now you are getting to the end of the term, Erin? And how are those stats Luisa?

Love you all!

xx

End of the week - Greetings from Parramatta!

Phew! The end of pretty big week. 3 towns this week, Port Macquarie, Taree and Parramatta; it feels like a month in one week! Sitting down in the hotel lobby of the holiday inn parramatta drinking a rum and coke and eating chips. Awesome. (Apologies for bad grammar and spelling here, too tired to be bothered!!). Tomorrow we head off to Bathurst through the Blue Mountains. I'm very excited to see the beautiful mountains, we're hoping to stop off at a little coffee shop along the way.

Meanwhile, back to Parramatta. I found it really interesting to visit Parramatta because of the big mix of people here. I'd kind of describe it as everyone in together, all nationalities, incomes, ages. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner last night and we were the only non Indian people there (on that note the curry was HOT!- still recovering... Too much information!). The shows here have been awesome as well, not many of the kids have been to the theatre before, they kept asking when the movie was going to start and they lost their shit when we showed the lights changing and the smoke machine. They also got really involved in the stories and it was awesome showing them something they've never seen before! Today we had two school audiences and again it was awesome to see people of all different cultures in one room together, gathering to hear a story. The second show we did today was particularly special because the author and the illustrator of the Tashi books came to see the shows. They were so excited about it all and thought we did a great job with the stories. Apparently Tashi is being turned into a tv show, and our director Mark thinks maybe it will be the Tashi stadium tour next... The rest of us aren't so sure if it's that kind of show.

On another note, I turned up to Parramatta quite anxious on Thursday as I didn't get my period this month. I started sugar pills on Saturday and even by Thursday- nothing!! Panic stations! After driving myself mental googling how normal it was to miss your period on the pill and trying to work out if I had missed one (I hadn't?), not to mention freaking will out by talking about it all the time, I decided to take a pregnancy test just to check. Cue the most tense 3 minutes after peeing on a stick ever. And an awkward trip to the pharmacy where everyone asked "do you hope you are?" And answering Nooooo... (Luckily it was a nice family run pharmacy, with Arabic staff that felt like aunties and cousins). Fortunately the test came back negative-of course! I have two more tests I thought I would check them too just to be absolutely sure (fingers crossed). I think it is probably a combination of stress, not eating much red meat, changing my routine and a strong pill that sometimes makes you miss a period (just never happened to me!). I was starting to freak out mega time! Will said, well it's okay, as long as you're not planning on keeping anything, which was always the deal- but saying that and actually having to do it are two different things entirely as I came to realise. Just a bad situation I don't ever want to have to actually face!

So all in all it's been a memorable stay in Parramatta! From that debacle to performing what I felt was one of our best stories on Thursday night, to realising I left my phone charger in Taree and having to buy another ($55!?), to seeing the joy of the kids today and finally getting to the end of the week and having a sit down. Phew! I'm tired!

Good to chat! Love you guys!

Steph

Week 3 from Taree

Hi girls! 9 shows down 64 to go! Bumping in to 5th venue out of 28 tomorrow for two shows in Taree.

We've just come from port Macquarie and it was so beautiful! I would recommend it for a holiday! Everyone was really happy, the beach was beautiful and our accommodation was clean and right across from the beach! Made a nice change from our stay at the Gold Coast in a creepy hotel called the beachcomber which had old cars without numberplates in the parking lot and lots of stains (presumably from drunk/sexually active schoolies ewww).

We arrived in Taree this afternoon and it's a lot nicer than I expected! We are near the manning river which is quite beautiful. It seems likes quiet town. The kids are still loving the shows but the two we did today were a bit bumpy after three days off. My weird cold thing is still with me and my voice feels a bit tired and ick. Hit a bit of a wall tonight, missing everyone and coupled with pms feeling a bit weepy and grumpy. Not ideal for a kids show! But I'm sure none of them noticed. Not much I can do, just keep going, I knew I would be a little upset for the first 3 weeks and here we are at week 3!

Excited, will is visiting me in 18 sleeps! Then after that it's only about 2 and a half weeks til Easter! Not sure I might be staying in Melbourne or I might come back to Brisbane. It depends on wills schedule and what I want to do. Anyways, five shows left for this week, two tomorrow, one Thursday in parramatta, and then two more Friday before we drive to Bathurst! That's all from me! I'm reading a book right now about a tribe of people who can run for ages (ultra marathons) and not get tired and about barefoot running and a big running race in South America. It's really good!! I might read some now :) night night, looking forward to hearing from you all!!

Love you!

Charle-villians

Extreme 'off-roading' adventures out west...

No, your eyes don't deceive you - That there is a cactus y'all!

Cosmos Bilby Country

As usual, a jumping shot must be taken!

xxx

Whoops! Forgot the Title!

Hi Everyone!!!!

How are we all? All is well in the ville of Charle... (see what I did there??) It was good to have Bec out here, Steph, you and Luisa will have to make the trip out eventually!

We managed to go off roading 8 times this weekend - it was really just cutting some corners but it felt like we were driving through the grand canyon or something :) We also managed to squeeze into our very full itinerary most of what Charleville has to offer, so we saw the Supa IGA, the bakery, the Gull (a very nice service station) and lastly but best of all the tip! Sadly, we couldn't get to Crazy Clarks or Target Country as all of the shops close at midday on a weekend...

School is going well, I'm finally in a routine, however the kids drive me up the wall! I must say it is nice when they leave at 3pm, then I get to go home to my nice quiet house where I'm not talking at anyone to sit down and close their mouths!

I will be making to trek to Toowoomba in about a week, for a retreat, which should be nice! Mum and Dad are going to come and visit me, while I take on the shops!

Only four more weeks until the Easter holidays, then I get to be back in Brisbane for 2 weeks!!! Can't wait!!!

Love you all!! And Bec, I hope the party goes well!

Erin xxx

Blubbering in the Car and Statistical Analyses

Hello Friends!

What exciting journeys for us all this year.  This medium reminds me of when I used to write Steph notes in spare during high school. It's rather cathartic.I don't know about you but I'm already stressed to the max (are we allowed to swear on here, because I'd really like to say f@cking stressed). It seems it's either nothing or everything all at once. Being away from your loved one can be hard. At the moment, because of our crazy schedules, I often don't see James until I get home late at night, then it's about an hour until I fall asleep drooling on him. It's not the same but I feel your pain.
...Ain't life just a game...(I think someone needs to continue this rhyme).
Speaking of my amazing artistic skills I hear my mixed song for the first time next week which is awesome and terrifying at the same time. I've managed to convince myself since I recorded it that I have no talent and my voice is terrible. In fact, I had a weirdly hormonal day yesterday in which I spent half an hour spluttering nonsensical, high-pitched statements about my lack of talent to James whilst crying in the car on the way to work/uni. After that I had mocha, went to class and was fine. I'm getting into quite a prolific spurt of songwriting at the moment, so hopefully something worthwhile will come out of it all. The way the music industry is run you don't actually make any money off of people buying your music. At least not for a long time, so I better have more than one good song. I need an awesome name to release my music under. Any suggestions? The more dramatic and mysterious the better. I've always wanted to be mysterious. I don't think I've really got it down pat yet.
Uni is no different to the past four years. I have one interesting subject in which I use psychological research and theories to develop interventions for prominent social issues. It involves doing proposals and is actually useful as opposed to Advanced Statistical Analysis which has not progressed into any challenging work and thus is boring the shit out of me. If you ever need an analysis of your missing data to check whether or not it impacts on your outcome variable, you know who to call. The business is going bonkers but I'll save that little gem for another post. If I make it out of this weekend alive (2 Markets and a Saturday night catering job and taking the girls to Seaworld. I'm most worried about the last one.) I'll be happy. I'll write a novel if I'm not careful so I'll have to stop here. Stay tuned for the next thrilling saga. Oh and keep the faith Steph. We're all thinking of you. Will is probably missing you more. He's a golden retriever at heart.

Lots and lots of love,

Luisa

P.S. Cyber cuddles!

Update from Ipswich, March 5th

Hi girls! How are you all going? I'm currently in my very fancy room/apartment in Ipswich (fancy!) on our second official stop of the tour. This apartment is so awesome I wish I could live here (but not in Ipswich...)

We've performed 5 shows so far, 68 to go! Unfortunately my body decided to give me a scratchy throat/weird cold thing now but it's not getting worse and I've been taking lots of Vitamin C, multivitamins and panadol! The kids have been really excited to see the shows and love to wave to me and call out 'Tashi!' They really love the stories and are just excited to be at the theatre I think!

Mum, Dad and Did came to see the show last night which was good and then we all came back to my apartment and had pizza. It was good but I was a bit sad when they left again. Feeling okay but just trying to ignore that I'm missing Will, but oh well, 24 sleeps til he comes to visit me (but who's counting!)

Dinner tonight was better than the first night cooking (I don't think laksa is for me!), made salmon pasta which was yummy and threw some veggies in there as well. We're off to the Gold Coast tomorrow and we have a 6pm show tomorrow night and then two shows the next day. Then we're off to Port Macquarie!

I do feel a little bit sad and lonely but that's okay, I'll get over it after a little while! And we get Easter off so I'll either have Will come and visit me in Melbourne (with free accommodation!) or I'll come back to Brisbane for those few days :)

How are all of you guys?

Steph x

Welcome!

This is the blog I set up so we could all keep in touch as we all go off on our adventures! I'm not sure how it will work? But I thought I might give it a go!