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