But I will not quit, let's see how much of our adventures I can remember...
After our first leg on the coast we realized how amazing our homes really are.
That first week home went by really quickly, and before we knew it we were in the van once again, on our way to New Brunswick.
Much to everyone's surprise we all fell in love with Fredericton. Not that we were expecting to reenact scenes from Escape From New York (the Kurt Russel classic) but we never expected Fredericton to be so great.
The city is full of fantastic people, just to give you an idea here is an example by comparison: in Montreal pedestrians cross the street when, where and how they want. It doesn't matter if the little red hand on the street light is solid, flashing or upside down spinning round and round. Fredericton must be swarming with Olympic hopefuls because while driving through the town all we saw were flashes of people sprinting across the street in order to make your drive less "annoying". They almost seemed apologetic for crossing the street - and they only did so when the little white man on the street sign made his presence known.
While there we performed back to back to back Smokescreens in the Commonwealth's second largest High School, Fredericton High School. That was an experience in itself for many reasons, the main one being that none of us have ever performed one show three times in a day. I would like to send a special thank you to the entire theatre production crew who helped us out. That week turned out to be a tough one, and it was a true reminder to all of us how important family was. If you ever had a reason to doubt her, believe this, Vanessa is stronger than most people I know or will ever know. To see her perform that morning showed us just a small piece of this incredible woman.
The weekend came quickly and it was time for us to make our way to the Magdalene Islands.
But before we got there we stayed a couple of nights in P.E.I. One of those nights was Antoine's 25th Birthday. So we kept the tradition alive and held our best fireworks show yet. In the company of three great guys we met that day, Jonathan, Sven and Luke we laughed the night away.
I will definitely go back to the Magdalene Islands. It was incredibly beautiful. Cliffs and crashing waves everywhere you look. But one day it started raining, and it didn't quit. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.
So we were stuck inside our rooms...but next time Magdalene Islands you will have sun, I'll make sure of it, I know a guy.
Eventually we made our way back to Montreal for another week and before we could say "Home Sweet Home Sweet Home" we were in the van traveling to Ottawa.
Ottawa was nice, although most of our shows were outside the city, we managed to spend most of our nights in town. Some of us chose a more conventional route, bed and breakfast type places, while others spent the night confined in a 6 by 6 cell. Before you go off telling people that someone in the Geordie touring troupe was arrested...STOP!
Just to be clear, years ago the city turned an old prison into a student hostel. You can, if you so choose, buy a night in a single-double or triple cell. although it was a little creepy it was also a little cool. But I was very happy where I was, thank you A-TEAM!
After our time in the Ottawa/Gatineau region we made our way north, where we had our most memorable show to date.
Description:
One show. Two huge turbine fans. One Blackout. 5 dogs. 30 swarming students and a partridge in a pair tree.
We love you Rapid Lake!
We made our way back home and had some incredible shows in some incredible places.
We will never forget the P-scene at FACE (an amazing theatre space transformed from an old swimming pool) or the Bell at Marie de France (a wicked 7 second hip-hop beat)
After a quick week in the Quebec City region, we are now home. It has been a heck of a journey so far and it isn't even half way done.
So if you have seen us along the way please feel free to send us a line, and if we are scheduled to pay you a visit...we look forward to it.
Until next time, I'm Jimmy Blais for the G-Team.
