The adventures of the Amaluna blanket

Quebec City has come and gone.

Bonjour! . Our first stop as many of you already know was Quebec City. We only did shows for four weeks and man it has gone fast! My first experience of tour life has been really lovely, it is a very unique routine which I believe will take some time to get used too. Quebec City was a good chance to get a taste of what to expect from now on,  I have been able to learn what I need to get the most out of 'tour life'. I think it is important to settle in and make each new city feel like home as much as possible. For me this is really important as I am a massive homebody, so the first thing I did when I arrived in Quebec City was decorate my room. I also want to get a real taste of each place I go, not as a tourist but as a civilian. I feel I did this in Quebec City, I created my own little routine of going to cafes, library's and so on outside of the touristy areas. Quebec City is a beautiful and very interesting place. It is rather small, which I love.. people have time to stop and talk and make friends. I have made so many random friends here.. a sushi chef, a Spanish teacher, a Chinese nutritionist who got her PhD in Paris among others. I have literally been stopped on the street by strangers, just to have a friendly chat, I really, really love this. It is something I craved in Perth and in Montreal but never seemed to get. In bigger cities people don't seem to have the time for others when they are out going about there business, which is a shame because you meet so many great people this way. But I think everyone secretly wants to talk to random people, its just not the social norm so many won't make the first move.. but I think I have gained enough confidence in Quebec City to carry this little friend making habit into new, bigger cities like Toronto.  I didn't quite know what to expect when I arrived here, I had only heard positive things but I had no expectations, I was just happy to have a change of scenery. And the scenery I was met with was spectacular! The architecture is so beautiful, many people have described Old Quebec as Disneyland. Nothing is out of place, all of the buildings fit in and are so well maintained. Every  corner there is a new, cute street to explore. My two favourite streets here are St Jean and St Joseph. I spent most of my free time on St Jean, where I fulfilled my life long dream of becoming a regular at a cafe :p. I fell in love with a gourmet grocery store/ cafe/bakery/butcher/ liquor store called J.A Maison. This place is so lovely, I felt no need to find anywhere else, and it quickly became a habit to have my tea there everyday. I took so many people to this place, I'd say it is the highlight of Quebec for me. The people working there are really kind, and were very helpful with my French studies... which are slowly (very slowly) progressing. Along this street and St Joseph as well, there are many second hand book stores, chocolatiers, bakeries and boutique shops. The people of Quebec City really cherish there history and culture; they have every reason to it is wonderful. There is a real 'old style' feel to a lot of the shops and cafes, vintage goods are really cherished, it is very beautiful and gives a lot of places a very cosy, homely feel which I love. J.A Maison did this best! It is a very old grocery store which is decorated with old tins, boxes, bottles and bric-a-brac. It even has a very inviting smell! So yes. Enriching Quebec even more is the natural beauty it boasts. Everything is so green at the moment, I lived across from the Abraham Planes which is a huge reserve with big hills and a beautiful nature trail. From most parts of the city you can see the mountains in the background, I found this very special, I haven't seen anything like it before. We were pretty lucky with the weather which made the city all the more appealing. The first couple of weeks were very nice and warm, then it got a little rainy and today there are blue skies again! I think it would be a miserable place to live in in Winter because of the ridiculous amount of hills. THE HILLS. This is my only complaint about Quebec City.. after 2 show days riding back to my hotel was terrible. The hills are so steep, it is crazy! But I shouldn't complain to much because riding down to work was tonnes of fun. But yes, me and my bicycle Basil had some hard times together, as beautiful as he is he isn't quite made for that kind of intense riding! I am looking forward to flat Toronto!
I did do some touristy things while in Quebec, I saw the whales which was breathtaking, I went to Montmorency Falls and Ill D'Orleans. The boat tour with the whales was really incredible, we saw hump back whales, one blue whales and hundreds of seals. The seals were actually my favourite, they were really cute and seeing so many at one time around our boat was very cool.
On to the shows, we have done around 164 of them now I believe. They are going pretty well, the biggest issue we had was some bats which decided to make our tent their home. As time went on they became less shy and started flying very, very close to us while we were performing. We are getting into a rhythm with the shows now, the consistency is very nice, I am very comfortable with my act and feel we have created a healthy routine with shows, training, physio, massage and pilates. In Toronto we are starting open training again so I can keep working on aerial hoop.
Now that I think of it, I did a lot of stupid but amusing mistakes while in Quebec City.. but these make the show so much more fun! The tear down of the tent ran a lot more smoothly this time around, I hardly even noticed it was happening.

Tonight I am off to Toronto, I stay in our apartments for one night then tomorrow I go to a spa retreat in Grafton, which is one hour out of Toronto. I am looking forward to this very much... I hope to come back to Toronto very zen and ready to start shows again!