Treasure hunt

Finally, we have Alison in some pictures.  For the most recent class, I had an extra person present - a sort of back-up tutor.  Her name was Katharina, and mostly, I had her taking pictures.

Later that day, when I was looking through them, I commented that this was the first time Alison had ever featured in the pictures, because usually she's the photographer.  Katharina said she felt that since Alison was also a part of the classes, then she should really be represented.  So now, for the first time in this blog, you can see her.  She's the blonde girl in this first three pictures. 

This group of of girls definitely seemed to have a busy weekend planned.  They were running about 45 minutes late, because they'd been participating in a treasure hunt and had lost track of time.  I asked Alison if she had any schedules to keep to, or any reasons to hurry off and told her that even if she had to leave early, I would still pay her - I'd simply get Katharina to step in on her behalf.  It didn't seem like the most professional thing to do, but under the circumstances, I thought the girls wouldn't mind.  The alternative, after all, would have been sticking to the original schedule and just giving them 15 minutes worth of the class.

Thankfully, that wasn't necessary, though.  None of us had any pressing need to take off and all of us were happy to give the girls the full hour, despite their late arrival.  And so, ultimately, everything went fairly smoothly.

I really like The Fiddler's Elbow as a venue.  With mirrors lining the walls, and huge windows dominating the room to let in plenty of natural light.  With warm colours everywhere, with plenty of floor space and lots of ways to create a decent focal point.  Tables, chairs, couches, armchairs, the whole lot.  I can't use this venue for all of my classes, but definitely the larger ones really work well here.

Last time we were at this venue, Alison and I made good use of a really cool armchair that was available.  We thought of using it again, but this time there were some really cool beanbags as well, so we used those instead.  Next time, there'll probably be something else that's really cool, just lying around.  It's always fun to improvise.

While the girls were settling down, I looked at a couple of their treasure hunt forms, to see what that event had been like.  Much more complex than I anticipated.  From what they had said, I had assumed it to be a scavenger hunt, but this involved finding statues, writing dates down, adding up the numbers and using the results to find the next step on the hunt.  I think they were divided up into groups of four or something like that, because one group was very amused that another group had spent an hour in a coffee shop in the midst of that competition.

I couldn't help wondering whether that hour could still have been spent productively - using mobile 'phones to find the answers to various clues, rather than finding the relevant statues.  But apparently that would have been cheating.

I'm thinking of adding a fresh twist to the "best picture" part of the class.  Right at the end, it becomes a little tricky to find one picture among all the others, so I've been picking out my favourites as we go along and setting them aside - then choosing from those.  The new twist would involve making that element a bit more "official".  Pick one picture each time, show it to everyone, set it aside and keep a sort of "scorecard".  The girl who wins each round will get two points and the girl who wins the final competition will get five points.  Perhaps I'll arbitrarily award other points to the other girls as we go along - for original comments or... just... whatever.  Or arbitrarily detract points for similar reasons.

One girl produced a picture that I really liked.  I held this one up, and showed it to everyone, then went to put it onto the pile with the other potential winners, then suddenly noticed that the artist hadn't been particularly generous with one particular component.  I held it up again, pointed out the offending element and told everybody that was the reason that picture was being disqualified.  Then I picked up another picture where the proportions were more flattering and told everyone that this new picture would take its place.

Finally, we got to the group picture part of the class.  Sadly, at this point, it never occurred to me that we could have invited Alison to be part of the group shot and have Katharina take the pictures.  Though I'm not sure if she'd have gone for it, to be honest.

We used the beanbags again - to create a couple of "tiers" this time.  I sat on one of them with two of the girls, while the rest stood behind us.  One of the girls sitting next to me got a bit "wavey" with her hands, which created an interesting moment.

At least she provided me with a bit of "modesty cover" for this final picture, though.

A filthy comment

Today's class didn't start out promisingly.  My tutor, Marta, got confused about the address of the venue she was expected at, but didn't query it with me until 2:10 PM - less than an hour before she was due to start.  But since I was already at The Standard, and since the 'phone reception there is very poor, I didn't know she had tried to get in touch until just before 3PM.

The girls arrived at 2:30 PM, but moved off to the side to do some activities of their own.  A series of - from what I could tell - ice-breakers, to set the mood.  At that point, I didn't know that Marta was having problems, so I was still waiting for her to arrive.  When I did finally find out, I had a word with the girl who had booked me and she was really cool about everything.  She wanted to wait until I had a tutor, so I tried to call Marta.  It was around about then that the barman taught me a trick.  He told me to put the 'phone inside a glass and it would get a signal - and the signal would last for a while, even after the 'phone was taken back out of the glass.  I thought he was having a laugh, but I tried it - and sure enough, suddenly a series of texts were coming through from Marta.  That's when I discovered she didn't know where she was going.

I spent half an hour trying to call her, text her clarify where she was, what she was doing, whether she was coming... and eventually gave up on her and started the class.  At that point I didn't know if she was going to turn up late, but I promised the girls I'd take their class right up to 5PM to make up for the late start.  By then, it was 3:30 PM.

Everything went great after that.  I've said before, that when the class actually starts, all the previous stresses just fade away.  Everything that has the potential to go wrong has either done so already, or has been fixed by that point, so there's nothing left to do but run with the limitations.  So I reassured the girls that I'd been doing the classes for three years and that I knew how to put forward all the drawing challenges and we got started.

There must be something Hitler-like about me, that I'm just not aware of.  As far as I can tell, when I look in the mirror, I don't have hair that's even remotely like his, but still... this is the second time that someone has drawn me with a Hitler haircut.  I can't remember when it happened before, but I know it did.  And on that occasion, everybody - unanimously - agreed that the artist had to take her picture back and add a moustache to it.

It happened again today, with the same result.  Strangely, though, the moustache that was added to the picture looked more like an Errol Flynn type of moustache than a Hitler one.  Sometimes this job gets pretty surreal.

The girls were all very happy to appear in my blog, so I got them to take pictures of my favourite drawing challenge - that one where I get groups of them to team up, divide the body up between them and draw it, then put the pictures together to see how they work.

Time passed really quickly.  Despite offering the girls extra time to make up for the late start, I was really surprised when I checked my 'phone and discovered it was almost 5PM and had to move quickly into the final drawing challenge.

For this one, I lay down on the floor and told the girls that they could each focus in on just one body part - whichever one they liked - and draw it quickly.  At the end, we would put them all together and try to create one massive body.  I did this challenge once before, in Aberfeldy, and it was fun back then, too.  Once it was done, I put them all together and found the picture had just two penises, but loads of feet.  Oh, and one set of knees - which was handy, because without those, there would have been a large blank space between the feet and the penises.

At the conclusion of the class, a couple of the girls asked me whether I really needed a tutor.  I told them that the classes always ran better when I had someone else around, but they kept insisting I didn't need one.  It's definitely better when there's someone else there, though.  Otherwise, the classes can too easily just turn into a naked bloke saying "Look at me."

I hate not having a tutor, though.  It feels less professional and at the end of the class, there's nobody to sit and have a drink and chill down with.  Nobody to enthuse with about how well it went, when we get a class as good and as cheerful as this one.

Still... it was a great day... and the drawings were fun, as usual.  One girl, though, looked incredibly innocent but still managed to write an absolutely filthy comment on her picture.  And I couldn't possibly repeat it here.

Sad face, smiley face

This was a smaller group, so Alison and I were able to guide the girls and group them a bit more - which meant we were able to use the huge, battered armchair that we'd spotted in the previous class.  I really loved it and really wanted to use it.  And with the fact that all the girls were viewing me from the same, general direction, it worked perfectly.

I took up position and waited for my cue, but it was different this time.  I hadn't been able to speak to any representatives of this group prior to the class, so wasn't able to find out how many people knew what to expect.  Turns out it was all of them, so while I was waiting for Alison to introduce me, they agreed on a different summons - and suddenly, they were all calling my name.  So I went through, and said "hello".  Wearing the red boxers, for the second time that day.

This was a loud, friendly and boisterous group that were bombarding me with questions right away.  It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the rapid-fire, scattergun approach.  There were times when someone wouldn't wait for me to answer the first question, before throwing a second one at me, so I was glancing left and right, trying to work out who I should answer first at times.

And they weren't all questions I get asked too often, because groups often have a bit more reserve and don't want to seem rude.  But these were things like "are you gay?" and "do you ever get hard during these classes?"  I was really enjoying myself.

One of the girls came up to me for a photograph and seemed particularly amused and excited.  I don't think she expected to be able to get so close to the model at all and kept giggling really hard.  Then she suddenly shouted "penis!" and I nearly cracked up, myself.

The winning picture of this class was a masterpiece of simplicity.  Just two pairs of eyes and two mouths - making up one smiley face and one sad face.  It might sound rubbish, but it accurately summed up the entire pose in a very surreal way.  It couldn't not win the competition.

At the end of the class, the girls all went in different directions and agreed to meet up at their apartments in a couple of hours so they could all go home.  I think they were going back to London tonight.  I don't envy them.  Sounds like a long, long journey.

But before they left, they give Alison and I the remains (just over half) of a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that they weren't able to finish.  And Alison had to hurry off to an event of her own while I was tidying up the room, so she let me have it.

I'm going to drink it now.

Rocky

This might well have been my biggest group yet.  I can't remember for sure, and would have to go through all my records to confirm it.  But 28 girls... that's a big group.

And so, today, we were in The Fiddler's Elbow.  Another really cool venue, with great ambience.  When I was researching it on the net a few weeks ago, someone described it as "shabby chic" and those words really seem to fit.

The room was huge, and so perfect for such a large group, but even despite that, it took some careful arranging of the furniture to get all the tables and chairs facing towards a single focal point.  There was a huge, battered looking chair that I really wanted to use as a prop, but for this first class (there were two classes today) it simply wasn't practical.

I was a bit concerned about the huge windows, at first.  They overlook Picardy Place and it felt like anyone could look in and be offended, but the barmaid assured me that they were tinted and nobody would see me unless I stood right up against them.  The glass door looking out onto the stair also made me a bit wary, but again she reassured me.  She said she would warn any passersby that there was nudity in the room and so if they looked in, then they'd know what to expect and wouldn't be shocked. That was enough for me, because I wasn't shy.  I just didn't want people complaining to the management.

The girls were lively and friendly.  There was a Rocky Horror theme going on over the weekend, so I was asked if I might happen to have a random pair of gold hot pants lying around.  I didn't have any and couldn't find any, so I compromised and wore a pair of red, shiny, satiny boxer shorts with gold dragons printed on them instead.

When the girls arrived, I hid (as usual) and waited for my cue (as usual) but this time, I cued up the reprise of I can make you a man and started that playing as I walked out.  I am a long way from being  muscular, so I felt that the intro (the enthusiastic calling out of muscle groups) was particularly funny.

The only person who didn't know what to expect this time was the bride, but I got the distinct impression that someone genuinely didn't expect me to get naked for this class.  There was a real cry of shock as I pulled off the boxers, and it definitely didn't come from some random passerby out on the stairs who just happened to witness that moment.

One girl asked me if I did any other modelling.  Before I could answer, she elaborated on her question and mentioned Kim Lawless as an example of my other modelling experiences.  I have modelled for Kim's class on mens' intimate waxing twice, now and it turned out that this girl had been one of her students.  I asked if she had waxed me personally (I couldn't remember her face) but she said she had brought along her own model, but still remembered me specifically.

I left it to someone else to ask if it was my face she had recognised.