Nasty, nasty feet

There was a great moment in this class that I really loved.  When one of the girls won a competition and was asked if she wanted to pose with me for a photograph of her holding her picture, her tone of voice was perfect.  She said "yeah", with such a casual enthusiasm - almost like I was a bit of an idiot for even thinking I needed to ask.  And then she bounced up and posed with me.  I loved it.

This was one of those cheery, lively groups that seemed to be composed of a group of girls who all already knew each other really well and who really enjoyed each others' company.  It doesn't feel like work at all with a group like that, because their own enthusiasm - and probably their own excitement at being all together at once - really seems to carry everything along completely naturally.  All Alison and I have to do is suggest a challenge or an exercise and occasionally nudge them into a different direction.  

Thankfully, the Standard was much warmer, this time.  The radiators had been given enough time to take the chill off the room and I was able to shake off some of the shrinkage at last.  Stupidly, though, I'd had a glass of coke and a cup of coffee, between the two classes - and so, I was slightly nervous that I might need to take a toilet break halfway through.  That would have been disruptive.  It never became urgent, though, so I was able to cope without any real difficulty.

Yet again, I found it really difficult to pick winners out of a lot of the competitions, because there were some great drawings.  Lots of colour going on, too, which tends to influence me when I'm making my decisions.  For some strange reason, smiley faces have been known to sway me a lot, too.  Perhaps, deep down, I'm just a big kid ready to be distracted by the next shiney thing.

When we got to the "Make A Giant Man" challenge, one girl drew two feet.  Incredibly nasty feet, with horrible toenails.  Even the fact that she'd used the blue chalk to put the Saint Andrew's Cross on all the nails, there was no disguising that these were nasty, nasty feet.  Which actually might have made them the most realistic drawings that anyone's ever produced in these classes.

I never do this usually, but this time round I couldn't resist - and I asked if she was prepared to part with one of the feet, since she had two.  She gave it to me, and I passed it round the class and asked everybody to sign it.  It was a really cool souvenir to take away from this class.

The "Make A Giant Man" pose is perfect for photographic opportunities, even if only parts of the "Giant Man" are being displayed at any point.  The feet could almost have been enough to make a cool photograph all on their own, but a PG version is always worth having as a backup option.  Something that can be shown to the grandparents, perhaps... or those grandparents with a bit of a sense of humour, anyway.

One of the girls asked me what my favourite chat-up routine was like, and I told her I didn't have one.  I'm too shy.  I don't talk to girls in pubs.  Then, a little while later, one of them overheard me ask Alison if she wanted to get a drink when we were finished - and, crucially, she heard Alison agree.  And she immediately pointed out that clearly my chatting up skills were getting better.

But I still have nasty feet.  Luckily, they're not the feature that generally get the most attention at these events.