Waiting at The Fiddler's Elbow in Edinburgh, on a Saturday afternoon... and starting to worry. It's almost 5PM and the girls haven't turned up yet. I start going through all my notes. Right time? Right place? Right city..? It's definitely Edinburgh and not Glasgow? But of course, as far as I know, there isn't a Fiddler's Elbow in Glasgow. And even if there was, I wouldn't have booked a class into a place that I didn't know existed. So, when I checked I was in the right place, that had to mean I was in the right city.
The problem is, I always start to worry whether I've got something wrong. It's my usual sense of mild panic going on... all those little stresses before a class starts. But the reason was completely simple. The girls were just running late.
At one point, I was standing by the window and looking down into the street below. I could see a girl in a pink t-shirt with one of those weird plastic antennae things on her head and she was looking irritated. She was on a mobile phone and talking to someone. It didn't take a stretch of the imagination to wonder if she was one of my party... perhaps calling her friends to find out where they were. Another girl dressed in a similar outfit came up and they seemed to exchange angry words for a minute or two. I hoped it wasn't them. I didn't want the girls to come in with an angry attitude.
It wasn't them, though. When they finally got here, they weren't in the typical hen night "uniform" like the girls I'd been watching from the window. The girls sometimes wear matching outfits in my classes, but not always. And there's usually a sense of irony going on, when they do. More of a sense of humour.
This was Ayusha's first time as a tutor. She's attended classes before, but on those other occasions, she was there as more of an observer. A sort of "trainee" tutor. It was when I hired Qba as the model a couple of times, last year. She was his girlfriend. Even back then, I'd had it in mind that she could possibly be a tutor at some point. But then she and Qba went travelling in India for a few months. I was sad to see them go, because I liked them both and I liked working with them.
Ultimately Qba stayed in India, but Ayusha came back. It's still a shame, because Qba was a great alternative model and I'd have been happy to offer him a lot more work. But it sounds like he's having too good a time in India.
So I spent some time talking with Ayusha and then - when we heard the girls arriving - I got stripped and ready for them. Since it was her first time presenting a class, I figured I'd go with the same style of start that I used in the last two classes, which meant I could talk her through a basic kind of intro. I showed her the Dalek and told her to just settle everyone, go through the "hellos", pretend that she'd lost the Dalek... and that would be my cue to enter. Then I had to briefly tell her what the Dalek actually was, because she's from Finland and has never heard of them before.
When the girls came in, they were sadly more than half an hour late. And the really frustrating thing was that I couldn't even offer them some extra time at the end, because the venue was booked for a birthday party that evening. So we went through three poses and tried to make sure that there was a good balancing act going on. I didn't want them to feel rushed, but I still wanted to make sure there was time to do at least a couple of routines. There was the first basic pose, then for the second challenge I moved straight on to calling for the two volunteers - one to be the other model and the other to be the co-ordinator, who would set the pose up. That's one I normally save until about halfway through the class and it's also one where I normally switch the roles of the volunteers round so the model can get a bit of revenge on the co-ordinator.
And finally - the regular favourite - we went for the Make-A-Giant-Man pose. Each girl chose a body part at random, drew it and then we put the pages down onto the floor to see what we had. There were three torsos, four penises and no heads. Two nipples, though. One of which looked really cool. And a really nicely drawn foot, which was amusing to me, because my feet are definitely not my best feature.
We had time after that for some group photographs which Ayusha took. And then I gave the girls some chalks and my feedback book and invited them to write in it while they finished their drinks downstairs and while Ayusha and I cleaned up after ourselves. They were a fun group of girls and I really wish I'd been able to take longer... give them the usual amount of time and relax into the class. I hope they enjoyed themselves, even despite that, though. It was still fun. Just a bit short.
The problem is, I always start to worry whether I've got something wrong. It's my usual sense of mild panic going on... all those little stresses before a class starts. But the reason was completely simple. The girls were just running late.
At one point, I was standing by the window and looking down into the street below. I could see a girl in a pink t-shirt with one of those weird plastic antennae things on her head and she was looking irritated. She was on a mobile phone and talking to someone. It didn't take a stretch of the imagination to wonder if she was one of my party... perhaps calling her friends to find out where they were. Another girl dressed in a similar outfit came up and they seemed to exchange angry words for a minute or two. I hoped it wasn't them. I didn't want the girls to come in with an angry attitude.
It wasn't them, though. When they finally got here, they weren't in the typical hen night "uniform" like the girls I'd been watching from the window. The girls sometimes wear matching outfits in my classes, but not always. And there's usually a sense of irony going on, when they do. More of a sense of humour.
This was Ayusha's first time as a tutor. She's attended classes before, but on those other occasions, she was there as more of an observer. A sort of "trainee" tutor. It was when I hired Qba as the model a couple of times, last year. She was his girlfriend. Even back then, I'd had it in mind that she could possibly be a tutor at some point. But then she and Qba went travelling in India for a few months. I was sad to see them go, because I liked them both and I liked working with them.
Ultimately Qba stayed in India, but Ayusha came back. It's still a shame, because Qba was a great alternative model and I'd have been happy to offer him a lot more work. But it sounds like he's having too good a time in India.
So I spent some time talking with Ayusha and then - when we heard the girls arriving - I got stripped and ready for them. Since it was her first time presenting a class, I figured I'd go with the same style of start that I used in the last two classes, which meant I could talk her through a basic kind of intro. I showed her the Dalek and told her to just settle everyone, go through the "hellos", pretend that she'd lost the Dalek... and that would be my cue to enter. Then I had to briefly tell her what the Dalek actually was, because she's from Finland and has never heard of them before.
When the girls came in, they were sadly more than half an hour late. And the really frustrating thing was that I couldn't even offer them some extra time at the end, because the venue was booked for a birthday party that evening. So we went through three poses and tried to make sure that there was a good balancing act going on. I didn't want them to feel rushed, but I still wanted to make sure there was time to do at least a couple of routines. There was the first basic pose, then for the second challenge I moved straight on to calling for the two volunteers - one to be the other model and the other to be the co-ordinator, who would set the pose up. That's one I normally save until about halfway through the class and it's also one where I normally switch the roles of the volunteers round so the model can get a bit of revenge on the co-ordinator.
And finally - the regular favourite - we went for the Make-A-Giant-Man pose. Each girl chose a body part at random, drew it and then we put the pages down onto the floor to see what we had. There were three torsos, four penises and no heads. Two nipples, though. One of which looked really cool. And a really nicely drawn foot, which was amusing to me, because my feet are definitely not my best feature.
We had time after that for some group photographs which Ayusha took. And then I gave the girls some chalks and my feedback book and invited them to write in it while they finished their drinks downstairs and while Ayusha and I cleaned up after ourselves. They were a fun group of girls and I really wish I'd been able to take longer... give them the usual amount of time and relax into the class. I hope they enjoyed themselves, even despite that, though. It was still fun. Just a bit short.
