Big ears

In which Karin attends her second hen party

and the penis cake makes a triumphant return.

This is my fifth summer with this business and it's become clear that June is the busiest month of the year.  This is, in fact, the busiest weekend of the year.  Four hen parties.  It would be my favourite weekend, if I wasn't stressed about schedules and times.  And it would be a lot easier, if I wasn't also very motivated to making sure that the girls who book me are getting the best event possible.  So I find myself finding the best ways to balance two elements that don't go well together.

So I was keeping an eye on the time to make sure that we kept to a decent schedule.  I wanted to make sure the girls got enough time to relax into their drawings, and that - once the class was concluded - there was also enough time to take pictures, say our goodbyes and wind everything down gradually.  While still making sure there was also enough time to tidy up and get ready for the next class.

I scheduled an hour between each one.  Which left half an hour for winding down and half an hour for preparation.  I had a system.

Today was my second and third use of the City Cafe.  And thankfully, there was a giant fan on the bar, this time.  It took me a few minutes to work out how to turn it on, but I figured it out and turned it towards the main area I was going to set in.  The fire escape door was opened up again, so we had some decent air circulation going on.  Which was lucky, because both today's classes were bigger than last night's ones.

As usual, I couldn't get a 'phone signal in the Cafe.  It seems that every single venue I ever use in Edinburgh is a black hole for 'phone reception.  So once I'd prepared the room, I stepped outside and sent a text the girl who had booked me, then went back inside and found Karin waiting for me.  I didn't see her at first, so when she spoke, she genuinely startled me.

This weekend also marked Karin's second and third classes.  And the second and third appearances of the penis cake.  We met up for a coffee a couple of weeks ago, had a conversation about what worked and didn't work about the cake and agreed on a new plan.  The money I was paying her for the cake just wasn't worth the time and ingredients, and I couldn't afford to pay her any more.  So we decided to make the cakes smaller and award them as prizes, once we counted up all the points. 

Karin also made the icing pink, this time.  I preferred that.  The last cake was great, but I think pink icing looks nicer and more cartoonish.  The shape of it was better, too.  I liked the cleaner lines and the better details.  And it was eleven inches long, so still a decent sized cake even if it was smaller.

The initial plan for this class was for Karin to sit the girls down and introduce the concept to them.    I was hiding behind the door to the bar, crouched down and trying to watch everybody arrive through a crack in the door.  When I got my cue, I was going to stand up and walk into the room.  I think I missed the cue slightly, but I breezed on through and kept going.  I was also a little surprised that the girls weren't sitting where I expected them to be.  They had already taken up position with the sketchpads.  I wasn't keen on this twist, because some of the girls were seated with their backs to me and I wasn't sure how they'd respond to having a naked man walking up behind them.  But they seemed to take it in their stride, so I relaxed pretty quickly, stepped past them and took up position in the room.

I asked Karin about that later, and she said that the girl who was arranging everything had told her that  only the bride needed to be surprised and asked for a change to the intro.  So there had been a last-minute tweak to the arrangements.  Karin had thought I could hear them being discussed and was prepared for the new layout.  I was completely cool with it, though.  I had been confident that there was a good reason for the change in routine; I was just curious about what it was.

The Make-A-Giant-Man challenge had some interesting results.  There have been times when I've allocated body parts to people in the group, which has provided some fairly coherent results.  But when there are more than eight people, it's harder to do that, because there just aren't enough body parts to go round; so we get the girls to go with whichever parts they prefer.

This time - for probably the first time ever - the final result only had one penis.  There were two bums, though.  And two great ears.  There was no way we could pass up that particular photo opportunity.  It was just too good.

Apart from the fact that I had somehow - stupidly - left my feedback book on the bus going home yesterday, the class went well.  I had the opportunity to fill up the last couple of pages in that book in just one single afternoon, but I didn't have it with me.  I was gutted when I realised what I'd done.  I hope it's been handed in to the Lost Property office.  If not, I've just lost five years worth of ego-stroking.

But one of the girls congratulated me, just as everything was winding down.  She said "You kept it going very well."  I'm not sure if she realised just how much of a compliment that was.  It's one of the other big balancing acts in these events.  Keep the momentum going, without getting too manic and acting like a 1970s Butlins "entertainer".  Compliments like that make me realise that I must have a pretty good balance going on.

I can have an occasional moment of smugness.