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.
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