Sometimes there are really cool coincidences going on at these hen nights. I was originally supposed to do this class at the Tiki Bar in Glasgow, but due to some sort of mistake (I'm still not clear on it) the booking didn't go ahead. So some rapid calling round ensued and I got a conference room at the Premier Inn, just off George Square instead. Then, halfway through the class, one of the girls told Alison and I that they were all actually staying in that hotel.
Something similar happened once before. I did a job in Inverness, and spent a day hunting for suitable venues. When I finally found one on the far side of the river, the girls told me they were staying in the hotel right next door.
Anyway, this wasn't the most stress free of weekends. I had two jobs - one in Edinburgh at 12PM and one in Glasgow at 3PM, but I didn't have a model for the Edinburgh job. I thought of sending Alison on to Glasgow to set up the room, while I did both jobs. I'd worked out that I could catch the train at 1:45PM, get into Glasgow at 2:36PM and get to the Premier Inn less than ten minutes after that. But then, I'd have been stressing the whole time, just in case the train was running late.
Thankfully, however, we managed to get a model for the Edinburgh class. So I dropped off the sketchpads, met Alison at the bus station (cheaper than the train) and took off for Glasgow in plenty of time.
We had a great group. They came down and introduced themselves, then most of them arrived in plenty of time for the class, but three of them were late. When that three arrived, they had dressed for the part. I won't even bother describing them - just check out the pictures.
The girls had all been to the Tennents Brewery the day before, and attended a cookery class there. I'd never heard of this before, but it sounded pretty cool, the way they described it. I did a quick web search and I think this is it. It might be worth checking out, because it could be a good alternative venue for future classes in Glasgow.
One of the girls seemed pretty curious about my attitudes towards nudity and had a lot of questions and insights of her own. She said that she'd felt a bit self-conscious about being in a room with a naked man, for about five minutes, and then she'd simply relaxed right into it and started to almost treat it like it was something normal. I said that when I first started life modelling, back in my early twenties, I had felt intensely nervous for the first shift, but within a week I had actually had to remind myself of the reasons that nudity had ever felt unnatural.
I wondered what she would make of the Aberlady nude beach, and it occurred to me that she might go along if I ever invited her. Or if she didn't live in Oban. And then it occurred to me that there might be one in Oban as well. It's been a long time since I last visited in Oban. And it rained that week. Every day. Still a beautiful place, though and still well worth going back to.
It's a shame that Premier Inns always look so clinical and sterile, because they're otherwise good venues. When the various pub options have been exhausted, we always know we can fall back on one of these places and they're always very clean and presentable - never a need to sweep up or do some rapid cleaning after the previous night's drinking if the bar staff have been a bit remiss. But they almost never seem to provide a good backdrop for any truly great photographs. So these postings tend to lack a bit of sparkle as a result.
Despite that, though, we still managed to get good pictures with our various competition winners. Alison and I have continued with our new routine of picking out winning pictures as we go along, and we took some PG versions of the photographs each time. I could be flattering myself, but I get the impression that they enjoyed their various moments in the spotlight.
Alison and I went to the Tiki Bar after that, and had a couple of drinks. It's definitely one of my favourite places to visit, when I'm in town. It was a nice way to round off the afternoon.
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