A couple of months ago, I booked The Fiddler's Elbow for two classes to be held today. Then, a fortnight ago, I tried calling them up to make sure everything was running smoothly and to check that the classes were still confirmed. I made a bunch of calls, but got no answer. Eventually, a week ago, I went in personally and found that the venue was closed down. I started to panic slightly, and made some more 'phone calls and finally raised the manager who assured me that the place would be open in time for the classes. Not before I'd checked a couple of other places as alternatives, but got knocked back each time. Too little notice.
Yesterday afternoon, Alison went in and checked it out as well. She met the manager personally, who assured her that everything was on track. A ceiling had collapsed and had to be repaired. The venue was also under new management, but the new people seem happy for us to keep using the place.
Then last night, my cousin came round to visit. I was tempted to take all the sketchpads round to the Fiddler's Elbow the night before my class, so that when Alison got there, all she would need to do was set everything up and take care of it all herself. Since I wasn't going to be modelling, there was no real need for me to be there. That way, I could stay up drinking with my cousin all night, without having to worry about an early rise.
But I wasn't keen… I still wanted to go in personally and set everything up. And I wanted to see how the place looked after the refurbishment. Mostly, I wanted to be there on the spot, in case anything went wrong with the classes. It's not performance anxiety if I'm not going to be performing, but I knew I was still going to stress, so I figured I'd much rather be there, just in case.
(We stayed up late drinking, anyway. After all, it's not like I was really bothered about looking my best if I wasn't going to be modelling. So six hours of sleep on the couch - my cousin and his girlfriend had my bed - was going to be plenty.)
Anyway, the new management team at the Fiddler's Elbow were keen for everything to run smoothly, so they had the chairs arranged and the floor mopped when I got in - all ready for me to just put down the sketchpads and charcoal and props. So I had the room completely set up in plenty of time, so was sitting and talking to the new manager when Alison arrived. We went upstairs, tweaked everything very slightly just a little bit more, and then sat around waiting for everybody else to arrive. Alison told me that since there were two classes - one at 11AM and one at 4PMM - she had booked two separate models. They were both new and this would give her a chance to check on both of them on the same day.
The girls arrived at 10:55AM, but the first model hadn't arrived yet. I spoke to the girl who had made the booking and apologised to her, and said the model was probably running a little late. She apologised for being early and said it was her fault, which really amused me, because - at five minutes - she was just barely early. Meanwhile, Alison kept trying to call the model to find out where he was, and kept getting no reply. And so it was quickly decided that I was going to model for this class after all.
I've never had a model chicken out before - and I still don't know if that's what happened this time. It's always been a fear of mine, because that's the sort of thing that could be disastrous if I'm off covering another class and there's no backup option. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, today.
(Thankfully, I wasn't feeling particularly rough from the drinking and I knew the lack of sleep hadn't really taken its toll, either. That's one of the truly great benefits of a fast metabolism. Keep the momentum going and the enthusiasm will just sweep the tiredness aside and carry me along.)
I had a pair of gold hotpants in my case. They were a prop that I'd bought specifically for a previous class - one that was supposed to have a Rocky Horror theme going on - but had never been used before. But it's more fun to start any class off wearing something, rather than being completely naked from the outset, so the hotpants were used today, for the first time. Alison burst out laughing when she saw me in them - she hadn't anticipated that I'd have to improvise, due to the lack of an alternative model.
The girls in this first class were great. They really seemed to enjoy themselves and got completely into the spirit of the class. For the very first picture, they wanted me to stand like I was lunging at the bride, which was a lot of fun. That's normally a difficult one to maintain, because it can be tough to hold my arms up for a long time, but we kept it short and I managed it without any real difficulty.
The second one was a killer, though. I was asked to get down on all fours (a common request at these events) and pretend to be a lion. Again, I was supposed to be lunging at the bride. This one too tough, though. I was able to hold my arm up for maybe three or four minutes, but it hurt really badly in almost no time at all, and I had to abandon it pretty quickly. We knew that was going to happen, though, so we made it a "rapid drawing" pose. One of the girls had enough time to interpret the "lion" element fairly literally, though, so she won that particular drawing challenge.
There were a couple of "Kitty" references among the girls going on. An in-joke that Alison picked up on pretty quickly, while I completely missed it. Then, when the bride posed with me for one of the challenges, the winning artist got very creative, drew me with a cat's head, added an extra filthy detail and had a word balloon with "Hello Kitty" in it. That's when Alison asked about the reference and the bride said it was embarrassing, so I offered her three extra points in the competition if she would tell us the story. She said it was the nickname that her fiancé had for her. I thought she was holding back, so I said I was keeping the points, but would give them to any of her friends who would give us the full story. But, apparently, that was indeed the full story, so she got the points in the end.
While the class was going on, I could see out the window. There was a small farmer's market setting up across the road, in front of the ST James Centre, so when the class was finished, Alison and I took advantage of the four-hour gap between the two classes, went across for something to eat and spent some time chilling out and catching up. We felt sure that we'd been spoiled, because the first of the day's classes was so much fun and had so many nice people involved, who really seemed to get right into it. We were sure the second class would be a lot less fun.
We were wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment