The force is not strong

Third class of the year and third new venue of the year.  This time, the class was held at Sofi's Bar.  And it was the most fun I've had in a long time.

The day didn't start off too well.  I woke with a horrible migraine, and was really worried that I might have some genuine difficulty doing the class, but couldn't get anyone to fill in for me at short notice.  It didn't help that the client had changed the time pretty late in the day, which had knocked the schedule off.  The previous model had been cool with the original time, but just couldn't accommodate the update.

In the end, though, the later time worked in my favour.  Because with the extra couple of hours rest, and with the aid of painkillers, I was - ultimately - completely fine.  In fact, on more than one occasion, I was the very picture of good health.  Absolutely glowing with it.

Sofi's Bar is down near the foot of Leith Walk and is a really cool little place.  If I lived down there, it would definitely be my local - no doubt about it.  The back room where the class was held was very snug, but had a lot of character.  There were candles in there as well, and someone had thoughtfully turned on the radiator - no doubt for the benefit of the nude model.  It was too hot, though, so I turned it off and opened the window.

When the girls arrived, it took a while to get started.  The air of chaos was prolonged, but good natured.    Everybody seemed absolutely delighted to see each other, which was cool.  The smaller classes are always the best, because they seem to be full of friends who like each other a lot.  I've noticed that in the larger ones, there are often animosities, rivalries and cliques that have to be noted, if an event is to run smoothly.

The girl who hired me had a beautiful tattoo on her back.  I absolutely fell in love with it.  And she had gone to a lot of trouble for the bride.  She had created name rosettes for everybody and she had provided little gift boxes with dares and shots and novelties inside.  I'd seen something like this before and I had provided incentives as a result - anyone who fulfils their dare during the class will get extra bonus points as a result.

It took a while to get everyone seated and get the class started, and everything was cool.  I went through the usual routine of donating points for good drawings and subtracting them for various imaginary slights.  I tried to kick off by subtracting points before I'd even donated a single one, but failed miserable.  Most of the girls were wearing tartan, so the ploy was to penalise anyone who hadn't followed the theme.  But they pointed out that they were all wearing tartan in some form or another.  So no point reduction.

The girl who ultimately won the competition pointed out that she'd won it through technicalities.  She said there had been no artistic merit at all.  I can't remember if she'd won any of the challenges, but I know that at one point, she wrote something on her sketchpad and showed it to someone on the other side of the room.  I asked her to share her secret message with the rest of the class, but she refused.  I bribed her with three bonus points and she held it up for me.

"The force is not strong with him."

I'm guessing that I missed something, somewhere.  A gag at my expense, or something like that.  Not surprising - the aftermath of a migraine often makes my head a bit fuzzy and I won't pick up on some things that are obvious to everyone else.  She certainly wouldn't be the first person to make such an observation, anyway.

Before the class was finished, I gave someone else a bonus point for fulfilling a dare.  It was"kissing a man with a moustache" - which essentially meant she kissed me, while I used a bit of charcoal as a fake moustache.  I gave another girl a bonus point for kissing all her friends.  Most of the other dares weren't achievable in that environment, though.

A final touch… one of the girls told me she had to persuade a man to give her an item of his clothing.  I offered her my boxers.  It was the only article I could realistically give away, since I still had to go all the way back to Gorgie.

All in all… it was a very fun class. The most fun I've ever had with a migraine.

Venue hassles

The bus got into Edinburgh with less than ten minutes before the class started and I took off running.  I was on St Andrew Square at 5:54 and pelting towards the Rabbie Burns Whisky and Wine Bar, but the whole time I was taking comfort in the fact that at least Qba would surely be showing some initiative.  I hadn't been able to raise him since Xan had cancelled, but I had planned ahead and delivered all the necessary equipment to the venue, so all he would have to do was set out the sketchpads and the charcoal.

The next jolt I had was just as I was crossing North Bridge.  A text from the manager of the Rabbie Burns - nobody had turned up.  At all.  Not Xan (obviously) but also not Qba, nor any of the girls.

I turned onto the Royal Mile and kept running.  I was at the Rabbie Burns about a minute later.  I went straight downstairs and started setting up.

With Xan's cancellation, I had been ready to step in and be the tutor for the class.  If Qba didn't turn up, it looked like I would also have to be ready to be the model.  This would have been fine - I've been both model and tutor for a lot of classes before now, anyway.  And I'd appointed both Xan and Qba, because of the potential time restrictions involved in getting from Glasgow to Edinburgh - restrictions that no longer applied.  So I would have had no problem with that.  But then, just as I had almost finished setting up, Qba arrived.  And then I got a 'phone call from the girls.

They were on Cockburn Street and couldn't find the Rabbie Burns, so had called up looking for directions.

This was a surprise.  I had originally planned on holding their class in the offices of Crew 2000 - a place I do some voluntary work a couple of times a week.  But for a couple of reasons, I'd had to change that, so had found the Rabbie Burns instead.  It seemed that the agency had given the girls the updated venue name, but not the updated venue details or address.  So they were looking for the Rabbie Burns in the wrong part of town.

That could have been disastrous, but Cockburn Street was just a few minutes away.  I asked Qba to finish setting up the room and I went out to meet the girls, then lead them to the proper place.  They were very nice about it.  Exceptionally nice, in fact, given the circumstances.  And when I found out that another vital piece of information hadn't been passed on to them, I really started to squirm because I had to give them another bit of bad news.

The offices of Crew 2000 didn't have a bar, so if the class had been held there, they would have to buy their own drinks.  While in the Rabbie Burns, they would have to buy drinks from the premises.  But, of course, if they didn't have the updated address, they also didn't have the updated information about drinks.  So they were carrying wine and gin all sorts of other things with them.  Again, though, they handled the fresh information well, although I wouldn't have been remotely surprised if a couple of them hadn't started to grind their teeth a bit, at this point.

We got back to the Rabbie Burns and I went downstairs to check on Qba's progress.  And then, eventually, we started the class.

In the end, we were only about fifteen minutes behind schedule and I made sure that was made up at the end.  And the class went really well.  For the first time, I found myself as the tutor while I set up poses with a male model.  And rather than being awkward or clumsy, I found it an easy transition to make.  All the jokes and comments I usually make about pictures were simply directed at Qba, rather than at myself.  It was easy.

When the class was done, Qba got dressed and headed off, while I tidied up and talked to the girls a bit.  And I realised they were trying to decide what to do with the wine and the drinks they had brought with them.  They wanted to go out drinking, but didn't want to carry all the stuff with them, and their residence was too far away.  I felt like this was my opportunity to set a couple of things right, so I offered to take it to their hotel for them and leave it there.

That didn't work, though.  They were staying in a private residence, rather than a hotel.  Someone suggested giving me the key to their residence, so I could put the drinks inside, then post the key back through the letterbox, but that was too much for me.  I stepped in and told them that I would really rather not take their key.  It was too much responsibility.

In the end, they came to a new conclusion - they gave it all to me.  Most of the white wine was gone, but the red wine was still completely untouched.  And there was a little bit of gin and some tonic left over, as well.  It was a really nice gesture.  And that, as much as anything else, made me realise that they had no genuine animosity about the way things had gone.

It was a great conclusion to a stressful, but ultimately successful day.

Ragna's first class

What should have been an easy, relaxing class, turned into something a little more stressful, when I got a text from Xan, just before 11AM.  I had two classes that day.  One at 3PM in Glasgow, and one at 6PM in Edinburgh.  I had arranged for Qba and Xan to cover the Edinburgh one - this would have been her second event.  And I was going to do the Glasgow one with Ragna.

Xan's text opened with the word "PANIC!!!"  I haven't added any of the exclamation marks or capital letters - those are all hers.  It went on to say that her boss required her to stay late at work, because she had to interpret for a visiting client.  She was the only person able to speak Mandarin.

So, all my carefully set plans suddenly fell apart.  I had to be present for the Edinburgh class, as well.  And there was no guarantee that I would be able to finish the Glasgow one and make my way to Edinburgh quickly enough to start it on time.

I ran through the times in my head.  Do this class.  Keep to the schedule, get tidied up by 4:30, take off for the bus station, get into Edinburgh and run for the venue.  It was possible.  And there was nothing I could do about it now, so I might as well just relax into it.

I held this one at the Piper Bar, just off George Square - so pretty close to Glasgow's bus station, which was a bonus.  I set up in one corner of the upstairs bar, where I thought the lighting would be good.  Overlooking George Square.  I was anticipating six girls for this one, but in the end, there were only four.  I felt very bad about that, because they had to pay for a minimum of eight participants, so they actually paid twice the usual price.  But they were very nice and pleasant - and working with four girls meant that it felt a bit more intimate than usual.

Ragna arrived, while I was still setting up the room.  She had been a Couchsurfing guest of mine a couple of years earlier, and it had been fun catching up with her again, while she was back in the UK.  I think she was a little nervous about her role, but she was great at it.  She had a lot of questions about protocol and etiquette and I felt bad that I didn't have a lot of proper answers for her.  A huge amount  of the classes are about spontaneity and flexibility, rather than having a precise plan.  I could only tell her that when we got a chance to speak to the girl who had booked us, we would have a much clearer plan.  I think she wasn't keen on how vague that sounded, so she pressed me for a default option that she could fall back on, so I did my best to provide one.  I was actually very pleased that she was taking it so seriously.

One of them texted us when they arrived, so I sent Ragna down to meet her and bring them upstairs. And  once it all kicked off, she was great.  Completely relaxed and very friendly with the girls.  And she was able to follow the general banter pretty well - it seemed to me that we had a very good working relationship.

As usual, all the worries and concerns about timing and schedules and the potential for the next event to run badly… all that faded away, when this class started.  I got into the routine and enjoyed myself, setting up the challenges and talking to the girls.  It was all fun.  It was great to get back into the swing of it, after the winter break.

When the class was done and we had waved the girls off, I was able to tidy everything up and pack it away in record time.  Ragna and I walked up towards the bus station and separated on the other side of George Square.  I caught the very next bus back to Edinburgh.