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.