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.