First week o school - Day 1

Sat 24th sept 2011 Week 1 of school is over. The week started with a nervous Mousey, pedalling her rickety bike thru the back streets of Barnes to high tail it to Chiswick tube station, then fly swiftly, the 2 tube stops to Ealing broadway, the end of the line. I made it bright and early and with little sweat…always a keen feat for a cyclist in a rush. I pottered over the green towards the large silver Ealing Studios sign, a tad nervous but excited beyond belief. All 50 of us gathered in one room, the walls lined with workstations, the formidable light bulb surrounded mirrors gleaming back our nervous faces. The tutors all came in and took up a seat at the front of the room. The infamous name tag ridmirale took place first, followed by the general first day talk, including the old ‘stand up and say a few words about yourself’ ice breaker, that I have become rather accustomed too these days. After being informed which groups we were in, we broke off into seperate class rooms and were presented with the holy grail of the make up school. Our kits. The bit we had all been waiting for. A large silver canter leavered box was thrust in my direction. Carefully we all cracked open the lids, followed by plenty of “ooh”’s and “aah”’s as we tucked into the make uppy feast. After an hour luncheon, which was spent sitting on a park bench slurping cold carrot soup from the honey jar I had brought it in, and nibbling on oat cakes, whilst mindlessly sketching the rather large Indian man sitting across the park from me, we dutifully piled back into our classrooms. We were instructed to partner up. I turned to my right to a girl called Rowan, and she nodded in agreement. We would be buddies for this afternoon. We then took it in turns to, firstly, prod each other faces to feel out the prominent bones of the skull and face, then we delicately sketched on the outline with eyeliner, then the fun part, the grease paint. We pulled out large palettes of the greasy clown like face paints and delved into each pot with gusto applying liberally great swathes of white and black, swiftly turning our partners into reapers of the grimmest nature. 2 hours flew past as we swapped over and I tried desperately, not to fall asleep as the swishing of brushes coaxed my drowsy lids at the end of a well worn day. Summary: First day, a roaring success and found me skittering home on my bike and back to the nest within the hour. A large cous cous salad, relaxed evening and early to bed ready for another day of make up fun. x