Friday, July 27, 2007

July - Seeing Bodies in Seeboden - The World Body/ Face Painting Awards, Austria

Well, after several sleepless nights & 1 go at practicing my competition face on my poor cousin Alex, (and making a mess of it I thought?) I drove down to Dads on Tuesday. Nightmare trip, solid traffic and road works, so I arrived late and still couldn’t sleep. I met Bibi at Stansted airport at 4 am, and we started checking in. I was underweight and she was over, so we repacked then queued up to get through security. Who weighed her hand baggage but not mine and told her to check it in. It took so long to get to that stage that by the time we got back to check-in (being promised that we would be fast-tracked back through security as we had 30 mins to boarding), it was shut. So we sneaked more of her paints into my hand luggage and went back to security, where again luckily mine wasn’t weighed (bigger bag than Bibi's but as I carried it they assumed it was OK!). Who now refused to fast-track us, so we queued AGAIN, and reached the X-ray machines with 20 mins left. Which sent Bibi’s case off to be looked at – but all the staff were busy. By the time they looked at it they had forgotten what upset the machine, and had to queue it up to be x-rayed again. And a third time as AGAIN there were no staff free. All despite us agitating that our plane went in 10 minutes. By the time we got out we had 3 minutes and ran, but missed our plane. NOT happy. ‘Luckily’ the people from Da Vinci expecting to collect us in Salzburg at 9 am were stuck in traffic so hadn’t been waiting there….

We complained to assorted airport staff but nothing happened apart from them finally telling us we were stuck, there were no seats/ flights, and where to collect our luggage from. We couldn’t believe it, we had spent the 2 ½ hours from when check-in opened ONLY queuing at assorted security things, hadn’t even had breakfast, and we still missed the plane! I rang Jake etc & had them searching for any way to Austria as all Ryan Air to Salzburg were full that week. Eventually Bibi’s sponsor for the trip, Da Vinci brushes, called from Germany to tell us of a flight which didn’t exist, but then a nice young man made our day a bit better by helping us book a flight to Graz at lunchtime, and gave us priority seating to help cheer us up a bit. Typically, going though security this time the machine/ operator saw nothing wrong with our unchanged bags and it all passed first time. Flight cost a fortune, AND it left late.

Graz was boiling, we struggled to the train station and sat watching an irate unfriendly English business man curse everything. When we reached Graz Hauptbahnhoff I used my luckily sufficient German to get us tickets to where we needed to go after having kittens behind the slowest-choosing-the-most-complicated ticket-route student customers, and we ran for our train. It meant we would arrive 12 hours later, at 9 pm, but could still make the opening Body Circus costume party at the castle. Which was fab, and we started relaxing on the train, until it ground to a halt about 5 minutes before our 1st expected change. A very pretty Austrian Alps village amongst the mountains went about its business outside the train window, but we sat there sweating in blazing sun with no air-conditioning for over an hour, until we had missed at least our next 2 connections. So we were finally made it to a new station and realised we would now arrive at our hotel after midnight. Luckily the Da Vinci people phoned to stay they would collect us a few train changes earlier, so despite the amazing thunderstorm that began, we cheered up a bit.

Gerhardt (marketing director for Da Vinci– hand made sable art brushes, the best) & his wife Rosie collected us & drove us to our hotel in the next village to Seeboden where the festival was. We surprised them by saying we still wanted to go to the Body Circus costume ball (friends & paint suppliers of Bibi’s had rung her to say they were still there) so we all changed in under 5 minutes including my worst face paint on me ever.
Bibi & I wore my wings as fairies, she painted a fab thing on Rosie to match her amazing feathery outfit and I did brushes etc on Gerhardt who was dressed as an artists with the brushes he sells stuck in his hat.
Just after midnight, they drove us to the Castle Sommeregg with a bit of guesswork until we saw the amazing lightshow on it and could home in on the grounds. The whole place was lit up and decorated, with 1000s of mad (some a bit odd) body painted and costumed guests wandering around in it amongst the museum of torture bits it usually hosted.
We had missed most of the shows but still got to watch a display by a couple of girl acrobats hanging from a metal hoop and spinning, etc – very flexible, no ropes – from our main perch on the top of one of the castle turrets.
We stayed a few hours as most we knew had left, then headed to our very comfy duvets, exhausted.

Our balcony view over Lake Millstattter See was great!

Seeboden our balcony.jpg
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

It was named when the Duke’s son died there in the 8th Century, so he chucked 1000 statues of pagan gods into the water and became Christian. It lives up to its name – apart from the Body Festival, there are painted shop dummies randomnly dotted around the town!

Seeboden Body statue on roof
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

All the hotel staff wore traditional costume – those pretty bodices over white shirts and long skirts & aprons for the breakfast girls. The hotel itself was a rather painful lime yellow outside but in a lovely area.

Buildings in Seeboden
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

At the festival there were workshops and classes going on, body-painted bungee jumping off an immense dam in the mountains, and all the stalls were being finished, so we didn’t have to paint. We were given the day ‘off’ as the other 2 wanted to spend Thursday setting up their brush stall, so we let ourselves into the hotels lakeside bathing huts and had a swim. Cold but VERY refreshing and Bibi was excited to see damselflies & dragonflies (and yes a lecture form me, sorry). One pair even laid their eggs on the strings holding our cooling bottled water in the lake!

Seeboden Bibi swims
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

I wandered into town to find lunch for us, then after stencilling ‘Da Vinci’ with body glue & glitter (seeing as it won’t come out of clothes when you spill it when doing body glitter tattoos) onto T-shirts Bibi had brought for us, we tried to get some sleep. Rosie & Gerhardt treated us to a huge tea in the hotel, and I then glittered the same logos onto a shirt & T-shirt for them. Ourselves and several others turned up for what we thought was films of the last 10 years body paint winners in the town hall, only to find it was ‘just’ a photo display (with many of the labels wrong as we knew the artists work). On the one hand it cheered us up to see that many of the bodies were not fantastically panted, but on the downside, lots were amazing! We finally met our body model (Charlie, form Bristol, used for the last few years by Raph who won several times) late at night on the busy festival site. Bibi had been delighted to find that the 1 hairstyle I can do is a French plait (on me) as she wanted it upside down going into a spike on Charlie’s hair to carry on the tail up leg-leading into DNA on spine idea she had. LUCKILY Charlie & her mum are hairdressers so said they would do it for us as that is allowed to be ready before you start painting!!! Phew! After much brainstorming and panicking re our 1st body design, Bibi & I got a few hours sleep.


We arrived early at the festival to find we had been allocated a tent on the main path, sharing with a team from South Korea. The artist had the most amazing robotic sketches for his model; (I actually preferred his body about an hour before he finished it rather than what he ended up with as he got too intricate and hid his design) the 1st theme for all painters was “In The Year 2525”. That day, Friday, over 100 brush &sponge painting teams (up to 2 painters but many more can help cleaning, passing, feeding etc – we had just us 2 and the Da Vinci pair popping in to ask if we were ok when they had a chance) were working; the Airbrush & Special Effects categories had the same theme but would paint their qualifying rounds on Saturday. It was already sweltering at 10 am, thankfully Charlie had a fan as she was camping so we plugged that in and started when told to. To start with we had to customise the G-strings we had for Chrlie as they were too big!

The South Korean’s model he had standing from the start and we were not surprised when she started fainting fairly soon. It was over 40 degrees, blazing sun, in white tents with 1000’s of onlookers standing in any open wall space to watch. Bibi had Charlie lying down on a bench for most of our time, and even when I have painted simple stuff I had always planned it so the model sat as much as possible.
When other models and even artists started getting faint, organisers raided all the festival bars for ice for the models to hold,

Cold feet
Originally uploaded by michelmitchel.

suck or stand on (any unpainted skin!).


Bibi sketched on the design and we did a sort of paint-by-numbers thing, as we had never worked together and I hadn’t really seen her design before. It was a bit frustrating as sometimes I had not much to do except keep them both fed & watered, but I learnt a lot. And had a go with the stickiest substance to man – super-strong hair gel! At one point Charlie had to peel paint pots off my fingers, yug……
We thought we had 5 hours, mad panic to finish then realised everyone else was still painting and we had another hour! So we went on. The idea was humans had either been taken over by reptilian aliens who warped our DNA to make us like them, (hence the tail down a leg & metallic/ scaly side), or that we were in tune with the Earth and used quartz crystals/ armour (which stand for healing/ love) to repair & protect ourselves & our DNA.


At the end, after 6 hours standing painting furiously, we were knackered and hot & dirty, but had to walk though the festival, being stopped every few minutes for photos, to the behind the scenes area.


We queued up, in the most bizarre and colourful line I have ever seen, for several hours to get ID photos taken and present our model, ideas and techniques to the judges (scary, about 8 of them behind laptops), then on to the first photography stage which had a black backdrop.

A slow walk through more photographers along a tree-lined river and we reached the Photography Area.
It had assorted coloured stages with backdrops, and amphitheatre-style standing platforms for professional and amateurs who had paid for special tickets to stand while they snapped shots of the models against the lake, river or trees. That took a while to get out of too, then we began the even slower walk back through the fascinated public, past the front of the main stage and back behind it again. THEN we had to queue up for our model to go onto the stage and display to the public & TV cameras.


Bibi’s nephew (a DJ) had altered and cut a song called ‘2525’ to the exact 3 minute allowance, and we worked out a vague posing routine/ act for Charlie to do. Some displays were amazing as the models were actually dancers or acrobats, and the painters got dressed up & involved too – one of those won the audience prize in the end! Anyway around 9 pm we were finally free and stuffed down junk food from the stalls with vodka & orange. They began announcing the top 37 teams who had qualified and we were overjoyed to hear we had got through! Even better, when the points list came out, we were 17th!
So we set to clearing up and packing away and struggled back to the hotel late, to clean brushes etc and start planning faces for Saturday. We were too tired/ busy to stay and watch the World Fluoro Awards (dancer-models painted with UV colours that go on in the dark and put on an amazing glowing show), let alone go to any of the after parties!


Saturday

As the Airbrush and Special Effects categories were body-painting today, we sort of had a few free hours in the morning. So we sat in front of the Da Vinci stall and finalised our face ideas, I tried bits on myself and ended up with a bunch asking to be painted – I had to say no!), then had a small shopping spree as so many paint suppliers etc were there.
We were only using Da Vinci brushes seeing they were sponsoring us but that was hardly a hardship – every time Bibi needs a special thing, they design and make it for her! Scariest was we had no models organised to paint, and had to go to the meeting point where one of the festival staff was sat surrounded by assorted people who wanted to be painted. It was horrible having to pick someone as we didn’t really know what we wanted! The first girl Bibi chose asked to wait to see if she could be body painted, so she ‘took’ a blonde Austrian called Heidi instead. I chose a young girl from Vienna called Sonya who luckily understood my awful German, and we arranged to meet them 20 minutes before the world Face Painting competition began.

We were in a better tent; Bibi & I were sharing a table, and another painter form the USA (who the world famous Mark Reid had painted fake jeans onto) was also in with us.
It was shaded by tress and a bit cooler, thank goodness! But as it was beside one of the main paths AND had a bridge by the entrance on the other side, we were really busy with spectators. I had panicked that I would go to pieces like I did BOTH times I tried to paint to pass my FACE test – talking on stage/ in front of 10000s of strangers doesn’t faze me, and I have no problem painting in front of crowds, but the Face examinations I was rubbish. Luckily just as the judges started us off, we heard Charlie and her sister go on stage.
They were on a busking tour of Europe (ending at the Body paint Fest) to raise money for her friends brain cancer charity – and they were really good! So it took my mind right off things and I was singing along with her, quite relaxed really. Then the judges announced we only had 1 ½ hours to paint, not 2 as everyone thought, which didn’t go down well! Not that I have ever taken that long to do a face…..

Rules said NOTHING was allowed to be done before the 2 hour competition started, so no hairstyling etc, and all costume/ accessories were not allowed to touch or be lower than the shoulders. So I began with my 1st ever French plait on someone else, which looked fine.
The theme was ‘Dreams & Illusions’, so as I will be making 20,000 of them when I get back to HK, I went for a dream-catcher face. The legend says the Native American spider goddess weaves a web that traps bad dreams and holds them there until the rising sun’s rays destroys them, whilst the clever good dreams can escape down into the dreamer.
It was so hot Sonya stripped to her bikini, which luckily matched my colours perfectly, and Heidi stripped down to her bra as that toned in with Bibi’s red ‘Money/ Gambling Demon’ tones. Bibi’s son gave her the idea that wealth was an Illusion, Rosie had borrowed playing cards and dice and a photo of a roulette wheel from the hotel for her to copy, we researched money signs & notes for her and she had a pic of Damon Hirsts diamond encrusted skull too as the madness that people will spend money on – she referenced it with a crystal horn.

The judges were different from the body judges and much more visible (I expect as only 30 pre-selected painters had been allowed to take part in this). Some really stuck their noses in and I almost painted the side of ones face as she got between me & Sonya! Anyway, I tried sticking on tiny crystals for the good dreams which looked really great I think. It was funny, Sonya’s parents and the crowd kept commenting as I painted. And even though I mucked up the clouds around her décolletage I was happy with the sun/ ray effect.

I had spent several days knitting a mad ‘Wee Willy Winky’ style hat in bright fluffy wool for my model to wear (sleeping theme!) but it was so hot I scrapped that and bought a turquoise dream-catcher form a Native American stall instead. I finished with time to spare and was so happy I hadn’t mucked up I couldn’t stop grinning like a loon all day. At the last minute I went and bought 2 feather fans as the girls were sweating despite their lack of clothes – and it gave them something to pose with and do with their hands.


We set off on the usual judging/ photography trek, and what was interesting was that they kept wanting out 2 face models to pose together, as they complimented each other. AND were often ignoring the airbrush/ special effects body models also being judged at the time to photo our 2 (their lovely figures in bikini/ bra helped there I think).
17 year old Sonya’s parents were both photographers (she wants to be a journalist) and must have trained her, she was fabulous at posing, confident, and was definitely the most popular of the girls on show, being dragged off into the river, the lake etc by keen snappers.

Funnily an old fat man kept swimming past the beach despite the efforts of the security staff screaming & waving at him to get away from the no-swim area – not sure if he was trying to get closer to the girls or just get in photos! Eventually I called a break and we got them drinks & ice-creams, and boogied along to Charlie & her sister in front of the main stage. Then we headed behind the scenes to queue up for our stage presentation.
I had grabbed an Enigma CD out of my car at the airport, and chose the song called ‘Return to Innocence’ which has an old Native American man wailing traditional songs in the background. Sonya had to keep her flip-flops on as the stage floor was so hot in the sun, but she casually wandered on and was brilliant – I got goose pimples watching her at the front of the stage and with the volume of the music, it was perfect! No idea what I looked like on the TV - 1 camera was stuffed in my face while I was boogying along & clapping Sonya! Then as we left, the gorgeous wife of Alex (think she models too) who organises the fest came up to ask my name and tell me how beautiful ‘my’ face was, which was lovely – she sees it all every year, so it was a great compliment! Perfect day for me!


Anyway, we arranged to meet the girls for the winners announcements a couple of hours later and went to get food – they went to paddle and eat.
Suddenly the Pirate zombie girl 1 of the World Famous Wolfe brothers had face-painted ran past us, shouting they were announcing the Face winners.


We asked 3 different officials and the info tent but were told that no, it would be at 9pm, so started to leave. Just as they began announcing the Face winners! We didn’t find out until later that there had been a technical hitch and the presentations with music for the airbrush/ special effects bodies was delayed,

orange one
Originally uploaded by onsche.

so rather than loose the crowd interest the organisers decided to skip a few hours and do the faces then. The problem was hardly any of us were there! The woman who got 3rd was swimming and eventually turned up dripping wet, and NONE of them had their models with them. I found that really annoying as I didn’t know many of the artists or their work, so had no idea what they had done. The winner, they said, was a woman from England….I KNEW it was Bibi and Rosie & I had turned round, grabbed her and were screaming so loud the presenter heard!
She was given a massive coloured glass trophy and a big box of paints – I could see her worrying how to get them home! Da Vinci were of course even more overjoyed as their logos on the shirts we made were on stage and she WON the World Face Painting! Typically our models were found just after it was all over, and posed with brushes etc.

I think Sonya was a little disappointed I wasn’t a winner, especially as shed been the photographers favourite. I had no idea where I came but was really happy anyway, that I hadn’t disgraced myself painting! Then, towards midnight as we went home, they released the list – and I was 5th!!!! 2 places off a prize/ place AND we beat the gurus that were the Wolfe Brothers and Mark Reid!!!!! Stunned!


I celebrated by spending the small hours wiring butterflies as hair accessories whilst Bibi finished designing and tried ideas on my arm.

Sunday I was so much more relaxed, and I think Bibi was too – we had made the body finals and proved ourselves in the face awards, even if they were not such a big deal at the festival. Our tent was in full sun up near the main entrance so very hot – but luckily it was cloudy occasionally. We shared with Sabine the Dutch painter/ model we met at the ball who had been the pirate girl. She hated photographers near her and they ignored the bench she used as a barrier so we were asking them to stay away for her too. The theme for all categories (finalists of airbrush & special effects painted today too) was “Chaos & Control”.

World Bodypainting Festival
Originally uploaded by wuschL.

Bibi had an amazing card of 2 air/ water faces kissing which she adapted to make a heart-shaped chaos/ love butterfly on Charlie’s back,
blending into a whirlwind (cos the theory says about 1 wing flap causing a storm) down 1 leg and a calm day with a dandelion clock on the other.
The front she copied a photo of a fab rusty antique lock, with a chain attached to it going down 1 arm to a key I painted onto the hand. The lock said ‘Lovelock’ as she originally thought that was who wrote the chaos theory; Rosie checked online and found that he was the guy who said if we left the earth alone it would heal itself so we worked that into the blurb instead. We painted the bit that completed the closed hasp onto her other hand, so she could pose with the lock complete, use her key hand to unlock her knickers-keyhole, take away her 1st hand to ‘open’ the lock then turn to show the chaos it needed to heal.
I sacrificed my new neon pink fishnets from Fairylove to sponge through - you should have seen the faces on the audience (3 deep mostly) when I put them on herm they wondered what on earth I was doing!
Apart from that I mainly painted the chains and did the hair – had one of my fairy-face paint outfit coloured wool dreads in it and lots of butterflies. Bibi’s face for it was fab and we blagged that it harked back to ancient tribal faces who originally worshipped the earth etc.

World Bodypainting Festival
Originally uploaded by wuschL.


Body-Painting Festival
Originally uploaded by mgratzer.




What was far more noticeable this time was the number of photographers blatently not there for the art, but for the semi-naked bodies.
Several got so intent on trying to get a shot up between Charlies thighs (despite my strategically placed arm/ self/ paints) that we got her to swap ends of the bench. Then of course some sneaked round the back of the tent to try to get a photo from there. Worse was the breast men – on Friday Charlies chest got painted first, but today the design meant her front was left until last with just a few sketch lines on it. As she had NO paint at all on her front side, the people intently taking photos of her face were obviously not appreciating the artwork – as that was all on her back. The exception was one photographer who said each time he visited that he would come back later ‘when she was decent’ – he was the only gentleman!

Body-Painting Festival
Originally uploaded by mgratzer.



We finished but as we knew we would have to queue, sent Charlie off to start and cleared up rather than leave all our gear in the remote (knickable) tent.

It was starting to cloud over so Bibi collected her huge range of wraps and brought them back


– I ended up hugging the tiny Charlie (who was wearing one of those black hair-dressers robes that doesn’t smudge the paint) to keep her warm between queues/ photos.


Think 1 of my fave bodies was the finished version of this fractal painter -

World Bodypainting Festival
Originally uploaded by wuschL.

We stopped in 1 of the eating areas to work out her unlocking routine ( a heavy metal song about keys with floaty bit where she could turn & wiggle her chaos back) and made it to the stage queue as it began to spit.
I noticed 1 poor German girl with goose pimples shaking so much she was wobbling whilst her (male) artists didn’t notice so included her in the warming hug. The winds picked up & I was sheltering those 2 whilst hanging onto the gazebos back stage, which were lifting. Other artists joined in as purple clouds approached. We were about 3 from performing when Alex the organiser who was sorting stage entrances suddenly yells, “Everyone f-ing RUN! RUN!” and behind him we saw a huge wind tearing things off the stage and pushing giant boxes around. Worst was the model on at the time had a huge flat Mohican head piece perfect for catching the wind– but she made it off OK. I shoved the German girl in front & ran towing Charlie who hated thunder & was freaking a bit. Most models made it to a big industrial judging tent as the back of the stage exploded towards us, but we preferred sheltering against a metal portacabin office. A bunch of blokes let us under a table parasol they had and we wrapped up in plastic and stared at each others noses/ chests for 20 minutes.
As it passed, we wandered back to the stage to looking at the devastation it had caused – definitely fit the chaos theme! It was only ourselves & the world famous paint masters the Wolfe Brothers (in heaven/ hell costumes to escort their model on stage) that returned at first so we joked about winning by default as we watched the crew try to salvage the stage.
They even used the flame effects to help dry the floor but it was all sodden still; the music was out due to wet equipment, etc, and most of the bikini clad audience had fled into the few industrial bar tents which still had rooves.

Eventually it all got restarted – I realised Heidi form yesterday was the Wolfes model when she became my next huggeee – what is it with blokes NOT thinking of chilly models? Anyway as we were one of the last on, luckily they had fixed things by then se we got our chosen music. Off to eat/ shelter!


My face model Sonya came up to say HI and I did not recognise her - she'd been painted black & white for an airbrush entry and looked totally different - said she preferred it to being brushed & sponged!
I crashed the VIP tent to give Charlie her stuff back and when we found the Da Vinci stall completely packed up, collected them & Bibi & crashed it again (it was half empty but had nice seats & a good stage view). It was actually more interesting with half the backdrops etc ripped off by the storm, you could see more going on! The special effects category was weird – hardly any painting, more like just stuff stuck on bodies, or hardly painted bodies on huge props.

clone
Originally uploaded by onsche.

I think their winner was the girl done as a war scene with a rocket shooting real flames out of her head. They pushed her onstage on roller blades and there was an iffy moment when she fell over, still afire, in a puddle. We watched the rather odd costumed act after that (monsters were ritually torturing a girl who had been earlier painted by Raph in a demo/ advert for her sponsors, Kryolan paints) and then the winners were announced – another team of 2 UK ladies was first, with their stunning Thai girl! The fireworks to music were brilliant, but we were too cold and mucky to stay for the party and went home to see what heavy things Bibi could pack to give to Raph & Gary who were driving back to the UK.

Found this photographers cool shot of an artists massive paint-board thing that I think wont something in the special effects category...mad!

World Bodypainting Festival
Originally uploaded by wuschL.



Had to stick in a few of the pics from the fireworks at the end of the Bodypainting Festival. Love my camera, I wasn't even looking, just had it resting on the bar balcony pressing the button now and then and it did it all!


So, not much partying but a whole lot of painting!
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Friday, July 13, 2007

Troon Taxis and Freeing Inner Fairies

I spent most of June visiting/ hosting friends & family when I wasn’t looking after Granny (had to put Auntie Dorothy back in a home as she reached the violent stage of her Alzheimers).
My mate Emma hasn’t changed, we had a great weeknd just blathering.
And I finally got the whole story of how my brother Graeme proposed to Vicky (his romantic plans scuppered by her not realising he wanted her alone!).


Lorna, the best painter in Scotland, rang me up to see if I could do some painting jobs for her (not really – away/ busy already!) and invited me to volunteer for the Glasgow taxi-drivers Day Out at Troon.
I can recall this from primary school – it started after the war, when 3 taxis took sick kids from hospital to the beach for a day, and has grown to a huge charity event. I drove down (3 hours in torrential rain – only lightened by the guy controlling the road-works traffic lights on Loch Lomond being dressed in a fake Tam O Shanter & wig) to find blazing sunshine by 11 am! We set up (Lorna, her young daughter, balloon-twisting husband, another pro painter and a few ‘beginners’), and then went to watch the parade.
I think there were about 300 taxis, mini buses, etc, ALL decorated form Bat-mobiles to kids artworks, with the taxi drivers all in fancy dress too. It was making me quite weepy – all these sick, disabled or underprivileged kids were amazed, as their entire hour long trip, people lined the streets to wave, school kids had made banners, the taxis beeped and the towns were covered in balloons…..As well as us, there was a stilt-walker/ juggler, Clyde radio running competitions, a huge disco in the town hall (kids unsure whether to stare at the lights or the karaoke machine, etc) and all sorts of things – free sweets etc! We painted all day, paid with a rather unhealthy lunch (sandwich, asstd sweet things), and Lorna brought us all fish & chips that evening. I refused crates of sweets and crisps but did take a box of bottled water…..just lovely to know people can do nice things for kids, like that whole day!

I was invited to help a lady called Bibi (1 of the UKs best face painters & owner of the online shop/ magazine I but kit form and write for) in her entry to the World Body Painting Championships. http://www.bodypainting-festival.com/english/festival_2007_en.php
I was delighted – I have always wanted to go, it looks amazing, around a lake in the mountainous region of Seeboden in Austria. For the last several years the champions have been a Welsh couple, but Raph has decided not to enter this year. As tickets on RyanAir started at under 1 pound, why not??? We are also promoting Da Vinci brushes (best Bibi has found for face painting) so I think they subsidise her a bit. Anyway, you have to register to see if you are good enough to take part, then paint a body to their theme for the first round. If you make that cut you are into the finals to paint a different body for another theme. In front of 20,000 odd people – it’s huge! I registered and then paid for tickets for the outrageous ‘Body Ball’ held on the 1st Wednesday of the weeklong event. The local castle hosts 1000’s of body painted (etc) revellers and if you don’t try to match the creative dress code, you don’t get in! Anyway, next day I had a call from the Austrian organiser asking if I would also enter their World Face Painter competition too. I was so scared I couldn’t sleep, at even the THOUGHT of doing that, but he rang again and I said yes. Eeeeeeeeeeeeek. Worst is the GODS of the industry, like the Wolfe Brothers, have entered. AND you have to go onstage with your model, (also dressed & accessorised by you) explain it after she puts on a ‘show’ for the judges, audience, film crews, giant screens……..

I headed back to Norwich for a week to start sorting our stuff piled in the farm, and getting ‘things’ done for a couple of days, including a mad night out clubbing with Michelle which started with a bunch of RAF graduates in full schoolgirl outfits (matching underwear & handbags – RAF obviously makes blokes pay attention to detail!) and ended up with a bunch of (short) firemen. REALLY good music, 1st time we tried a 90’s nigh, definitely will go again. In comfier shoes….. Next night was Tim & Heathers birthday BBQ at Brian’s which was great as a few of their friends turned up & were really keen on being face-painted/ glitter tattooed. And Sammy drove up for the weekend to!

Again I stayed a night with Mum. After a drink with George I had my usual accidental tour of the scary council estate somewhere in North Bristol, and got in a few hours later after eventually ringing him to try and work out where I was – I couldn’t see my landmark phone towers in the dark & had left the Tom-tom safely at home!

Friday afternoon I arrived at the much-awaited ‘Free Your Inner Fairy’ course. I met the Fairylove crew at Latitude last year, though I first saw Shelley’s website years ago when she was making amazing wings in a stunning wood cabin in the Australian rainforest! She & Jason have moved to an isolated 14th century house near Leominster, with workshops and other families living into the converted barns around it. I found Shelley in the herb garden (the whole house is surrounded by lawns, topiary and wonderfully neglected flower beds) with Freya (who makes Fairy dolls) and Ben & Emma,

a young couple who do live role playing (a bit like the Middle earth Tolkien stuff Jake & I used to do), run kids clubs and want to start a fairy group. Inside, the house was amazing – right up my street! Most of the rooms were plain white with wooden beams and stone or wood floors, but made wonderfully colourful by the objects & decorated furniture. Wherever she could she had glued on bright marabou fluff or feather boas, or coated them in holographic glitter! The corridor linking all the bedroom upstairs had a range of fairy wings lining its walls, and ended in several room full f dressing up clothes. Gorgeous stuff – a lot of it I would wear or even buy if I could! The idea was to have a weekend of ‘self-expression, creativity, fun, relaxation, magic, and all things fairy’. I was mainly interested in the wing-making though..



Anyway, I was put in a room with 3 bright single beds (even chocs on the towels!) and went to get my 1st outfit on – surprised myself for going for pink (must be the red & pink mini kilt I have) not green! As Sammy was stuck in traffic driving her van from London, I started trying my new Jagua tattoo kits on Ben & Emma. It’s a ‘new’ plant based dye, used by the Amazonian Indians, and has none of the horrible side effects henna can cause AND you don’t have to keep it in a fridge. The one I did on Sammy’s foot (a design she & cousin Steph Crawford made as kids) was still strong & dark indigo blue form when I did it the day after Tim & Heathers party the weeks before. We eventually went on with the singing lesson – Fairy Kate had been preparing food but is actually a voice coach. This was in the wood-panelled room, the oldest (and warmest – log fire!) in the house. It had a funny door in 1 corner that was a cupboard where the ancient owners used to keep their wigs to pop in before answering the door! I was really nervous, its not anything I have tried before, standing in a circle and singing at other strangers, but she taught us a bunch of English, African, Gaelic and Yiddish songs that were sung in rounds or with several harmonies, and it sounded AMAZING! Annoyingly I can only now recall one of the English ones and most of the Yiddish one. I loved her beanbags - filled with small 1/2 blown up balloons, very comfy & don't pop!

Tea was gorgeous veggie stuff, and Sammy arrived around then (it was late to eat – 10pm?), stuffed down tea, got dressed up and then we were finally allowed to go and choose the blank wings we wanted to make. Shelley hand dyes white tights and makes the wire frames to start with. Then we had to start the first coat of glitter on the first side.
I decided that as I have their green pair in HK and many black/silver/ purple pairs I made myself in Norfolk I would, again, go pink to match my kilt. Sammy went peacock (green is our favourite colour), Ben was doing foresty

Fairy Ben glittering wings
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

and the 2 girls were bright colours. So we piped on glue, sprinkled on the amazing colours of glitter (she imports them – I have never seen such fab tones!), and put the wings in yet another room to dry.

Sammy and I crashed into bed well after midnight but got up early to another sunny day.

Faiy breakfast table
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

And chose different wings and outfits. Fairy Shelley brought the wings I had ordered & designed over from her workshop – rainbow – STUNNING!

A huge fry-up went down well, and then we did a second (outlining) layer of glitter and put the wings in the sun to dry.

Fairy Freya blowing kisses
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.

A yoga lesson followed – I tried this once before but the woman didn’t do things slowly enough & I had no clue – this was far better. But I had no balance at all. I swear someone was snoring in the relaxation bit at the end. Quite random doing it all staring up at the giant mirror ball Shelley’s partner had bought for their annual Glastonbury festival stall!
After that we sat out in the sun gluing ‘gems’ onto the first side of the wings, then had lunch outside in the courtyard garden. Even the salad had edible glitter in it!

After lunch I changed to try out my Sammy taught the others who wanted to how to do somersaults on the giant trampoline, the Ben tried to teach us how to twirl pois. He had a few including ‘winged’ ones which were rather funky.

Ben demo-ing pois with wings
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.





Shelly who is a fab photographer, did a photo shoot with us, and then decided we need some bubbly.

Fairy me & artichokes
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.


I quickly painted faces (annoyingly they were all up for everything like that but I didn’t have tome!) and we went on a ‘Fairy Raid’ to Leominster for supplies.



Followed by a random walkabout amongst stunned locals. Fairy Shelley apparently always dresses up and is expected to be handing out wishes at the Sunday car boot, but with Sammy in full cheeky-fairy panto mode and the rest of us singing he songs we had learned I think we were a bit more - inconspicuous? After 1 man asked us to pop into his local, it turned into a pub-crawl. So, bubbly in the veg patch, the first glitter layer on the second wing side, and tea.

After tea, Ben did a glow-in-the-dark phase changing UV poi show outside (we stayed in the warm) which looked like mad souped up fireflies whizzing round. Then we had a good boogie and Sammy went mad with costume changes….wee hours before bed again!



Didn’t make it to the car boot – too tired/ busy! More glitter and gems, learning how to wrap our antennae, glue on feathers & flowers……….etc! Also a stint in their shop and then photos with our own self-made wings.

Amazing wings Fairy Sammy made
Originally uploaded by wildcatfin.



After teary goodbyes, Sammy & I drove to meet her Dad & Liz in a pretty wood-beamed town. So there we are in tutus and wings striding past 4000 people queuing in their raincoats for open-air theatre in the castle! The pub we ate in were surprised to, when I went for drink the one local who could shut his jaw and speak said’ We don’t get many o’ your sort in ‘ere’. Then I drove off to see Rowenna, the Welsh fairy who hand fasted Peter & I.
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June in UK - Naked or Not?

Well, VERY Glad to be back in the UK! Bus trip up from Heathrow at 5 am wasn’t too bad actually (SUN!), but it was very disturbing actually being able to understand conversations going on between other passengers around me. Then hitting civilisation (Norwich) I also hit a hitch. I’d arranged to meet Michelle for lunch and wanted to do a quick shop before I met her, having 2 hours to spare. But Norwich, a city, may I add, has NO left luggage, anywhere. As I was lugging a massive suitcase AND a normal sized one, I was Mmst unimpressed! Luckily I was able to leave them at Brian’s office and go off. After seeing Mich (and shopping!!!) he dropped me off at the train and Sue met me at the other end. Queue 1st proper bed since March – yay!


One of the first things I did in the UK was a class with master bodypainter Emma Cammack, at her home near Hungerford. She is famed for her amazing painted clothes, and flies all over the world, painting and teaching. Often she matches taped-on draped bits around the waist so closely you cant see what IS real and what isn’t. She also does fab abstract stuff. Anyway, I stayed overnight at Mums and using my new Tomtom car navigator, easily found her tiny village. 2 other ladies who I know from the internet face painters chat were also there.


Emma has converted her garage into a workshop, so the 1st day she mainly showed us ideas and techniques, and we had a few tries at things on our own arms etc. Lunch was amusing – her daughters paddling pool looked like there had been a chainsaw massacre! She uses old shop window clothes dummies to plan/ practice ideas on, and the pool was full of a half washed dismembered model. Which had obviously been mainly painted red! She has to re-spray them for white base between uses, but they do work- but we had a go painting motor bike leathers onto one.


That evening Emma showed me the local hotel/ pub, and I got a sweet room that had just been Ikea’d. Gorgeous area – real chocolate box village! I ended up having a long chat with the lady in 1 rose filled cottage - she used to live in Hong Kong! Back at the hotel, I stuffed on homemade sausages and mash – yum!


The second day of the course we each got given a ‘live’ model. I was lucky enough to get Lois, a lady who again I know from internet chats, as she often poses for body painters. Her husband, a human cannonball (cool job title!) from Mexico, was being painted in a football strip by 1 of the other ladies. As I have ‘done’ sports strips (just a bit - !) I decided to try jeans, lace and lacings, 3 techniques Emma had shown us. I did the corset top first.


Lois wore ‘pasties’, latex round domed bits which are glued over the nipples. It was a bit annoying as it showed up a lot – took the paint differently to skin –but some jobs you have to use them for legal or child-friendly reasons. I didn’t quite get the hang of denim fabric, but was pleased with the lacings (although I can’t get the hang of Emmas fast double-dipped brush thing).
I LOVE the lace I did, it really worked! I added shadows/ whites with powder, definitely getting that as it won’t pick up the layers below like trying to paint in highlights would. Think I scared Emma with the amount of dark I used but I always did like black in my art/ photos! That had taken until after lunch, and the others had done a top AND bottoms by then. So I went on to do shorts REALLY fast. Lois had on a white G-string, and I managed to use it as some of the seams.

Again I didn’t quite get the shadows/ wrinkle right – hopefully if I ever get a ‘real’ job like this I will have reference photos which will make it even more realistic.





Emmas husband is a professional photographer (or will be when he quits the USAF) so he took a load of shots which I hope will be better than mine! Lois actually put her jeans back on but just a cardi on her top for the drive home! She would get away with it I think – a bit cowboy/ Brittney but passable!

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May/ June Hospital Misery - Short pyjamas and ladies in nappies

I wasn’t very happy in the A&E ward as they were waking me up hourly to do blood sugar tests. Unlike in the UK, where 1 nurse did temperature, sugars & pulse, here 3 different nurses did it. At different time, so I was lucky to be uninterrupted for 20 mins the whole 24 hours I was there! Most frustrating was the cart with the BP machine on it – it squealed - surely a drop of oil would have been possible! When Pete turned up the 2nd day, as well as being even more knackered with pulled back & stomach from retching, I had a new IV in my right hand. And fumed when I felt well enough, as I wasn’t allowed to leave the bed to go to the toilets towing 2 drips. I’m pretty sure I could have, the will was there – I would NOT use the pan, wasn’t even sure how to! Worst was whenever the gods (AKA the doctors) were due, the nurses went mad tidying. I was forced back under my covers and tucked in – considering I was sweating so much I soaked through my pyjamas even without added blankets, I was NOT impressed. But every time I was uncovered to be prodded & inspected, nurses would tut at my exposed shins and pull my trouser legs down to cover them. Being taller than their average and the trousers being elasticated, this pulled them off my waist and exposed my tummy and knickers. So a shocked nurse would pull them back UP, uncovering my legs again. This would be repeated several times each visit. I would also like to know why all the doctors were so young, pretty/ handsome and had perfect English….and wore those awful rubber croc shoes.



The 3rd day I was transferred to the hospital my diabetic doctor works in., shifted onto the ambulance’s travel bed. I was too wide for it and they had to fold my arms over me, take out the hand drip and tilt me on my side. Then there was the covering-me-with-a-blanket game, just like the pyjamas saga….after much yelling and bringing in a passing orderly, they found a second blanket. I only realised I was too long for the bed when they tried to put all the sides up and had to poke my feet out through the bottom bars (so the 2nd blanket still didn’t really cover them!). I spent a very trippy trip talking to things, scaring the old cantonese lady sharing the ride. We dropped her off at a hospital on the way. Funnily enough I was supposed to be painting at a doctors party there that afternoon…so I sort of was there for it in passing! I woke up being wheeled through the next hospital and couldn’t work out why the guy pulling my bed was laughing while the one pushing from the feet end was swearing (I think). Then I realised that as my feet stuck out, if the bed stopped or he tried to push too hard he was getting his bits crushed by them. Oops!


In the new ward, instead of sliding me from 1 bed to another, they asked me to walk. I did (nearly) and giggled my head off when I realised all 3 nurses who rushed to grab me before I landed on the floor/ my neighbour only just reached my armpits. On reflection, I don’t think they knew what ‘timber!’ meant and definitely didn’t know the Lumberjack Song. The new pyjamas were a nightmare – white (who thought that was a good idea? With sick people leaking asstd fluids and not having the strength to eat tidily?), with a weird drawstring arrangement – a continuous loop so you couldn’t tie a bow in it. And MASSIVE – they obviously though their biggest size would be long enough for me. They weren’t, and with the drip in each arm I couldn’t tie a bow – but then Pete couldn’t either that evening, so whenever I moved I had to hold them up or expose my knickers.



The nurses went into panic about my high temperature - “skwemely hi fevah, missy, why they no cold you?” and FINALLY gave me icepacks which were heaven. Just when I was nearly asleep, they stuck my hand drip back, and a catheter in me (not as nasty as I expected) and rolled me off to an isolation ward. (As I could be infectious – still no idea why I was ill). It was a less crowded, glaringly lit ward full of tiny mad old ladies. With me against a window furthest from the door, behind a big purple screen, scary signs and a “wear a robe & gloves, discard & wash hands” sign separating me from the rest. When Pete tracked me down (luckily they had rung him to say I’d changed hospitals) I thought I was seeing things again. Blonde scruffy hair, big purple paper gospel singer hospital robe, latex gloves, the patio parasol umbrella I got to shade my stall, dirty bright red surfer shorts, and purple and pink sparkly flipflops. My own fault really – he was knackered & stressed by the new job without me getting ill and him having to leave early to visit me all the time…so he lost his brolly and his new pair of flip-flops blew overboard. He’d been wandering barefoot around Wan Chai (mega busy dirty city highrise area) trying to find any shoes his size and had to settle for ladies! He didn’t endear himself by telling me what me new interesting colour I was (I had been ranging from purple/ pink with fever to green and grey, apparently). And had a go at brushing my manky hair for me (drips meant I couldn’t move my arms). I nearly cried 1st as he needs practice at basic hairdressing, and secondly as he didn’t tie it tight enough so it all fell out of the ponytail the moment he left.


Highlights of the week; mad old lady trying to show me the contents of her nappies (she also kept trying to get into bed with a sick young woman on the other side of the ward). Realising you have top provide EVERYTHING even loo roll yourself – only boiled water in a jug provided. Being called Ann (middle name) as no-one understood any of my other names. Managing to eat 1 spoonful of sweet runny porridgy stuff then falling asleep on the table-tray. Actually feeling hungry and taking a huge gulp of what I though was the same porridge the next day, only to realise it was mashed gloppy fish saucey rice. That and what looked like catsick at lunch put me off food until I left! The racket made at night – anything that in the UK nurses would do quietly, switching on a light over the patient, here needed a gaggle of nurses and the entire ward lights switched on (by the time I was feeling better and actually thinking I could sleep, I was so wound up by this 1 of them apologised as she could see me twitching at each cackle). Nice night nurse who taught me the Cantonese for toes (sounds like deentsy tongue) as my fingers were so over-bled they moved to getting samples from my toes. Passing out when the dietician came to talk to me – think it was sitting up after a week! Luckily she thought it was funny and was boasting she’d scared me. What else – oh how the mobile phone switch off was ignored – and with the usual screamingly loud volumes of ringtone/ ‘talking’ I was close to stabbing other patients with my drips.


Anyway I kept being told I could go ‘soon’ then being kept in another day. As I really couldn’t face the food, Pete & I were both desperate to get me out and I cried a lot each time they kept me in (tough or what). Finally they said I could go if my sugars were ok (yes) and I could walk (no). But I’d made it to the loo a few times the day before, with Pete, so he stood behind me hanging on to the back of my clothes which kept me reasonably straight – so they said yes. We were out of there like a shot – didn’t even wait for all the pills! Pete nicked a wheelchair as soon as we were out of sight and had to help me have a shower, but wow, GREAT!

Had a couple of weeks recovering – not as skinny as I’d have hoped after all the no food/ being sick, but still! Don’t know what it was – 1 lot said raw fish (nope, had none), another said eggs (was 1/4s in the salad all 3 of us shared but Pete & sue were fine). And if it was the food why isolate me? Then I realised if it was food doesn’t it usually start a few hours after you eat it, not 12 hours on? If I can find things I like on the new Chinese diet method of helping to manage my sugars I think it will be sensible – you KNOW the carb value of each meal in advance so can inject suitable insulin………


Too hot on the boat, we woke up around 5 am most days, sweating as the sun arrived, even with no sheets on top of us AND the fans on. The cat & I were panting all day praying for a breeze. SO I was quite glad to be able to rebook my flight and head off to the UK!

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