Back to the Model Comp

On Saturday we left Glasgow at the early early noon to set off for Sheffield. It was a gloriously beautiful day out, you could see the Scottish Highlands as we drove south. They looked to me just like the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. It was so mesmerizing though... it lulled me to sleep. Just in time too, as every coach I've gotten on lately has given me a horrible nauseating headache. I spent a good 4 of the 6 hour coach ride asleep or attempting to sleep. We did stop once, at the most beautiful rest stop I've ever seen. Really this country is just too green and beautiful to have people stay in the city the whole time. It is also covered in sheep. Cassie and I took a ton of photos of the lake and land behind the rest stop but it really doesn't do the area justice. After our short stop we climbed back on the bus to watch Zoolander with a group of models. The male models choose it. If you don't know, the movie is about a male model and does nothing but make fun of the industry and stereotypes that models are put in. They boys were the ones laughing the hardest. I'd never seen it before, but I liked it alright for a movie that is nothing but dumb the whole way through (Not near as painfully so as the Ballad of Ricky Bobby). We got into Sheffield late, but the hotels were ready for us. The coach ride was only supposed to be 4 hours and ended up being 6. We'd gotten in just in time for us to throw our bags upstairs, run out for Chinese and then pop into a pub to watch the very disappointing England vs South Africa rugby final. England had some great plays, but gave up after a goal-unit ( still unsure of the name) was taken from them on a technicality. That was at about half time, the crowd gave up around 3/4 of the way through the game. It wasn't even a good game, really. It didn't help that the refs were from the Republic of Ireland, so there was no chance for love there. There was a crazy lady sitting behind Cassie and I during the game too. We were standing behind a couch and had been before she sat behind us. She got up and asked Cassie to move several times even though the pub was too packed to go anywhere. We did our best to oblige her, but nothing was good enough. Then at half time she jumped up, shot forward and stood staring face to face with Jess, one of the models. She just smiled a scary smile then ran back to her chair, saying nothing. Jess was kinda creeped out, needless to say. We all walked the half a block home from the Old Monk where we'd been watching to our hotel all a little disheartened.
Early the next morning we went down to the Sheffield mall, where the bags were nice and close. Cassie and I were even close enough with our table and goodie bags to watch the show! This of course meant that during the show we had to yell over the music or talking on stage. The modeling agency actually did their best in Sheffield apparently, calling over near 30 girls in the 2 hours we were open. We had to shut down early because we ran out of goodie bags, even though we still kept taking applications until 3. Cassie and I got to walk around the mall a bit, but not too much because we had to go straight to Manchester that evening.
Mmmmm Manchester. The hotel was pretty damn amazing in Manchester. This is where we had the £900 credit for food at the hotel. Which between the two nights we consumed wholly, with champagne to top it off. That was the only good thing about all of Manchester for us. The first night we were there Cassie and I stayed in, as both of us had massive headaches from the coach ride that day. Everyone else who decided to go apparently went out to Canal St, famous for being full of gay bars. One of the boys didn't realize this, and I wish I had been there just to see his face. It would have been hilarious. They all had a good time though. Which was good, because the mall in Manchester was terrible. The mall manager would disappear for hours on end and wouldn't let us take the full number of boxes of goodie bags. This created a great, big mess. Cassie spent the entirety of the day running back and forth carrying boxes from the basement onto the mall floor to keep the table stocked. The mall offered no help, and the line was a big fat mess of a disneying line. The girl who was helping me with the photos thankfully wasn't the incompetent one. Another annoyance was the fact that it was near impossible to get up to the green room, as it was pass locked with only one pass to get through. They finally just opened the door in the last hour we were there. When we got back to our hotel dead tired Cassie and I each took naps before getting all dressed up for the worst evening of the trip. It started off very well, with the modeling agent Cesar telling me that he loved my outfit. That comment made my evening. We had a really long amazing dinner, then headed out to a club. This club was supposed to be TigerTiger, a very posh popular club. But we couldn't get in. So we went to a club around the corner that ended up being so horrible I can't even remember the name. It smelt terrible. HORRIBLE. The people were mean, they shoved you at every opportunity and I even got hit by a beer bottle when someone threw it at me. The music was random, sometimes good, sometimes weird. I didn't drink any while I was there, and that may have been the only way to make this club acceptable. Good God I was glad when we left. Also there was a minor panic attack across the crew because one of the bands had to withdraw from the tour... for personal reasons. It really sucked as the were generally a good group of guys. Bonus though? Minus IQ got to switch out with them and they are even better than the band who dropped the night before the show. Check out their MySpace as they generally rock my socks off, and by the way, sound warning.
The next day we headed out to our last stop before home, Norwich. Norwich was the most amazing place ever. When we got there the mall security had everything set up for us. Absolutely everything. Bags and all. The green room rocked out socks off, being perfectly located at the lift right next to us at goodie bag centeral. We were close enough to the stage to hear what was going on in the show, but no so close our ear drums wanted to die. Amazingly enough, we ran out of goodie bags by 1:30. An hour and a half after opening the line and we had no goodie bags. And every one of the girls where nice. Except for one overly pushy mother whom I wanted to deck for being snotty. All in all a really good way to end the trip portion of the Model Comp.
The bus ride home is another story. We left Norwich a little after noon and we didn't get into London until near 7. It was terrible. The models were loud the entire time and the traffic was backed up for miles on the motorways because of road work. :( Not nice. Jamie the world's best bus driver got us home safe though.
Thursday I slept and did minimal grocery shopping. That was all I was good for.
Basingstoke was so terrible I'm not sure I can post about it without going into a rage again. It started off that we had to be on the coach leaving London at 7 am. Which for Cassie and I means leaving at 6:30 am from our flat. Then sitting on a coach for a while, which wasn't bad, but then we got there. Our green room was a broken down disused shop. We were shoved into the tiniest space in the mall, and then finally given a better green room in which no one was allowed to talk above a whisper. At the end of the day we were told we had to have everything out of the green room by 3:30 or it would all be thrown out onto the street. A lot of Angry Mothers live there with Entitled Fathers. I was livid at the way we were treated. Really, I'm pretty sure Sucrose is never going back there. It was especially terrible after our awesome treatment in Norwich.
Watford was the absolute last stop on our tour. I have never seen a nicer green room. Free hot chocolate/tea/coffee machine and bottled water in a fridge. Huge room! Ah! The hotel manager was so helpful and sweet. The day went really slowly though, as they had never done it in Watford before. There was a time specifically where I wanted to punch Incompetent-Face in the face, but refrained. Really the day went well until the end where I got shouted at by an angry security guard for not saving him a bag or two. Twice. He wouldn't even shut up when we offered him on that we had been given for ourselves. Then when we left, he stole it. Not a nice guy. Then we were back home by dinner time and we helped unload the bus and said our goodbyes. I got a ton of free makeup and things. Most every one I worked with was super sweet and helpful. They've invited me to stop by the office anytime and I'm Facebook friends with all of them. Cassie and I have hung out with the Minus IQ boys once and are hoping to go to one of their concerts before we leave for home.
But that was my 10 day break in all it's glory. Dispite was the time stamp on this says, tomorrow I leave for Paris so I should have some good stories about that when I get back. For now: Sleep.