Fortunately, school had been so busy that nerves about the Ball hadn’t really kicked in. I did lie in bed and practice the moves to the earworm of “I’m Every Woman” but the reality was that is was week three, we’d had open evening, various meetings, school was settling into the Autumn Term routine and I was doing the Professional Tutor Role in addition to my other duties – which was fine as the busier I was the less I could think about D2B.
However, on Friday morning as I was getting ready to school and watching Spotlight… I spotted pink feathers and then myself. Claire Woodling had been as good as her word and had put together a funny, uplifting piece about our efforts. She showed us dancing, showed our choreographer and Kathryn another dancer and finally me saying it was “all about being body confident” Ha! As if… I wasn’t feeling at all confident about remembering the steps, counting to 8, not dropping the feathers…
After briefing, as I sat in my office with the door open I heard some students walk past and say “I saw Mrs Osmaston on the telly, she is going to be stripping…..” I decided discretion was the better path and said nothing. During the morning other students came up to me and said they’d seen me on the TV – that was fine, I just smiled and said “oh yes” and off I went. A couple of colleagues emailed me too… was that you on the TV? Yes it was…
The day passed in a blur of teaching, Year 11, Year 8, observations and Year 7. By 3.30pm I was home. I had 30 minutes to shower and wash my hair before Cathy was coming to blow dry and style it. She did an amazing job and it got many compliments. I just had to ensure that I didn’t go near any naked flames as there was so much “product” in and on my head.
Dressed in my grey evening gown, silver sparkly shoes and matching handbag it was down to the Duke of Cornwall to meet the other girls. D2B T-2hours before guests arrived, D2B T-4hours before the dance. There was no turning back.
The Impatient Geography Patient 