Disaster strikes #3: I survived the Melbourne photo shoot ........ just

I don’t think I have ever felt as nervous as I did when travelling to the first day of the Myer Emporium Shoot. Having been on countless shoots over the years in Sydney, I have become used to knowing the people I work with. If I didn’t know the photographer, then I knew the stylist, or the art director or at least had worked in the studio before, but this was so different. In a different city, in a privately owned home, with 2 photographers, a stylist, the stylists assistant, an art director, Myer product person and another person or two (I’m not entirely sure what their job description was) that I did not know, nor had I EVER met a single one of them before. Not only was I in unfamiliar territory but I felt the pressure of performing – I had been flown in as an “expert” and did not feel like one.

The stylists assistant also became my assistant and the three of us took over the house, set up our temporary kitchen, and set to to work turning ingredients into photo worthy creations designed to sell the products they were displayed on and in and the tools they were created with.

Cupcakes, cake pops, cookies, Dolly Varden, fondant cakes, piped roses, stripes, shells, draping, butter frosting, chocolate ganache, royal icing and on and on and on. I had to dig deep down into the cake well and pull every decorating method and I was ever taught or learnt by osmosis and those I needed refreshing on became the youtube entertainment for a quiet Saturday night alone in St Kilda!! Just picture me sitting alone in my hotel room at the Novotel with a bottle of wine from the mini bar watching a kid called Sanjay, on Youtube, pipe a Hydraenga cupcake and like me, it would be the moment that you realised I had truly made it! lol

Day two was a blur of royal icing, fondant, Sunbeam and Wilton products and a 3pm deadline. I was literally putting the last cake on set as the stylists assistant I had borrowed was putting my jacket on my back, Sunnies on my head and pushing me out the door to the car that was waiting to take me to the airport. It was a very different car ride from three days earlier. Nerves were replaced with relief and fear with the excitement of getting home to the kids. With a good 40 minutes up my sleeve, I sat at the airport cafe, drinking a well deserved cappacino and then headed to the my Gate to chill and play with my phone. Too much relief obvioulsy effected my eyes and apparently I misread my boarding pass. All that R & R was replaced with stress and panic as I realised it was MY name they were calling over the loudspeaker at the airport. I was sitting in Gate 1 instead of Terminal 1 Gate 27 and the plane was ready for departure!!! Jacket and bag in hand, I took off running along the moving footway when I realised my ever-present Mobile was NOT present, forcing me to make a incredibly inconvenient detour. Back on track, I ran the whole way, to the soundtrack of my name being called, backed by the beat of my heart in my ears, eventually arriving at Gate 27, out of breath and exhausted…….

Next time somebody chooses to fly me somewhere as an expert, I hope the assistant they lend me, not only pushed me out the door but takes me all the way home.