The drinks giant Diageo invited Guy Carter and I to join the entertainment for their staff and families at their premises in Acton on Saturday. The weather was set fair and they came in their droves. When you saw what was on offer you could see why (apart from the weather) it was such a popular event. Heaps of activities from shooting, archery, a pirates ship to climb on, Teepee's to play in, Segway's to try out, live bands, hog roast, free Guinness and of course the piece de resistance Guy Carter and myself - caricaturists extraordinaire.
It never ceases to amaze me how long people are prepared to queue for something. It was very hot day and there was, as I've said, plenty of stuff to do but once Guy and I had settled down in one spot a queue formed and it never abated for three or four hours. The only way we could get a break was return to our base to get more supplies.
As caricaturists that work at events all the time we hear every single excuse from guests as to why we should either take time out from our break or extend our working hours to accommodate them. The difficult task we have is explaining, as politely as we can, that although to the individual concerned their reasons may seem completely genuine and extraordinary but we hear them every single time we work. Today's example came from a lady who managed to track us down where we were having our break to plead with us to draw her friend who was waiting for a cab to take her to Heathrow to fly to South Africa and therefore couldn't wait until we had finished our break. It beggars belief. No doubt a genuine story but I can absolutely guarantee if we were charging for the pictures she would have let it go.
It wasn't just Guy who suffered. When I was advising my remaining queue the time at which I would be finishing by counting those present to see if the timings worked no one in the queue pointed out to me that they were simply markers for two or three of their children who didn't have the patience to wait. It's so hard to remain polite when you realised after an eight hour day of drawing in the sun that you've been conned. That's when the 25 years experience kicks in, you take a deep breath, remind yourself that you have one of the best jobs in the world and it's a compliment that people will resort to these desperate measures to attain an original caricature by yourself. A pint of Guinness also helps.
