Ai! 10:30 came pretty quickly this morning, even though I went to bed at 1:30 am last night. I woke up with red eyes and a bloody migraine! Grrrrrrr! Luckily, I only had to let myself be driven by Eva! We arrived at the palace at noon; she had her rehearsal for HW Design. Apparently, no one had arrived but us! Grrrrrrr! Finally, she was able to do her rehearsal around 1 pm, I think. (Which was when my rehearsal was scheduled, but none of the 3 models in the show had arrived. GGGGRRRRRR!!!!) Luckily, Danny (From Absolute Danny, for whom I was modelling) Came in around 12:30 and I was able to try on the outfit I was going to wear: A black latex leotard with red feathers, along with a black skirt that opened in the front and had red crosses on the sides. The outfit fit me perfectly, even thought it wasn’t custom-made. This is the fourth outfit I have tried on for this company, and all 4 so far have fit me perfectly! Pretty surprising when you consider that I don’t have normal measurements :-) It was really, really beautiful, and I also tried on the fishnet outfit and the feathered hat that I had worn for my shoot with Mourthé, which would complete my outfits for the evening. Finally, the 3 other models arrived and we were able to do the first test with the music. (Which lasted 2 and a half minutes) Two other models wore similar black and white outfits with top hats, and the third wore panties and a bra with open breasts. The idea for the show was to have the two in hats be evil nurses, (It was a medical theme for the ball this year) the other model to be a sweet girl kidnapped by them, and for me to save her. (You see, I was the star of the show, no? Hey, hey) The two practices went pretty well, although they were incomplete. By the time we finished it would have been ridiculous to take the metro and the train to go back to Eva’s (I had told her not to wait for me to go home when I saw things were running late. We had to be back at the palace for 6 pm for a general practice for all the designers.) I nonetheless was pretty disappointed to not be able to hang out and relax with the others and enjoy the day of the ball. Anyway, I went with Walter (Make-up artist) to meet up with Thierry (Hairdresser) at the hotel and we started on my hair and make-up. My foundation was done and my eyebrows were redrawn higher to give me a more glamorous look, but that was all. It was already time to go back for the rehersal! Grrrrr! We arrived around 7 pm, which was perfect since nothing had started yet. There were around ten designers taking part in the fashion show, including Torture Garden, Libidex, HW Design, SintheteX, and a few others. We were all lined up backstage to do our rehearsal, but all I wanted was to be with the others. :-( In short, the rehearsal went pretty well, despite the fact that three of the models were late. Just after the rehearsal, I was super happy to see that Martin, Eva, and the others had come to pick me up in a limousine, so that we could all take a little drive. (Eva didn’t do the general rehearsal) My make-up was hardly started, my hair wasn’t done, but I didn’t care! I just wanted to get away from the palace for a little while.

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My break took a little less than a half hour. Short, but just enough to give me back my smile, which I had lost during the day. I went backstage so that Walter and Thierry could finish my make-up, (They’re amazing! Long live the French!) and I got the chance to say hello to Percephone, (Who is really pretty! She must have lost 40 lbs! I didn’t even recognize her! WOW!) and the divine vamp, Emily Marilyn , who did her own hair, and you should have seen the hairstyle!! I also got to meet Kumi, who I had seen briefly last year, and I got to see Sandra from H&W again. There were a lot of models, but I have to say there were less than last year. In fact, in general there were about ¼ less people, which was disappointing. Could it be because of the cost of the tickets? Or because it was on a Monday? I don’t know, but it was alarming, and I don’t want to think about if this means the beginning of the end of Rubber Ball. Regardless, I had to concentrate on my performance for that evening, and around half past midnight I went on stage to do it. Strangely I wasn’t at all nervous and felt really confident. When the music started I was dancing and modelling, all the while interacting with the other models. It was a lot of fun, and also very short. Two minutes and thirty seconds goes by fast on stage! All that work for two and a half minutes! I don’t know if I’ll do this again next year! It’s a bit too much work, though I must admit I was very happy and pleased to hear people clapping when they saw me on stage. I was extremely flattered, and I was very grateful to everyone.

After the show, there was an hour and a half left till the end of the evening. I had to take pictures for Skin Two, which took a considerable amount of time to go through the line-up, and afterwards I was able to walk around the room and have my picture taken by Martin for the first time that night! It was very different from the last two years, where I had been with him form the beginning of the evening. He was tired, and so was I. I was able to see Isabeau and Armadildo, MC, Belgium Marc, and some others. But my feet were killing me and I just wanted to rest for a bit. No way was I going to dance! :-) I was still regretting all my dancing at TG! I was able to have a glass of white wine, but that was all. It was really only on the way home in the limo that I was able to have a drink, chat with the others, and relax. The Rubber Ball was strange this year for me. Interesting, but strange. I felt a bit too far away from the people I would have like to talked, danced, and have a drink with. On the other hand, I’m a model. It made sense to be that I should be in a fashion show.

Well, that was my trip. My favourite moments were TG, and especially the evenings spent at RubberEva and Paul’s house. Both of them made a big difference, and brought a lot of joy to my trip. I consider myself lucky to have met these two rare gems. I already miss you guys! Well, now I’m allowed a well-deserved rest :-)