[Pedro the Fisherman]

We made our way up the stairs and M whispered “that's one hurdle negotiated” “what do you mean" I replied. “I did wonder if they would give us a double room, as we booked together!”. “oh, I thought I'd told you it's strictly single sex upstairs” I added “I'd not realised you were worrying about that too". “not worrying as such, just thought I'd have to lay some rules of my own, if we had shared". “here's mine" I said, and yours is at the bottom of the corridor. Hope we've got a good view!”. On entering the room I saw I had a very good view, a second later I realised that this room was the ‘famous' shower room from two years earlier. I saw the shower room was in use now, my new roommate had a large pile of clothes on the bed and more on the only chair in the room. Don't think I'll be so lucky with my roommate, this time I thought.

After dropping off my case, I wondered down to room 19 and knocked on the door. “come in, whoever you are!” called a female voice, not M's! I opened the door and sheepishly put my head around it. There, sitting on one of the two single beds was a strange woman. Well, that was my first impression!
The woman was part middle aged but part child, she had a face that could have been a young girl but at the same time could have been 40 something. She beamed a big smile and her whole face lit up “ooh! A strange gentleman called already and I've only been here half an hour" she giggled. She stood up and offered her hand, inviting me in the room.

She was about 5ft tall or even less, had very long straight hair and had a rounded but not at all plump body...and now thrust what I can only describe as a ‘giant cleavage’ highly visible in her low cut top towards me. “I'm ‘V', pleased to meet you". I looked down and was shocked to see the whole of her inner right arm was covered in a large ivy like tattoo. I tried not to stare, so looked down at her feet. They were bare and very small and petite, but again, there was the same floral tattoo, starting on one foot and disappearing up the leg of her leggings.

Now, I hate tattoos and really hate them on women! But this woman was rather attractive despite being heavily tattooed. At that moment M appeared from the bathroom. “oh, hello! I see you've met ‘V', she's new to HAI too and is from Portsmouth”. Portsmouth is about 30 minutes from where M and I live, so it was a coincidence. V then said “ if you'll excuse me, I have to make myself beautiful before dinner" and went into the bathroom.

M came close and whispered into my ear “and...she's a white witch too! Didn't see that sort of thing happening and we've only just got here!”.

I forgot to mention that M did attend church several times a year and had admitted to being a Christian in our walk conversations. I'd now arranged her to share with a practicing witch!!

We returned to the hall entrance and I told her about the common room and we went in for to have a drink as food was still 30 minutes away. The room was quite full, people were standing or sitting in small groups. I recognised the couple from Glastonbury who had hosted the social weekend and there, deep in conversation with a totally gorgeous woman of about 30 was Nick, back for his sixth Level 1! I smiled and he beckoned us over to join them. “This is Melanie, she’s a newbie to HAI” introductions were exchanged and I began to see how Nick operated. He went to every HAI event, never stripped off that I had seen, but always befriended the prettiest girl there. I knew from J**** that he had not had a girlfriend for over a decade, he got his kicks from these events.

Looking around the room it looked very unbalanced, about 10 or 12 guys and only one other woman not in our little group. “where are the other girls?” M queried. “probably getting themselves all dolled up" said Nick. It's always a balanced mix at HAI. Melanie (my goodness why are girls who are called Melanie always gorgeous?) seemed very calm and confident and she knocked Nick down more than once, when his jokes got a little suggestive.

A gong was sounded and we all trooped across the hall into the dining room, the buffet table groaning under the weight wonderful organic delicacies. “wow, this is fantastic” said M, piling her plate with food. We went over and found a place at a big table. Soon, the place was buzzing! The ‘missing’ women were soon evident, the witch (as I'll call her from now on) sat opposite us, next to a large black guy and a couple (a proper couple) from Dublin. We all exchanged our names and some offered more information on what had brought them to HAI.

Looking around the room, with the exception of Melanie, there were two girls who were even younger and quite a few Asian (Indian, rather than far east) guys, under 40. The mix seemed stranger than last time, I thought if I should mark out any girl for a potential partner on day 2, but with my mind full of looking after M and wondering if I could actually sit so close to her when I'm naked, I couldn't focus much on anything else. What happens if she laughs at my ‘slightly smaller than average’ penis or worse, sitting close and she does get naked...I could get an erection...it happened before. I was aware of being watched. The witch was looking at me across the table. It was then I was aware of her eyes, they were Sapphire blue (as were M's), but as the light caught them, they turned an incredible lilac colour. I thought rather childishly that it was ‘bewitching’! As I wondered if she might be an interesting possible partner for day 2, I caught sight of her tattooed arm and that put me right off, she's probably completely covered in the things!

After a very pleasurable meal, we were told to assemble in ‘the room of love’ where we lined up for ‘backjack' back rests. M and I were given labels to write our names on and I led her to a corner of the room, collecting our seating mats from a pile by the stage area. The helpers trooped in, followed by the facilitators, the same guy as last time, but instead of the very large black lady, we had a small thin lady of about 70 or more. My mind fast forwarded to ‘doctors and nurses' demonstration and having to see the very intimate parts of such an older lady. It transpired that this old lady was one of the HAI founders, dating back to the late 1960s in California. We were told that we were very honoured to have her here overseeing a Level 1 in the UK.

We then went through the preliminary exercises (described in my earlier posts), how to sit together and how to hug. We underwent a ‘mill and hug' and eventually a head and face stroke. M went along with it all, to my surprise, she too seemed happy to be stroked (albeit fully dressed) below her head and neck. Because we weren't supposed to talk in conversation, it was difficult to brief her or reassure her at every step of the way. But at the end of the 90 minute session, she exclaimed “I really enjoyed that, it was lovely to feel loving human touch again, for the first time in years...even if it's only from you!”. I didn't know to be pleased or offended!