Standing In

One very cold Saturday morning I found myself standing in an outside shopping mall with the wind whipping up a frenzy all around. It was extremely cold and I was very glad to be shown to the basement of a local restaurant. I was to be a stand-in for the day for a Japanese actress (I never did find out her name) and this was an advert for a well known camera company. Others started to arrive and having been told not to expect breakfast we all milled around hoping at the very least for a hot cup of coffee. One of the runners appeared:
"You know that breakfast is in the next room? Help yourselves."
We didn't need to be asked twice! To this day that breakfast stays in my mind. There was cheese, hot croissants, rolls, freshly baked bread, ham, cold meats, fruit, yogurt, danish pastries (well, that was me in Heaven right there!). In fact, anything you could think of that you could possibly want for a cold breakfast was there with plenty of hot drinks.
The AD came up and asked me to stay where I was for the time being as he was about to take the Supporting Artistes on to the set. To be honest, I was delighted as it was a beautifully warm room with food, plenty to drink and the days papers had been given to me.
It wasn't long before the S/As reappeared very cold and needing the warmth of the room.
"We will be using you shortly" I was told. I began to dread going outside. Everybody had red noses and were stamping their feet trying to get some feeling back in them. I had to remind myself that as a Stand-In I was getting paid more than the S/As so I would just have to get on with it.
The S/As were called on to set once more.
"We will get to you soon" said the AD to me. So I took the Saturday papers and magazines, gathered  a danish pastry and a coffee and settled down in to my seat. Time went by. Nobody called. Had they forgotten me?  Well, at least I was warm and cosy. From time to time an S/A would appear and we'd have a chat over yet another coffee. Eventually the AD came over to me:
"Actually, I'm not really sure why you've been booked today. I don't think they're going to use you. "
I didn't mind, I was having quite a nice time thank you very much. After all, I would get my pay whether or not they used me.
"Lunch!" Various forms of pizza arrived and everybody dived in.
"And that's a wrap!"
The whole day had only been four hours long and I felt very blessed to be in such a lovely position to be paid for reading the papers, eating cakes and drinking coffee! Plus the lovely company of all the S/As to chat to - it really was the perfect day!