You Can Do Magic – October 15, 2009

At 5:00 AM this morning the skies opened up and because we had neglected to close the kitchen window Susan had to get up and mop up the substantial puddle of water that had accumulated. I slept blissfully through the entire event.

After breakfast we head to the Central Market and pick up some fruit and vegetables, as well as some jamón York and some jamón Serrano. Susan will be making lunch today so we pick up a loaf of bread, also. While Susan gets things ready for lunch, I strike out in search of a place where I can develop some photos that we took in restaurants and at the market so that I can give those people a copy of their photo. I decide to try El Corte Inglés and I am successful. The first machine I try is out of order, but on my second attempt I find one that works. However, this machine seems to have trouble finding the delivery chute and sprays pictures on the floor. A clerk comes by and opens the machine and there are the six missing prints. Mission accomplished.

When I return home, I discover that Susan has made a lovely salad with lettuce, goat cheese, apples and white grapes. She has also prepared a chicken milanesa, having pounded the chicken fillets flat, then dipped them in egg, salt, pepper and assorted herbs and then dipped them in breadcrumb. We slice the bread and open a bottle of Gran Feudo Rosado and we make short work of lunch. After lunch we work on the computer and Susan catches up on her reading.

At 7:30, Pepe comes by and we head off to a magicians’ get together. There are five of us and we chat, watch a couple of video performances and then each of us proceeds to do a trick or two that we are currently working on. At 9:30 we leave Paco de Andres’s house and we make the twenty minute walk to El Asador de Leandro. We will be meeting Sara and a friend of hers there. We order a couple of appetizers – a tomato salad and some grilled mushrooms – and four members of our party order the cod and Gioco and I order the mixed grill plate. Everything is delicious. I am then asked to do some magic and I end up doing four or five effects. It is close to 1:00 AM when we leave and make our way back to our side of town. At the halfway point the rain starts in again and when I walk into the house at 1:30 I am, to say the least, a bit damp. I am still pumping adrenalin for my magic performance and I have difficulty falling asleep, but eventually I drift off into dreamland.