And The Days Dwindle Down

Friday, December 30, 2011

I am under the impression that the older one gets the quicker time seems to pass by. In other words, I cannot believe that we are fast approaching the end of 2011. As I previously mentioned we will be celebrating the year’s end at La Fórcola tomorrow. I have the sneaking suspicion that our friend, Antón, will not be there. When I saw him Wednesday morning he was feeling poorly and though that maybe he had a bad case of bronchitis that was causing him pain. It turned out to be more complicated and more serious than that. Tests today will show whether he is need of angioplasty or not.

Susan is being conscientious about continuing her in-house workouts. Since Neo Gym is closed for the week I have decided to give myself the week off. I will return to my workouts next Monday. After Susan finished her workout we showered and dressed and headed to FNAC. I wanted to buy Santi and Mike the DVD of “Glee in Concert”, which has just been released in Spain. There were an abundant number of copies on display and there was a long line at the checkout desk. It moved quickly and after I paid we went to the giftwrap desk and in the space of fifteen minutes we had a giftwrapped present. The giftwrap is free here in Spain. Susan had a cup of coffee at the in-store cafeteria while I waited for the present to be wrapped and I joined her a few minutes later. When we finished our coffee we headed out to The Ginger Loft to deliver the present and have some lunch.

It turned out that while Santi is a big Glee fan, Mike is not. Oh well, that’s life. We settled in at our table and Santi went to work creating another winter cocktail for Susan. I enjoyed my usual beer. We started off with some hummus and a bowl of corn soup quickly followed. Next came the tandoori chicken wrap, followed by Moroccan chicken and a green Thai curry. As usual all dishes were exceedingly well prepared and had the requisite amount of heat to make the food taste even better without overpowering it. When we finished we wished Santi a Happy New Year and we wished Mike the same plus our wishes for a safe journey as he returns to Scotland today to visit with his family.

No sooner did we return home than Susan turned around and headed out again to have coffee with Vilma. In her absence I spent some time working on a new card effect and practicing the two effects that I would do at the meeting of los veteranos a bit later in the day. Susan called to tell me that rather than returning home she was going to head directly for Zahava’s house and that the two of them would head for the Cines Babel where they were going to see the original version of “Margin Call”.

I reached Paco D’Andrés’ house a little after 8:00. Pepe was in Madrid on Magic Agora business and Giocodimani was otherwise occupied so there were fewer of us. Gurrea showed us a couple of effects he had recently purchased and I did a couple of card effects and did a preview of the effect that I am working on. It needs more work. The concept is a good one but, as usual, the presentation is key and that is what needs more work. Paquito did a couple of effects and by then it was already 9:30. It was time to go in search of dinner.

We ended up at a restaurant called Torre de Utiel, which is near the cafeteria where Paquito works. The place was mobbed and we had to wait a good half hour for a table. We spent that half hour at the bar enjoying a beer and some conversation. When we sat down we ordered some croquetas and puntitas for the table and then each of use chose our main course. I opted for the lamb chops and they were very tastily. We shared a dessert plate and then ended out meal with coffee and tea. Gurrea had transported us there in his car and since Juan Luis lived close by, Gurrea dropped Paquito off at his house and dropped me at the corner of Borrull. When I walked through the door it was 12:30 and Susan was still up reading her book. She went to sleep soon thereafter and I stayed up a bit longer to let my supper digest.