Saturday, July 7, 2012

Yesterday started with a visit from the man from ONO.  It sounds like a TV series.  It turns out that in order to get HD on our TV we needed to add TIVO to our cable hookup.  It took him about thirty minutes to get everything up and running and while he was here he made a slight adjustment to our Internet connection so that I now get the 50 meg download speed that I am paying for.

We had a lunch date with the Handelsmans so at 2:00 we met them outside of Carosel and we slowly made our way to La Comisaría.  Ana and Eddie had set us up outside in the patio and no sooner had we taken our seats when Ana appeared with a bottle of cava and we began our meal with a toast to good friends and to good times.  We chatted briefly with Eddie who made some recommendations and, after a brief discussion, we settled on the dishes that we would order.  I wanted to give both Melanie and Andrew a sense of what Eddie does and can do.

One by one the dishes made their appearance.  In no particular order we enjoyed the tomates tres texturas, ravioli stuffed with zucchini and Feta cheese, a plate of grilled vegetables, langoustines, sashimi and a new menu item that features a Thai styled breaded veal.  The boys tried a little of everything and Eddie accommodated their tastes by preparing some grilled beef with French fries.  We had a taste of dessert and we finished our meal with coffee and some orujo de hierbas.  At 4:30 we got up from the table and made our way back home.

We invited the Handelsmans to take a quick tour of our new place and once that was done they headed back home to get ready for a play date with one of the boys that Robbie had met at the Eurocup party.  We would be seeing the Handelsmans again in a few hours since the Woodberry boys would be having dinner and a show at La Cuchara Mágica. Since I was part of the entertainment I spent some time deciding what effects I would do and then rehearsing them.  I had enough time to take a shower and a little after 9:00 Susan and I made our way to the Cuchara.

When we walked through the door the meal was in progress.  The salad course was just about over and Pepe was putting the finishing touches on an enormous paella.  He had decided on a seafood paella replete with langoustines, monkfish, squid and chicken.  It was up to the usual standard that we have come to expect of Pepe.  Dessert was melon and soon afterwards the dishes were cleared and it was time for the magic show to begin.

I started things off with some close-up magic.  I did four effects as a brief lead-in for the next two performers who would be doing stage magic.  Sofía Lerma, the only female member of the CIVAC did several effects and then Giocodimani did a half dozen effects in his inimitable style to finish the magic portion of the evening.  It was fast approaching midnight and we all headed our separate ways.

Pepe is off to Blackpool tomorrow to represent Magic Agora at a stand in the dealers’ room.  He will have a number of handouts and will be showing a number of videos. Here is a link to one of the promo videos.  It is one of the many that I recorded some ten days ago. http://magicagora.com/2012/07/04/back-to-the-future/?lang=en