Just flipping through:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Malaysian Magic Moments - Day 3
Day 3 - 2nd June 2008
The morning saw us packing our stuff in preparation to leave KL and the Nova hotel. Checking out was fast - much faster than the checking in anyway - and Gordon took us back to Chinatown for breakfast. We thought it best if we skipped the hotel breakfast and saved our stomachs for something more substantial (not to mention appetising!). Uncle Bob had fulfiled two of his cravings - the Hokkien Noodles and the Bak Kut Teh - but still had one more item on his list to scratch off: Yong Tau Foo, local delight style.
Gordon took us into Chinatown - the entire place looked so different in the day: the streets were relatively empty; the multitude of carts peddling pirated and imitatation goods that lined the entire road the night before when we were there were all gone. It was surreal to think that just the night before we were pushing past people, squeezing through holes in the crowd while scrupulously guarding our valuables as we made our way to the restuarant for dinner.
Uncle Bob led the way confidently, through loops of alleyways - all dark; all dirty. There was a lingering smell of fish and rubbish as we traversed the streets of KL's Chinatown; it was like I had been transported into one of those AD&D stories I loved to read - the labyrinth of tunnels that had no end and we were adventurers seeking untold treasure in its murky depths.
It was treasure of a different kind though - the questers found their quarry in the form of a small noodle stall under the shadows cast by the morning sun beating on the rusted roof of poorly joined metal 'scales'. Sadly, Uncle Bob's quest was in vain - his favourite stall was closed for business that day. Monday.
Fortunately for us, the noodle stall that sold Laksa and Fishball noodles served up an excellent meal. I told myself I had to control my appettite this time - I could NOT afford to overeat again: the feeling was really awful. I had my fill of a bowl of noodles. It was to be a nice buffer between the roads of KL to Melaka.
I hate long journeys by car - I frequently had travel sickness when I was younger. I still have this problem every now and then. Lucky for me, Uncle Bob and Gordon were excellent company and they kept me occupied enough that I didn't think too much of the journey. Along the way to Melaka, Gordon remembered my craving for ROOT BEER off the tap and made a pit stop at the R&R between KL to Melaka.
Seriously - the Rootbeer from A&W is simply the BEST. There's just no comparison for me. I had a nice mug of Rootbeer; it certainly satiated my thirst and curbed my craving - at least until the next time we were in town... heh. It was like releasing a spring within - bloody refreshing!
We reached Melaka in record speed - Gordon's lead foot made all the difference on the accelerator. From the toll gate, we made our way to Uncle Dominic's ('Uncle' being used as a preffix for all the seniors on this trip) home. I wonder if someday someone might refer to me as 'uncle'. :OP
Uncle Dominic was every bit as warm as Uncle Fee Loong. No quarter was given - his hospitality was the mark of a true gentleman. I had a great time. He also showed us a ton of his magic props and stuff, all of which he made himself. After he entertained some Indonesian guests, we headed out for - you guessed it - lunch!
Melaka is supposedly famous for its Chicken Rice Balls. Uncle Dominic brought us to a nearby place where they served pretty good Chicken Rice Balls - Christianed ping pong balls by us because they REALLY REALLY looked like bite sized ping pong balls.
You can see Bob on the left and Dominic on the right each brandishing a ball of rice.
Then check out the entire plate of rice balls. They look like golf balls! Each costs 15cents!
Though I felt the rice balls were a little over rated, I found the Chicken superb - it was really tender and tasty; unlike the ones we get in Singapore, somehow the chicken in Malaysia tastes so much better!
After a great lunch, we went to the hotel, leading the way was Uncle Dominic on his scooter - truly a sight to behold. He would weave about in traffic and sometimes we'd lose him because we would get held up by the red lights. We eventually checked into the hotel Mimosa in the late afternoon. It was a very nice hotel and the air conditioning was damn cold - just the way I like it!
Bob called Andrew, one of the local talents in Melaka who has apparently marketed some magic online. He came by at about 5:30pm or so, a little while after we've settled into the comfort of the room that the Mimosa Hotel provided. Gordon and I left to try and buy some drinks and munchies while Uncle Bob entertained Andrew. Actually we just needed some fresh air. LOL.
After walking around blindly for ages, we finally found a coffee shop worthy of Gordon Po's standards and purchased 4 hot drinks to go. He was going to buy some springrolls to go as well, but changed his mind after seeing the swooning flies over the ingredients. Fussy; fussy! But at times like these, I was glad he was: much better to be fussily deprived than stuffed and sufferring.
We arrived back at the room and were greeted by a usual sight - Bob Chua has done it again: a flummoxed Andrew's facial expression said it all. The session lasted until Uncle Dominic arrived to take us to a Nonya Dinner. More food - I wasn't sure then if I would last the night. If the food weren't so good, I'd have an easier time controlling myself!
Suffice to say Day 2 ended with a fantastic dinner and coffee by the road!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Malaysian Magic Moments - Day 2
1 June 2008
The morning saw Uncle Bob up and about before 8am. I don't know the exact time he got up - I was exploring my dreamscape. I vaguely recall Gordon's hibernation growling. It wasn't really snoring - it was more like a long drawn wheezing that reverberated from within: damn scary! LOL.
I was startled out of sleep when Uncle Bob, in his chirpy voice, declared, "GOOD MORNING!" Translation: "Get your lazy @$$ out of bed this instant!". Well, he was right; it was time to get up - no sense going on a vacation and sleeping it away.
We decided to leave Gordon chasing his dream butterflies - he's had a very tiring previous day driving and I felt he deserved a little more sleep. Bob and I went down to the cafe for 'breakfast'. It wasn't much of a spread - the 'mee goreng' they served resembled sickly yellow worms; the toaster was like a contraption out of the sixties; scrambled eggs were likened to have been mixed up with some form of liquid glue. Add all that to the sour face of the attending 'cook' and we sure had a real 'interesting' breakfast. The best part of the entire spread was the coffee and the tea. And that's saying a lot!
David came by as promised at 9am. Gordon freshened himself at record speed! :) We went for the 'best' Bak Kut Teh in Malaysia, supposedly in Klang. I must admit - it was really, really good! David really knew his food! Coffee followed - Old Town Coffee was truly growing on me! David drove us to a nice mall in Klang.
The rebels in us decided that we would 'demean' magic - whatever the heck that meant - so we broke out the cards and all in an Old Town Coffee Magic Session! Uncle Bob entertained us with his cardwork and we had a very nice discussion. David also demonstrated some of his mental work - from coin bending to nail bending. I think we were all very impressed with the Nail: it was one of the finest gimmicks I've ever seen - the attention to the detail was stunning!
We headed off soon after. David got a call from his friend and found that his appointment in the afternoon was cancelled so he decided to take us to more places! We tried to visit the largest mall in Malaysia 1 Utama (I hope I got the name right) but couldn't get a parking place. It didn't make sense - if the mall were designed to be *that* big, you'd ensure that your parking were equally substantial wouldn't you? However, that wasn't the case here - seems there were many cars all looking for a parking space, us included. David was quite determined to get us into the mall (God bless that soul!), but seeing as all of us were not shopping people, we told him that we'd give it a pass. He decided then that we should go for lunch and the best Claypot Rice in Malaysia.
It seems that we were going to a lot of 'best' places. They truly were well-deserved of the titles though. I have to say that the Claypot Rice that David brought us to was certainly the best I had ever eaten! The fragrance and the flavour was truly out of this world - Paul Curry would've been so proud! As usual, I ate more than my good sense dictated and paid the price for it.
David sent us back to the hotel after that and we took a nice long rest. It was to be a quiet second night - the 3 of us had a nice quiet dinner in Chinatown and the steamed ginger chicken left memories my tongue would never forget - and we settled in for an early night. Fortunately so because I doubt I could've lasted a second night of sessioning after the previous night.
The morning saw Uncle Bob up and about before 8am. I don't know the exact time he got up - I was exploring my dreamscape. I vaguely recall Gordon's hibernation growling. It wasn't really snoring - it was more like a long drawn wheezing that reverberated from within: damn scary! LOL.
I was startled out of sleep when Uncle Bob, in his chirpy voice, declared, "GOOD MORNING!" Translation: "Get your lazy @$$ out of bed this instant!". Well, he was right; it was time to get up - no sense going on a vacation and sleeping it away.
We decided to leave Gordon chasing his dream butterflies - he's had a very tiring previous day driving and I felt he deserved a little more sleep. Bob and I went down to the cafe for 'breakfast'. It wasn't much of a spread - the 'mee goreng' they served resembled sickly yellow worms; the toaster was like a contraption out of the sixties; scrambled eggs were likened to have been mixed up with some form of liquid glue. Add all that to the sour face of the attending 'cook' and we sure had a real 'interesting' breakfast. The best part of the entire spread was the coffee and the tea. And that's saying a lot!
David came by as promised at 9am. Gordon freshened himself at record speed! :) We went for the 'best' Bak Kut Teh in Malaysia, supposedly in Klang. I must admit - it was really, really good! David really knew his food! Coffee followed - Old Town Coffee was truly growing on me! David drove us to a nice mall in Klang.
The rebels in us decided that we would 'demean' magic - whatever the heck that meant - so we broke out the cards and all in an Old Town Coffee Magic Session! Uncle Bob entertained us with his cardwork and we had a very nice discussion. David also demonstrated some of his mental work - from coin bending to nail bending. I think we were all very impressed with the Nail: it was one of the finest gimmicks I've ever seen - the attention to the detail was stunning!
We headed off soon after. David got a call from his friend and found that his appointment in the afternoon was cancelled so he decided to take us to more places! We tried to visit the largest mall in Malaysia 1 Utama (I hope I got the name right) but couldn't get a parking place. It didn't make sense - if the mall were designed to be *that* big, you'd ensure that your parking were equally substantial wouldn't you? However, that wasn't the case here - seems there were many cars all looking for a parking space, us included. David was quite determined to get us into the mall (God bless that soul!), but seeing as all of us were not shopping people, we told him that we'd give it a pass. He decided then that we should go for lunch and the best Claypot Rice in Malaysia.
It seems that we were going to a lot of 'best' places. They truly were well-deserved of the titles though. I have to say that the Claypot Rice that David brought us to was certainly the best I had ever eaten! The fragrance and the flavour was truly out of this world - Paul Curry would've been so proud! As usual, I ate more than my good sense dictated and paid the price for it.
David sent us back to the hotel after that and we took a nice long rest. It was to be a quiet second night - the 3 of us had a nice quiet dinner in Chinatown and the steamed ginger chicken left memories my tongue would never forget - and we settled in for an early night. Fortunately so because I doubt I could've lasted a second night of sessioning after the previous night.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Malaysian Magic Moments - Day 1
Bob decided that he wanted to make a trip to Malaysia - visit old friends; make new ones; and enjoy the fabulous food. He'd been toying with the idea since late April but I didn't think I'd actually make it until late May. So it was - we decided that we'd go ahead and take a coach to Melaka, then make our way to KL before heading home to Singapore.
After a little (actually a lot) of coaxing, Gordon decided to join us. When he heard our plans to take the Coach, he immediately vetoed it. "Take the COACH? Are you NUTS? Do you know how long it'll take for us to reach KL?" - fill in your favourite expletives here - "the" - more expletives here - "COACH! I'm driving!"
So we ended up the 3 of us in Gordon's car busting traffic and cursing at the horrible Tuas jam. Gordon of course made the wrong choice of lane (more than once, I might add) and we waited for about an hour and a half at the Tuas checkpoint. I thought he was horribly restrained; more so than usual. However, thanks to some divine power - vested in the uniform of the checkpoint police - traffic eased up eventually and we burst through to the other side. May Mas Selemant grow several boils on his @$$.
Though this trip was about meeting magicians and magic, I really found the most memorable thing about the whole trip was the food fest that we had the moment we crossed the border - it was non-stop cuisine delight. There were times when I felt like puking from over-eating! It was nuts!
We had Nasi-Lemak for a late breakfast at the first R&R. Then it was straight up to KL. Gordon suggested we hit KL first since it was much further up than Melaka; that would make our return trip faster. It was an excellent suggestion and I honestly don't know what we'd have done without him on this trip. I would probably have died on the Coach halfway up...
Anyway, with Gordon's infinite road wisdom (I'm sure if he's reading this he's going, "GOT MEH?" in the usual lilt of voice that is so Gordon) we arrived in KL at record speed, only stopping a short while at the next R&R for some coffee. We had a little trouble finding the Hotel that David Lai (our Malaysian liasion) had booked for us, but eventually arrived at the Nova Hotel, about 10 minutes walk from the Times Square in KL and right smack in the middle of a tourist belt of food chains! Sigh.
David arrived to check us in only moments after our own arrival. The hotel was interesting: nothing too posh; it was functional at best and served more than the needs of 3 weird magicians looking for a place to rest their feet. The room overlooked the street below - food chains running in which and every direction. My only gripe was the weak air-conditioning. The temperature was set at its lowest and it still felt like room temperature - a step outside the room didn't make much of a difference. It served better as a very expensive fan than air conditioning.
Almost immediately after we had settled into the room, we went out for LUNCH. Can you imagine that - lunch! The WanTan Noodles we had along the food chain near the hotel Nova was really quite good; the style was very different from the typical Singapore noodles and much tastier! If I didn't have a small stomach, I might've considered a second serving. If I were Enrico, I might've had 3 - you know, all the energy has to go to the races and all. It would've been fun if he were around.
David saw us back to the hotel before running off to do his own stuff. He promised to meet us back at in the room that night and take us to the best Bak Kut Teh in Malaysia for breakfast. You see, Uncle Bob had 3 main food items on his agenda - these are foods he absolutely MUST have or he'd kill somebody whenever he were in Malaysia.
The 3 items are:
1) Bak Kut Teh - he couldn't stop talking about this... LOL. I imagine he probably dreamt about BKT that night after David promised him the BEST in Malaysia the next morning!
2) Hokkien Mee - I must admit that I'm also now a Hokkien Mee convert; it's really tasty and leaves you feeling like a million bucks!
3) Yong Tau Foo - Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to try this because his favourite stall was closed when we visited it - more on this in the Day 3 writeup - but fortunately, the next best thing was available.
We decided to go to Times Square after David took off. Uncle Bob suggested we walked there and Gordon's face became visibly pale - he hates the 'W' word. However, we couldn't get a cab and the hotel lobby receptionist nearly puked his guts out when we asked him to help us get a cab to Times Square. He used the "W" word on us. LOL.
It didn't take long to reach Times Square though I noticed that we made a huge circle around some buildings and ended up walking the longer route. Still, it gave me a better look at the city - which really is much like any other city: buildings that blot out the sky and smog that chokes the lungs; felt right at home. :). Uncle Bob would pepper the entire trail with recollections of KL and the people he's met - some friends, others less so. It was more than an entertaining trip; it was almost educational.
Times Square was huge - I've only been here once a couple of years back with my students. In fact, almost every trip I've made to Malaysia had been work and everything was catered to; I never had a chance to explore on my own. This was the first time I had a chance to really walk the streets without any constraints. I relished in the freedom.
Our purpose at Times Square was not to shop though. If Gwen were here, she'd probably take the entire mall on and I'd be the battle weary husband lagging behind - zombie like - strapped down with shopping bags and armed with loaded credit cards. Thank GOD guys don't shop!
We sought the Magic Ring. It was a magic shop owned by Uncle Bob's good friend Fee Loong. At the 7th storey of Times Square, The Magic Ring had all manner of magic items from close up to stage. It was many times larger than the biggest physical magic shop in Singapore and probably stocked up on as much. It was like being transported into a completely different world when you stepped into the shop - posters lined the walls, different types of decks for sale were hung on a wall near the entrance; counters and shelves filled with magic were on display. You can see magic props even when you look up - parasols, ladders, collapsing straws, vanishing birdcages they hung in display!
Fee Loong was not at the shop. Uncle Bob gave his friend a call. The Magic Salesman (for lack of a better noun) spoke with us. When he heard his boss was coming down to meet us, he offered us coffee and seats - very nice of him. We sat for about 20 minutes discussing all manner of stuff in the shop - Uncle Bob recounting his experiences with Fee Loong and what they did together in their younger days.
'Uncle' Fee Loong (appended preffix in respectful endearment) came blazing into the shop. I say 'blazing' because this man carried such a powerful aura of excitement that it is infectious! He literally overwhelmed me with his personality and charisma. I have to admit that I'm not an easy person to get along with - I am extremely critical and cautious when making friends, probably the result of a nervous childhood - and there are few people I could take to instantly. The last two people that had that effect on me were Gordon and Enrico two/three years back. And now, Uncle Fee Loong.
Seriously, I find it hard to describe this man. He is just a very very likeable person whoose passion for magic is overwhelming - when he starts talking about magic, it really brings a smile to one's face: it's like a child delighted at his own cleverness showing off to his parents; you just love him for him. No pretensions or hidden agendas - he just loves his magic. And he'll make you love magic too.
Uncle Fee Loong convinced Uncle Bob to purchase a set of Cups and Balls (at virtually nothing - I think he only took a token sum from Uncle Bob because he knew Bob'll never accept it for free). It was really interesting watching the two of them reminising. I wonder if I would be like either of them someday - if I would be so lucky! We adjorned for coffee at the ground level shortly and more food. OLD TOWN WHITE COFFEE was in a word - fantastic.
We returned to the Hotel completely POOPED! I was so full I could hardly eat anything else. It wouldn't be long before the Magicians from the MMF came knocking. 5 of them came by - Sze Howe (who came by for one of the SMC gatherings earlier this year), Chris and his cousin Edmund, Shawn and Lai (I_never_regret). Soon joining them were Danny (Uncle Bob's first student) and Kenneth (Danny's student; Uncle Bob's grand student - if there's such a thing). Charleston came later but managed to squeeze his way in just before dinner. By then our room was packed to the brim!
We had a great session that lasted until the natural order of things took over and we had to succumb to the hunger pangs digging into our stomachs. We had a great dinner near the Hotel and stayed until about 2am where Kenneth and Charleston came up to the room for another round. We slept at about 3am.
Back row - left to right:
Gordon, Sze Howe, Shawn, Edmund, Chris.
Front row - left to right:
Uncle Bob, Lai, Danny, Kenneth
Surely, the finest experience of this trip was meeting two of the Veterans of magic - they reminded me how it is enough simply to love magic for what it is: not as gimmick of self-promotion and aggrandization, but an art form that is used as a gift of entertain to the people around us.
After a little (actually a lot) of coaxing, Gordon decided to join us. When he heard our plans to take the Coach, he immediately vetoed it. "Take the COACH? Are you NUTS? Do you know how long it'll take for us to reach KL?" - fill in your favourite expletives here - "the" - more expletives here - "COACH! I'm driving!"
So we ended up the 3 of us in Gordon's car busting traffic and cursing at the horrible Tuas jam. Gordon of course made the wrong choice of lane (more than once, I might add) and we waited for about an hour and a half at the Tuas checkpoint. I thought he was horribly restrained; more so than usual. However, thanks to some divine power - vested in the uniform of the checkpoint police - traffic eased up eventually and we burst through to the other side. May Mas Selemant grow several boils on his @$$.
Though this trip was about meeting magicians and magic, I really found the most memorable thing about the whole trip was the food fest that we had the moment we crossed the border - it was non-stop cuisine delight. There were times when I felt like puking from over-eating! It was nuts!
We had Nasi-Lemak for a late breakfast at the first R&R. Then it was straight up to KL. Gordon suggested we hit KL first since it was much further up than Melaka; that would make our return trip faster. It was an excellent suggestion and I honestly don't know what we'd have done without him on this trip. I would probably have died on the Coach halfway up...
Anyway, with Gordon's infinite road wisdom (I'm sure if he's reading this he's going, "GOT MEH?" in the usual lilt of voice that is so Gordon) we arrived in KL at record speed, only stopping a short while at the next R&R for some coffee. We had a little trouble finding the Hotel that David Lai (our Malaysian liasion) had booked for us, but eventually arrived at the Nova Hotel, about 10 minutes walk from the Times Square in KL and right smack in the middle of a tourist belt of food chains! Sigh.
David arrived to check us in only moments after our own arrival. The hotel was interesting: nothing too posh; it was functional at best and served more than the needs of 3 weird magicians looking for a place to rest their feet. The room overlooked the street below - food chains running in which and every direction. My only gripe was the weak air-conditioning. The temperature was set at its lowest and it still felt like room temperature - a step outside the room didn't make much of a difference. It served better as a very expensive fan than air conditioning.
Almost immediately after we had settled into the room, we went out for LUNCH. Can you imagine that - lunch! The WanTan Noodles we had along the food chain near the hotel Nova was really quite good; the style was very different from the typical Singapore noodles and much tastier! If I didn't have a small stomach, I might've considered a second serving. If I were Enrico, I might've had 3 - you know, all the energy has to go to the races and all. It would've been fun if he were around.
David saw us back to the hotel before running off to do his own stuff. He promised to meet us back at in the room that night and take us to the best Bak Kut Teh in Malaysia for breakfast. You see, Uncle Bob had 3 main food items on his agenda - these are foods he absolutely MUST have or he'd kill somebody whenever he were in Malaysia.
The 3 items are:
1) Bak Kut Teh - he couldn't stop talking about this... LOL. I imagine he probably dreamt about BKT that night after David promised him the BEST in Malaysia the next morning!
2) Hokkien Mee - I must admit that I'm also now a Hokkien Mee convert; it's really tasty and leaves you feeling like a million bucks!
3) Yong Tau Foo - Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to try this because his favourite stall was closed when we visited it - more on this in the Day 3 writeup - but fortunately, the next best thing was available.
We decided to go to Times Square after David took off. Uncle Bob suggested we walked there and Gordon's face became visibly pale - he hates the 'W' word. However, we couldn't get a cab and the hotel lobby receptionist nearly puked his guts out when we asked him to help us get a cab to Times Square. He used the "W" word on us. LOL.
It didn't take long to reach Times Square though I noticed that we made a huge circle around some buildings and ended up walking the longer route. Still, it gave me a better look at the city - which really is much like any other city: buildings that blot out the sky and smog that chokes the lungs; felt right at home. :). Uncle Bob would pepper the entire trail with recollections of KL and the people he's met - some friends, others less so. It was more than an entertaining trip; it was almost educational.
Times Square was huge - I've only been here once a couple of years back with my students. In fact, almost every trip I've made to Malaysia had been work and everything was catered to; I never had a chance to explore on my own. This was the first time I had a chance to really walk the streets without any constraints. I relished in the freedom.
Our purpose at Times Square was not to shop though. If Gwen were here, she'd probably take the entire mall on and I'd be the battle weary husband lagging behind - zombie like - strapped down with shopping bags and armed with loaded credit cards. Thank GOD guys don't shop!
We sought the Magic Ring. It was a magic shop owned by Uncle Bob's good friend Fee Loong. At the 7th storey of Times Square, The Magic Ring had all manner of magic items from close up to stage. It was many times larger than the biggest physical magic shop in Singapore and probably stocked up on as much. It was like being transported into a completely different world when you stepped into the shop - posters lined the walls, different types of decks for sale were hung on a wall near the entrance; counters and shelves filled with magic were on display. You can see magic props even when you look up - parasols, ladders, collapsing straws, vanishing birdcages they hung in display!
Fee Loong was not at the shop. Uncle Bob gave his friend a call. The Magic Salesman (for lack of a better noun) spoke with us. When he heard his boss was coming down to meet us, he offered us coffee and seats - very nice of him. We sat for about 20 minutes discussing all manner of stuff in the shop - Uncle Bob recounting his experiences with Fee Loong and what they did together in their younger days.
'Uncle' Fee Loong (appended preffix in respectful endearment) came blazing into the shop. I say 'blazing' because this man carried such a powerful aura of excitement that it is infectious! He literally overwhelmed me with his personality and charisma. I have to admit that I'm not an easy person to get along with - I am extremely critical and cautious when making friends, probably the result of a nervous childhood - and there are few people I could take to instantly. The last two people that had that effect on me were Gordon and Enrico two/three years back. And now, Uncle Fee Loong.
Seriously, I find it hard to describe this man. He is just a very very likeable person whoose passion for magic is overwhelming - when he starts talking about magic, it really brings a smile to one's face: it's like a child delighted at his own cleverness showing off to his parents; you just love him for him. No pretensions or hidden agendas - he just loves his magic. And he'll make you love magic too.
Uncle Fee Loong convinced Uncle Bob to purchase a set of Cups and Balls (at virtually nothing - I think he only took a token sum from Uncle Bob because he knew Bob'll never accept it for free). It was really interesting watching the two of them reminising. I wonder if I would be like either of them someday - if I would be so lucky! We adjorned for coffee at the ground level shortly and more food. OLD TOWN WHITE COFFEE was in a word - fantastic.
We returned to the Hotel completely POOPED! I was so full I could hardly eat anything else. It wouldn't be long before the Magicians from the MMF came knocking. 5 of them came by - Sze Howe (who came by for one of the SMC gatherings earlier this year), Chris and his cousin Edmund, Shawn and Lai (I_never_regret). Soon joining them were Danny (Uncle Bob's first student) and Kenneth (Danny's student; Uncle Bob's grand student - if there's such a thing). Charleston came later but managed to squeeze his way in just before dinner. By then our room was packed to the brim!
We had a great session that lasted until the natural order of things took over and we had to succumb to the hunger pangs digging into our stomachs. We had a great dinner near the Hotel and stayed until about 2am where Kenneth and Charleston came up to the room for another round. We slept at about 3am.
Back row - left to right:
Gordon, Sze Howe, Shawn, Edmund, Chris.
Front row - left to right:
Uncle Bob, Lai, Danny, Kenneth
Surely, the finest experience of this trip was meeting two of the Veterans of magic - they reminded me how it is enough simply to love magic for what it is: not as gimmick of self-promotion and aggrandization, but an art form that is used as a gift of entertain to the people around us.
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