James’ Birthday
On Saturday night, we celebrated my mate James’ birthday. It was the first opportunity to get all the Loopers together for a long time. I hadn’t seen Assaf, Eyal and Ora for a long time, well before I went to the UK. so it was good to see them as well.
I spent most of the afternoon trying to find a present for James with Hilary. We originally thought of getting him a nice business card holder (after my original idea of The Office - Season 2 fell through). But a more creative idea came up when I found a shop that sells these small metal military figures. They had some old style posters from the 30’s and 40’s up on the wall, which were unfortuantely not for sale but they did have a cool collection of figures that related to the “Streets of Old Hong Kong”. We figured that these figures for a Hong Kong-phile like el revez would be more appropriate. Some interesting, and amusing designs which you can look at over here at this link www.kingandcountry.com.
We had dinner at Thai Basil in Pacific Place with James, Amy, Hilary, Eyal and Ora. The food there is contemporary Thai food that has probably enjoyed a healthy infusion of Western sensibilities. While they encourage sharing, the portions are often quite small to be considered suitable for sharing. For me, the sole reason to end up in Thai Basil is the honeycomb ice cream which is probably the best damned ice cream I’ve tasted in my life. It’s a popular place and when we left at 8, there were queues of people waiting to get in.
We met up with Assaf, Brenda and Gottfried at the Sun Hung Kei Centre in Wanchai for the Punchline Comedy Club. They had two comedians up there - Steve Hughes and Tom Rhodes. The night started with Tom Rhodes, who was an American living in Amsterdam. He was funny although he did go for the more obvious laugh in some places while also losing the pace at some points during his act. Still, you have to respect someone who can stand and deliver in front of a live audience. After the break, Steve Hughes, a half Australian who lives in the UK, indulged us to his wit. I felt that he was more entertaining than the first act since he had a lot more original material and kept the pace going appropriately. Although at the end of the evening, there was a difference of opinion on who was better. I think since Hughes’ act revolved more aournd sex, Brits and Aussies, he was more popular with those interested or knowledgeful about sex, Brits and Aussies while Rhodes appealed to wider audience. Details for the Punchline Comedy Club can be found here - Punchline Comedy Club
The evening ended at the Excelsior. We were turned down for TOTTS since they required a $160 per head minimum charge (despite us being a group of 8 people). This didn’t really make too much business sense but I’m sure they knew what they were doing. Instead we ended up at Dicken’s bar downstairs, which was a cool and chilled end to the evening. Anyway, Mr. Reeves - Happy Birthday from Eshin!
