It's Funny Who You Meet When You Work In The Magic Store

It is Grand Prix weekend here in Melbourne and so it was not a suprise to me that I eneded up spending half and hour or so with Michael Schumacher This morning....lol. It seems that the Ferrari team physio had spent a while in here yesterday with my old buddy 'Magician' Glenn Hamilton, or Glenda to his friends. The physio had directed the greatest Formula One driver of all time here himslef. Funnily enough the Physio was back in here this afternoon too but more about him later. Let's get back to Schumacher.

Although I am, as the title of this blog implies, A Man in A Boys World, I have never really seen the fascination of fast cars (I actually don't even have a licence) or the thrill of the Formula One chase. Instead my childish antics/interests seem to keep me confined to doing magic tricks for a living, playing with Star Wars toys or building cubby houses filled with lashings of chocky milk and vegimite sarnies with my Daughters Maddie and Violet.

I have to admit that it took me a little while to recognize Michael (Schumacher) at first. I suppose that one HEARS the name more than one SEES the face. Or at the very least if one SEES the face at the same time as HEARING The name the face is usually hidden behind a crash helmet. He wasn't wearing a spruce pair of shoes or his TAG watch. Neither was he wearing his Ferrari team leathers (the giveaway of most Formula One racing car drivers when spotted in public) but had instead opted for a tracksuit and runners combo.

His opening gambit was a request for tricks or 'games' as he so cutely put it (I thought that that was particularly delicious) that he could take home to his kids. Now here's an interesting and mildly hilarious point to anyone who works in a magic shop or who is a Formula One superstar.

I replied

"What sort of Budget were you looking at"

Oh how divine! The sad thing about this is I was not actually taking the piss but had genuinly not recognized him yet. He came back with.

"I am looking for some 'games' for my kids"

My next thought was.

"This is Michael Schumacher"

Now I know that I just made it look like I SAID that but I honestly just THOUGHT it and in so doing belted into one of the nest Magic Store dem sets of my life. He left with most of the classics. To seal the deal and also pay for the gear. See what I did there? I said 'gear' cars have gears...lol. he pulled out his cradit card. Yep this really is HIS credit card as it had HIS photo on it. By the way I don't mean it had his identification photo on it as some plastic does these days. No. I mean it had his PHOTO on it. Michael Schmacher carries The Michael Schmacher credit card. Why not indeed?

In summary then he seemed to enjoy the magic he saw here today. He left with quite a fair few 'games' for the kids too. At the end of our meeting I asked if he had any big plans for the weekend to which he replied

"I hope so"

Oh I nearly forgot about the Physio. Well it seems that he also made a appearence today and was once again talking to Glenn. Apparently it had been he that had pushed Schumacher our way. The physio that is not Glenn. He was sold two very famous tricks. The Hopping Halves and The Scotch and Soda coin effects. These were tricks that Schumacher had not purchased. I think the idea was to fool him with them in between laps.