Celebrity Connections

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

I'm rather chuffed with my own celebrity story: I was hiking together with friends along the Tiger Leaping Gorge in southwest China earlier this year, when one of my buddies, an Irish girl, was engaged in conversation by someone walking the other way. Clearly, he'd heard her speaking to one of the locals in her rather good Mandarin, and this had caught his attention, so they exchanged a few pleasantries and moved on. It was only when one of my other friends, an avid fan of magic tricks, caught a glimpse that we realised that our friend had just been collared (and possibly hit on) by famous street magician David Blaine. In the middle of a gorge in China.

Still tickled by this turn of events, we walked the rest of the day and ended up at a small lodge, a gathering point for hikers, to stay the night. We ordered some food, sat down at one of the outdoor tables, and just got out a pack of cards to play something when we noticed that sat a few feet across from us was Mr. Blaine again...with Fight Club star Edward Norton. Needless to say, this further development was generally judged to be "surprising". Regrettably, we weren't able to capitalise on our window of opportunity to mingle with the Hollywood elite, as we were informed that the table was reserved for other members of their party, and we were moved to the other side of the courtyard, where we proceeded to giggle, surreptitiously point and make just-less-than-audible slurs about the low quality of Mr. Norton's performance in the film Red Dragon. All in the middle of a scenic gorge. In China.

So yeah, that was a good day.