Tirza at TIFF and How We Inadvertently Watched the Santa Claus Parade

Got tickets from a friend to go to the TIFF Bell Lightbox Sunday morning to see a movie that was part of their World Cinema series. You are shown a foreign film that is not announced until you get there, followed by a discussion and Q&A about the movie. Our movie was Tirza, a tense drama about a father searching for his missing daughter that is Netherlands' 2010 submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The movie was full of political messages and symbolism and required you to pay close attention since things are not as they initially seem. This generated very interesting dialogue between the host, the guest film critic and the audience.

To get some exercise, we decided we would try to walk home from King & John St to Yonge & St. Clair. We knew that the Santa Claus parade was happening some time during the day but were not sure of the schedule or the route. We first ran into the parade at Yonge & Queen, in front of The Bay and tried to avoid it by walking through the Eaton Centre. Coming out at the SW corner of Yonge and Dundas, we were met by a mob of people that blocked our path. We considered trying to dash across the parade, but didn't like the prospect of trampling on some little kids just to get mowed down by a bunch of dancing penguins.

In trying to escape the crowds but unable to cross the streets to go in the direction that we wanted, we inadvertently ended up following the entire parade route backwards - west on Dundas to University, north on University to Bloor, and then west on Bloor to Bathurst where the parade started. It actually turned out to be a very efficient and warm way to watch the parade quickly, walking towards the approaching parade rather than standing in the freezing cold waiting for the parade to slowly come to you. We got to the end of the parade just in time to see the big man himself. If you're wondering where Santa Claus lives, I'm convinced it's in Honest Eds. At that point, we were so off course that we gave up on the walk and hopped on the subway, which we were now finally able to reach once the crowds dispersed.