TIFF '09 Day Ten

So the Toronto International Film Festival is winding down... I worked six nights at Roy Thomson Hall and saw just three films, all at other venues and the last two of them today. The Invention of Lying, Max Manus, and The Young Victoria. "Lying" was Ricky Gervais' entertaining new comedy that will be in theatres any day now. Max Manus was a conventional WWII drama with great performances and a true-to-life plot. "Victoria" was a fairly standard high quality Brit period piece about the early life of Queen Victoria, starring Emily Blunt. All worth the time and all last-minute "rush line" screenings. The essence of Festival attendance!

I have to say that this year was tough though. I worked at my real job most days and at TIFF I found myself coping with a heavy workload as a Volunteer Captain. The two Co-Captains I usually worked with basically abandoned their posts to spend time "helping" in the section of the theater that the talent were seated in. When I reluctantly raised the issue with the Volunteer Coordinators I found myself the target of "revenge" complaints. Yuck. Earlier this evening I realised that I had forgotten to pickup my ticket for Sunday night's Staff/Volunteer party, but when I called to see if there was any way to still get it the answer was "No." Double yuck.

I officiated another kid's "triathlon" race this morning, the local Beaches Best Kids of Steel duathlon. That was a much more enjoyable experience, so I'll get some rest and reflect on my TIFF experience when I've got a bit more emotional energy.

Last weekend I took a few days off from volunteering at TIFF to rest and travel up to Huntsville for the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka race. Last year's 5:58:25 result has been soundly crushed by this year's 5:35:06 time. Very satisfactory, but it means that I now owe myself two race reports...

Listening to: Like a Stone by Audioslave from Audioslave.