Saturday was a little different because we had an early movie, The Man Who Knew Infinity, with Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons playing early 20th century mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy. It’s based on a book of the same title, and I liked the way Irons acted Hardy’s cold British reserve by almost never looking anyone in the eye. It was fun to watch the mathematicians delight in numbers; the matter-of-fact racism Ramanujan faced less so.
After The Man Who Knew Infinity, we went seeking breakfast, and ended up at Aunties and Uncles. We lined up and waited our turn, and were glad we did. Even though it was pretty funky, hipster-chic, it was on all the best-brunch-in-Toronoto lists. We sat for awhile with a nice couple, the woman was a city planner and the guy working on a PhD in literature. He felt bad about sitting just the two of them at one of the large picnic tables, with everyone still waiting in line staring at him, so asked if we’d share. I asked the waitress if it’d throw things off with the kitchen if she sat a four instead of a two – and she admitted concern, but thought it’d be OK. There was an umbrella kind of over the table, and we weren’t really covered, tho the other couple was. When it started raining, the waitress asked if we’d like to move inside, which we did, but I was a little sorry actually. The rain never came down very hard, and it was kind of stuffy inside. They only had one bathroom in the basement – which was clean – and there was a knicknack cabinet next to it with RC Cola cans with baseball players on them – Robin Yount next to Carl Yastrzemski. Sort of alphabetical order, and oh, I guess Robin’s a ’55 baby like me – just turned 60 on September 16.
I had the breakfast pocket, a big slab of what we call Candian bacon, and the Candians call peameal bacon, scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, tomato and caramelized onions, with Dijon mustard & aioli on focaccia. I got it with a salad instead of potatoes. My sandwich was overstuffed, I removed some of the egg to be able to eat it, and the bacon wanted to slide out. The combination of the onions and aioli on the herbed focaccia was perfect, and while the salad didn’t look like much, it was also a good combination of flavorful greens and a red wine vinegar dressing. Mark had the apple French toast. There was something rough but well made about the food. I waved at our new friends on the way out.
Our next film was our add-on to make up for the canceled London Fields, Parched. A bird pooped on my shoulder while we were walking there and I had to go rinse my shirt off and blot it with paper towels in the ladies room in what must be the only Starbucks left in the world without hand dryers. After the rain it turned cool so I was kind of chilled until my shirt finally dried out.
The official description in the TIFF program says
In a rural Indian village, four ordinary women begin to throw off the traditions that hold them in servitude, in this inspirational drama from director Leena Yadav.
It was fun to watch – women being rowdy, bargaining, arguing, talking about sex, and obviously changing their lives. But we’re not exactly sure how it came out because we left a few minutes before it ended to get to our next one on time. 
Which I had really high hopes for, directed by Meathead, with Cary Elwes, Being Charlie. The kid in title role (Nick Robinson) was really good, a lot of the other actors were good – Charlie’s fellow rich white addicts – Cary was pretty good as his politician running for governor dad – but I felt there were too many scenes with people yelling at each other, and mostly everyone, especially the actress who played the mom, was too pretty & actor-y. Common played a group home counselor, one of the few black faces in the film.
Being Charlie let out early enough that we stopped for ice cream on the way home. After the ice cream, Mark watched the 3rd season finale of House of Cards while I finished up recording lectures.
Sunday I took my required shot of the CN Tower while we were walking to our 1st movie. But I’ll have to tell you about Sunday and Monday traveling home in the next post.
Required tourist pic
