Took the family to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang this afternoon. It proved an eventful day.

The performance was in Toronto at the old Pantages Theatre, now called the Canon theatre. I remember seeing movies there back when it was a movie theatre… I saw the original Die Hard there, it was around Christmas, possibly New Year’s Day if memory serves, many years ago. A beautiful theatre then and a beautiful theatre now.

On the way there one of my daughter’s asked me a question as we were driving down Brock to get onto the 401. To answer her I had to look at the clock on the dashboard and my lack of attention to the road caused me to almost rearend the car in front of me. I breathed a sigh of relief, resolved to pay closer attention, and looked in the rearview mirror just as the car behind me slammed on the brakes. They skidded about twenty metres, and I thought, They’re going to make it.

But they didn’t. The car rear ended us just as I almost rear ended the car in front of me.

No one was hurt, though it was quite a thump. We both pulled into an adjacent parking lot and surveyed the damage. As luck would have it, there was none. Maybe a tiny scratch on the rear of our Toyota Sienna, possibly one that was already there. The driver of the other car, a young woman, was quite gracious and apologetic and gave us her phone number, which we’ll never use.

We got back in our cars and somehow I contrived to almost ram into them myself as we were both pulling out of the parking lot (I didn’t, fortunately).

We made it to the show without further incident and quite enjoyed it, though the Toronto Star only gave it a mediocre review. What do they know.

Afterward we enjoyed the window displays at Sears, then attempted to grab some supper at Fran’s restaurant. We stood in line for twenty minutes before some other customers stormed out and informed us that they had waited half an hour to be seated, then another hour without being served. Why the hostess or manager hadn’t been upfront with us about the problems they were having (shorthanded,possibly nobody with any ability manning the kitchen) is beyond me. So we went up the street to Eggspectations, where the service was slow (they hadn’t anticipated all the overflow from Fran’s) but otherwise superb.  (I highly recommend their Mango burger!)

Then home again by eight pm.

Seeing a live performance, sometimes catching the Sears window displays, and possibly catching a supper out has become a yearly Christmas tradition for us (last year Aladdin at the Elgin, the year before that Cinderella). We can’t actually afford the (often) outrageously expensive tickets, but we feel compelled to do our little bit to restore the economy, at least until the money (credit?) runs out.

Looking forward to next year’s show, whatever it may be.