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Day 3 - T-Day

Sorry this is so late, I’ve been playing catch up since returning home and school and life and husband and work and yuck...anyway...

pixy456 and I got up super early, had a super quick breakfast, and packed up to head down to the Ryerson Theater.  We set out on foot and arrived around 830a.  We were joined by some other lovely ladies, and we set up Camp Fandame.  After sitting and claiming the perfect spots, we scoped out the nearest restrooms and grabbed breakfast.  BTW, the McDonald’s in Toronto has better food than where I’m from, just saying.  GOD BLESS CANADA.

adc1414, @time4hiddles, and jshillingford are in this line up, just can’t see some of them  :P

Also met a lovely youngun @mally_lee who, come to find out, knows a lot of the same super famous VA’s that I do.  Small damned world.  (Hey Mallory! *epic unironic fist bump*)  The group of us held our positions for a good six hours and the TIFF staff and volunteers began showing up and preparing the red carpet.

Awww...sad rolled up red carpet.  Plus bonus pixy456 thumb and sneaky shot of her Bebe.  <3

TIFF Volunteers!  Loved all of them.  They are the backbone of the event.  LOVE ALL VOLUNTEERS, omg.

OH look a blurry ass photo...neat.

More blurry goodness.  But that’s the TIFF thingie they’re gonna get “official” photos taken in front of, yay!

Farther down the red carpet and super fancy tent leading into the theater.

...and Liz is the first of the stars to arrive.  Her shoes were EPIC and they resemble a pair that are currently in my closet...don’t judge me.  She is super sweet and tiny and was very wonderful with the fans.  Despite anyone’s opinion of her, she was absolutely lovely.

With her arrival, I knew it was almost time.  I could feel my mouth go completely dry and my heart beginning to race.  After sitting outside, anticipating what was to come, I was suddenly feeling very very nervous.  Even after meeting super famous people while being a handler, meeting Himself was suddenly exquisitely nervewracking.  I kept doing breathing exercises, thinking about the grandbaby, trying to distract myself from creating a major panic attack.  Thank GOD for pixy456, who was my ROCK and kept me from completely losing my shit.  

...and then he arrived.

Swear to GOD he’s in that photo somewhere.

Yeah, he’s in this one as well...good luck finding him.

...and there he is.  This is the view I mostly had of him.  He was doing his best, speaking with the press and jumping over to the fans waiting for him.  When I initially saw him, happy and unbelieving tears squeezed out of my eyes, I giggled like a moron, and then I was fine.  It was just Tom, the same dude, doing the same old red carpet thing I had seen over the last three years in gif or interview or livestream.  He was not as tall as I was expecting, then again he IS the same height as my oldest son, so it was kind of a weird affirmation.

He did a few interviews and then jumped over to the fans finally.  He took his standard selfies, signed autographs, and the press of flesh from the fans who arrived late, to the fuckwad autograph hounds was unnerving.  He finally made his way down near us, and I got my arm out, ready for him to sign my DVD cover.  

But first, let’s take a selfie.  I have NO IDEA who this photo belongs to, and I will give proper credit to whomever it belongs to...but he selfied with the younguns that were directly next to me.  Yes, I’m in this bloody blurry assed photo, story of my life.  :P  The only reason I leaned in and grinned like a dork was just in case I was in this selfie, shit I didn’t know...  So he selfied and then LEFT.  I was one person from him signing for me and then he was gone as quickly as he appeared.  He did not return to our section at all, and after the group of ladies I was with, arriving at 8a and positioning ourselves in a spot we all felt he would come over to, none of us got a thing.  Yes, it was disappointing, yes it stung a little, but this was only day one of Tom Int’l Film Festival.  I chalked it up to better luck next time, and we called it a day.  At least I THOUGHT we were calling it a day...

After everyone went in for the ISTL premiere, most of the carpet dispersed.  But pixy456 was on a mission...we were off to wait at the back door.

We gathered our camping gear and, with Mallory in tow, went to set up Camp Fandame Part II at the back door.  We got good seats near the door and parked it.

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Day 2 - Casa Loma

It was a spur of the moment decision, but I think I was too excited to wait until our scheduled day to go, which was to be this coming Tuesday.  So we headed underground to the subway and went up to Casa Loma.  BTW, the subways are super clean and fancy....GO CANADA.

We walked from the station, and by this time the exertions of the day are beginning to make themselves known, but dammit we are on a mission.  We push on and finally make our destination.  The castle looks exactly as I had seen in many fan photo from set visits, and it is a bit overwhelming to see live and in person.  pixy456  shows me where the trailers were located during the shoot, and the spot where Hiddleston was standing when she took their selfie and he Skyped with me in April of 2014.  The castle is stunning, and I couldn’t wait to get inside.

Oooohhh...this looks familiar...

“Take a little walk on the edge of town and go across the tracks...”  !!!!!

The library was where they shot the dance sequence.  It was beautiful...there was some debate as to if this was the room or not, but after clever ninja recon we found that THIS is indeed the room.  

“Where the viaduct looms, like a bird of doom as it shifts and cracks...”

“Where secrets lie in the border fires, in the humming wires hey man, you  know you're never coming back...”

After walking the length of the library a few times, we moved on throughout the house.  It is absolutely stunning and I can not wait to see it in its full cinematic glory in October.

I did take a few more photos of the house, and I can post them, but I seriously took a HUGE amount of photos, not sure I’ll post ALL of them, damn.  :)

We meandered thru the rest of the house, I picked up some Casa Loma swag for the grandbaby and some of my coworkers, and we made the very long walk back to the subway station and walked home.  

Sore, exhausted, sweaty in unnatural places, but excited for the next day, we prepared for our red carpet camp day and hit the rack early.  :)

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Day 2

I think we both fell asleep around 10p, which is super freakin early for me since I am a 2nd shifter and I am normally up until 2 or 3 in the morning.  But, I was exhausted and I got a good nights rest.  Thursday was recon day for the week, and pixy456 and I had a job to do.  We were going to walk to the theaters that we would be spending time at, either doing red carpet or going to a showing.  We had decided early on that we would not be attending the movie premiere’s, but instead opting to go to an alternate showing.  I had never attended a red carpet camp out, so we were gonna camp out on the red carpet, save the stress of doing that and queueing up to see the movie all in the same evening.  Nope, not that young anymore, and just...no.  We headed out after a quick breakfast of bagel and King’s Coffee, armed with cameras and ready to take notes.  

The apartment we rented for the week is located in the Garden District of Toronto, and it is within decent walking distance to the festival.  We made out way up to Ryerson, and saw some minimal setup had already happened.

Ooooh...Len and Company looks good.  XD

Just not seeing anything I’d like to watch...huh.  :P

OMFG the stars have arrived early!!!!!

After scoping out Ryerson, and getting this epic shot of pixy456 and myself, we headed deeper into the city towards the Eaton Centre.  The foot traffic was crazy busy, but I never felt unsafe.  Also, Toronto is a clean city, and that was a huge surprise for being as large as it is.  I have been to large cities before, but this by far has been the prettiest and the cleanest yet.  GOD BLESS CANADA.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s (FINALLY OMFG!!!!!) and I got a pumpkin spice donut and some juice to help fuel our recon mission.  And NO, I am not a stereotypical pumpkin spice latte kind of girl, it just looked freakin delicious...and it was.

The following photos are from our meanderings:

Ahem...

Eaton Centre

The Elgin, where we would be seeing ISTL on Sat morning.

Super awesome bike share...GOD BLESS CANADA.

I believe this is the red carpet at the Roy Thompson Theatre...

Our recon work didn’t take long, so we had an afternoon to kill.  Fueled on donuts and excitement, we made the decision to head to one of the shooting locations for Crimson Peak.  

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Day 1

I was up way too damned early to get on a plane and fly to another freakin country.  I hadn’t much sleep the night before and I was wired for sound.  I didn’t get any coffee or anything to eat due to nerves, but I was ready to go.  My flight left on time around 5a and I made my connecting flight in Dallas.  I was hot, sweaty, and starving.  The flight to Toronto was completely packed and I spent most of it sleeping.  :)

Once I arrived I had the privilege of standing in the longest customs line ever, but I wasn’t complaining.  I was almost finished with the travel portion of this journey, and I could get on with the fangirling and the silliness.

pixy456 was waiting for me and after a huge squeeze and relieved giggling, we walked to the car and piled in.  Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, while I was boarding the flight to Toronto, I realised I was missing all of my meds, so once I arrived, and after a lovely lunch, I was able to experience Canadian National Healthcare and get my meds filled here.  <3  GOD BLESS CANADA.

BTW, poutine is the manna from the heavens and anyone who says it isn’t is LYING.  

Absolutely stunning drive from lunch towards our apartment downtown.  Yay CN Tower photobomb.

Getting oh so close...

Once we got into town, we stopped and got my pills filled and shopped for groceries.  I absolutely LOVED going to the market and seeing everything that was different and the same from the states.  Although I do admit, perhaps I should cut back on the dirty redneck references, but whatever.  

So this is a bag o’milk.  This is the most badass thing ever.  Low waste and it appears to last much longer than our hormone laden milk at home.  GOD BLESS CANADA.  

We spent the rest of the evening getting settled in, catching up, and in general relaxing.  We had a huge week ahead of us, and we decided to just chill the hell out and get some much needed rest.  God only knew we were definitely gonna need it.

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Where’s hiddlesdame ;)

I will be posting an update tomorrow after homework.  Tired, sore, and sleepy.  <3

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Welp, I’m 98% packed and ready to walk out the door...I have a smattering of laundry to finish and a few other odds and ends to take care of, but for all practical intents and purposes, je suis prest.  I’m also pleased as punch to learn that Fri-Mon @pixy456 and I will have a good chance to have a wild Hiddles sighting, so that’s not nerve wracking or anything...  But, that is what this trip is all about, isnt it?  I am just hopeful that my nine months of planning has paid off.

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For those of you that have an interest, I will be travelling to Toronto in six days to attend the Toronto International Film Festival.  I will be posting photos and bloggie type posts on here and hopefully, if I’ve set everything up correctly, my Twitter, Instagram, and my Facebook like page will all be connected.  Fell free to follow along as I embark on this amazing journey with my BFF @pixy456.  

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