toronto stories

slow senior's saturday

One of my friends planned an event way back when. He wouldn't tell me what it was since the last time he gave me a clue, I found him out and there was no way he was going to let me snoop and figure it out this time. The only clue he gave me was that it was only for this weekend and involved travel.

I know that many people do free slideshows of their travels at the public libraries and you couldn't pay me to go. So instead I found myself sitting at a camera club's Spirit of Asia show where we had to pay admission to the sold out event and where I swear 75% of the attendees were senior citizens. (I have nothing against seniors, it was just an observation.) We were probably the youngest in the crowd.

We waited while the volunteer hostess stood at the front introducing tonight's coverage: Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma. Then, get this, she says, "We'll have to wait as there are two people who are still outside looking for parking." I'm thinking: What is this? Some sort of family dinner where the guest of honour is missing? Since when does ANY event punish 70 people while waiting for two latecomers? If you're late for a movie or show or anything, it's your tough luck! The world does not stop for you.

I'll admit, some of the slides were beautiful, but ever so repetitive. Either she really loved some of the shots or was just putting them in there thinking that we (or the seniors) wouldn't remember what we had seen 30 seconds ago. And there was even an intermission to this thing! It was over 2 hours long. If it was me, I'd have done the slideshow in 20 minutes. And I mean all 3 countries in that timeframe.

The next time you find me at an event like this is probably when I'm a senior citizen - after I've got enough money to spend on travel and fancy camera gear. Not only that, I'll be doing the presentation. Or not. I'd spare all the poor souls the misery of watching slide after slide after slide of carvings on the sides of temples.

posted by toronto girl @ 7:44 PM