The first event for 2012 was a brand-new Australian event called Oz Comic Con and it was held in Adelaide so another international event too and another road trip. With friends Jen and Sarah we road tripped across to Adelaide, I worked until 5pm Jen met at my work and we headed straight off to pick up Sarah on the other side of the city before starting the long trek to Adelaide. This was a tough trip, our plan was to drive overnight, get ready in a mates hotel room and then head straight to the event, but unfortunately a friend had pulled out and left me as the only driver so I couldn’t get any sleep, so by the time we arrived in Adelaide I was feeling exhausted. I am so very thankful to my mate Jen who tried her hardest to stay awake with me during the drive, only dozing off here and there, and also to my American mate RJ who we kept entertained using the fun walkie-talkie type app called Voxer.
Arriving in Adelaide we showered and got ready for the event, ate and then I brought some Coca-Cola to get some caffeine in me to help me through the day – energy drinks and I do not go well together. My tiredness means that I don’t recall a lot of what happened at this event especially the first day I only remember a few things. I was kind of wearing a costume but not really, it was basically a mix of my stargate costume and my FBI Criminal Minds costume, but in the heat of April and it was enough.
The main memories I have of this event are Jen and I chatting with Ben Browder (with as we dubbed it his porn stache) we said or he commented that we looked exhausted and we explained that we had driven across from Melbourne, he then offered to drive us home after the weekend, we were so tired we were totally up for having that happen that is for sure. I also recall a moment when the two of us were about ready to crash, it was lunch time and the photographers were hungry so we offered to watch over the equipment whilst they had a break, we collapsed into the chairs and just sat there… that is until all of the printed photos arrived and all of a sudden we were helping hand out the photos to people, it was chaotic but also kinda hilarious, it was at least very memorable. Other memories, Sean Astin and Norman Reedus commenting on my costume saying it was good, compliments are great when you’re exhausted and not even wearing a proper costume, but it is still liked. Although I was exhausted I still had a pretty good day, other then the hectic chaos of the photo collection the event ran quite well with only a few issues.
Sleep came easily that night and was thankful for the hotel room and the friendship as I was so exhausted that the moment we got back to the hotel I just completely broke down crying, this probably has a lot to do with why I don’t remember a lot… exhaustion can do crazy things to you. Although sleep came easily it didn’t really last and I didn’t have a great night, I still felt refreshed enough the following day and managed to have a pretty good day, hang out and caught up with lots of different friends, chatted with lots of the guests including Gigi Edgley, Jewel Staite, Jonathon Frakes, and continuing our conversation with Ben regarding him driving us home… I remember saying to him that we’ll be waiting in the carpark and to look for the car with the number plate MALPY. The only item I brought at this event was Corin Nemec’s event poster, the first event poster to start off my collection.
The plan was to leave the event around midday to start the trek home, this would give us plenty of time to make the drive and get some sleep before starting work at 9am on the Monday… as always though the plan did not go accordingly and we didn’t end up leaving when I planned in fact didn’t end up leaving until much later in the afternoon, and no Ben did not drive us home unfortunately. The drive home was harder than the drive there I was already running on low energy so it didn’t take long to feel exhausted, and in addition I had turned the heater on at the request of a mate and that is not something you should EVER do when tired… I remember getting to a point where I just had to get off the highway and jumped out of the car for cool fresh air, it was about 2am and I still had almost 4hrs of driving to go, once we were back on the road the drive got a little crazy with inuendo hour and the girls helping to row me up the hills, at least it picked up my energy a little bit. I know that the travelling doesn’t necessarily relate to the con, but it was so much of that weekend and explains my lack of memories or even photos regarding this event. I still had a good time and enjoyed the weekend I just learnt a valuable lesson to never try and make that drive under those conditions again.
Complete Guest List: Ben Browder, Corin Nemec, Debi Derryberry, Gigi Edgley, Jewel Staite, Jonathon Frakes, Matt Doran, Norman Reedus, Sean Astin, Bill Farmer, Sean Schemmel, Dave De Vries, Doug Holgate, Freddie Williams Ii, Jon Sommariva, Nicola Scott, Queenie Chan and Stewart Mckenny.
