October is Armageddon time, at least in this household. By Armageddon I don't mean the end of the world, I mean one of the country's biggest and best conventions. Look up "fun" in the thesaurus and all of those words after it? That's who you explain Arma. Only more. Every convention is different to each individual visitor, and for me Arma means an interstate holiday to Melbourne in Victoria. At home conventions have a very different atmosphere to away cons, even when you're just crashing on a friends house or sleeping on their floor. The very fact that you have to make this con an extended trip makes the whole thing a lot more fun, and a lot more tiring.
You never get enough sleep at a con. Even if you plan everything perfectly and you manage to slip in 6 hours sleep every night, you'll wake up feeling tired. Because a con is at least two days of standing and walking around. There will be some moments when you sit down, but most of the time you'll be standing in one line or another, standing in a photograph, or walking around the expo floor. And as we all know, standing is exhausting.
Every Arma has been different for me. I've never been with or stayed with exactly the same people more than once. Coincidence? Maybe... But this year was different again because we stayed in a different hotel. The usual hotel was booked out so we stayed in Melbourne Short Stay apartments that weren't a lot further away from the convention hall.
The weekend is a bit of a blur because so much happened, and I can't remember when exactly everything happened. I remember having to get up very early every morning!
Before the event there was an issue with the posting so we didn't get our passes in time, which meant having to line up twice on Saturday to get in; once to get the pass and once to get in. But they dealt with it very well and it was all organised and the like so it was more of a nuicence than an inconvenience.
Over the weekend I got two photographs with Mark A Sheppard and one with Amanda Tapping, as well as an autograph from each of these actors plus Nicholas Brendan.
Everybody was extremely nice, and I still can't decide who was the nicest out of Amanda and Mark. Both are such wonderful actors and it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking of Mark as a mean guy due to his characters, but he is a very smart and genuinely great guy. He knows a lot about the industry and has been in it enough years to know the score. He seems to really like the changes that have come about since the fans of TV have begun to take over—fans like Joss Whedon, Ron Moore, Russell T Davies etc.
Amanda is like a dream. I'm sure you've heard plenty of times that she is really sweet in real life, but I am just another person to tell you that. Only it's true. She seems to happy to be with her fans and she always thanks you for coming along and talking. She even had a quick chat with my friend whom had been waiting in line for quite a while. At one point there was a hold up with the photograph booth when Amanda was waiting. On a desk were the photos from the weekend waiting to be picked up by the owners. Without a second waiting, Amanda grabbed a handful of them and began to hand them out to their owners.
I didn't spend a lot of time with Nick Brendan because I was very nervous, and I only got an autograph with him.
This was such a great weekend, kudos to the entire Arma team as well as Mark, Amanda, and Nick. I look forward to meeting you all again.
Kathy
Themes:Armageddon Expo, Arma, arma, Mark A Sheppard, Mark Sheppard, Amanda Tapping, Nicholas Brendan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
