Gold Coast Supanova 2014

The last couple of weeks seem to have flown by. I don't have work to measure my week by anymore! How sad is it that I no longer necessarily remember what day it is? Very sad, that's how sad.

Niece had a day off from school. Sick. I don't like it when kids get sick for some reason. I know by the end of it with Teen, she was claiming sick so often I didn't know if she was genuine or not. I sent her to school most of the time. This is a ploy I think I will have to take with Niece. She woke up late for school and spent half an hour in the toilet. I think she was just sitting avoiding getting ready. She claimed sick. I said she could go to school. And she ended up staying home. With a strict warning that if she was sick the next day, she wasn't going to respite or school camp.

She went to respite for the weekend. It was a weekend stay with only the three girls. Usually the respite 'guests' are boys so this was a special weekend. I was curious how they would go together. When we picked her up on the Sunday we were told she had a good time with one of the girls and had spent a lot of time giggling and having fun. Excellent news, although not so great was the imaginary friend thing, her favourite cartoon characters. I must remember that she is very open to suggestion!

Senior school camp is this week. Niece will be away for four days. It means packing everything and making sure it is all labelled. The school has sent home a list of what sort of things to pack. I help Niece with this and we check to make sure all her belongings are marked. This is not quite so bad as a fair bit of it is already done from having previous stays in respite.

It's a very quiet four days.

It's the weekend of the Supanova and MOTH and I decide we will head down a little earlier than previously planned. This way we'll miss most of the traffic. We find the motel and MOTH delivers me to Reception and heads out again. I go to check in.

I have the pre paid booking but the credit card is declined. Uh oh. Well, I thought that would happen. But the debit card declines as well. Panic sets in as MOTH has left, they won't honour the booking unless I can come up with the $200 bond. No exceptions. They won't take a normal ATM card. I don't even know how much is in that account. But there goes all my spending money for the weekend. Why does that always happen?! Luckily the hotel is near a shopping centre and I can locate an ATM. There isn't enough in that account but I can manage to scrape enough together with that, cash in my wallet, and drawing against my overdraft. Which I DEFINITELY did not want to do!

At least I have a place to stay. But I don't get to go out to dinner on Sunday night with the rest of the volunteers. Bummer.

The apartment looks ok on the surface. The kitchen looks lovely. Yes, it has a full kitchen. I check the draws and cupboards to find where everything is. Ummmm I see pots, a pan, toaster, jug, crockery, utensils .... where is the cutlery? Oh. Found it. Kitchen has an island bench. With cupboards. I get to the bedroom. Oh. Disappointing. I can see that the bed is not up to the usual hotel standard. Something about the bedspread is offputting and I'm reluctant to touch. But I do. When I'm ready for bed I turn it back and .... stains! The underside of the 'spread has had staining. URGH! I am REALLY fussy about my bedding! And the sheets are thick but soft. And occasionally the springs in the mattress creak when I move. Yes, the bed is that old. Think I should leave them some feedback. On the up, I have a main bathroom and an ensuite. Spoilt for choice.

I'm on line control again. This time for Emmanuelle Vaugier. She has done some roles with Smallville, Two and a Half Men, Lost Girl. The line is busy, but not terribly so. My only regret is that I have only one life... Ha! Actually what I regret the most is that as I'm working, I don't get to photograph a lot of the costumes and there are plenty of good ones. Steam Punk is big this year. Oh, and Adventure Time as the voice artists are on the guest panel.

I will post what pictures I did get separately.

By end day one, my feet are killing me.

Rock up today and oh! Nicole taps me on the shoulder and tells me, Lovey, I need you to go to photo booth today. Fair enough. I'm directed to photobooth and given a quick induction. I'm to stand at the exit and direct the traffic. No problem. I do this for a while, then am sent to another point to be the barricade so people don't go beyond a certain point. Oh again.

I don't have any freedom of movement here and OH LORDY MY FEET HURT. I think they're going numb. Well, maybe not quite. But it turns out I'm forming part of the barrier at the edge of guest access so I get to see them all as they go past to take their breaks. WHOO! One of the voice actors strides down the walkway back to his post, his PA not in sight. He's quite tall, his paces long. Soon after she comes running by. She's short....

Another guest swanns by. Again. His PA is not too far behind him. She looks at me and grins. He's a free spirit she says as she rushes by.

I chat to the patrons as I stand minding the walkway. One of them is dressed from the Pokemon labs. We start chatting pokemon and she mentions she was going to bring her Fennekin plushie but it didn't fit in her lab coat pocket. I asked her what that pokemon looked like. She then proceeds to pull her Nintendo DS from her pocket and checked her Pokedex to show me!

This day is pack up. I stay behind a little, don a high vis vest and pitch in to help dismantle some of the exhibition. After a time I go to help bring in the metal barricades. Despite a call for help over loud speaker only two of us end up working this job. After about 45 minutes of helping on the floor I've had enough and quit to go 'home'. If I thought my feet were sore earlier it's nothing compared to now. I can barely put one foot in front of the other and I still have to walk back to my hotel.

After a day like that I thought I deserved a spa. It's one of those that's built into the bathtub. I hate those. They're never wide enough to accommodate my Rubenesque figure. I made sure the water level was above the jets, adjusted them to suit and pressed the button. GLUB GLUB GLUB! Press the button! Quick! Yoiks! These jets are VERY POWERFUL! And ummmmm pointing upward. I aim them down, and it's still not right. Water on the walls this time. I've pushed them down as far as they will go, but the jets are still very powerful and shoot across the top of the water. The only way I can prevent the spray is sitting upright and pushing my thighs to the bottom of the tub. That's too much bother after a short time and I turn off the spa. There's water all over the floor, and the bath mat is soaking. Ooops. But I'm giggling too much to worry.

Check out time and I get my bond back. Just as well.

Think I'll nap when I get home...