A Little Bit Of Everything: Melbourne Day 2

Registration! What can I say. There were 4-5 lines based on the first letter of your last name. Queues were kind of there, sometimes. Between the hustle and bustle of 500 people (mainly women) lining up, greeting old friends, making new ones, swapping creations, waving at the video cameras, posing for photos, and the occasional cheer from the SU staff at the registration desks when someone had a reward pin, I actually got to breath. In fact it was a lot of fun.

I must admit that I did feel out of my depth there though. I was still tired and really didn't know that many people. In fact the few people I knew were three lines away and moving a lot faster than mine. LOL

I had in fact dressed warmly ... too warmly, as the convention centre had the heating cranked up. I ended up not only carrying my jacket, bag and swap box, but my scarf and vest as well and I was still hot. Once through registration I ended up with a lovely free hand bag full of our convention goodies.

With my arms full, I headed straight for Memento Hall. This is where you can buy SU stuff that will never be available in the catalogue, a convention perk. Again, you were never just sure what was the line for buying and what was the line for moving around the room. After standing in the same spot for 5 minutes I realised I was in the purchase line and yet I hadn't seen anything. You kinda had to push your way through.

I was amongst the first into the Memento Hall so the staff were still getting things kinda sorted. Eventually someone stood at the door stopping people from coming in until some left (it was a small room) and a proper payment line was organised so you could tell where you were exactly in the room. Of course you had your odd computer decide to not work but things started to work very smoothly.

Now lets see, I was already loaded up with things but walked out with additional bags: a gorgeous Tote and matching laptop bag (great for paper cartage), a T-shirt and a denim shirt, collapsible rubbish bin (this is great, went back for more later when the limit of one was lifted), a couple of stamps and a lovely shopping bag. Think I needed more arms. Can't believe I managed. Though I did end up with a massive headache thanks to my neck being pulled in all directions from straps. This is in no way meant to sound negative. I was having a ball.

When convention was over for the day, a small group of us went out for dinner at the Blue Room. It was a nice little restaurant with great food. We had all pretty much finished our meals when we realised there was a celebrity at the next table to us. It was Emelia Rusciano, or those of you from WA who used to listen to 92.5 would know her as Em. To my international friends, Em was on the second season of Australian Idol, she is now in Melbourne with her own stage show, but still doing radio and the odd TV appearance.

Linda was too scared to go as for a photo, so Pat went over and did the asking:
P: Hi are you Em?
E: Yes I am
P: We are all from Perth and we miss you greatly ...
From their it was easy to ask for group photo.

Photo of the stage for the General Session

Me looking better than a photo further down. I was back in my apartment and you kinda get the view behind.

Melbourne Trams.

Here we are with Em. I felt so under dressed, but I was cool (as in, not stinking hot for once).

Jen came back to the flames with me so that I could try my other camera. We had to wait a while so we sat down and ate desert. I had a scrumptious mint ice cream. It was so refreshing.