PonyconAU 2015: experiences and swag · 4:23pm Feb 26th, 2015
First of all: in my last blog, I mentioned that I was driving interstate (from Perth, Western Australia, to Brisbane, Queensland), and that I would be attending PonyconAU 2015 on Surfer's Paradise along the Gold Coast (about 80 kilometres south of Brisbane). The drive took Stiggerzz and I 5 days, in 2 cars, for a total of 5024 kilometres. That's over 50 hours worth of driving (since Australia doesn't have a speed limit greater than 110 kph on any of its roads, barring the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory which we didn't pass through). That's a lot of driving. Seriously.
So anyway, we made it to Brisbane and crashed at my new place of residence for a night before heading south again for a bit. We stayed at the Outrigger Hotel on View Street, smack bang in the middle of Surfer's Paradise. So, with a name like that, on the Gold Coast, in Summer, with Queensland being known here as the "Sunshine State,"
You'd expect there to be a lot of said sun, correct? Perfect conditions for waves, seagulls, and all the hot bikini babes you could wish for?
Yeahhhhhhhhh... weather says no. Tropical Cyclone Marcia (category 5, extremely dangerous, wind speeds up to 285 kph) dumped close to 600 millimetres of rain on some parts of Queensland. Yeppoon in the north was flattened; thousands of homes were damaged; many were left powerless and with nothing left. Suncorp Insurance alone has over 4000 claims to process.
Thankfully, Surfer's Paradise was spared Marcia's fury... but we still had grey skies and a tonne of rain all weekend. Not exactly the Surfer's Paradise we were hoping to show our guests...
But hey, that's life sometimes.
Oh! That's right! We had guests! Originally, we were going to have Cathy Weseluck and Meghan McCarthy. Yet in the last 3 days before the con, something arose preventing Cathy from coming in person. Awww. Luckily, she was still able to join us in a video call over Skype, so yay! As if in apology (though it was beyond anyone's control), the organisers of PCAU2015 managed to rustle up Ingrid Nilson and Gillian Berrow to appear too! 
Meghan and Ingrid had a guest panel 
; Cathy spoke and interacted with people and the other guests in a rather amusing way 
; Yours Truly got to sit on the same panel as Gillian Berrow and talk to people about writing 
and Ingrid even did a meditation session with us in the main hall, and performed an interpretive dance for us to show off her yoga skills.
Damn, she's flexible. 
Oh, and apparently I made it to 4-Chan. Something about me saying I enjoyed writing torture scenes and Gillian looking weirdly at me. Hue. There may yet be a video of that in the works... on someone's hard drive. Maybe. We'll see if it ever emerges.
For show guests, we had a whole bunch. For videos, art, and plushies we had Immatoonlink, Antony C, Snuggle Factory, Kez, Paul Abstruse, Swift Stitch Creations, Keyframe Creations, and a bunch of others. In terms of musicians, we had Wacarb, Cherax Destructor, The L-Train, EnsionD, EvDog, Vaceslav, and Mysterious Bronie (who managed to keep his sunglasses on the entire weekend), who also MCed the con with Matt McKenna and Formal Riot.
Pics and Swag ahoy, yo!
(that cost a pretty penny at the charity auction. Damn.)
On the Gillian Berrow side of things, I also showed her Essenza di Amore and the tonne of artwork I had done for it. She said it always makes her feel wonderful when her work inspires others, and for me to never stop writing if it's my passion and gives me and others happiness. She's an A-grade hugger too. 
So yeah. Was quite an amazing weekend. I spent far too much money, though.
Protip: if you ever go to a convention, take at least a grand with you. Trust me, you'll find a way to get rid of it faster than you thought possible. If you don't, well, the charity auction will clean you out.
Adren
I'll do it tomorrow. I actually need to post my con-swag tomorrow as well.
Liar you are dead.
I don't appreciate zombies posting blogs.
Holy cow, sounds like you had an amazing journey and a great time!
I'm really glad you had fun.
And those pictures of Australia... yep. they look about right.
Glad to hear you had fun at the con. Reminds me that I haven't been to any con in a long while. I should fix that. Hope you get a decent internet connection soon, not having internet access sucks.
2832408
WHY ARE YOU STILL AWAKE.
Totes do that, btw.
2832409
*Eats ur brainsssssss*
2832411
Typical Australia. Just when you think your weekend's gonna be all sunshine, surfing, rainbows, and gorgeous tanned babes, we get a Cat 5 Cyclone.
2832424
Cheers, dude.
And it does. It reeeeeeeally does.
Pretty jelly tbh ;_;
Seriously, your convention adventures sound awesome.
Well, an expensive time, but a fun one apparently. Maybe I should go to a con; there's a local one, but it's months away.
Also, that sounds like my kind of pizza joint.
...Is it bad that I lol'd at the storm pictures?
Go to Starbucks and steal their Wi-Fi, like a malnourished, pony-deprived vampire.
Glad to see you're still here, looks like you had fun too.
2832434
One of my better weekends, for sure. L-Train almost rocked the hotel down. 'Twas glorious.
2832441
Is grand. Muchly.
Go to that con. Do it. You're bound to meet a fan or two.
2832452
Nah. I made it funny in context.
2832454
Genius. Pure genius. I just have to buy a coffee or a donut every hour...
2832471
That would be interesting, but I'd have to go around using my pen name instead of my real name. Eh, decisions, decisions.
I do intend to go to the con, though. About once a month I check to see when it'll come on again. When I first learned of its existence, I had missed it by less than a week.
Lucky bastard.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I was not so inclined, thank you very much!
Why couldn't I go? WHHYYYYYYYY!?!?
Oh yeah, I'm poor.
Still, glad you had fun man.
Sounds like an insane time had by all, and a blast despite the weather. :) I hope the internet gets sorted soon, but it's cool. Glad you're alive and not a zombie, either. ;)
I'm a bit jelly right now, but I'm glad you are alive and that you had fun.
"Gillian", eh? We were just speculating on what her initials might stand for over on my page! :O Timely!
2832523
And yes, much fun times were had.
When I bid my absolute maximum on that Daring Do chest... you can't imagine how nerve-wracked I was. It was the only thing I wanted at the whole con. And I know for a fact that there were people there with vastly more money than I had. So awesome that I snagged it.
2832594
Shhhhhhhhhh... stop lying to yourself, C².
2832979
You would have had a blast, mang. Ah well. Maybe next con, especially if it's in Sydney again.
2833217
It's in my will for family to let people online know of my untimely passing, should it ever occur. If I'm ever truly gone, everyone will know about it.
2833671
What kind? Aeroplane jelly? Cottees jelly?
2833715
Glad to be of service.
2834222 Not that kind of jelly, silly willy.
Jealous. But if you must know, strawberry.
2834224
2834226 If you like strawberry jelly, I'm the jelly you need.
2832430
Yes. I remember when I was in Melbourne, it snowed outside the city.
... it was summer.
But still, looks like you had a great time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Why don't I get the good thing =(