A slightly chilly and drizzly day in Melbourne but most of it was spent inside, queuing up to get autographs and photos with various actors.

We headed over to the Convention Centre early so that Kim, Shanan and Stephen could get their various token validated and pick up their entry passes. We then set off to grab a quick cuppa and bite to eat in the food hall beneath the DFO next door.

We then headed back inside for our early admission and to line up for autographs... at which point I realised that I had left my autograph books back in our apartment <insert sounds of gnashing teeth here>. While everyone else commenced queuing, I marched back to the apartment, picked up the books and headed back again.

There were decent-sized lines for pretty much all of the actors who were signing but the biggest were, of course, for Christopher Judge (Teal'c on Stargate SG-1) and Karl Urban (Eomer, Dr McCoy, Judge Dredd, take your pick).

I started with Bruce Boxleitner (Capt Sheridan on Babylon 5; Tron) who was a very charming man to speak with. I then moved to Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer in Supernatural), who was fun to chat to. As I reached his signing desk, he was playing with a 'whip-sound' app on his iPhone and he apologised for stuffing about. He was having a lot of fun with it so, hey, no biggie. :)

Next was Aldis Hodge (*********** Leverage) - he felt very genuine and seemed to be having a really great time. He made sure to speak with each fan for a decent length of time and was a really nice guy. Then came Christopher Heyerdahl (Todd the Wraith on Stargate Atlantis) - he is a great character actor and, as a last-minute pick for me, was well worth the effort.

I then moved to the line for Chris Judge - this is where the gold pass really helped out. The line was huge but my pass allowed me to move right up to almost the front of the line. He's a big guy with a big laugh and a big smile and it's easy to see why everyone wanted to meet him.

Finally I moved to the line for Karl Urban, who had been placed behind a partition so that people could not surreptitiously take photos of him. He was nice to chat to but seemed perhaps a bit tired, understandable, really, given how many people were lined up to meet him.

Having obtained all of my autographs, I then sat down for a break and a Coke before getting ready for the photo ops.

For my first photo with Jim Beaver, I made sure to wear my "Singer Salvage" t-shirt that I really like. I bumped into a girl in the line who was wearing the same shirt and we exchanged greetings. When I got to have my photo take with him, he commented "Great shirt!" so I was quite pleased.

My second photo was with Karl Urban and that was another long line. I made the mistake of heading out for lunch (tandoori chicken and beef curry at the Crown Casino Food Hall - yum!) between the photos so I was quite a way back in the line, even with the gold pass. It did move fairly quickly once it started, though, so all in all it was good.

(Sidenote: as I went for a brief wander around the exhibition hall on my lunch break, I passed a stall selling various "Keep Calm and ..." paraphernalia. The girl behind the counter saw my shirt and tried to express excitement and approval while simultaneously not choking on her lunch - as a compromise, she gave me a thumbs-up and a fist-bump <g>).

My third photo was with Aldis Hodge and, again, he showed how much fun he was having. Almost all of the photos I saw being brought out showed her mucking about with the fans in some way. When I went to stand next to him, he looked up and said "Dude, you make me feel small". So he stood on tiptoe and put on his best "look how big I am" scowl. It was a fun shoot. (sidenote: most guests there were assigned a 'minder' from the convention staff, although Karl Urban's appeared to be an actual bodyguard. Aldis brought his Mum as his minder - what a guy! <g>)

Next up was Christopher Heyerdahl who appears to be extremely tall on screen but is perhaps an inch taller than me. He still appears to be slightly stooping in the shot so that difference may be deceptive.

Second-last was Bruce Boxleitner who, upon seeing me come in, said "Oh good - someone tall! I don't have to shrink down!" He got me to move closer to the camera to make it a better shot, which it turned out to be.

Finally came Chris Judge, who was 15 minutes late for his shoot and garnered a huge cheer and round of good-natured applause when he arrived, the crowd being egged on by the convention staff. Again on TV, he looks big and imposing, but I discovered that I could probably carry off being a Jaffa.

I plan to post copies of the photos online so that people can see what I mean - another task to be handled upon my return to Perth.