News & Week In Review - Just a Brief Update On My Trip So Far

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex from BoardGameCo, and this is the news and week in review, except really it's none of those things. It's not going to be much of news. It is maybe not not going to be much of the week in review. It's just me throwing up a video where the news and week in review normally goes. So, I have no how long this video is going to be, by the way. Might be 2 minutes. It's probably not going to be 2 minutes. It might be 10 minutes. It might be 5 minutes. It might be 20 minutes. Honestly, it just depends on what I cover in time. You see, I'm currently at UKGE, UK Games Expo right now, and uh right now, I'm just trying to get a little bit of a of my thoughts together for this because I'm a little all over the place. So, honestly, I was hoping I was hoping that my 10:00 video on Saturday was going to be me being able to show you the show floor. That's what I was hoping was going to happen. The problem is I slept in. I slept in because I I arrived at UKGE, I arrived Thursday morning, I think. I think that sounds right. Yes, that sounds right.

0:53 I'm going to It's going to take a little bit of time to get my thoughts all gathered here. But, I basically left Wednesday evening in from Cleveland, Ohio, to arrive Thursday morning to UKGE, which is basically around like 12 hours of travel time, but you kind of lose 5 hours along the way because, you know, it's 5 hours ahead. So, you know, whatever time you arrive, you you're losing 5 hours, you're losing 5 hours further behind than Cleveland. So, that all worked well. I've done the international travel before. I've gone to England multiple times. I've gone to Poland. I've done the whole losing 5 or 6 hours while heading across whatever. And so, I did that, and I did the usual thing that I end up doing, which is those 5 to 6 hours come from nighttime because I can't fall asleep at 9:00 on the plane. That's crazy. But, if you're trying to fall asleep, you know, 5 hours later, you're basically landing in 2 hours, so it's not like you're getting much sleep either way because of the way the connections work. There's not really a good time for your body, for my body at least, to fall asleep on a plane when you're making this international flight.

1:55 So, I I did the thing I usually do. I fall asleep at a reasonably late time and got a good healthy 2 hours of airplane sleep. Also, for those of you who have gotten airplane sleep, you are fully aware that 2 hours of airplane sleep is not the same as 2 hours of real sleep. But again, I've done this. It's fine. I woke up the next morning completely groggy, made sure to have 3,000 coffees that day, and powered through Thursday totally fine. Mostly totally fine. Some bleary eyes, eyes that were fighting back against the concept of caffeine overpowering sleep, but a body that functioned and did what it needed to do for the whole Thursday, which is basically arriving, getting settled, getting to my place, uh you know, checking in, uh grabbing coffee again, grabbing coffee again, uh making my way to the to the um the media event. There was a media event Thursday night that I tried got me a little bit of footage for, but it was all very tight and packed, so I didn't get a ton of footage. And there were a bunch of things being shown, nothing that like blew my mind, but definitely some things that were interesting that I was interested in. I wish I took some notes that I was interested in, but I didn't. So, I thought about Bunny Kingdom Duel, and again, I think I covered this in my video already, but Bunny Kingdom Duel is a game I was looking forward to a lot.

3:08 My kids have just totally fallen in love with Bunny Kingdom. I've had it for years. They only just started to play it. Like there's more and more games that they finally started dabbling in and being willing to play, and Bunny Kingdom Duel is one of them. They Not Bunny Kingdom Duel, Bunny Kingdom. They love Bunny Kingdom right now. They're obsessed. Uh so, I was even more excited for Bunny Kingdom Duel. But no, it doesn't look like it's going to be a Bunny Kingdom. It might be fine. It might be okay, but it looks like one of those games where if anything, slapping the label onto it might be a letdown because it sets an expectation that unfortunately won't be met by what the game is doing. It has the most bare minimum resemblance to actual Bunny Kingdom. Again, whatever. It's not even bad. It's not even bad. It's just I don't know if it's particularly good either. So, unless I'm not going to get lost, then I just walk. Can I focus on talking to you as opposed to figuring out where line? Not that I'm going on a I'm literally just here to talk to you. Ooh, is it a cafe? More coffee. That might be good early. We'll see. Anyways, so I I I I went to the meet event, saw a bunch of things, saw a bunch of people. It's always fun to connect with people. If you watch my video on Friday, you know that the people are like it's it's UK Games is different cuz I don't see the same people. I see some of the same people, but a lot of different people than what I normally would see. It's called Black Sheep Coffee by the way. I actually have not been here well, today.

4:19 Um and I mean geez, 7:30. Is it open? I would expect a a coffee place to be open at 7:30. Yeah, it opens at 7:00. It says 7:00. Maybe I'll come back here for coffee soon. We'll see. But um I did go last year. Yeah, last UK Games which was my first UK Games. So anyways, went to the meet event, saw a bunch of games. I only remember Bunny Kingdom Duel apparently. There were definitely other things I was actually excited about. I came I even came home with a game called Machu Picchu. I came home with a game called Machu Picchu that my kids are going to be excited for. It's a kind of one of those matching games. Also like it's sounds that it's matching. It's like phonetic. It's one of those fast phonetic games. Similar to um Llama Goat Cheese Pizza or whatever it is. The one of those types of games. I think that's one of them. But those types of genre games. Quick speed matching. The reason I'm coming back to this cuz they're tiny box and I don't have luggage space for anything other than tiny boxes.

5:10 Although I did also grab, you know, one or two Whatever. I got tiny games. Tiny games so far. So, where are we? Meet event. After the meet event, there was a you know, business mixer party. Long Pack often throws these business mixer type things. It's like you know, people in the industry being able to connect. And again, that was fun. It was great. I'm running on two hours of airplane sleep so far. But either way, I get to my hotel at the end of all of it. And I'd say I think it's 9:00 at night if I recall correctly. Maybe maybe it's 10:00. Depends on the party and then I got back. And 10:00 is like you know, 10:00 is not early, but it it's I figure I'll go to sleep because listen, I'm running on two hours of airplane I Normally I go to sleep at 2:00 a.m., but honestly even at conventions I try not to go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. At conventions I try to go to sleep at 12:00. I find my body needs more sleep at a convention which makes sense cuz, you know, I'm walking the whole day. I'm being much more active than I normally am. So, it makes sense my body needs like, you know, an actual 7 hours of sleep as opposed to, you know, the six I try to coast on.

6:03 Uh anyways, I get back. Let's say it's 10:00 10:00 p.m. I go to sleep. I set my alarm for 6:00 a.m. the next morning cuz if I'm going to go to sleep at 10:00 p.m. I want to get up nice and early. I just have a few backup alarms just in case, you know, whatever. And I get up bright and early at 6:00 a.m. the next day. And I said, "You know what? I have an alarm set for 7:00. Let's get another hour of sleep. Why do I need to push myself so hard? I don't need to get up. I just don't like sleep." Honestly, I just don't like sleep. I like being awake. I like doing things. I like life so much that like sleep feels like such a waste. I'm currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. No spoilers. Genuinely no spoilers here but Uh is it Without getting into too much spoilers, it's like near and none and nothing spoilers. It was like they they figure out a way to get by on less sleep at one point in the book. And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I wish I could get by on less sleep." Whatever.

6:50 Um So, I'll get back to Dungeon Crawler Carl soon cuz Dungeon Crawler Carl no spoilers. I will get back to it. It's so good. Anyways, so so I I figured I don't need to push myself so hard. I will go ahead and sleep till 7:00. I'll get that extra hour of sleep and then I'll get up and do stuff. And so I do that and then I wake up and I look at my watch and it's 10:15. Keep in mind I have a meeting at the exhibitor exhibitor hall at 10:00 and at 10:30 and at 11:00. I was hoping to get there early. I have an exhibitor badge. The hall opens at 9:00 and I'm hoping to get there early to be able to actually film some content and get you a video like at this time right now filling your Friday morning that would actually get you like some shots of the hall like it's something I usually try to do that I might still be able to get you that content but it's not going to happen It's not I mean I still want to get it maybe we'll see. It's not going to be for this video. That's all I'll say that much. But anyways, so point is now where do I go?

7:44 I guess I'll just walk and think about it. Um So I fell asleep. Completely slept in. Um jet lag caught up and all that. I get up and zip over to the exhibitor hall as fast as possible. I managed to make it like just in time for my 11:00 meeting. Um my 10:00, my 10:30 I sent apology emails and try to reschedule. And uh it all worked out, it's all fine, but it definitely was a hectic start to the day. And also why you're getting this video instead of hey, here's UKGE's exhibitor hall, let's show you it, which I will try to get you. I should be able to get it Sunday possibly, which means you'll get it as like, you know, midweek coverage maybe. Maybe I have to see because after UKGE Sunday afternoon I'm going to go straight straight from UKGE over to Wrocław in Poland for Game Town meetings and all that. I try to get I go to Game Town at least once a year or so. It's a nice to catch up with everyone and of course for our reviews which I think I said last week's Saturday video. Uh but anyways, that's kind of where things are so far.

8:42 Outside of the hecticness of why you're getting this random walk and talk instead of a weekly video. Um outside of that, first of all, Dungeon Crawler Carl. Um again no spoilers here, uh but I've I read the first book like three times, um but I finally got to the second book right before A Traitor to Heaven was the newest one that came out. And so because of that I was like I really got to get on this. I really got to start catching up. So I read book two uh sometime in the past, you know, few weeks or so. Uh and then book three I started, you know, maybe two weeks ago or whatever. But I I kind of was trying to get prepped for UKGE so I had to take a break from getting a lot of things done to get prepped to uh you know, leave the country for a week and a half, uh making sure my Game Town things and my board game co-videos are all ready and prepped to go. Um but then now here we are where thanks to the plane, the plane that I did not sleep on, um I basically finished um the book three. I managed to I nearly finished book three on the plane. I managed to finish the last 20 pages or last night cuz I got just to the end.

9:38 Really enjoyed book three. There was a moment in book three that chef's kiss, it was it's incredible. And I keep I keep saying this about the series, which is I don't know and I don't I don't know where the book series goes again. I'm only book three. I think there's seven books out. Does that sound right? Seven books I think. I think three or four books is seven books. But I keep saying that I don't know how he's going to keep it interesting just with like I don't know how he's going to keep the same thing interesting again and again and again. Like I love it. I'm enjoying it. It is interesting so far. But like it feels like these It feels like it's got to go somewhere because there's only so many times you can do the pattern. I'm trying to be very specific with my words that I'm not reading it for you who haven't even started anything. So I'm being very very very vague. But either way point is that I'm loving it and I need to start book four. I started book four already, actually. Last night when I finished my pages, I started book four as well, cuz why not? Um like I I also have my Steam Deck with me. I often do like I try to bring things I can do, but I I am finding myself really enjoying reading right now, so I'm just getting sucked up into that, which is a shame because I was not It's not a shame. It's not a shame. But I have also I wrote my Steam Deck as well as, you know, season five of The Boys, cuz I want to finish The Boys. But I'm too caught up in Dungeon Crawler Carl.

10:46 Listen, sometime in the next week between all the travel I have and between being at Game Grumps headquarters, I am sure that I will finish The Boys as well. Is that why I go that way? I think I do. I'm sure that I'll finish The Boys as well. So we'll figure all that out. But anyways, that's kind of what's going on. Outside of that, nothing particularly crazy. Um you know, wandered the halls yesterday. I did have some great uh interactions with a lot of people yesterday. That was a lot of fun. And a great moment actually on Thursday even when I was grabbing lunch where um I was sitting at a car I was just sitting eating by myself, which is, you know, um just sitting in a restaurant and this person as I'm wrapping up this person sits across from me and he's like, "Oh, are you you're a content creator." I'm like, "Oh, yes. Yes." And he knew he knew my name. He had watched some of my videos. He just gotten into the hobby the past few years playing solo games. And it's is one of my favorite moments of the convention so far. There's actually been a few.

11:36 It's the people. It really is the people. But, um I I I was talking a little bit solo games and his whole journey and I was like, "Oh, I was like, have you heard like I was like, do you like chicken again?" Cuz he was talking about like Spirit Island and Mage Knight, these big epic solo games. I was like, "You like chicken again?" Cuz I had Four Northward on me. It's the only game I brought with me to UKGE. And so, I had Four Northward on me. And I was like, I was like, "Show him Four Northward." I was like, "You like chicken again?" He's like, "Yes, yes." I was like, "You like chicken again?" He's like, "Great." I was like, "Do you know Four Northward?" He's like, "I like it. I have it on me." Like he pulls it out of his backpack and I like I was just going to pull out of my backpack. It's the only game we both had it as good travel games cuz Four Northward is an excellent travel game. Although, speaking of which, I'm actually one of the few games I think I I think so far I'm at three games. I'm at Machu Picchu. I got Machu Picchu. And then, I have Dragons of the Azure Sea Stone.

12:22 Which I got from Ship Three. But, Dragons of the Azure Sea Stone I'm very excited for because I'm going to be on a plane for another 20 hours by the time this week is done. I think that sounds about right, actually. I think it's going to be around 20 hours in the next week. And so, I was like it's going to be good to have Dragons of the Azure Sea Stone as a good plane game. And then, I also have Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on the name. I'm blanking on the name. It's not Wayfarers. It's something else. Um but, it's the people who do uh Tranquility. Um His Roll & Write game. That's another game that I brought so far. Cuz again, I'm running on incredibly limited amount of space. So, I am being very particular about what I say yes to versus what has to wait for Origins and then find all that. But, I have three games so far by the time, you know, the next few days are done. I will have a better sense of whether that three manages to move on upwards. But, even if it does, it is still going to be an incredibly uh incredibly specific and limited amount of things cuz I just don't have the room for anything else. I just can't make it work otherwise.

13:19 But, that's kind of it. I managed to run into a few other people yesterday. I ran into uh Fort Game Ballocks, which was great. I was hoping to run into him again this year uh because I don't know. It's like again, it was it was nice and a surprise running into him last year. And so, I got to um I was I was happy I was walking through the hall again. He stopped me. Alex. We smoozed for a few minutes. It was good to see him. Um Outside of that, I briefly saw Actual All. Didn't say hi because I was in a meeting, but I briefly saw him. I don't think I actually ever met him properly in person. Um Same with Matthew Jude as well. Saw him briefly, but we were walking past each other, didn't get to just say hi. Um Grant's game actions there. There's a lot of people who I've been introduced to interact with. There's a great lovely couple like my gosh, I wish I remember their the names.

14:05 Dicing with the devil or something like that. I don't remember off hand. I'll try to see if I can find it. Uh they messaged me on Instagram as well. But it was a great couple. Went to go take a photo with them. They're like, "No, no, no, no, no." So, I have a photo of their hands. This will make sense if you follow them. I have a photo of their hands. That's what I That's what I got instead. Um they don't show their faces on Instagram. They just show their hands. So, I have a photo of my face and their hands that I can share with y'all. Maybe I'll post that to Instagram. I should do that. I'll post that to Instagram and tag them. I'll do that at some point. Anyways, I think I'm going to head back to my my hotel room to get prepped for the day. But I just wanted to like loosely catch you up. But this isn't what I wanted to show you in the camera. This isn't the background I wanted to have. It's not the whole video I planned on. It's not the video you wanted. It's the video you need. It's certainly not the video you needed. It's me walking around Birmingham for 15 minutes just loosely telling you what I found was interesting. Oh, oh, one more thing. I almost missed my flight. I almost missed my flight. Again, this is funny cuz like on Friday's video, I'm talking about the experiences and the things that go right and the people and it's not just about the games. It's even about the things that go wrong and it almost went wrong.

15:02 So, my flight I was supposed to leave at 8:00 last night. 8:00 Well, last night, or three nights ago. Wednesday night I was supposed to leave. Um and then it got delayed to like 9:15 or something. 9:20. It was like an hour and 20 minutes late. And so, they're already telling us cuz I'm freaking out. So, it's half plane. Uh they're already telling us, "Hey, sorry, like, you know, you might miss connections." They built in enough time. Good morning. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'll be right with you. I'll be right with you. I'll be back in a second. I will talk soon. All right, you're going to watch me retrace the last few steps again because um I just ran into a friend and like he waved. He saw me filming and he just waved cuz like it's uh one of my international friends who I don't get to see all the time, so I had to stop. Anyways, cuz I mean I might see him during the convention. I'll ping him. I'll We'll see, but like you never know.

15:48 It's one of the things that I remember seeing at Gen Con a few years back, which was someone saying how it's very amusing how in a hall of 80,000 people, you'll see the same person 17 times and other people not at all, which is absolutely true. This does happen. Anyways, back to what I was saying, so the flight hour and a half late, hour and 20 minutes late. Uh people were starting to worry and airline goes, they're like, "Hey, you know, if you miss your connection, we'll be rebooking you cuz it's our fault." Which is nice. It's nice to know that you won't be stranded and you'll be booked on the first available flight, but sometimes the first available flight could be a day later. So, like I'm like thinking, "Okay, well, definitely missing the media event. Um definitely going to be possibly missing I don't know how long I'm going to be. I might be running a full day late. I might have to miss a bunch of meetings, which also happens to be sleeping, by the way. Uh but anyways, I'm panicking the whole time. Not panicking. I'm I'm not panicking cuz like whatever happens happens, but I'm definitely a little stressed. Managed to enjoy my flight without worrying too much cuz there's not much you can do.

16:42 But towards the end, this is time to get off. Like the plane coasted in. I have a connecting flight in Dublin. I have a connecting flight to uh Birmingham that is taking off at 10:30. The gates close at 10:05. My plane lands at 9:45. That's the time it lands. Not what time I get off the plane. Lands at 9:45 and by the time I get off the plane, it's 9:45 because you can't get off a crowded plane faster than you can get off a crowded plane. So, 9:55 getting off the plane. I have 10 minutes to get from point A to point B. And I don't know if you've been to Dublin Airport, I haven't. It is It is a mess. It is an absolute maze of weaving upstairs and downstairs going down crowded halls. It is not the worst airport I've been in, but it's just such a It's just such a massive interconnected spaces to get from point A to point B that I'm like, "Whatever. It's going to be a good meeting."

17:35 Um I'm flying first class on my flight. It's coming to stop in my time. We also have to go through customs. We also have to pick up my bag and go through customs during this time period of time. And so Anyways, point is to say I run, I dash, I do arrive in time uh with literally not even minutes to spare. I'm arriving at 10:06 so I'm relying on the grace of God and all that that they don't actually leave earlier uh and I'm sweating, my my knees hurting, but my I'm completely sweating and drenched and um and then they literally board like a minute later. Like I asked her, I was like, "Yo, time to go to the bathroom?" She's like, "You know, be quick." So I like ran to the bathroom, ran out uh and they closed my flight. But it was It was definitely one of those moments where I was thinking I was like, "How ironic that I give a whole video yesterday about how go with the moment, enjoy yourself, enjoy the things that go wrong as well and they make good stories. And this is going to be the first time I've missed a connection cuz I've I've had things go wrong with flights before.

18:34 Usually with Frontier, but I've never actually missed a connection flight. I've had flights cancel, I've had, you know, flights take off and I missed the initial flight. I could drive, but I've never missed a flight in a way that actually strained but I have come close multiple multiple times uh and this was This was the second closest I've ever been. The closest was where they were legitimately calling my name on a connecting flight. Actually, that wasn't in the That I was going to say it's Dublin, but it wasn't Dublin. It was an international flight and they were calling my name as I managed to make it um and that was the closest I've ever been. This is the second closest. Anyways, um I'm going to go and prep for the day. Uh hopefully I'll have actual footage for you. We shall see. Uh until next time. I'll try to and Co. Hope you enjoyed this video. And as always, hope you have a good one.