Busy – and then quiet – first day at the show. As a result, looked like a blockbuster of a day first of all, then settled down so that it ended up in the ‘decent’ category. Still, if the same happens tomorrow I’ll be happy with the weekend as a whole.

Draw the World Together went really well it seemed; Karl Kopinski took to the process like a duck to water. Neil and Andrew both of course did great stuff too. Karl did a knockout sketch of Callista that I’ll share soon enough. Suffice to say it contains three figures… but simply looks amazing. We were all green with envy.

Right, now it’s time to get off to the curry house with artists and a few players in tow. (I can tell all the ‘regulars’ are here because my hits today are so low!!) I’ll leave you with me and a box of money.

G’morning. Slept like crap; you? Came home last night with that sticky, ready to burst feeling in the air – and we had a mother of a thunderstorm overnight, that woke us up several times. It’s nice to fall asleep with rain on the window. Not so great to get woken up by thunder which sounds like the building’s collapsing.

Anyway, so this weekend. We’re off to the UK Games Expo as you know. I know a few of you reading this are going to come down, which is lovely. I will again attempt to do some updates from there, but the likelihood is I won’t be able to sit and blog very much – at least I hope not to be able to. If I can, it means we’re not busy, which I won’t be happy about. If you want to keep tabs on me you’ll be better off with my Facebook status updates.

In the interests of transparency, or sharing, or some sorta thing, I thought I’d let you know our general plans for the weekend too. Really only of interest to those of you attending, I guess. Unless you know an awesome curry house in Edgbaston.

Friday’s pack-and-travel day as always. We’ll be driving up and aiming to be there on-site at about 4pm or something. After that we’ll most likely be done for the day, so expect to find us in a local pub or similar not too long afterwards. If you’re likely to be in B’rum with time on your hands let me know.

Saturday is of course a show day. The show’s open from 10am to 5pm. We don’t have any particular schedule planned, so pop down to the stand whenever you want. We’re in the main dining room, which won’t look like that… but basically when you arrive in the main doors, turn left and we’ll be on your left (maps). By the way there are tournaments going on outside of the show’s main opening hours, so you might be on-site outside of those hours but we won’t!

Remember if you want a sketch from Karl Kopinski, you’ll need to turn up on Saturday. I have a feeling given Karl’s detailed style he won’t be doing many sketches, so if you really want one, come early.

Saturday night is of course our only free time, so if you’d like to hang out, that’s when it’s gotta happen. When in Birmingham we usually end up at a curry house – does anyone have any good recommendations? If we can decide in advance I’m happy to group book somewhere, and you’re welcome to come, but you’ll have to pay your own way I’m afraid.

Later on Saturday I’m sure there might be some drinkin’, but also, there’s late night gaming rooms available at the Menzies Strathallan Hotel, which is right next to the Expo. If anyone is interested in volunteering to run something, even if it’s only a decent boardgame… we’d potentially be up for that ourselves. We do have a lot of HeroClix….

Sunday is again a show day, and the Expo’s open from 10am to 4pm. As it’s a shorter day than usual we’ll naturally be doing a few less sketches, so again, if you want on the list… get in there early. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the list is full (and closed) by midday. Also; don’t be offended if we limit you to one sketch per person per day, initially. We want to allow plenty of ‘newbies’ to get sketches.

Erm, that’s it I guess. When the show’s done it’ll be time to pack and ship out home. Hope to see you there sometime over the weekend!