A minute with Andonis Mechanikos Board games educator and owner of Imagination Gaming Cyprus

Where do you live?
In Nicosia with my wife and two sons.

What did you have for breakfast?
Toast with peanut butter and honey.

Describe your perfect day
Eating breakfast with my family, playing board games with friends, going for a walk in the park with my family, watching a movie at the cinema with my wife. It’s the little things in life that matter.

Best book ever read?
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When I read the book I realised that I could relate to certain aspects of the life lessons and messages of the book that I was experiencing in my life.

Best childhood memory?
I always look back with great fondness at my family’s summer travels in Athens, staying at my grandmother’s and playing all day with my cousins in the yard.

What is always in your fridge?
Goat milk, apples, extra mature cheddar cheese.

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
Pop music, Michael Jackson, The Prodigy.

What’s your spirit animal?
It’s a dragon! Powerful, magnificent, majestic, wise!

What are you most proud of?
Creating, managing and overcoming the many hurdles to make Imagination Gaming Cyprus a business where board games can have a positive impact on people’s, and especially children’s, lives.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
In Avatar when the main character connects with the flying creature and the roam the skies together as one. That has to be the epitome of freedom.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
Michael Jackson, HP Lovecraft and Stan Lee. All amazing artists.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
200 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era. I would love to see how the strangest and biggest creatures that ever walked the earth, actually lived. Of course I would probably be eaten by a T-Rex during the first 5 minutes but it’s all hypothetical anyway, right?…right?

What is your greatest fear?
Old age. I am an energetic and playful person (which also helps with my kids), I like to try new things and I love to travel. So, being stuck on a couch, not being able to move, let alone run, really frightens me.

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
That obstacles in your life are there not to hinder you but to help you become a better person by overcoming them. Put your heart and your love in everything you do. Chase everything you want to achieve, the universe will conspire in helping you to achieve it.

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
Chemistry. You know if you click with someone from the first date.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
One of my mottos is ‘Family first’ (the other being ‘Do everything with love’). So, if the world will end I want to be with the people I love. I would get my wife and kids, my parents and sister together and spend the whole day remembering good times, looking at old photos, and playing board games.