Went to the Ideal Home Show this weekend as we haven't been for a couple of years.
Got up at an un-godly hour for a Saturday (7 am!) as we wanted to get the 8:18am train. The journey up was uneventful and was standing outside Earls Court at 9:45am (didn't open until 10am) Quite a few people already there and by 10am there was a substantial length to the queues.
Going in we decided to head for the show homes, as they tend to always have large queues of people waiting to go in. We were slightly taken aback to find that the show was tiny compared to the previous shows we had attended and there was only one show house to look around and it was virtually deserted.....
The floor space of the show was about 1/5 of the previous show we attended so after a couple of hours we felt like we had looked at every stand ! Going around was quite interesting and there were a wide variety of types of stands available, but overall we were both disappointed by the show.
Making the most of the spare time available, we decided to go to Piccadilly Circus and walked up Regent Street, popping into Hamleys of course. The shop was busy but were able to get around and see the goods on offer. There were a wide array of games, toys, models, etc that I would like to have bought, but ended up just buying Lynn her birthday present there (no guesses for what she chose !)
Going along Oxford Street we found the place absolutely heaving and was impossible to enjoy walking along, let alone battling to get into and out of the shops... dread to think what it would be like at Xmas! We ended up walking parallel to Oxford Street and had a nice cup of coffee in Soho Square. This seems to be the place for all the young Goths to hang out as the park there was full of black clad teenagers with died black hair, etc..... The hair-do, clothes and make up I can handle and are sometimes interesting, but their body piercing always makes me cringe and feel sick (must be my age)
After our rest, we made our way to Covent Garden area, which was also very busy due mainly to the street performers, but bizarrely this made it feel more intimate and cosy rather than being overwhelming. Not sure how the knife juggling man in a kilt standing on top of a free standing ladder got past Health and Safety, but he was very entertaining, so well worth a visit if you're around that area on a weekend.
Decided to head back for the train, so walked over Waterloo Bridge for the station. The sun was out and it was pleasantly warm, so was great to stand and take in the views from the bridge.
Once sitting down in the train we both realized we were absolutely knackered, having walked around over 6 hours, the time cetainly flew by.
All in all, a grand day out, albeit slightly marred by the disappointment of the Ideal Home Show
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