Rosie's Fun Day Out At The Ideal Home Show Part One

Disclaimer:I haven't been paid to promote any products or services, I just wanted to share our fun day out x

Hi Honeys,
Another beautiful, sunny day outside, I'm doing (more) laundry (yaaaaay! I so love laundry :) and I thought I'd post the first batch of photos taken on Monday when I went with Hubby to the Ideal Home Show :)

We had such fun on our day out, Hubby and I, and I took my little camera with me so I could share it with you :)

Monday was a bank holiday here in the UK honeys and something practically unheard of happened! There is a very old, running joke here that it will rain on bank holidays because... well, that's what it does... especially when you've made plans!

As you'll see from the photos honeys, it stayed dry, the sun shone down through a beautiful blue sky and all was right with the world :)  You might want to grab a coffee.... and maybe a cookie, I'll wait right here till you get back :)

Happy?  OK, off we go then....
The first photograph shows where Hubby dropped me off when he went to park the car.  Facing me was this...

This is the SSE Hydro building.  It's a hugely popular venue for national & international musical superstars as well as hosting sporting events.  The SSE Hydro opened in 2013 and has grown steadily in popularity to become a globally recognized arena, having been voted third (in February this year) in the Pollstar top 100 Global Arena list.  

I'll probably have my Scots citizenship stripped from me (never!) for saying this but I really can't help thinking it looks like a giant pie dish :) It does look beautiful when it's lighting the night sky though....

While waiting for Hubby to come back, a very cheery tour bus rolled past with lots of happy tourists taking advantage of the gorgeous sunshine by sitting up top in the lovely fresh Scottish air...   

 The tour bus is a fun way of seeing the sights of Glasgow because you buy your ticket and then "hop on & off" along the route.  You hop off the bus, go explore and when you want to re-join the tour bus you wait at the bus stop for it to go past again.  It runs in a circular route, taking in all of the major tourist attractions, such as the beautiful Kelvingrove Art Gallery, The Riverside Museum and (one of Hubby & I's faves) the Transport Museum.

The tour bus is also multi lingual.  Each passenger can use headphones through which you can hear the tour description in whichever language you select from the eight languages available.  You can read details of the tour bus, including it's route and timetable here.

Across the way from the Hydro building is The Clyde Auditorium, more commonly known as the Armadillo...

The Armadillo is a 3,000 seat concert venue and has also been likened to Glasgow's Marmite!  There is no doubt that it's an immediately recognizable landmark but here is where the split happens.  Some love it's design (which has been compared to the Sydney Opera House) while others regard it as an ugly barnicle on Glasgow's landscape.  What do you think honeys?     

Nearby is the hugely popular, much loved Finnieston Crane...  

The Finnieston Crane stands by the side of the River Clyde, a reminder of Glasgow's proud engineering and shipbuilding history.  This crane is the largest of the four cranes still standing along the Clyde's bank with the Titan Crane in Clydebank being another hugely popular attraction and much loved by locals.  It's possible to bungee jump or abseil from the Titan Crane and it can even be booked for parties or other celebrations :)

Directly behind me, where Hubby dropped me off, was the River Clyde itself and Glasgow was in bloom....

 Aren't they beautiful honeys....

When Hubby returned from having parked the car, we walked the short distance to the SECC Centre where the Ideal Home Show was being held.  It was such a lovely walk in the dazzling sunshine, I was with Hubby (which always makes me happy) and I was so relieved I'd decided to follow Hubby's advice and take my little walker with me.

If you've read this blog you'll know I have very poor mobility honeys.  I can't walk terribly far at all anymore and need to use a cane.  I used to feel so embarrassed that I needed a cane, I actually refused to use it for over a year after I had been advised to by my Doctor until it became simply too painful to walk without it and I'd had a couple of quite bad falls.

My cane is a tool is all, it helps me to maintain the mobility I'm blessed to still have and these days I don't allow myself to feel embarrassed by it.  I empower myself by using a super cool cane (I just got a new one, it has the most darling floral pattern all over and it's totally me :)  My little walker is another tool is all and it allowed me to have a day out with Hubby on Monday and for that I am so grateful x

As we went into the SECC we were given a "goody bag"  

"What's a goody bag?" I thought honeys, well it turns out it's a collection of promotional items from companies connected with the show.  Inside the bag were some promotional brochures...

 In addition there were the following items...

 (from left to right)

• A 275 ml bottle of carbonated spring water called Zeo in blood orange & citrus flavour
• A 21 g bag of Yushoi - a rice stick snack in smoked salt & szechuan pepper flavour
• A 30 g pack of Lenor unstoppables - an in wash scent booster (laundry product! yaaaay! :)
• A 75 g tube of "souper booster" from the Covent Garden Soup Co in wild garlic & herbs flavour
• A 79 g tub of French's Crunchy Onions 
• Two sample sachets of Hermasetas sweeteners.  

"Goody bags" seem to be "a thing" honeys.  While wandering around one of the three halls full of exhibitors both Hubby & I were both handed a cotton tote bag or shopper...

We did have a giggle afterward of course, blaming it on my using my wee walker, but clearly the lovely lady who had handed us both a cotton tote with information regarding retirement homes (!) felt we were the right age to find such information useful!  Hmmmm..... It did have a rather pretty pen inside as we later found out :)

From goody bags then to bags of goodies :) While wandering around the exhibitors on the various stands we spotted the Morton's rolls stand! Joy! Are Morton's products sold outside Scotland honeys? If not, they're worth moving here for :)

They are Hubby's absolute favourite morning or breakfast roll, well fired of course and accompanied by slices of square steak lorne ( a  savoury sausage) and some HP brown sauce :)  Myself I prefer their lovely ever so soft dollie rolls and I'd never go near HP sauce preferring Heinz tomato instead :)

 At the Morton's stand we bought a dozen of their beyond yummy rolls, two delicious pineapple tarts and met a lovely lady called Louise who was so sweet and very friendly.  She even went in search of some well fired rolls for Hubby and gave us both a pen before we left.  Thank you Louise, for being so sweet x

I asked Louise if i could take a photo of their stand because it was, beyond doubt, the best one there! The Morton's stand was illustrated with a poster showing famous Glasgow landmarks ...

 How many can you distinguish honeys?  Even the poor Duke of Wellington statue, often defaced by vandals who give the honourable gentleman a traffic cone as a hat, is included :)

On our wanders we saw the most incredible van called Morag :)  It's designed to resemble a wee heilan coo and is described as "Morag The Visit Scotland Heilan Coo Van"

 Along the side of the van it says "bringing you all of your Scotland information on the moo - ve"  :) See what they did there? :)

I stared at Morag for far too long honeys :) I can so easily see us driving around in this :) It's just too adorable and reminded me of my wee Hamish :)

Last photo for today then I think (altho lots more to come) and staying on a Scottish theme...

How beautiful is this fabulous tartan carpet?  So many designs and I couldn't help touching a sample to see if it feels as soft as it looks and it so does :) This stand belonged to a Glasgow company called Stevens and Graham and their website has a link to find your tartan.  Has all this talk of Scotland put you in the mood for some Scottish music honeys?

Till tomorrow then, when I'll be back to share some images from the gardening displays, which included the most wonderful garden shed in the shape of a Hobbit hut! I absolutely fell in love with it and I know i wasn't alone since Hubby is a huge Lord of the Rings fan :)

Till next time dear ones, I hope you're having a fabulous week so far, smiling lots and hugging even more :) huggles xx