Ideal Home

I am feeling full of the joys of Spring today and surprisingly awake after a long, but super day yesterday visiting the Ideal Home Exhibition at Earls Court with my sister-in-law.

An early start as we picked up the coach from Milton Keynes at 7 a.m. following the almost 30 mile drive to get there.  The journey was comfortable and uneventful and we arrived at Victoria at about 9.30 a.m. and so arrived at Earls Court just before 10 in time for opening.

Our day began with bacon rolls and coffee to set us up for our exploration and we made a beeline first for the show houses - there is something fairly surreal about going into a house inside a building don't you think.

My personal favourite was the Arts and Crafts House and another we really enjoyed was the Hunting Lodge fully kitted out with tartans, log fire, stags heads etc., and a very comical oversized bear climbing the railings, balancing cushions on his head and generally making everyone chuckle!

We attended the talk on the Home of the Future in an arena surrounded by water where we were introduced to such amazing things as a microwave where you can actually see inside the food you are cooking, a system where you only have to wave your hand or speak to a gadget to make it work e.g. "kettle - boil", finishing with a sleeping pod filled with soft coloured LED lights and a sound system to send you off to blissful sleep - my only thought (as one who sleeps with windows open and no curtains across the windows) was that it looked rather claustrophobic!

We felt we managed to see just about everything at the show - some things wonderful and really interesting and others just over the top, and we rounded the day off with strawberry and cherry yohurt ice creams before making our way back to Victoria for the coach home and arrived back around 9 pm.

We both came home with lots of ideas - a real treat.

By the way my pic is of some very sweet smelling narcissi and the hens are obviously laying early for Easter!