Grand Designs

Luke looking very cute and Daddy-ish :o)

Luke and Edward looking at the groovy huts at the Grand Design we think should be put in the woods at Greatham for the teenagers to hang out in :o)

After the drama and excessive walking on Tuesday we, well I, spent Wednesday resting and chilling out. Luke played WOW, and I watched bad reality shows with Shellie, including lots of episodes of the Apprentice and Project Runway.

Thursday the plan was to be at the estate agents by 12, but in reality we didn't make it till about half past. The agent there was very nice though obviously new as he struggled with the computer system. After we'd finished there we went to Starbuck's to feed Edward and also to get some drinkies and nibbles for ourselves. I had a berry drink and a butterfly cake, Luke had a hideous creme caramel thing that taste burnt and some cheesecake which obviously wasn't as it disappeared at speed :o)

After our naughty use of taxi's on Tuesday, and given the fact we were feeling rather poor as the costly reality of our new flat started to sink in we decided to be good and brave the underground. I tried to carry Edward's buggy as I've done it before, but I'm just not strong enough at the moment. So in a very impressive demonstration of manliness Luke picked carried everything down into the tube and we headed out to the Excel center in Docklands.

We are both big fans of Grand Designs and often watch it, then plan our own dream house so when we saw the show advertised we'd decided to get tickets and go along though we weren't quite sure what to expect. There had been a show on Channel 4 all week coming live from the exhibition but we'd decided not to watch it as we didn't want to spoil anything.

We got there, and after some compliments on our 'Rolls Royce of a buggy' we wandered into the show. It wasn't entirely what I'd expected, I think I'd thought it would have lots of entire rooms and houses on display. In reality it was lots of 'stalls' selling furniture, gadgets and then mostly materials such as granite with which to build and furnish your grand design. It was still pretty cool, and fun to look at all the things, however I think we would have got a lot more from the show if we had a house or were building one. Which I suppose in retrospect seems kind of obvious.

There were some fun exhibits there however, such a a clock that dripped glue as it rotated to form a sculpture, they had a camera recording it's progress so I suppose you will be able to watch its full formation on the C4 website or something. There was also a display where you could take a tree seed and in it's place leave a pledge to make the environment better. I took a silver birch seed and pledged to make more of an effort to recycle more of my medical waste as there is so much of it and a lot is card. Outside there was a house they were building, we hoped to see Kevin McCloud but he was, disappointingly, no where to be seen. I also had a look inside a little house called an Eco-pod, should the flat fall through I think I may buy one and have it erected in my parents garden.

Both thoroughly exhausted, especially poor Luke who'd had to heft the buggy and rucksack around single handedly, we headed home.

We have been half planning a trip to London to do something for ages, however haven't been able to decide on what to go and see, nor have I been any where near well enough, so it was REALLY nice to finally be able to go out and see something.

I suppose technically this was in fact our first family outing ....how very grand :o)