The Baby Show

A few weeks ago, I won 3rd prize in Yummy Mummy Tips‘ competition!  This won me a genius Baby and All bag and one ticket for The Baby Show held at Earl’s Court in London the 16-18th of October.  Woo hoo!  My original plan was to attend on Friday, 16 October despite knowing that we would be returning from our holiday in the US on 15 October.  I assumed that I could bundle Little Miss off to the in-laws or sister-in-law and hoof it down to London Town on my own.  I was wrong.  Jet lag is a powerful thing.  Especially for Little Miss!  Upon further consideration for the good of my child, I decided that packing her off to Nanny & Grandad was not the best idea and it would be better to lie low at home.  Hubby generously volunteered to attend The Baby Show with Little Miss and me on Saturday instead so we were sorted.  Or so I thought.

Unsuccessful in my attempts to find another free pass for my hubby, I knew we’d be paying the door price of £20 but I figured that would be ok.  Our grand scheme was to drive from Peterborough to Cockfosters, take the train all the way to Earl’s Court and enjoy The Baby Show.  Someone else had other plans for us.  For starters, it took us 30 minutes to get out of Peterborough due to a detour of hubby’s which required us to visit a supplier of his (Hubby runs a Generator Company…supplier was for parts, not drugs!)  Then finally happily on our way down the A1, a warning sign alerted us that the A1 was closed after the A14!  Great!  A ridiculous detour around and through St. Neots did nothing to improve hubby’s mood.  Mind you…we had left our house at 11:15am and it was fast approaching 1pm!

Back on the A1 we finally got to Cockfosters (that name makes me laugh every time I say it!) and wouldn’t you know it, the car park at Cockfosters was full!  I love that car park- £3 for the day!  Straight Piccadilly line into London…gorgeous.  Alas, it was not to be.  This began the endless circuitous route into London.  Time ticked by.  The Baby Show was set to close at 5:30.  I had joked, somewhere in hour 1 of our drive, that we’d end up finally at Earl’s Court at 4:30.  It was becoming a distinct possibility.

New plan…drive to Paddington Station, park in their car park and take the Tube to Earl’s Court.  Arrival at Paddington Station: 4:00pm.  Left house at 11:15am.  4 hours and 45 minutes to get from just outside Peterborough to Paddington Station.  Argh.  After a relatively uneventful Tube ride to Earl’s Court, we got into The Baby Show at 4:30pm.  Remember that joke??  We made it a reality!  I figured that since there was only 1 hour remaining of The Baby Show, I’d be able to get at least a reduced rate if not free entry for hubby as I still had to pay for him.  Uh, that would be a no.  Apparently the organisers of The Baby Show don’t allow for pro-rated entry fees for poor sods like us who turn up with 1 hour to go.  So, £20 entry for Hubby to wander around The Baby Show.  And not even for an hour, more like 30 minutes.  You see, we were STARVING as we had not eaten since before leaving the house.  I was weak, Little Miss needed sustinance and hubby was fractious as well.  We scuttled over to Pizza Express, nabbed 2 pizzas and scarfed them down thus leaving 30 minutes to race around The Baby Show.

It looked like there were great things going on at The Baby Show.  I’ll never know.    We managed to nab a few free samples of laundry powders but that’s it.  Oh, and Hubby got cornered at the nPower stand and managed to get us switched to nPower!  A very unsuccessful trip to The Baby Show.  I’d like to really see it sometime!

Having been thwarted at every turn for the entire day, I decided we needed some fresh air and suggested that we walk from Earl’s Court back to Paddington.  It was a good suggestion!  But a wrong choice at Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road meant that instead of cutting through Kensington Gardens to get to Paddington Station, we went round to Hyde Park and had to double back.  By 7:30pm we arrived at Garfunkel’s, near Paddington Station, and ordered dinner for 3 (Little Miss inhaled her omlette and chips) and finally we returned to our car in Paddington Car Park and were on the way home.  A thankfully uneventful ride home allowed us to pull into the drive around 10pm!  11 hours after leaving our house, we were back home.  6 hours and 45 minutes in the car, 15 minutes on the tube, 60 minutes in The Baby Show and 60 minutes walking.  Knackered.  Next time…I’m going by myself!