Scargill

Posts Tagged ‘Lincolnshire Show’

It’s been a very long week this week and quite an interesting one.  On Tuesday I packed my bags for a journey that would start in Lincolnshire and end in Brussels.

Mid-morning I packed my bags ready for the journey, trying to pack the minimum amount as part of the journey would involve flying. After a false start in which for the life of me I could not find my passport, I packed the bag and went off to get my iPad. On my return I discovered I had a stowaway as you can see on the right. It took Ollie seconds to get into the case and be out like a light!! A nice idea but not too practical. 

So off I went on the first leg of my journey involving a drive to Newcastle train station. Not the greatest of starts because when I got to the station, there was absolutely NO parking available. With 10 minutes to spare I drove down to the not-so-nearby-if-you-have-a-heavy-case “Centre for Life” parking, the result being as I got to the platform and asked a jobs-worth if the train standing in front of me was the right one, she pointed out I was too late to get on… and point blank refused to let me on the train. 30 seconds later, the train departed. If mind-over-matter is indeed possible, she’s probably dead by now. Having now blown a 1st-class off-peak £35 special ticket, I took the next train, cattle-class, as the 1st class price was too unbelievably high to consider.

3 hours plus a short taxi-ride later I arrived at my destination – the Bentley Hotel in Lincoln.. very pleasant, no doubt helped by the very nice weather. A phone call to check on a very poorly friend and then Dinner in an authentic American restaurant followed by an early night.

Wednesday morning the plan was to attend the Lincoln Agricultural show where FSB members had a tent – the idea being to go around and talk to the members.  This did not get started for the public until mid-morning so I took the opportunity to get up early and have a walk around the excellent Pennell’s Garden Centre a short walk away from the hotel. If you’re ever in the area, take a look- next to the garden centre there is also a GREAT Jacuzzi-hot-tub centre – again worth a look.

On time, my transport arrived and off we went to the Lincolnshire show! There’s not a lot to say other than to say it was excellent and well worth a trip (of course that kind of depends on the weather as always the case in the UK – it did pour down at one point but overall the weather while I was there, was excellent).

It would be unfair to single out any particular companies for praise as all the companies in the FSB marketplace seemed to be doing great business with lots of interest from the public but I soon found my favourites – there’s a lot of innovation going on right now and this was one place to find it – with a company producing printed Window Blinds from your photos and another offering the most spectacular decorative heating radiators I’ve ever seen.  The dining area at the exhibition was understandably massive and we all enjoyed a good lunch, my only regret being that timescales made it impossible to spend the amount of time I would have liked to. I reckon that actually seeing all the various businesses at the show would have taken a good day – which I didn’t have.

By mid-afternoon it was time to go and that is the subject of my next blog… I’ll leave you with some photos of the show in good and not-so good weather. Click on the images, they’ll all expand a little.