Who's bright .....

.....Idea ?

Today I took my mum to the Grand Designs Live show at ExCel London. I, like any right thinking person am a huge fan of the Grand Designs TV programme, so thought the show would be really good. I was wrong!

I was hoping for Kevin McCloud to personally welcome us and show us around some of the most innovative modern architectural design that Britain has to offer whilst telling witty tales about some of the builds he has filmed and how he manages to make all the female contributors pregnant. The reality was more like a second rate Ideal home show with overly enthusiastic salesmen and women trying to flog double glazing and woolly eco types using straw in very inappropriate ways.

There were a few highlights for me, mainly in the art area of the exhibition. I saw a painting of a 'great tit' by Vic Reeves that was selling for £1'300, so the portrait of a lesser tit by him that I blipped the other day may be worth something (even his prints in editions of 50 were selling for £350 :-/). There was also a beautiful and macabre piece by the taxidermist artist, Polly Morgan called 'Still Birth' which really appealed to me.

Part of the reason I didn't enjoy today was the lack of food. My mum usually makes doorstep sandwiches to take along on days out but today we had instead decided to buy some sarnies on the way to the Excel centre. Unfortunately we didn't pass anywhere on the way where we could buy any food so we instead survived all day on mints from my mums handbag and free samples of Yakult from one of the stands at the show. My gut has never been so friendly or minty fresh. As soon as we escaped the show I had to have an emergency steak bake to recover.

The (not so) compact fluorescent bulbs in today's photo were in an area of the show with products chosen by Kevin McCloud as good examples of eco design. They are called the Plumen 001 bulb. I couldn't see any for sale at the show (they were probably still warming up), but I think I will buy some if I can find them online.

As todays day out wasn't the best I've had, todays blip is .....

..... Who's bright idea ?


Post script.

I almost blipped this today, I'm still not sure if I chose the right image.