BBC Good Food Festival

This weekend was the BBC Good Food Festival at Hampton Court and I decided to treat myself to a VIP ticket. (I am a member of Her Majesty's Royal Palaces so got into the festival free and a discount on the VIP ticket.)

When I checked in, I was offered a free ticket for a flower arranging class. So why not? (I did get there a little late as finding the white Marque was a bit harder than expected as they were all white!)

My flowers

Demo

I was definitely the odd one out in the class (only one on her own and below 50) but it was something different and the other people were all very lovely. My arrangement turned out ok but it was more of a "randomly stick them in the vase" exercise. I don't think my next career will be flower arranging.
But I did get the flowers to take home. :)

My "arrangement".

 After the class I rushed to the other side of festival for my cooking demo.

Showing a giant steak

Lisa Faulkner

I will admit I randomly picked a chef as without TV, I have lost track of who's who. She cooked a Spanish style steak and potatoes which smelt amazing! And I got a copy of the recipes t=so I will have to try it out at some point.

The best part of having a VIP ticket was somewhere shady to sit down and unlimited Champagne (the real stuff, not Prosecco), plus tea, coffee and soft drinks. And it was near to the pavilion with some great 50s live music.

View from my seat. 

Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Once cooled and "hydrated", I went to do some shopping. There were loads of options though disappointing on the gluten food side.

However very well stocked on the gin side. :) It was hard to choose. (I did manage to get some little tasting sizes for an at-home gin tasting I am planning.)

So many options.

Followed of course by more Champagne before heading home. It was free and very nice! What is a girl to do? :)

Plus my feet were killing me! I really needed to sit down before the trip home.

Happier feet.

I did spend more money than I should have given I am saving for a holiday but I did managed to get about 30% of my Christmas gifts sorted. As well a few little treats for myself. There was a lovely non-alcoholic gin which tasted amazing, a real artisan gin, and some Garlic Vodka. It sounded odd and a bit disgusting so I had to try it and turns out pretty nice. It's made from sweet roast garlic and would go great in a liqueur coffee. Plus weird enough to be wonderful.

I also found out my only vase is now somewhat less than waterproof so had to make a couple of vases MacGyver style.