Theatre Trip To Glasgow

At least twice a year we have a "girlie" trip to Glasgow for a theatre night.  We don't have much of a theatre in Carlisle, it is really a sports hall in the local leisure centre with pull out tiers of chairs and crap acoustics, so going to a beautiful old theatre is such a great experience.

This time we went to see Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat.  This is a musical I have seen many time, and love it more each time I see it, but some of the group had not seen it at all, but judging by their faces at the end I think it will now be a favourite for them too.

We left Carlisle station at 10.04 on Saturday morning, and as soon as we were on the train, our came breakfast nibbles.  Pasties, Crisps, Cakes, Biscuits ....... and alchohol!  Yep, cocktails at 10.00am  :)

Arriving into Glasgow we dumped our bags at our usual hotel - the Alexander Thompson.  We love this hotel, it's clean, modern, brilliant location and a great bit Scottish buffet breakfast too, at very reasonable prices.  We got a quad room and a double room.  It is a bit of a lucky dip of who you get to share with, some snore, some read in bed, some rattle  (me, my bracelets apparently)

A little bit of shopping, read Primark, and a Costa Lot Coffee  (how much???) followed.

Shona (daughter) Helena (Daughter In Law)  Julie (Sister)

Then back to the hotel to glam up for our theatre night out.

We started at Bella Italia for a nice dinner.  I had a Calzone pizza with goats cheese, spinach, olives and mushrooms.  They do one of my favourite drinks in there too - Big Tom, a spiced tomato juice.
They also do mini desserts which is great when you want  bite of something sweet but not a full pudding.

It was dark in the theatre and I have no flash on my phone camera, so all I could snap was the ceiling, but isn't it beautiful?

"H" from Steps, was Joseph, and a good one he was too.  We waited at the stage door afterwards and grabbed an autograph.  I always hang about at stage doors, like some mad groupie.  We have met some lovely people. I think Michael Ball was the nicest when we went to see Hairspray, Les Dennis was a bit grumpy and couldn't be bothered.  "H" signed some autographs then tried to head back into the theatre, but I wasn't having that so I followed him and tried a little emotional blackmail - it worked  :)  Couldn't get a photo through as he had his baseball cap pulled down low and his head bowed - spoilsport!   I think if I was famous I would sign everyone's autograph, after all, they are quite willing to take our money for their lavish lifestyles  ;)

(Don't get me started on the Boy George story!!)

A couple of drinks in a bar followed, then back to the room where we started to get really tired - it had been a busy day after all.

Next morning we trotted down to our lovely Scottish buffet breakfast, this hotel does a great buffet with potato scones, as well as loads of other stuff, but how nice are potato scones, with beans and brown sauce?  Yum.

Check out time, and the hotel let you leave all your luggage in their holding room, as it is only 3-5 mins walk from Central Station it is quite doable to pop back in to pick them up before you leave the City.

Shopping time again, and I got a few Christmas presents!  Yes, me!!  In September.  Buying presents. Unheard of!  I have to hide them in a place I will find them again now, as in the past I have rediscovered Christmas pressies in June!

We stood for ages watching this puppeteer, he was fantastic and mesmerizing.  Very cleverly done so we popped some pennies in his hat.

Click on photo to see some video.

Afternoon Tea time.  I had pre-booked a table at Cup Tea Lounge for a posh afternoon tea.
What a wonderful place, the most gorgeous interior - all tiled and ornate with sparkly chandeliers.
We ordered the Afternoon Tea (£15.95 each) with a list of 40 different teas to choose from!

This is what we got  (yeah, seriously!  All of it, EACH)

Top Tier

• Mini Chocolate Éclair
• Mini Cupcake
• Mini Summer Fruit Cheesecake
• Home Baked Shortbread
• French Macaron
• A wee scoop of Luvians Ice Cream

Middle Tier

• Freshly baked scones; 
• Plain and Coconut Tea infused scones
• Served with Galloway Lodge Preserves and Vanilla Whipped Cream

Bottom Tier

• Mini Bagel with home smoked lapsang souchong Salmon
• Cucumber and Elder ower Finger sandwich
• Mini Brioche with Chicken, Mango and Chilli Chutney

I had Hummus and Cheese & Pickle in my sarnies, being the awkward vegetarian one  :)

Then came the 'hot from the oven' scones which were just divine, served with jam in little kilner jars and cream.

The tea I chose was Rose Grey, it was really nice. I meant to buy some on the way out but forgot.

Can you believe you get served 6 cakes?  Ok, so they are mini and some are just one mouthful, but 6 cakes?

Em, yeah, I ate them all!

As we were all moaning about eating too much, out came the ice-cream menu.

We opted for sorbets thinking they would be easier to get down - well, we couldn't refuse could we, it would have been most rude.  I had mango and it was delicious.

We rolled out of there and down the hill to pick up our bags, before heading home again.  Tired and happy.

I did laugh when visiting the loo on the train to find this.....

Girlie weekends are great.