Give Us a Sign - Getting to the Garden Show Ireland

 Maybe I was just there too early...?

Is it me?

Motorway signs are huge. They have to be.  Margaret Calvert, the designer in the 1960’s realised that people would be zooming past them at over 70 miles per hour so you needed plenty of warning when your exit was coming up. It’s no different today on the M2 as I headed to the Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle. It’s just a pity the organizers of the event didn’t follow Margaret’s example with signage.

The basic directions on their website were pretty good, telling me to exit at Junction 2 then take the 5^th exit.

All good so far.

From the roundabout onwards there were no signs anywhere to tell me I was heading in the right direction. After a few miles fluorescent plastic police traffic cones started to appear on the side of the road, telling me that there was something coming up where parking on the road wasn’t allowed.

 I’m there… nearly
“I must be there,” I thought to myself. Just at the entrance to the Antrim Gardens, there was a printed board confirming this, telling me to turn in. 

Inside the main gates a person in a high visibility jacket stopped me.

“Have you any bags or heavy items?” he said with a smile as I wound down the window.

“No, just me,” I said, thinking he was going to search me.

“In that case, do a U turn and head over to the industrial estate down the road opposite the barracks and park up there.” 

As I was holding the traffic up onto the main road I dutifully U turned and headed to the industrial estate. I had to guess where to go as again there were no signs. I came into a large, nearly empty car park area, where I was blissfully ignored by 2 more High Viz lads. I took this as an indication that I was parking in the right place.

The next step was negotiating walking across the busy main road before entering a side gate to the castle gardens.  I walked in following a couple of people who thankfully seemed to know where they were going.

More Visibility

As I approached the buildings there were no signs again, but there was a queue of about twenty people standing near a large gate. Like a lot of the population I avoid queues at any opportunity so thought I’d ask High Viz man 4, who was propping up a metal barrier a question.

“Is this queue for the Garden event or is it for the BBC Radio 4 Gardeners Question Time recording?” I asked hopefully“

“I have no idea,” came the reply. “Try the main reception, they might know.” High Viz man 4 then pointed in the direction of a building 50 yards away. I dutifully followed the direction of his pointy finger to a doorway that thankfully did say ‘Reception’ on it.

At reception I asked the smiling woman at the counter if she knew where the event entrance was. “No, sorry, we just hire out the gardens” she told me.

“Do you have a map of the event then so that I can make my own way around?” I asked?  

“I have a map of the castle gardens if that’s any good.” She said helpfully and handed me the tourist map from the counter. As lovely as it was there was no indication of any Garden Show. “Thanks” I said, and walked out into the sunshine.

I came upon another young lad (High Viz man 5) who was directing traffic and asked him if he knew how to get into the event “No idea mate” he said “I’m just here for the weekend to do traffic”

Now I am enthusiastic about gardening and do go to shows with both childlike enthusiasm and a bit of daftness, so I thought I might have missed some signs or information. Maybe they were so big like the motorway signs, that I just didn’t see them. 

There were no signs.

At the Gate

As I got back to the queue it was moving, so thought I might as well join in the fun.  We were taken passed the loos where a young (non-high Viz this time) person handed me a brochure with a map in the centre pages. “At last” I thought, “I know where the entrance is now. Even if I am inside the event already!”

I gave the next person along my free press ticket, which he scanned with a phone. He then passed me on to another woman behind a desk, handing my ticket to her as he did.

“On the website I was told to ask for the Press Tent” I said to the lady as she scrutinized my ticket. 

“There isn’t one” she replied “But if you want to wait under the dome tent (pointing to it in the distance) there should be other press people meeting there later in the morning.”

“Thanks” I said and walked the other way. 

I dislike waiting as much as I dislike queuing.  A cup of tea and a biscuit would have been nice though to get me into journalism mode after my two hour drive from Inishowen.

Looking at the map for an idea of where I was, I couldn’t help feeling that it was actually printed upside down. I’m not sure if such a thing exists, but when you look at it and get directions you had to turn the page around to understand where you were. This made the writing the wrong way around. It might be the fact that I am left handed though as I didn’t hear anyone else moaning. 

To be fair I didn’t see anyone walking around in a lost glaze like I did either. Is it just me?, was I there too early? Have I lost that ability to understand public places that don’t have signs as large as the M2 motorway?

Maybe, or it might be that in the Garden Shows second year at Antrim, everyone has been here before.

After a happy three hours at the event ( I did enjoy it really), there was one huge sign I saw that was really loud and clear. 

It said “WAY OUT.” That’s the way to do it……but change the OUT to IN…….


PS..... The actual review of the BBC Question Time will be here next week....

Check out the images from the day....