Starbucks, Next Home, Braehead

Braehead is just down the road from us but if you don't want pizza, I sometimes find it hard to choose somewhere to eat lunch.

The Starbucks in Next Home was sold to Angus on the basis that you can see a lot of buses from a window seat.  This is very true and occasionally you can see an aeroplane.

It's actually a very nicely situated unit. It's upstairs, generally very quiet (usually quieter than anywhere in the actual shopping centre) and has floor to ceiling windows, so it's very sunny.

The staff are friendly and they have given me a cup to help myself to milk for Angus before.  My last food bill didn't come in too high.  They do a mini-toastie with cheese or cheese and ham, which is perfect for Angus.  And babycinos are free.

It goes without saying that parking is copious.  I haven't used the toilets or baby change yet.  The place is clean, light and very relaxed.

Mr Bloom's Nursery - Live!

Mr Bloom is coming to the King's Theatre (Glasgow) on Saturday 29th April.  I completely ruled it out at first as Angus is not really a Mr Bloom fan and the tickets are Ambassadors prices.  However, Itison now have a deal for £11 tickets.  Angus does love a theatre show, so now it's an option for the weekend.

It's on at 11am and 2pm and is quite a long show (two halves).  So if you're offspring do like a bit of Mr Bloom, it looks like a good bet.

Jurassic Parrr!

Part of me doesn't know why we waited so long to take Angus to Jurassic Parrr! but also your child does need to be able to golf a little!

Jurassic Parrr! is at Great Western Golf in Clydebank.  I believe it's basically a big kit, that's been shipped in from America and assembled (based on the Americanised notes about dinosaurs around the course).  It's 18 holes of crazy golf with a dinosaur apocalypse theme.  The dinosaurs are very realistic, some are animatronic and several have sound effects (as long as he was close to us, Angus wasn't scared).  There are lots of bridges, caves, a crashed helicopter etc.  It does get vandalised sometimes but generally it's pretty amazing and Angus loved it.

A real mix of people go, I imagine if you go on a sunny weekend day, there may be a bit of waiting for your turn at each hole.  Especially with families like ours taking a longish time to complete each one.  It might have been a good idea for the venue to have some etiquette rules like letting people past if you are a slow group.

Angus loves sports and has a golf kit, so this was right up his street both in terms of golf and dinosaurs.  His golf wasn't brilliant but he had a really good go at each hole and didn't get bored.  We let him away with quite a lot of cheating, we didn't keep score and we weren't particular about getting a fair turn ourselves.

Over the Winter there is usually an Itison voucher available for the admission cost but otherwise it is a pricey day out.  At the time of writing, a family ticket is £24, under 4s are £2.50, 4-14 year olds are £5.50 and over 14s are £7.50.  I can't quite remember how long it took us, definitely more than an hour.  So if your minimum spend is £10 for an hour's activity, it is a treat.

We finished the trip by going up to the driving range and putting people off their stroke!  Overall, I would definitely recommend it if you child likes dinosaurs or golf.

There is lots of parking and I've heard really good things about the cafe.  The toilets are clean but I'm not sure what the baby change facilities are like.