Westfield (8th February 2013)

My dad had to go to work near "Westfield", so we decided that we'd go to "Westfield" and meet him when he'd finished work.

When we first got to "Westfield", we were greeted by the sight of a stall giving out free Nescafe coffee, in lots of different flavours. I didn't want to queue at first, because I thought it wouldn't be worth it for a small sample of coffee, but mum said that we should, so we queued. About half-way through the line, I realised that they weren't just letting you try tiny shots of coffee; each person got one cup. My sister and I decided we'd have hot chocolate (Which was the only drink they had that wasn't coffee), and my mum said she'd have a cappuccino. The man who was serving the drinks wasn't at all in a fluster; he made the drinks carefully, and told us about the different kinds of coffee, patiently while we were waiting. Mum and I both agreed that we'd be really stressed if there was a whole line of people waiting for drinks, and we had to constantly know who wanted what, which drink was which and which machine needed filling up.

Here's how I saw the staff making the drinks:

There were these little tubs, that looked a bit like a tiny version of a yoghurt pot, and inside them was a small quantity of concentrated coffee (Hot chocolate in my case). You told the staff which flavour you wanted, and they pushed the tub with that flavour, into a slot in one of the Nescafe machines. The machines had milk and water in them, which they dripped into the cup with the coffee/ hot chocolate, before spitting out the container that had held the concentrated coffee. The staff then mixed the liquid in the cups together, and handed them to customers.

We walked around with our drinks, and decided to go to a cosmetics shop called "LUSH", which is a shop my sister and I LOVE. We used the machines to direct ourselves there (Checking out "Neal's Yard" on our way), and then went into "LUSH" while my mum waited outside (She doesn't like the strong smells in the shop). While we were there, we were shown this bubble bath thing, which looks like a pink bathbomb in the shape of a butterfly, on a stick. You are meant to hold it by the stick under running water to make bubbles in the bath. It looked really cool.

Then, we were shown the perfumes (Which had different stories behind them) and the eye-shadow, which was AWESOME; you could use it as hair mascara as well, and it came in tons of different colours. I really wanted to get it, but it was about £14, and I didn't have that much on me. We usually go to the branch of "LUSH" in Covent Garden, so next time we go there I'll see if they have the hair mascara for a cheaper price. Maybe I'll just buy a bath bomb if they don't have it, or if it is still fourteen pounds.

After "LUSH", we went to a make-up shop called "INGLOT". Oh, it's beautiful! There are so many bottles of nail-polish arranged in colour order, so many. And there are lipsticks arranged in colour order too, and eye-shadow, and body pigments, and so many other things. I was really fascinated that there was blue lipstick, so my mum said, "Try it on", and a member of staff was nearby, so we asked her. She cleaned the lipstick, and let me try it on. She was really sweet, welcoming and helpful, and spent a while with my mum letting her try on everything while my mum decided what make-up she wanted to buy. There were some body pigments in another part of the shop, and I had fun putting them on my sister in crazy combinations, trying to make her look like one of the models in the "Dazed and Confused". Unfortunately, one of the staff said "Girls, can you stop playing with the make-up, please", in this really impatient, tired voice, like we were silly little kids. We were later told this was for hygiene reasons. Seriously? There were other people trying on make-up! They didn't get told off. And it's not like we were opening up new things; we were using the testers. I think that that member of staff had previously had lots of rowdy girls in the shop, trying on make-up and not buying anything. I think she didn't have (Or want to have) the intelligence to know that we weren't trouble-makers, and that our mum was a proper customer. If she was worried that we weren't going to buy anything, or that we would put other people off going into the shop, she could have told us. Also, the nice helpful woman who I wrote about earlier on in this paragraph didn't seem to mind us playing with the make-up one bit.

When we'd finished in "INGLOT", my mum said we should go to "ZARA". I tried on lots of things there, and in the end decided that I wanted a red dress; a pink belt; a purple hat and some grey leg-warmers. My mum bought me the leg-warmers, but I bought the others myself. We also saw a lovely creamy white dress, which we made my dad buy for me ;-).

After "ZARA", I checked out "Topshop". It's a really colourful, fun place, with bright jewellery. I think I want to go there again next time we go to "Westfield".

 Then, we met my dad and went to a sort of food-court, where we each ordered completely different meals, and sat down to eat.

We did visit a few more shops and do a few more things than what I've written about, but I've chosen to only talk about the things that are more interesting, or that I can remember better, or the places we spent more time at.