Shopping.....In the name of "research"

 I love shopping (which girl doesn’t) but since having kids I hate it! Most of my birthday/Christmas presents etc  are bought online. However last week I was lucky enough to be invited along with some great bloggers to  the Bentalls Centre  in Kingston for a tour.
Normally these days by the time I arrive just at the car park I’m stressed. There’s no child friendly parking, you’ve had to negotiate town and its up five stairs and two lifts to get to the shops! However I was pleasantly surprised by Bentalls. Lovely signage displayed not only which levels had spaces but also which level the walkway and the parent and child parking were on (both level 8 for future reference!) Having piled the kids out the car we were given the option to drop the kids off at their Creche I know right?! Child free shopping and they tire them out for you!! Unfortunately my youngest was teething and was not going to go off and enjoy himself under any circumstances so thankfully his grandfather whisked him around for me so I could enjoy the shopping  tour in comfort. But we did have to have a quick stop at their parent and child room which is HUGE and for a change nice and clean!
The Bentalls centre was established around  Bentalls Department Store (my grandma worked there!) 18 years on and is a haven for shoppers. With over 80 shops (plus the department store) in 3 compact layers its not as spread out as some er better known ones. It even has a gym with swimming pool tucked away on the top level!

We started the tour at my mother ship – Waterstones!!! (you can leave me in store all day!) It has recently gone under a bit of a makeover and now has a child friendly area so you can let your littles ones play while you browse or you can put your feet up for a bit and look through the childrens books.
Having gone round the gym and taking discreet note of the where all the coffee shops were (one on each floor – I’m lazy!) we did partake of a bit of shopping research at the lovely Polarn O Pyret ( a rather nice Swedish good quality clothes shop (nice boys clothes!!)
I have to admit by then Harry was in need of a sleep so we didn’t take the opportunity to put my feet in the piranna tank   fish pedicure but I can assure you even though this is a sponsored tweet (amazing amazing goodie bag) I will going back to visit very very soon! (beats trawling up and down the hills at the shops locally by far!)

Comments

  1. Shopping has definitely become harder since the toddler came along! Was lovely to meet you and make sure you get that fish pedicure sorted soon (I'm far too scared to try it!).

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