I do love Intu Lakeside. I don’t know what it is about me, but I just love a shopping centre. Even when I lived in the Philippines for three months, my favourite days were days just pottering around the mall. It’s no surprise really, girls love to shop right?
I’ve been to a couple of Blogger event’s at Intu Lakeside now, and I really enjoy them. This one though, sounded absolutely brilliant. I took my friend from works Daughter Grace, because she has recently started her own blog and I wanted to show her the ropes and also how friendly all the Essex Bloggers are. You can find her blog here.
When we arrived, we were shown into a little pen type situation outside M&S. Most people would find being in a VIP pen in the middle of Intu Lakeside cringe, I however like to think I’m a celebrity so I loved it naturally.
Voice Communications are always really helpful and welcoming, so we were welcomed into the VIP area and told there was a Lush Lakeside stall, a sweet cart, and a mocktail bar. We headed over to the Lush stall first to make some bathbombs. I absolutely LOVE Lush products. Unfortunately I do have quite the tendency to get over excited with it all and end up smelling like I got drunk and crashed into all the perfumes in Debenhams. Making a bath is quite a relaxing process. I’m quite pleased I opted for the simple one, because I am honestly the clumsiest person ever (last time I went to a Lush event I spilled water all over the floor). Grace chose to make the more complicated one, which looked good enough to eat.
*DISCLAIMER*
Please don’t go about eating Lush products now just because I’ve said that. Although to be fair if you are enough of a melt to ingest a bath bomb maybes you deserve to be ill, right?
Anyway we mooched on next to the mocktail bar. Now for myself, who I class as a fully professional drinker, I’d actually say that telling me my cocktail is non-alcoholic is more or less treason. I mean there’s NO ALCOHOL in it. NONE. HOW IS IT EVEN A COCKTAIL? Surprisingly though, I really enjoyed them! I had a Blueberry Mojito, which was really nice.
They also managed not to make the mistake of adding too much mint. I hate it when you get a mojito and you don’t know whether to call a waiter or a gardener. Grace had a Peachy Blinder, which I tried, and that was nice as well.
I’ve always got so much respect for the people who name cocktails, because I feel if it were down to me, I would be rather unimaginative. However, if any of you do ever want to pop round for a ‘blue thing with Malibu and Vodka in it’ or ‘that shit we made once that has the entire contents of my alcohol cupboard in’ please do feel free.
We hit up the sweet cart next, and they had flying saucers. Sorry, can we all just take a moment to appreciate flying saucers? That day, I actually hadn’t eaten at that point, so essentially pic n mix was my breakfast. There are lots of things I use to gauge whether I’m living the dream or not, and I can ‘t say I was living the dream as much as a woman I saw later that day pottering around Intu Lakeside with a glass of wine, but I was certainly none the less living a bit of a dream with that choice of first meal of the day.
Next up, we went to meet Reggie N Bollie. Such nice guys. They are so full of beans, I had to ask myself if maybe THEY had had pic n mix for breakfast as well. Friendly chaps they are, didn’t bring Cheryl along with them which was a bit gutting, but I’m sure me and her are destined to meet some day (I mean that in a non-creepy way, but there’s not really any way to make it sound non-creepy. If any of Cheryl’s security are reading this I’m a totally normal person and not none bit stalky).
They performed a few songs, including their mash up of ‘Cheerleader’ and ‘What Makes You Beautiful’. In a way that people get into their late 20s, and become comfortable with their style, who they are etc, I have now reached the age where I am comfortable enough to admit I love One Direction. I listen to them every morning. So what? They also performed their new song ‘New Girl’ which definitely bought some summer carnival vibes to the mix, which is an achievement when you are standing in a shopping centre in Grays.
Obviously dancing around to One Direction covers is enough to make anyone hungry, so we were treated to some food from Wagamama, Dominos and Stampede. I don’t know if I mention this enough on my blog, but I love food. The sweet potato fries from Stampede were especially welcome.
The next bit, was the bit we had all been waiting for, meeting Rylan and getting him to sign our copies of his book. I have to say, I’m not the sort of person that is ‘fall over impressed’ by celebrities, but he was great. Thanks to Waterstones Lakeside for letting us sneak to the front of the queue.
I’ve actually already read Rylan’s book ‘The Life of Rylan’ and I’d recommend it. He writes exactly how he speaks so you are always guaranteed a giggle.
I also had the pleasure of seeing some of the Essex bloggers I’ve already met, and meeting some new ones. Check these lovely ladies out:
It's More Fun In Your 30s 
Love to know your thoughts guys?