Shopping & Ranting

Hello lovelies, well as some of you know I have been suffering a bit this week with a tooth abscess, this combined with lack of sleep, too much work and life in general has not been very good for my mood.  On Monday I had the choice whether to work or not and because I was in quite a bit of pain I elected not to work and go and do a bit of shopping instead.

This may have been a big mistake, when I arrived at my chosen shopping centre after a 40 minute drive I was met with a 30 minute queue to get into the car park.  I was tired because of lack of sleep from tooth pain, I was starving as I had planned to eat on arrival and I was desperate for the loo.  I soon as I was parked I sprinted to the nearest ladies facilities, which happened to be in Debenhams, the only place in the shopping centre that has a MAC counter.

Now, a few weeks ago I read Bicky's blog and she did a FOTD using the 'Girl About Town' lipstick, I knew that I had to own this and so off I went to the MAC counter.  For once it seemed fairly quiet and I could see 2 sales assistants.  So I approached one of them and asked if I could have a look at the lipstick, she said 'they're over there' and pointed to the lipstick stand, I said 'well I know the name of the lipstick but I'm not exactly sure what it looks like as I have only seen it in a photograph', she said 'the names are on the bottom of the lipsticks', I said 'yes I know that but would you just be able to show me which one it is please' she replied 'I'm actually busy at the moment so you'll have to look yourself', (she was actually putting lipstick on another sales assistant) at that point I advised her that if she wanted to continue in her career as a sales assistant she may need to brush up on her customer service skills and then I flounced off.  I was absolutely fuming, I mean was this just me lacking in a bit of patience because I wasn't feeling too well, or is it that as a middle aged woman I have no right being at a MAC counter let alone trying to buy anything, or is it because some sales assistants just do not have the customer service skills that I expect.

After flouncing out of Debenhams I remembered how hungry I was so I made my way to Pret, I always go to Pret when I am in this shopping centre and I always have a Soya Latte and Porridge made with Soya milk.  So in I go starving and annoyed,  hubby went off to find a table and I headed to the counter with a chicken salad for him and I ordered 2 Soya latte's and the porridge, the sales assistant said 'you can't have porridge' I said 'why not', he said 'because it's after 10.30am' I replied 'well it's not as though you have to cook it is it, you just need to add milk to it' he said 'you still can't have it'.  At that point I almost turned into Michael Douglas in the film 'Falling Down' I ranted about how do they know what time people have their breakfast  and don't have big signs on the premises telling me I can have porridge and then tell me to my face that I can't have porridge, I told them where they could stick there porridge, their Latte and their salad and flounced out of there too.

By this time I was feeling like an over-tired child about to go into full temper tantrum mode.  After eventually having something to eat and drink and calming myself down I got on with the task in hand, which was to buy foundation.  Now a few weeks ago Stina did a hauling blog post about a free gift that Boots were offering when you purchased 2 Estee Lauder items.  Can you imagine how distraught I was when the sales assistant told me that the offer had now finished.  I didn't say anything but I think she took pity on my crestfallen expression and suddenly remembered that she still had a few gifts left and would happily let me have one if I purchased 2 products.

So I purchased my usual Double Wear Foundation in Pale Almond and in the absence of the 'Girl About Town' lipstick, I purchased the Signature lipstick in Brilliant Pink.

These are the goodies that I got for free, a full sized blusher compact containing blusher, bronzer and shimmer powder, a full sized lipstick in Tiger Eye, a mini Sumptuous mascara, a mini lip pencil in Spice and  3 skincare items.  If you can find a friendly sales assistant in your local Boots and you ask nicely I'm sure you'll find that this gift may still be available.

After a traumatic start to my shopping trip I went home happy with my purchases but very annoyed that I had reacted the way I had.

The moral of this story must be don't go shopping if you're tired, in pain, hungry or you're older than 25 and want to buy something from MAC.