HANDS up who’s got an advent calendar? Is it a chocolate one? If so, are you over 18?
Because apparently you need to be if you’re going to indulge and get one with chocolates in.
I know this because during my last week at the Gazette I experienced humiliation as a result of buying such a treat.
I had been sent down to the Gazette's sister paper in Blackburn, where I spent a lunch break indulging in a spot of festive shopping at Debenhams.
Among the items in my basket was a child’s advent calendar for which I was asked to produce ID.
Regular readers will know this isn’t the first time my age has been questioned – indeed despite my 28 years I look a vision of youth and vitality (humour me, there’ll be a new columnist here soon).
But despite my glee at being told to produce proof of age I was more puzzled at the reason why.
The girl on the till wasn’t sure when I quizzed her - especially when I pointed out the said calendar was for a four-year-old and had a kids cartoon character plastered across the front – but she did tell me I would also need ID if I wanted to buy a spoon. Which I didn’t.
I headed back to work and relayed the tale to the room of newshounds. The story soon spread and before I knew I was reluctantly ‘doing quizzical eyebrows’ and scratching my head while posing with the calendar for a photographer.
In case you haven’t tried it, go and do quizzical eyebrows now, in front of a mirror. You don’t look your best do you? Now try raising those brows while stifling a laugh, as I was.
It came as no surprise when the Lancashire Telegraph printed the story the following day, along with an unflattering photo. Still, I thought, no one knows me down that neck of the woods.
That morning I received a call from a news agency in Manchester, informing me they were selling the story to the nationals and would I just give them a bit more information to ‘pad’ the story out.
Horrified about this photo going public I declined their kind offer.
Next thing a Google alert pops up in my emails and I click to discover ‘Shock for Ellie, 28, as she’s ID’d while buying chocolates’ is on the Lancashire Telegraph’s website - along with five comments discussing how I’m “clearly” in my thirties (the cheek!).
“Don’t worry, today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper,” soothed a colleague.
But the following day I received a text from my dad, on a train bound for Carlisle, asking why my mug was in The Metro and was the advent calendar for him, because he’d prefer one with white chocolate if at all possible!
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