Do You Have Any ID?
December 4, 2009
I realise that supermarkets have to cover their own backs with respect to the sale of alcohol and tobacco. However the supermarket policies and the law informing those policies seem to differ drastically. Retailers aren’t legally allowed to sell alcohol or tobacco to persons under the age of eighteen. Most supermarket policies require that their staff ask for ID of any persons who look under the age of 25.
I haven’t yet been abroad, and I don’t drive. As such I do not posses either of the forms of ID that retailers consider adequate to prove who I am, and my age. I do have a birth certificate, which when produced in conjunction with credit/debit cards might be enough to convince a sympathetic checkout clerk that I am who I say I am, and am indeed aged over 18.
I certainly don’t think I look younger than 18! I have a full beard and a hair line that is receding embarrassingly rapidly. In fact, the majority of checkout clerks who question my age are pimply youths who hardly look old enough to be custodians of the cigarettes and booze I am old and ugly enough to choose to buy for myself.
Since I have been deprived of cigarettes and almost deprived of the beer I have been looking forward to relaxing with all day, I take justified objection to what feels like discrimination. A checkout clerk can refuse to serve me because they decide on a whim that I look younger than 25; seven years older than legally required, and I am unable to prove my age because I neither drive nor have been abroad.
In summary – BLARGH!
Happy New Year and New Year Resolutions
January 2, 2008
Happy New Year!
I’m not much of a ‘New Years’ person. While I appreciate that Hogmanay is a big holiday for a lot of people, I’m not one of them. I always feel that it is a holiday where you are expected to force yourself to have a good time for the sake of it. Having said that, I did have a good Hogmanay this year! Going hand in hand with my ‘bah humbug’ feeling of New Years, is my opinion of so called resolutions.
Rarely do people manage to stick to resolutions that they make at the beginning of the year, and I tend to make a point of not making resolutions because I’ll just feel guilty when I inevitably break them. Nonetheless, I am going to make a few this year that I will try very hard not to break:
- Stop smoking
- Lose weight
- Play the trombone more
- Drink less coffee
Surely I can manage four things! Although I don’t hold out much hope for the first two… we’ll see!
R.I.P. Flint
January 26, 2007
Today I received the sad news from my parents that my dog Flint was put-down. Several years ago , a small piece of cartilage broke off of his spine and lodged itself in a vein. This caused a swelling that led to nerve damage in the surrounding area. He effectively wasn’t aware of where his legs were; although he had some feeling below the waist. Our vet had never heard of this happening twice in one dog, but as he was on the mend it happened again.
In the last few weeks, he had further nerve damage, this time more severe. He lost all feeling below the waist. Due to the last incident his highly developed chest and shoulders allowed him to pull himself about the house, but he was unaware of going to the toilet inside, and getting him outside involved a crude sling/wheelbarrow affair with a towel slung under his stomach.
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