I only wanted some Hobnobs - but it wasn't meant to be

A quite unbelievable thing happened while I was in a supermarket.

- Steve Canavan

The cashier insisted on showing the chap in front pictures of her cat.

I was in a rush - I had a nails and eyelash appointment to get to - and nipped in to a well-known store to buy a packet of Hobnobs (Mrs Canavan's favourites), drawing paper (the kids had run out) and a nine-pack of Cushelle extra soft aloe vera toilet roll (I insist on aloe vera as I feel it really benefits my bottom).

Like I say, I was in a rush so I virtually sprinted round the store (really annoyingly the drawing paper was at one end, the toilet roll on the furthest aisle away at the other end) and headed to till with the shortest queue.

A man with a bald head and an unnaturally cheerful demeanour (the type of guy who, when asked how he is, replies 'not-three-bad') was being served by a cashier, a blonde-haired woman, whose skin was so wrinkled and creased I would happily bet my life savings she's got through a minimum of three packets of Benson and Hedges a day for the last 40 years.

The bald gentleman paid for his goods, made a joke about the weather, laughed hysterically, then walked off - leaving only one other person to be served.

This person was a man in, I would guess, his late 50s who caught my eye because he had two quite astonishing tufts of hair growing out of each ear, as if he were trying to cultivate his own personal ear forest.