Imagine for a second if you can, that you’re a 39 year old single female in 2011. What is the greatest question a complete stranger could ask you that would make your week (ruling out that complete stranger being one David Tennant saying: ‘I’ve ditched my fiancée, it is you I’ve been waiting my whole life for, will you marry me?)?

Give up?

How about ‘Can I see some ID please?’ I’m not kidding. This really happened to me. The scene was Sainsbury’s in Kidlington last Monday.

It being payday, I was busily packing my groceries into my reusable bags (that for once I hadn’t forgotten to bring) when I noticed the bip, bip, bip of the scanner had stopped.

As I turned to face the lady at the till, knowing there was a bottle of whiskey in among my goodies, I was thinking, ‘surely she’s not going to card a 39-year-old who, after a particularly long day at work, was feeling every one of those 39 years?’ Wrong. With a polite apologetic smile she asked to see some identification before she would hand over my aged 18-year bottle of Scotland’s finest.

The irony that she thought I was younger than the bottle on the counter wasn’t lost on me.

On the previous few occasions this has happened in the past couple of years, I’ve been ready with a witty comment about how surprised they will be. This time feeling decidedly tired and a bit sick with flu, I merely handed her the card and got on with the packing.

Leaning into the trolley, once again I noticed the distinct lack of ‘bip bip bipping’, so I turned back to the lovely lady to find her looking decidedly awkward as she flicked her eyes back and forth from my driving licence to my face.

Bless her, she obviously was struggling to come to terms with the fact she’d just asked someone old enough to have an 18 year old daughter if they themselves were over 18.

As I smiled she found her tongue again and apologised saying she hoped I wasn’t offended and would take it as a compliment.

Offended? I think the woman should be given a bonus for giving a boost to a customer who’d walked into the shop feeling tired and worn out.

As I left the store I had a smile on my face and a skip in my step.

Okay, there wasn’t actually a skip, my arms were laden down with shopping bags, but it felt like there was a skip in my step.

Even better, now each time I look at that bottle I still remember the moment with a smile.

Mind you, that bottle might not be around too long. Because when I went to work the next day and told my co-hosts about the incident, both of them looked so shocked at the thought someone could think I was younger than my years, it was almost enough to send me reaching for a bottle to drown my sorrows.

Responsibly of course.