There I was, in the five items or less aisle, and the checkout operator stares at me and says, “you have six items there.”

And there was me thinking that we were still in the season of goodwill.

Well that was short lived!

I was determined to stand my ground and appeal to her better nature.

It was only one item over. I thought, let’s see if I can turn the argument to my advantage, even though, by this time, my stubborn persistence meant that the manager was now on scene.

Then it came to me in a flash, I leaned over and calmly took hold of the ‘next customer please’ divider that you put between your shopping and the person behind you, and strategically placed it so that it separated my Toilet Duck from the other five items.

I paid for my 5 items, removed my glasses and summoned my best high pitched falsetto voice. “Just the Toilet Duck, please, pet.”

I didn’t hear her reply due to the rounds of applause and hysterical laughter coming from the queue behind me….