Tube Relief: Under-18?

This will be the first of a series of Tube Relief related blog posts over the next few days. Just bear with me yeah?

Today we were at Safeways, stocking up on supplies for the big event. We decided to get bottles of mineral water as well as caffeine free energy drinks. There were no caffeine free drinks by Red Bull so we decided on Purdeys.

We went to pay at the cashiers. And she asked for an ID card to proof our age! We didn't have any ID cards that has our age printed - plus we were both twenty something (plus I did not shave for a few days)! I asked her for the reason and she mumbled on something about Purdeys contains 'multivitamins'. What?

Multivitamins. Under-18? What the fuck is going on? Since when do we need to proof we are over 18 to buy a multivitamin energy releasing drink?

My credit cards were not accepted as proof of over-18 age which is weird because only people above 18 can be issued with credit cards. With reasoning (plus Jenni pointed out that her student card with the words 'phd student' meant that she has to be over 20) she finally relented.

Crazy. People always comment on how I look older than my age (I look 30) but this is the second time in four years that someone has challenged me for an age bearing ID card (the first was at HMV when purchasing an '18' certificate DVD). Even bizarrely, when I was under-18 and studying in the Midlands I was never challenged to proof my age to the point of being able to obtain a mobile phone contract when I was 17. Weird innit?

BTW, I checked my stats for Sunday and over 400 new visitors came here on that day due to my 'Furong Jie Jie' post. Why is that?