Monday, March 21, 2011

Red Nose Day - Do something funny for money!

Last week I put my change in the Sainsbury's collecting bin every time I

shopped. Today I found I still had a tenner in my purse so thought I'd

donate that too. No more collections in Sainsbury's, so as I was going to the

bank it could get paid in there. I finished my routine banking and then

asked to donate, like they said on the telly. The teller said they had no

Comic Relief slips, and hadn't actually had any at all this year.

Right.......

On to Oxfam. They still have a window full of noserabilia so it's a good

bet, like they said on the telly.

I approached elderly till lady and asked to make a donation to Comic Relief.

'Oh no dear, we only support Red Nose Day.'

'It's the same thing, Red Nose Day is a Comic Relief fundraising event,'

says I.

'It's finished now' she told me.

'I'm sure that they will accept donations now, and you still have their

merchandising on sale.'

'We don't have a donations form for Red Nose day, so you can't give to just

that charity, it will be for Oxfam or DEC. Or you can buy something, but

it's out of date now anyway,' was the reply.

A browsing customer with a huge and silly grin on his face came over to help

me out. His suggestion was a good one, buy a Red Nose and just forget to

take it home. The manageress also turned up at this point and agreed that

was the best plan.

Right, I decided I would buy a nose, and the manageress said I could pay

whatever I liked for it, that'll be a tenner then.

The till lady asked me to choose which nose I'd like and scanned it.

'That's a pound' says she.

I gave her the £10 and said I wanted no change. She asked if the £9 was a

donation to Oxfam. I said 'no, it's for Comic Relief'. She looked confused,

the browsing man's grin got larger and the manageress started to look

harassed and I heard a titter from behind the shelves.

The till lady then told us that if I paid £10 for 1 nose the till would be

wrong at the end of the day, so the manageress suggested I buy 10 noses and

not take them home. Good idea, that's what I'll do. Till lady explained to

manageress that that wasn't a good solution as I didn't want 1 nose let

alone 10, and by time the next Red Nose day came around there would be

different noses anyway so it would have been a waste of money.

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!

Manageress and I assured till lady that it would be fine, just scan the nose

another 9 times. Till lady asked me if I'd like to choose a selection rather

than just have the one design. I am losing the will to be charitable by now,

but for pragmatism's sake agreed and gave her 1 of each to scan. Phew.

At that point the manageress decided that the poor till lady's dignity might

just have to be sacrificed and gently moved her away from the till. Mistake!

As she moved aside the wrong button was activated and my bill went from £10

to £1,000. Till lady nearly had the vapours, browsing man was now promoted

to laughing man. He asked where I was going to keep 1000 red noses.

I asked the manageress if Oxfam deliver. Till lady looked at me as if I'd

asked a very silly question. Manageress just smiled serenely and said 'only

in exceptional circumstances'.

It was agreed that since they could not deliver and I couldn't carry 1000

noses home she'd cancel the transaction and we'd just go with the original

10.

I finally got to hand over my £10. I got my receipt, and as I left the shop

I heard a little, elderly voice say' she's forgotten to take her noses' and

some stifled guffawing from laughing man and customer behind shelf.

Sometimes the urge to punch old ladies is very strong. But hey, I did

something funny for money and made at least 3 people laugh. If you didn't

donate yet, do it for me. PLEASE.

Brenda.