Today Miss M went to a bowling birthday party, much like her own. The main difference was attendees were required to dress up as a character from Shrek. After much thought, (and examination of available wardrobe options), Miss M decided she would dress as Ariel, aka The Little Mermaid. As she pointed out, Ariel did make a 3 second appearance in Shrek 1.

So she dressed herself up in sequined finery, and I dropped her off at the bowling alley, where she decided she wouldn’t wear the long brown wig we’d taken along to crown her undersea finery. I put the wig in my shopping bag, and went to my brother’s house to discuss the auction we weren’t successful at this morning.

After the party finished, we went to the supermarket to buy some ingredients for a red wine and pancetta risotto I’m going to make this evening. I did my normal routine of putting the shopping bag beside the cash register so we don’t need any plastic bags. The lady behind the counter started putting items into the bag, then screamed and dropped the pancetta on the floor. She’d seen the wig, and must have thought I’d scalped someone and was carrying around the trophy. I quickly explained about the fancy dress/mermaid situation, but I think it was too late - she was completely freaked out by the large amount of realistic hair she’d seen.

So from now on when shopping post fancy dress party, I’ll always do my best to ensure any realistic body parts are contained within an opaque bag to save future terror, and possibly arrest.