Skinny Cows vs Men serving on lingerie counters

GOOD THING: SKINNY COWS
Raving about the latest diet products is such a cliched female thing to do, but when it comes to Skinny Cows I say sod it - it's worth the girly tag. If you don't know what Skinny Cow is, it's a series of 'iced dessert' products that aim to ape the Haagen-Dazs and Ben 'n' Jerry's of this world, but without the sky-high calorie count. I'm not quite sure how a Skinny Cow stick ice-cream (like a Magnum without the chocolate coating) only contains 90-ish calories, but I'm not going to argue with the facts. It's probably some sort of skimmed milk derivative, but it's much better than looking wistfully at my boyfriend's bowl of 'Phish Food' and asking him to extricate the odd chocolate fish for me. But I have to report that they don't look or taste so good when they've been left to melt and re-freeze - my mint choc-chip Skinny Cows emerged completely flat and an unappetising murky colour. The only thing about them is that they're almost too good to be true, and low-fat or no low-fat, I couldn't help feeling guilty about eating something that resembles ice-cream every night of the week.

BAD THING: MEN SERVING ON LINGERIE COUNTERS
In this world of supposed equal opportunities, some things still feel wrong. When I go to the hairdresser, I still can't get used to having my hair washed - and my head massaged - by a 6-foot, quite well-built, teenage boy. And similarly, there's something uncomfortable about being served by a bloke on the lingerie counter in Marks & Spencer. I was there the other day with my fiance, buying a pair of pants (somewhere between practical and alluring), and my heart sank when this man called, "Next please!" The transaction seemed to take ages, and the man was spending just a bit too long handling the pants. I won't flatter myself as to why, and I wouldn't make assumptions about what was on his mind, but let's face it, when someone is buying underwear - whatever their gender - it's bound to cross your mind as to what they'd look like in it. Isn't it? Maybe my mind is in the gutter, or I'm thinking the worst of mankind, but I might have to resort to buying my smalls online in the future...