AS this paper reaches the newsagents I will only have a few days left until I turn a quarter of a century old.

So the theme for this week’s checkout just had to be celebrations.

The day will no doubt (I hope) be filled with lots of scrumptious foods – mostly chocolate and cake and all things sweet, because in my book, calories do not count on your birthday.

I would also hope that there would be some pizza thrown in, as this has been a birthday tradition for me since a young age.

Unfortunately I will not be in the Lakes area, otherwise I could have rung Ambleside Pizza who deliver to the Hawkshead, Grasmere and Troutbeck area. Their pizzas look delicious.

For those of you who may also have an occasion to raise a glass this week, particularly if you have received excellent A Level results, there are plenty of party-worthy goods around the county.

Staff of Life’s recom-mendations would certainly tick my sweet and sickly box, with not just millionaire’s but billionaire’s shortbread available.

Apparently these are a lot richer than the already gooey originals, and cost £1.80. Also on offer at the Kendal bakery are chocolate tiffins, £1.80, which are made from chocolate, butter, egg, sugar, walnut, fruit and biscuits.

If you wish to have a big party, perhaps head to Steadmans of Sedbergh, where double-breasted chicken crowns, filled with pork, sage, citrus and fruit stuff, are £5.99 each.

At Peter Hutchinson, Greenodd, there are also some great meaty buys. Half local lambs for the freezer, cut and bagged to the customer’s requirements, are selling for £5.06 per kilo, and local briskets of beef are £6.40 per kilo.

And there are plenty of options when it comes to filling your glass. Country Harvest, Ingleton, has a new range of lightly sparkling grape juice drinks that combine grape juices with natural fruit flavours from Willow Drinks at Flookburgh. At £2.65 per 750ml bottles, flavours include Merlot with plum and blackberry, Savingnon Blanc with elderflower and lemon, and Chardonnay with cranberry. I think I would like to try them all!

Greenlands Farm Village, Carnforth, which now sells Wine Time’s goods within its shop, has some Bollinger Champagne at £31.99, down from £41.50.

And for a cheaper alternative there is Linglois Cremant Brut, made in the Loire Valley, for £9.99, reduced from £14.75.

Bowland Bridge Stores also have some great beverage options. Blackcurrant and elderflower Pimms is £15.49 for a 70cl bottle, and Prosecco is £8.99 for 75cl.

And although celebration is rarely synonymous with fruit and vegetables in my opinion, it is certainly something I will be looking for the week after. Powells Greengrocer, Sedbergh, has just got in the first of the main crop if Wilja potatoes, from Pilling, near Garstang, and these are on sale for £1.65 per 2.5 kilo.

The store also has Burney’s beans, £6.50 per kilo and summer cabbages, 60 pence each.