I can't do tinned tomatoes

So a little bit more of the holiday for you.  Each time we go on holiday together, as there are so many of us, each family takes it in turns to cook dinner for everyone else.  Thursday was Jessica's turn and she was making Spaghetti Bolognese.  As she had helped me on my evening I decided it was only fair to return the favour and acted as her sous chef doing all the chopping.  Jess was adding tinned tomatoes to the pan when she came out with "Eugh what's that?" and using the wooden spoon lifted out what can only be described as a black knobbly lump.  Definitely not a lump of burnt meat and only appeared after adding the tomatoes.  I said she should put it to one side and take it back to Tesco.  And yes we did all still eat the dinner and lived to tell the tale.

Later on I had to pop to Tesco anyway for a few bits and bobs and offered to return the offending tin and black lump on Jess's behalf.  When I arrived I went up to the very friendly looking assistant at the customer service desk and explained the problem.  I handed over the tin and lump to which she said (in a very thick welsh accent) "I can't do tinned tomatoes" and without any further explanation walked over to another assistant and asked them to serve me instead.  She did then come back and elaborated with "I'm sorry but every time I smell tinned tomatoes I throw up."  Odd.

The young man who served me was very helpful but his computer was not which lead to lots of conversations with is colleagues as to how to process the complaint.  I didn't have a clue what they were saying though as apart from the odd word or two such as "Head Office" which they obviously didn't have a translation for, they were all talking in Welsh.  Now I know that this is going to sound very ignorant and blonde (no offense you blondes out there) but I seriously didn't think that when I went to Wales so many people would actually speak Welsh!  I was under the impression that Welsh was a bit of a dying language and that kids were taught it in school just to keep it alive.  But it was actually really lovely to hear them all speaking it even if I didn't have a clue what was going on.  The long and short of it though is that Jess got a £5 good will gesture until she hears from the suppliers of the tomatoes.

That evening Adam did manage to finish his work and we finally got to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Genius!  Absolutely loved it and would recommend it to anyone, especially adults!

Friday was the day Hayley, Austin and I were going home as we had a dinner planned with the Turner family on Saturday for a very late Christmas (will explain later).  That morning was the nicest we'd had though and we all went for a walk down to the beach, where I called Jon and said I'd like to stay a bit later and make the most of it.  So instead of leaving at lunchtime we would be leaving after dinner.

Hayley LOVES the beach.  Although she was fully clothed she ran in and out of the water laughing and squealing and generally having a brilliant time.

She even laid down in the sand and said "Hayley go sleep now."  It was very sweet and I didn't care one bit about the sand that was quite literally everywhere as we were going home and she was happy.  Also just a tip for anyone out there who has had the common sand all over problem following trips to the beach - talcum powder.  Just rub it on and it works a treat!  The sand falls off straight away, it doesn't even feel gritty while you're rubbing it and your skin is all soft afterwards.  So thanks Claire for the advice!

Jess had to leave in the morning to go to a wedding reception of one of her best friends (congratulations Lucy) and the rest of us spent the afternoon on the harbour crabbing again.  We had a delicious lunch of chips, it's very rare that I bother with the fish, and later wondered back through Porthmaddog and headed 'home' to the campsite.

We didn't set off after tea for one very messy reason provided by Austin.  You really don't want to know.  Let's just say that it was messy, everywhere and necessitated a complete change of clothes for both Austin and myself.  So at 8pm I set up the sat nav and off we went.  It took us on a beautiful tour of the Welsh countryside where I got to see an amazing sunset.

This picture really doesn't do it justice

Two hours later and Austin was ready for a feed, I was tired, we were in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal and I had no idea of how long it would be before I saw anything that resembled civilization again.  I drove a little further and eventually ended up parking at a petrol station to feed Austin before setting off again.  I couldn't even reset the sat nav to find a shorter route as I couldn't guarantee we'd get a GPS signal again and as I had no clue where we were I wouldn't even know which way to drive.  So I carried on and eventually made it out of Wales, following which I stopped at the first services I came to and had a sleep.  Some time later I made it to the M62 and could not believe my luck that at midnight I was stuck in traffic because of road works.  SERIOUSLY??