Jammin'

All was not well in the tin tent.
Periodically an unpleasant aroma would arise, and DH and I would look at each other accusingly, whilst protesting our own innocence.

After a while, we twigged that this was happening every time the fridge was opened, which only increased our concern.
"Can you just check that it is on!" I asked DH, as he had opened the door.
I had visions of several cubic feet of decaying food haunting us in the wee small hours.
DH inspected the fridge carefully
"It seems to be cold enough." was the verdict, but this did not explain the unpleasant aroma emanating from the appliance.
DH had a quick rummage around, but couldn't identify the source of the pervasive pong.
Then I had a lightbulb moment - which admittedly is more normal when you open the fridge door.
"It's not the stilton, is it?" 
DH reopened the door and checked the stilton. Sure enough, the bag meant to contain the stilton, was open.
Cheers KHT!
With the stink the stilton was producing, it was surprising that the fridge was not opening the door on its own to allow the excess smell to escape. A farting fridge - whatever next?


The next morning the KHT chose our destination. Our picnic was assembled and off we set.
First we had to reach the main road. The world and his wife, plus several large delivery lorries and the odd tractor, were all heading in the opposite direction. This wouldn't be a problem, except that the road is often too narrow for two vehicles to pass comfortably. At this point, the traffic comes to a halt, until the vehicles have either inched past each other, or someone has reversed to a wider point in the road - never easy when you are in a queue of traffic!

When we arrived at the beach, all we could see was a seemingly impenetrable mass of parasols, beach tents and humanity. We wondered if it would even be possible to find a space to sit. However, once we had moved away from the main concourse, there was plenty of room on the beach.

DH is struggling with gluten-free bread as he finds it rather dry and unpalatable. To counter this he decided to have 'Philadelphia' cream cheese in one sandwich and jam in the other.
By lunchtime, his sandwiches were looking rather battle weary, despite having been positioned carefully in the top of the cool bag.
"Never mind, dear, just think of it as a gluten-free cheesecake..." I said encouragingly.

Within a few seconds of opening the sandwich bag, DH was dancing off down the beach with a wasp, desperate to share his lunch, in hot pursuit.
This sequence of events was repeated several times until the sandwiches were consumed by a gyrating husband.
"I don't think Jam sandwiches were a good idea.." I observed.
DH was not keen to think his jam-sandwiches -on-the-beach days were over."
"It's the food that attracts them," he declared, "Everyone eats on the beach."
"The wasp took no notice of either me or the KHT, but wasps can smell jam half a mile away!" I pointed out.







The KHT hasn't really engaged with the sea for several years, preferring to spend her time on other pursuits when on the beach - digging, drawing, reading and searching for sea glass.
To our surprise, she decided to put on her swimming costume and recently purchased surf suit and departed into the briny, with all the determination of a cross-channel swimmer.













She spent a good half an hour or so, floating and swimming, whilst staying close enough in to the shore, so as not to give us heart failure.














Large inflatables are in this year. Today we saw a 6ft wedge of pizza - complete with raised crust to recline against, an ice cream cornet and a yellow submarine.

Dinner was eaten in our favourite fish and chip restaurant and I enjoyed the luxury of lemon sole. Here DH is able to have steamed fish, and the chips do not seem to cause him any trouble. However, he has learnt the hard way to avoid tartar sauce!

We ended the day at a supermarket - always a high point of the holiday - where we did our bit for the planet by purchasing a sandwich box each.
DH may hope that this will deter the wasps, but jam sandwiches are banned for the foreseeable future - at least while the picnic season lasts anyway!