Early on in the holiday we realised that even though we had done the big shop (see other Spanish blogs for the relevance of the big shop), we still managed to forget matches. This meant we had nothing to light the barbecue or the mosquito repellent with.

Tibu offered to go through to the local town, which is about 10 minutes away, and Karen said that she would like to join him. Tibu and Karen shopping is a bit of a recipe for disaster. Well, not a disaster, but just expect to get an awful lot of stuff that you never asked for. They are like the middle aisle of Aldi personified.

Last year we were in Portugal, and Karen, Tibu and I went shopping to a supermarket. I glanced into the basket and noticed them putting in a huge bag of frozen seafood mix. They said that this could be used in a seafood paella. They both love seafood.

However I pointed out that a) Nikki hates seafood b) I don’t mind seafood but really don’t like the little squid things and c) Rachel is extremely allergic to mussels, and I could tell just looking at the frozen block in the basket that there were definitely mussels in that mix. The two of them looked forlornly at the mix and realised that they would have to put it back.

The trouble is they both just egg each other on. My role on that trip was to be like mum, removing stuff that the toddlers had put into the shopping basket. And on this occasion we had left them on the own. And worse than that, they were going to a Chinese bazar.

Again, I have spoken about these Chinese bazars in the past. They are the epitome of “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap”. They make Poundland look like Booths. They really are like the room of requirement in the Harry Potter books. If you’re having a children’s party and need paper plates, some streamers and balloons, they’ve got that covered. Need a fancy dress costume? They’ve got that covered as well. Need a 16 piece ratchet set? Not a problem.

The two of them were sent out with a list of seven items. It was only after they had been gone for about an hour or so, the three of us who were back at the villa began pondering what exactly we were going to get extra that wasn’t on the list. I went for at least the contents of the list again i.e. another seven items. Nikki thought I was probably being a bit too conservative with that.

As it happens, they came back with all the items on the list plus:

Crackers with raisins in x 3

Spanish and English flags for the football

Tupperware (multipack)

A very sharp knife (which Karen cut herself with that same evening)

2 car magazines and a paper

Ice creams (various)

Padron peppers

Almonds

2 glasses

A citronella candle (which they bought but in the excitement of buying the flags left it in the shop, so we never got to see it).

What they said they could have come back with included:

Pulpo (tentacle of octopus…they are obsessed with seafood)

A whole dozen more cooked meats to go with the dozen cooked meats that we already had.

A big plate for salad

So we got off lightly really I suppose!