paper trail

Zeke set up his drawing station, stretching the length of our house, settled himself down to survey the scene and said “Mummy, I don’t have enough paper.” Without even a hint of irony.

Tonight involved a dining disaster. I went off to Tesco to gather ingredients to cook a king prawn Thai curry as it’s one of Ant’s faves and I thought my version might be more wholesome than a takeaway. As he likes a Thai cracker, I picked up a bag. I’m not a huge fan of them myself but opened them whilst cooking to decant and thought I’d try one. I gagged. A lot. So I asked Ant if they normally taste how wallpaper paste smells. Assuming I was being overly fussy, he also tried one and gagged at the aftertaste which he agreed to be like acrid yet spicy wallpaper paste. I was about to bin them (still gagging) when I happened to glance at the best before date which was August 2016. I was agog. And also concerned that others might have bought some so I abandoned the hob and returned to the supermarket. The duty manager was rightly horrified and busied herself investigating the error. She was flustered and tried to sort my refund and then said she’d give me a goodwill gesture of £5 out of the till. I asked if she planned to up the payment if I spent the night vomiting and she then got more flustered and took my phone number - though I doubt anyone will use it. I kind of felt bad for her and decided to leave it at that (because I wasn’t sure what other compensation I should have asked for really - it wasn’t really a money thing). But I feel it was a measly gesture somehow. 3 year old food (probably more like 4 -5 years given the shelf life) could be dangerous and shouldn’t be on the shelf. I obsessively check dates on fresh foods to make sure it can sit in my fridge for a while but wouldn’t have thought to check those. I will now. But I don’t think I’ll be returning to my regular haunt for anything!

Gratefuls:

1. Alternative supermarkets;
2. Zeke enjoying drawing and letter stamps;
3. Eve’s utter delight at a night watching strictly because I was too distracted by cracker-gate to send her to bed.