The downside of holidaying in another country is the inevitable risk of stomach problems due to the local food. I'm not the most experienced traveller, so I decided to give the laverbread a miss yesterday, and instead played it safe with a jumbo battered sausage and chips, half of Amelie's fish & chips, two large ice creams (with flakes) and two bars of chocolate. But despite my admirable caution, I felt inexplicably sick all night, and still feel a little delicate this morning. I'm putting it down to sheer bad luck.

But before being struck down by the cruel mistress of ill health, we'd actually had a nice day yesterday. We spent it on the Gower Peninsula, which I like to think of as the tongue of the Welsh pig...

That's Rhossili Bay, on the tip of that tongue. It's basically the spot where you'd get an ulcer after eating too many sweets. Or maybe that's just me.

As a location, it suffers a bit from the lack of an escalator between the car park and the beach, and ideally they'd airlift an ice cream van onto the sands, to save you the trek back up the cliff, but that aside, it's really very nice. Especially if you can persuade Lisa to carry the beach mats.

Brighton beach at this time of year looks a lot like this...

But interestingly, Rhossili Bay on the first Saturday in August seemed a lot quieter...

At least until Amelie and Toby arrived. Here's Toby shovelling sand into his mouth with a spade while Lisa tops up her skin cancer...

I tried to get Amelie to recreate a scene from Baywatch...

But whilst Toby was willing to run through the waves like David Hasselhoff, Amelie's Pamela Anderson seemed strangely distant...

On the subject of being strangely distant, Lisa and I decided to test our parenting skills by letting Amelie and Toby wander off on their own. They're in the photo below, dead centre, but invisible to the naked eye...

Although we could still hear Toby roaring. That's the furthest they've ever been from us on their own. Unless you count the time we lost Toby at the school fete. Frankly he could have been anywhere.

Anyhoo, a good time was had by all, and I decided that a deserted sandy beach is a lot better than a packed pebbly one. So why we're living in Brighton, I have no idea.

Before leaving, we just had time for Toby to model a beach mat...

And Amelie to do handstands...

Before heading back up the cliff path, for one last look at the bay...

It's a miracle there's any sand left on that beach. It feels like most of it's now in our car.