Everyone I know loves it. The hotter the better. They moan continually about our inclement weather with its diagonal rain and polar gusts, spending a fortune going off to warmer climes to lie in the sun for weeks on end and fry.
Me…? I’m rather different.
Well, these days anyway. As a child I regularly took a layer of skin off my back and shoulders as I lay out on the grass taking in the rays. Trying to get my luminous white skin to turn a vague shade of brown.
As I got older, I learned to expose myself little and often if I was to achieve any form of colouration but then I started to notice the damage. Wrinkles had started to appear around my eyes and my neck was definitely taking on the consistency of chicken skin with pigment discolouration at the base where it met my chest. My hands were becoming dotted with little brown liver spots.
I began to observe the skin of those around me. The people who had spent the most time trying to get brown had the worst noticeable discolouration, particularly on their necks, decolletage and hands. Those areas that are most exposed and least often protected with high factor suncreams.
These days, I much prefer the gentler warmth of spring and autumn. Wearing a uniform that can become very sweaty and covers my entire body makes a 30 degree sizzler a chore and two or three such days in a row, extremely tiresome. I have, on occasion, been likened to a flasher because all that can be seen are my little white ankles in sandals poking out of the bottom. Naturally, I have not disavowed anyone of the thought that I just might be naked underneath :)
I have come to prefer the wonderful soft light, the breezes and the fantastic floral displays in the community gardens to the siren call of the beach at the height of summer and if I do find myself occupying a deckchair in the garden, it’s normally under a parasol with lashings of factor 50. But I also remember to moisturise both my face, neck AND hands daily with a cream containing an SPF – whatever the weather. The chest and hand pictured are not mine.
But if I don’t look after them, then they will be.
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