Friday 26 June 2009

OverRated: Wall to Wall Sunshine

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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10 comments:

nitebyrd said...

Very smart, Cake. It takes 15 years for sun damage to present itself. Better to be pale than to end up looking like an old saddle bag.

Hubman said...

While I agree about the health issues, we've had nothing but rain for the last week, with the exception of one day, so I'd take a little sunshine thankyouverymuch!

Passion said...

Here in Oz, or at least here in South Australia we dont get much rain. About 40mm a year (1 1/2 inches)Sunshine we have plenty, and you can tell just looking at the withered faces and spotted skins of leather.

Gorilla Bananas said...

Judging from you pictures, Mrs Cake, you could write a book on skincare.

Unknown said...

British people have a very poor relationship with the sun. We don't know how to deal with it. Most of us have no real concept of how damaging it can be. Crackling, anyone? Why Brits complain about the heat, I will never know. We get a few precious months of warm, sensual heat and then it goes back to being mild, bland and drizzly. Enjoy it while you can, you fools!

Helga Hansen said...

It's not just the leathery effect that can result from sun worshipping - there's skin cancer too, as I know only too well. I work at a health club, and do wonder why we have sun beds... I hate them! What worries me more, though, is just how frequently some people use them... before jetting off in search of hot sun to colour their skin even more!

I'd rather be pale and interesting... and live a longer life (hopefully!).

Kevin Musgrove said...

True enough, Joanna. I've always aspired to be pale and interesting, though my colouring lets me down a bit.

And thanks for Sir Noel!

Joanna Cake said...

nitebyrd - I fear for my kids who just wanna get out there and get brown

Hubman - lol, well, yes :)

Passion - I was under the impression that the Aussies took sun damage more seriously than most...?

Mr Bananas - Why thank you x

phallatio - You try wearing my uniform for a day and you'll understand why I prefer spring :)

Helga - You and me both x

Kevin - And that makes three of us x

Anonymous said...

Has the Irish and Scottish had their reign of terror revenge yet as they had a good time with a Mayville decendent that English used as a deviling instrument as dough while playing human right violations against Irish/Scots on a Celtic kid form 91.....

while Mr.jones called him a angry arab while the English sister screwed over people in the baptist world as people covered that holy shit up for correction and enforcement when there was nothing wrong while using me as entertainment piece for humiliation: it will take us to the golden promiseland folks.....

Joas will never know or her sister from that First Baptist church....

Dale and few men opened up their own churches afterthat while using this Celt:Mayville kid for truth crafts...for he was more full circle....while the English tried to control everything in that Southern Baptist church or Baptist church....while what follow phonelines....if a some women wanted to talk to this person...an affair as they played a deviling curse.....from Columbus in 91...that Celt kid....Bono talked too....

Anyway is that on those Blood print pages of talleys from 91 in their flogging mollys that the Celts used for material across the country for humiliation fun....since 91.....

stemmed from USM....

Most people got fed the bird droppings of that page....

while some english covered that up with angry arab due to lack of cultural understanding due to boys and men giving him deviling tests on a 13 year old in 91 not a 30yr old virgin....

any 13 is a virgin....

What have you fed Joanna or even Julianna...?

Anonymous said...

Mayville Celt knot blood similar to sullivan a celt lady of Irish/Scottish...