Ginger in denial

Summer is here. Happy days. Well it was a happy day. Now the sun is setting on the most glorious April evening, I have discovered my day of heavenly park lounging has given me SUN BURN. It’s April for fuck sake, who gets sunburned in April?

I know who, it’s the ginger in denial. I like to think of myself as relatively olive skinned for a red head. This is because I do not have the porcelain, Lily Cole a-like skin of the classic red head. This makes me complacent in the sun. I look back on holiday tans and think, pah, sun, I have gone brown before, despite your best efforts, I can do it again. I laugh in the face of your rays. UV don’t scare me.

I forget that previous tans have come from carefully monitored sunbathing and full body applications of sun cream, once every 5 minutes. Sometimes helped along with some Dove’s Summer Glow (it’s not cheating when it’s 90% moisturiser, right?).

So, of course, my smug, laissez-faire attitude earns me instant and unattractive blotchy red marks on my shoulder, face and chest. Thank the Lord I wasn’t wearing a string vest.


Sun, why do you refuse to be my friend?