Feeling the Burn

I’m off work at the moment for my summer jollies to celebrate my partners birthday and enjoy the good weather.

What’s great about having time off work, and not having to pack and go abroad is that you can enjoy places closer to home.

One close to us is a near perfect beach on the Lincolnshire coast called Moggs Eye which is almost halfway between the great town of Skegness and the rather more moderate town of Mablethorpe.

I say near perfect beach because Moggs eye is about three miles of sandy beach, peppered with seashells, starfish and a sea clean enough to splash your toes in.

It’s banked by countryside so while sat on the beach you can hear the sounds of the chiffchaffs and the goldfinches on one side while listening to to the sounds of the waves gently breaking on the shore on the other.  While it gets relatively busy at the weekends and school holidays the rest of the time it’s pretty sparse of people.

It’s one of those places that is so far removed from the normal seaside areas that you’d only find the beach if you knew about it or you got lost on the narrow winding roads and ended up there wondering if perhaps you’d at last found civilisation again only to be confronted with pure air and lots of space to play in.

Put some lotion on!

Yes, well that all sounds idyllic and the beach most certainly was.

Me, and the boss, along with Mouse had a great day spent chilling out on the beach picnicking and splashing about in the water.  The sun was out all day, there was a lovely summer breeze and the temperature was a steady 26c degrees all day.

However for all that fun in the sun the day ended up with some serious sunburn!

I got chuffing sunburn!  Me, the one that tells everyone else to put on the factor 50 sunscreen put hers on too late.  Me, I look like a lobster half cooked and I’m absolutely disgusted with myself!  I would show you a picture only it’s too hideous and I’m far too embarrassed to be seen.

The pain in the last 24hrs has been almost unbearable.  I have never ever had sunburn before, didn’t know what all the fuss was about until I got home and my skin started to rebel against me.

The following day, after a most sleepless night which consisted of putting one cool pack on my arms and legs after another followed by spending much time trying to find a position to sleep in which didn’t rub my sore skin I awoke.  As soon as I touched the carpet the sensation of burning along my lower legs as the gravity of my body pushed the blood down to that end had me feeling extremely light-headed.

Standing produced sickness and I feared I was almost done for (oh my holiday’s ruined I thought).  If this is what sun could do to you then you can stick it – bring on winter I was cursing to myself while shedding a tear at my sheer stupidity.

Having wasted more than half a day to get my nausea (and bowls) settled down I was then content to deal with the sunburn again by having cool baths, lavender oil and more cream slapped (well, less slapped more very gently dabbed).

Thank goodness I’d worn a sun hat all day else I think I’d probably be recovering from sunstroke as well now.  We three had sat under the shade of an umbrella intermittently because I wanted to be up and about collecting shells and chasing Mouse.

Hopefully my shame is your gain – for goodness sake keep out the burning sun.  I’m not one for dousing my body in chemical loaded lotions but there are loads of alternatives, and really if it’s the choice of the chemical loaded sun screen or nothing – please just get the highest factor possible.

Don’t be fooled by the breeze either – I thought the breeze meant it wasn’t really that hot.  However it’s not the heat but the rays that burn.

Apparently (so I’ve heard) people get sunburn over and over again, like it’s part of the summer course.  IT’S NOT!

Cover up or pay the extremely painful and possible life threatening consequences.

I shall now be paying very close attention to my skin and next time I go to the beach – I’m wearing a onsie!

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