Nangle Natters: Sunny side up

It’s happened again. We’ve gone into the month of May, worrying about whether the outside performances will stand up to wind and the rain, complaining that it looks like late snow will be arriving any minute now to disrupt Fringe City, and come out the other end blinking blindly at the bright sunshine that greets the arrival of June.

I say this, because I did the classic May mistake. I got sunburnt.

The first day I caught a tinge of colour was when I had two hours between Brighton Fringe activities to kill. I’d just gone on a most fascinating walking tour (Notorious Women of Brighton, as you’re asking) and it was lunchtime. My next show wasn’t until 4pm, and while I had a quick shufty through the brochure to see if any of the other shows I’d wanted to go to on this particular Sunday might fit into the gap, they also started at 4pm, or 4.15pm. And it was sunny. And I was hungry. And I had just started a new book. So I bought myself a sandwich, found a bench on one of our lovely green squares overlooking the beach, and settled in.

By the time it was time to go I was deeply immersed in the land of Oz

By the time it was time to go I was deeply immersed in the land of Oz (it’s one of those spin-offs from the original legend-things) and had a neat line at the side of my face where the right arm of my spectacles had masked me from the sun. Those benches are at an angle, you know, which was why this was only on one side of my face.

The slightly pink bits on either side of my white line didn’t hurt, and I found it rather amusing. Took me back to the times at school when we’d come back from the holidays and compare white marks where everyone had deliberately kept their watches in so that they could highlight their tan contrast.

Two days later and I had a lunchtime again. Only an hour this time, so I found a seat on a bench in the same square – but this time on the opposite side. Time to give my left side a look-in, I thought. And thus I burnt both arms, my forehead and – that all important left spectacle mark. Oh yeah. Not all time in the sunshine is equal. I could feel it burning. I was gonna put some lotion on after I ate my lunchtime banana – so that my lunchtime banana didn’t taste of lotion from my hands. I didn’t get around to eating my lunchtime banana. Oh.

So, the moral of this story is – wear sunscreen! Every glimpse of summer is precious, but by golly every glimpse doesn’t have to count.