Walk, don’t walk
Posted by: starqueen79 on: February 9, 2010
I’m just back from a long weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – or Saigon as it’s still referred to by the locals – and I couldn’t miss an opportunity to blog about the traffic. Seemingly uninteresting perhaps, but you’d be amazed by how ridiculously busy the roads are at all times of day and night and what a sight it is to see.
Crossing the road in
this sprawling city is an art form. Of it’s 8 million inhabitants, it would be easy to hazard a guess that near enough all of them own a moped judging bythe vast number of them clogging up the city’s streets. I’d read in guidebooks before we went about the difficulties in crossing the road, but I’ve braved the streets of Chennai in India which are thronging with cars, buses, bikes, tuk-tuks, people and cattle. It couldn’t be any worse than that could it?
Yes it could. In India the pace is decidedly slower and you can, with some patience, get across the road without too much fear. In Ho Chi Minh City on the otherhand, those mopeds speed along at quite a pace and you literally have to just walk out in front of them if you are to stand any chance of crossing over. Somehow, they do seem to manage to veer around you, but it’s quite a stomach-flipping feat to step off the pavement directly in the path of many vehicles hurtling at you at an alarming rate! Oddly, it is actually safest to step out in front of a car, as at least they’ll slow for you, whereas the motos just wobble round you. One of our tour guides told us that the art is to cross slowly and steadily, never stopping nor looking an oncoming motorist in the eye! We definitely got braver as the days went on, and where possible crossed with the locals, using them as human shields! You even have to watch your back on the assumed safety of the pavements as during traffic jams they’ll just scoot up on the sidewalk to make their way through!
But it’s not just the volume of mopeds on the road, but the volume of passengers per moped that amazed me. Whole families will travel together, and the record we witnessed was 5 on one bike. With their small Asian frames it’s far more conceivable that mum, dad and three kids could squish in together, but it still looks a mightily unstable and unsafe way to travel. But it’s the norm. Owning a moped, or “honda” as they are generically termed, is a relatively cheap affair, but sadly this means the quality of the mass produced bikes imported from China is rather poor. In a reaction to the many accidents, injuries and deaths, helmet wearing became law several years ago and the majority of people seem to abide by this, although bizzarely children under seven don’t have to wear them! Whilst in Western socity we might take the car to the supermarket or hardware store, the locals here do exactly the same, but on their mopeds. I can’t begin to recall the array of items I saw being carried by moped, but they included baskets of chopped up pig parts, bonsai trees, ladders, crates of beer, stacked plastic baskets, cushions, sacks of grain and barrels to name but a few.
Ho Chi Minh is a buzzing, noisy, sprawl of a city, but it has a real charm to it I wasn’t expecting. Crossing the road starts off a bit scary but ends up becoming a fun challenge and it’s actually quite exhilarating. Now we’re back in Singapore and it’s safety, security and pedestrian crossings all the way … I wouldn’t want to risk being fined!
I wanna be like you
Posted by: starqueen79 on: February 3, 2010
“Oh obeedoo. I wanna be like you. I wanna talk like you, walk like you, too”. So sang King Louie in the classic Disney cartoon The Jungle Book, but it would seem this is a mantra adopted by many young asian couples here in Singapore. I have noticed a worrying trend of wearing identical outfits. Yes, you did read that correctly: identical outfits.
Now, I’m no Anna Wintertour, but surely most normal people on this planet would agree that matching outfits are a crime worthy of arrest by the fashion police. Why do it? What on earth can make you think looking like a mirror reflection of your significant other is a good idea?
A familiar sight
Today I saw a loved-up twosome outside Tanjong Pagar MRT station sporting similar length and style black shorts with a matching polo shirt. It’s not the first time I have seen “couple matching” like this, and in fact I’ve even seen it in the same spot. Perhaps it’s the same offending couple I keep seeing, and maybe I am guilty of tarring all starry-eyed youths with the same brush. However, a quick bit of googling soon revealed that in this part of the world it’s a fairly commonplace way of expressing your mutual devotion. In fact, there’s even a plethora of online retailers vending his n hers t-shirts. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Maybe we should be blaming Posh and Becks for kicking off the idea in the first place, but if I’m not mistaken, this is 2010, not 1999!
Despite having expressed my scathing for such a “trend”, I have to laugh when I think of the number of times A and I have got dressed in the morning only to realise to our sheer horror that we have both put on a navy pair of shorts and a white top. It goes without saying that one of us will then immediately get changed, rather than inflicting our similar thinking on the world. So, I can understand how accidental cases of similar outfits can occur, but deliberately pre-meditated matching? It gets a big thumbs down from me.
The ouch factor
Posted by: starqueen79 on: February 2, 2010
If someone asked you to make a sacrifice what would you do? Give up chocolate for the month? Go without those new shoes you’ve been coveting? Skip a night out at the pub? How about punishing physical sacrifices involving sticking metal rods through your skin? That’s precisely what I witnessed this weekend at the fascinating, yet decidedly painful looking, Hindu festival of Thaipusam.
A kavadi burden
Outside of India and Sri Lanka, Thaipusam is celebrated particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius by the Tamil Indian communities. The annual event celebrates the birth of Murugan, the Tamil God of war. Devotees – who are traditionally men, although more women and children now take part - will make a physical sacrifice to Murugan by which they ask him for help, usually to avert a great calamity or worsening health for themselves or a loved one.
In Singapore, devotees undertake a 4-km pilgrimage between temples in the Little India region. Normally they will wear a Kavadi burden - an ornate, circular, metal structure that is supported on their shoulders and often with metal rods sticking into their chests and backs. In addition many will wear a metal spear skewered through their cheeks or tongues – the latter preventing speech which is another form of endurance. Some will carry small burdens that are hung by metal hooks from their skin – often small milk pots (symbolising nourishment or purity) or limes (protection). Others will pull a heavy burden, such as a bullock cart, that is attached by string to hooks in the skin of their backs. The basic principle in all this being the more pain, the more gain – or benevolence from God if you will).
Almost 10,000 devotees took part in the Thaipusam parade last weekend, which was witnessed by around 50,000 Singaporeans and tourists. As the devotees made their way along the gruelling route from Serangoon Road to Tank Road, their family, friends and well wishers walked with them to offer support and encouragement, which was added to by the thronging crowds. 
What amazed me was the range of people taking part from young children, to people with evident illnesses or disabilities, to old men. What a gruelling way to seek help and protection, which clearly demonstrates the sincerity of their beliefs and their devotion to Hinduism. In addition, the devotees must lead a life of abstinence and follow a strict vegetarian diet leading up to Thaipusam based on the theory that only when the mind is free of material wants and the body free from pleasure can a devotee endure such a rite without feeling any pain. I hope that’s true as it looks the exact opposite.
I know I’ll think twice when Lent comes around this year (17 Feb) over what to “sacrifice” for 40 days in the run up to Easter. I usually opt for chocolate in the safe knowledge that I can make up for all the “lost time” by stuffing my face with creme eggs galore come Easter Sunday. This year I will give thanks that I don’t need to ask for anything, and think about those that made that torturous journey last weekend who must have really needed God’s help.
For more images of Thaipusam in Singapore, click here.
Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie
Posted by: starqueen79 on: January 26, 2010
In honour of Scotland’s most famous son, the poet Robert “Rabbie” Burns, I thought I’d share a quick blog about the annual celebration of Burn’s night, which takes place on 25 January, marking his birth in 1759.
You might not realise it on a first encounter, but A is a Scottish as they come. Although he was born in England (his parents moved to the South Coast not long before his birth), you’ll be hard pushed to find a man more proud of his Scottish ancestry. So I’ve always cooked a haggis supper each year since we’ve been together, but last night we experienced the real deal, attending an actual Burn’s Night Supper, courtesy of Singapore’s only Scottish Whisky Bar and Restaurant, “Highlander” at Clarke Quay. It was braw!
Sporting traditional highland kilts, the band piped the haggis into the restaurant before the resident Scot said Grace and gave the customary Address. After a few toasts we tucked into a delicious meal of haggis, salmon/steak and cranachan, all washed down with a wee dram and accompanied by folk tunes. There ensued a lively conversation about bands and music artists that hail from bonny Scotland. We came up with a wide and varied list from Rod Stewart, to Texas, to The Proclaimers, to Deacon Blue to …..erm, Darius!
It’s a shame we’ll have to wait another 364 days until we can enjoy a haggis again, but we’ll definitely go back to Highlander who offer a year-round menu featuring such Scottish treats as Stovies, Tattie Scones and Scotch Eggs!
The art of staying productive
Posted by: starqueen79 on: January 25, 2010
Last week I was worse than useless. I managed to achieve a grand sum total of diddly squat over the course of the week. I don’t know the exact cause of such lethargy and general ineptitude, but I’m mostly blaming it on the unhealthy fascination I have developed in teenage vampire fiction. Thankfully, I have finished the first two books in the Twilight series and cannot get hold of the next two for love nor money. An overseas internet purchase beckons this evening.
So without such distractions, I have today woken up a new person. A new and highly productive person! It’s only 4pm in the afternoon and in the course of less than a day I have managed to achieve more than all of last weeks’ poor efforts added together. Granted, it doesn’t qualify me for superwoman of the year, but today’s checklist of chores has covered:
Several loads of washing – check.
Changed bed linen – check.
Swept and hoovered the apartment – check.
Tidied all rooms in the house – check.
Made A’s packed lunch for tomorrow – check.
Sorted out a rapidly accumulating pile of useless junk – check.
Went to college to chase up my exam results and look for job opps – check.
Made a doctors appointment – check.
Visited the Brit Assoc to find out about joining – check.
Signed up for an expat coffe morning (I have succumbed!) - check.
Researched jobs online - check.
Booked a BBQ pit for our Chinese New Year party – check.
Emailed some friends – check.
Bought some birthday cards – check.
Did a food shop – check.
Planned meals and lunches for the week – check.
And I even posted a quick blog entry! How on earth I have crammed all that into 7 hours I’m not sure, but it makes me realise how ridiculously pathetic and lazy I was last week. The holiday is over, and it’s time to pull my socks up and get busy busy busy. It’s amazing how such productivity (coupled with a sense of achievement) can affect your state of well being too – I feel full of energy and generally on top of the world today. Long may it continue.
With time still on my side before A gets home from work, I’m planning to squeeze in 20 lengths in the pool, paint my nails and get ready for tonights Burn’s Supper feast at Highlander bar and restaurant!
An inappropriate crush
Posted by: starqueen79 on: January 21, 2010
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of having a crush on someone. It’s an irrational, powerful emotion that makes you tingle from the tips of your toes upwards. It’s all you can do to stop yourself thinking constantly about your crush – they invade your every waking moment and often the sleeping ones too. As a teenager I had all sorts of crushes, from guys I’d never even met (just admired from afar), to actual boyfriends. It’s a heady, unexplainable, wonderful and sometimes painful phenomena.
However, apparantly crushes don’t belong exclusively to the realm of teenagers. I found that out when I met A in my mid twenties. I was head over heels within hours of meeting him, and all those adolescent hormones and emotions came surging back with avengeance. The rest as they say is history – he’s now much more to me than a crush.
But what surprised me most is a crush I developed in the past week. A crush on a teenage boy! And not just any teenage boy, but a 17-year old vampire who’s actually just a work of fiction!! Yes, I have started reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, which has captured the hearts and souls of teenage girls (and those more mature girls like myself) all around the world. A bought me the first two books for Christmas after a friend insisted I would love them. And boy, do I! I’ve had to cast aside all my English Lit graduate snobbery and admit that these are the most un-put-downable books I’ve had the pleasure of reading in years. They’re very easy reads, but somehow completely captivating. I devoured Twilight in a day by the pool, and have had to ration myself with the follow up, New Moon – although I am well over half way through having only started on it yesterday.
I defy any female who has an ounce of the romantic in them not to fall head over heels in love with the male protagonist, Edward. Yes, I know it’s wrong and a bit weird and none of this is based on the Robert Pattison portrayl in the films which I’ve not seen yet. Edward is everything a teenage girl could wish for – earth shatteringly good looking, funny, caring, a true gentleman and …. a bad boy. Come on, he’s a vampire after all. And however much he may love Bella, deep down all he wants to do is suck her blood! It’s the combination of the love, the passion and the fear that make him such a heady mixture of crushness!
So there you have it. My life this week has been incapacitated. I have had lots of “gulity pleasure” time curling up with my book when I know I should be doing other things. But, that’s what a crush does to you – takes over your life in an unexplainable way! Now, what page was I on again …
With subtitles
Posted by: starqueen79 on: January 21, 2010
For some people, subtitles on a film or TV show are just a source of irritation and annoyance. I’ve personally never been bothered by them, until a particularly frustrating incident earlier this week. Before that, I’d always been a bit of a fan in fact.
As a Top of The Pops obsessed youth, I used to hit 888 on the teletext every Thursday night at 7pm so I could sing along with the lyrics. This came in most useful in the early 90’s when Snow released Informer – without subtitles I would have had no clue what that fast-talking Canadian was on about! My dear old Nan was deaf for as long as I knew her, so we always had the subtitles on Coronation Street when she came to visit. As a child, I couldn’t help but read along and was always a bit baffled why the text was often abbreviated from the speech – and would often spot the odd spelling error when watching live shows like the news (yes, I’ve always been pedantic).
When we moved to the Netherlands in 1993 subtitles continued to be important in my life and were the chief tool in helping me learn dutch. I would watch movies and my favourite US imports like Melrose Place, Models Inc and My So Called Life avidly reading the Dutch “ondertitelen” and matching the words to the speech. After graduating Uni and in a desperate attempt to stay in Leeds and gain some broadcast experience, I even applied and was interviewed for the post of subtitler on live TV shows for ITV! It was not a role I was cut out for, thankfully.
Now here I find myself in Singapore and plunged back into the world of subtitles. The majority of English language shows have two sets of subtitles – Mandarin and Malay – which take up a lot more room on the screen and do interfere a bit more with your enjoyment of the show. Until this week, I’d not really given them much thought and I am slowly starting to pick up and recognise the odd phrase in Malay as a result. However, I can now understand the frustration they cause to many after trying to watch an episode of our newest favourite TV series, Flash Forward. A good proportion of said episode was set in Japan with the characters speaking in Japanese. As you’d expect, there were English subtitles. However these were completely obscured by the Chinese and Malay script superimposed on top, so we had absolutely no idea what was going on. More than just a little frustrating!! I did my best to literally read between the lines and pick up the gist, but I was surprised how little consideration had been given to the audience in an English language speaking nation! I suppose most people here speak a second (or first) language be it Malay or Chinese, so locals would have been comfortable switching and picking it up that way.
So there you have it. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, subtitles do have their place, but I can now empathise much more with those in the latter category!
Tiger Tiger burning bright
Posted by: starqueen79 on: January 8, 2010
We’re fast approaching Chinese New Year – which starts on 14 Feb in 2010 - and the stores in Singapore are filling their shelves with festive cards and produce to mark the event. According to the Chinese zodiac, we are about to welcome in the Year of the Tiger. Traditionally, this is seen as an unlucky year in which to get married, so couples all across Asia are hurrying to get their nuptials out of the way before we pass into the inauspicious year! Bridal boutiques in Singapore have reported a 20% increase in customers, all anxious to say “I do”.
More pressing for us is our desire to get out of Singapore over the NY period – we’re told everything shuts down completely and Chinatown, where we live, is a crowded noisy nightmare. But I am obviously intrigued to be around to see it all and experience it properly. A few years ago, I took a visiting Canadian colleague up to London to look around Chinatown over Chinese New Year and amidst the crowds we had a good ooh and aah at the plentiful red lanterns, but I don’t somehow think that really counts as “experiencing” it. Anyway, we may well be forced to stick around as we cannot find a flight out of Singapore to any neighbouring countries for under $500 each (normally we’d be looking at the $100 mark!), so we are resigning ourselves to enjoying a long weekend in Singers instead – there are still plenty of places we’ve not got round to exploring yet, so we can have a holiday at home. I mean, it’s not as though we are lacking in sunshine, sea or sand!
In true capitalist style, McDonalds is even getting in on the Chinese New Year act. Today’s paper has a large colour ad on the front page promoting the “Mega Beef Prosperity Burger” intended to make your New Year’s feast a more prosperous one…! It doesn’t end there. I read a “Dear Editor” letter in the Straits Times earlier from a disgruntled mother who was a
ppalled by Macca’s omission of the Pig from it’s Chinese zodiac “Lucky Charm” Doraemon toys being sold for $2 with any set meal order. She had been collecting all the animals representing her family for her young daughter - Tiger, Rabbit, Pig, Ox etc – but couldn’t find the pig one anywhere. It had been replaced by a cupid Doraemon toy instead. She questioned a worker who politely informed her that as McDonald’s in Singapore is a halal restaurant (you learn something new everyday – Ed), out of respect for muslim patrons the company cannot display or sell pig soft toys. Ok, so you can kind of see their point, and this is a classic example of Singapore respecting the multiple religions worshipped by it’s people. But in a country where the population is predominantly Chinese, this seems a classic case of political correctness gone overboard. And I thought it was just the UK who were guilty of such idiocies.
Anyway, we’re about to bid farewell to the Ox and usher in the Tiger. The Tiger year is traditionally associated with massive change, drama and unpredictability, so many Chinese zodiac sites on the internet are predicting that 2010 could be a volatile one full of upheaval both on the world scene and on a personal level. We’ll have to wait and see what the year will bring!
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(William Blake, 1757 – 1827)
The Miss List
Posted by: starqueen79 on: December 18, 2009
Seven months of reflection has led me to realise just what it is I truly miss about home. I really love living in Singapore, it has so many advantages, but there are just some things that you cannot replace or get used to living without. So here is the “Miss List” so far (in no particular order)….
#1. Friends and Family
This one goes without saying. The wonders of modern technology (also known as Skype) have proved a fantastic aid in helping me keep in touch. Most weekends I am able to speak to and see my parents and my sister and her kids online. It makes such an enormous difference – the only problem is coordinating times we’ll both be in and available given the time difference. But it can’t replace physically being there to see my niece and nephews grow up. I know they will all have changed so much by the time I get to go back home, especially baby O.
#2. Mediterranean produce at normal prices
I never gave it a second thought before we moved out here. Items that were staples in my weekly supermarket shop are no longer the norm, but have to be treated as luxuries. My local supermarket is exactly that, a “local” supermarket brimming with every kind of asian produce you can imagine, which is great, but I have to trek elsewhere to find European goods other than pasta. Jason’s Market Place is the place to go for US, UK and Japanese imported goods. It’s great because it stocks most of my creature comforts from home, even some Waitrose products would you believe! But they’re at a premium price. A small tub of hummus or a pack of mozarella or feta cheese will set me back around £6. Ouch. So my evening meal often has to be planned around whether I’ll be going anywhere near Jason’s if it requires anything non-asian.
#3. Not feeling like a heifer in clothes shops
Now, I’ll be the first to hold my hands up and acknowledge the fact that I have put a few extra pounds on over the past year, which may mean I can’t always squeeze into a size 10 these days, but that hardly makes me a heifer. Or does it? It’s fair to say most Asian women are tiny. A friend of mine is a size 6 and wears size 2 shoes. I feel like the jolly green giant next to her. Obviously you do get “larger” people, but they’re definitely in the minority. So it can sometimes be a little traumatic when shopping for clothes, particularly in homegrown stores. I’ll often have to ask, “what’s the largest size you do?” and be disappointed when I can’t get in it. Shopping in the UK stores that we have here is better, but one famous US store here only stocks up to a size 10!! I know for a fact that this store sells at least to a 14 or 16 in the UK. I suppose it’s a good way to deter me from shopping as much as I’d like!
#4. The Christmas run-up
A week today, children all around the world will be waking up at the crack of dawn and rushing downstairs to see if Santa’s paid them a visit. I still do the same thing as I’m just a big kid at heart, especially so at this time of year. With just a week to go I’d normally be bouncing off the walls with excitement. But I’m not. December in the tropics really just isn’t the same. I guess part of it lies in the fact that my usual Christmas routines have gone out the window this year. No battling down Oxford St in the cold to buy pressies. No festive drinks/lunches with friends or work’s Christmas parties. No driving up North with tinsel across the back window and Chris Rea’s “Driving home for Christmas” blaring out the stereo. No excited hugs from my parents and my glee at seeing our family home transformed into a Christmas grotto. No taking my niece and nephew to the crib service at church…. But all that said, I do have homemade mince pies baking in the oven as I type and I’m off to a friend’s for a “Christmas in the Tropics” party later tonight, so perhaps that festive spirit will sneak up on me soon. Here’s hoping!
#5. Blonde hair proucts
My roots are a nightmare at the moment. It has been four long months since I went to the hairdressers (whilst I was over in the UK in August), and I am in desperate need of a good cut and colour. My split ends’, split ends have split ends on them! The cut I can sort out, but I’ve asked around in all ex-pat quarters and been told time and time again that there is only one place in Singers where I can get a decent set of blonde highlights – Toni and Guy. Unfortunately, their prices are pretty extortionate and I can’t justify going until after the next pay day so I shall have to accept my mish mash of browny-blondeness for a while longer. I can’t even buy a home dye kit or, heaven forbid, a bottle of Sun-in. I have searched and searched but to no avail. I even had to send a plea to my big sis to post me out some blonde coloured hair grips. And no surprises that John Frieda’s Sheer Blonde range (or anything similar) is not for sale anywhere.
#6. British Crisps
Namely cheesy Quavers or any variety of cheese & onion. It’s a weird and trivial thing to put on the list, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hankered after a packet when I’ve been feeling poorly or a little worse for wear after too many lychee martinis the night before. The nearest thing I can get here is Sour Cream and Onion, but it’s just not the same. However, we do get some interesting flavours not available on the shelves of Tesco, including seaweed, oyster mushroom and salmon wasabi. Anyone want a pack posting?!!
#7. Picking up the phone for a natter
It used to be a favourite way of mine to unwind after a long, hard day at the office. I’d pick up my mobile and call a mate for a good gossip on my way home. There’s nothing like it to pick you up! I just can’t do that anymore. By the time I’m ready for bed each night, my friends are only just coming back from their lunch hour back in the UK. Phonecalls have to be precision planned and will inevitably involve me having to stay up late or wake up at an ungodly hour to catch them in the evening. It’s not impossible, but it’s just not easy. I feel quite disconnected from some good friends who I’d usually speak to a couple of times a month, it feels weird to not know what’s going on in their lives. I need to get them using Skype! 
There’s probably more, but these are the ones that jump to mind right now. On the flip side, there are many things I don’t miss including, the daily commute, unreliable transport, grey dank cold days, the nights closing in, reality tv shows and gangs of threatening teenagers! Ah, good old Blighty, I can’t help but miss you!
The sunny side of the street
Posted by: starqueen79 on: December 8, 2009
Perhaps it’s because the sun is such a rare event in the UK that we Brits get a bit overexcited at any glimpse of sunshine. As soon as those balmy rays start beaming down on us, the clothing gets stripped off and we tilt our faces upwards to bask in the warm glow. It doesn’t matter if temperatures are only in the high teens, it’s still enough to send us darting headfirst towards the nearest beach, beer garden or Mr Whippy van.
On a typical summer’s day at home, I would actually make a conscious decision to cross over the road, just to be able to walk on the sunny side of the street and enjoy what will no doubt be that fleeting moment we term “summer”.
Here in Sinagpore, the complete opposite is true. In fact, it’s very easy to distinguish the tourists from the locals purely by observing whether they are walking in the shade or not. It’s a common sight to see people standing 10m away from a street crossing, because that’s where the shade is, whilst bermuda-short wearing westerners stand sweating under the sun’s evil rays. Singaporeans will do anything to avoid the sun – not just to escape the heat (sweat patches are a no-no), but to prevent any harmful rays hitting their skin. I’m fairly certain this concern stems mainly from a desire to have white skin, rather than worries over skin cancer.
Ditch that healthy glow!
Whilst we slather our “pale and interesting” bodies in all varieties of self-tanning products, or worse still venture on the sun-bed, Singaporeans take other measures in the quest for beautiful skin. Western magazines may endorse the bronzed beauty, but skin as white as snow is what is revered here. I have to be careful picking up products in the chemists – practically everything you can put on your skin comes in a “whitening” version, even roll-on deodorant! People will put notebooks over their heads/faces as they walk along an unavoidably sunny stretch, or carry a special parasol with silver lining to fend off both the sun’s rays and the heat.
From my point of view, it’s the heat rather than the sunshine that’s a deterrent for me. More often than not I’ll stand in the shade of a building waiting for the green man (sadly I do have a tendency to “glow” in this heat!), but sometimes that Brit inside me escapes and I can’t help but stick my SPF-d face up to the sky and smile as I soak up those rays. After all, I may as well enjoy it while I can…
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