Episode II: The search for suncream

I have to start by apologising to all of my colleagues and friends, whom I’ve “borrowed” sun cream from. It wasn’t meant to be like this but like my Oma says “So ist das Leben”. In all honesty I didn’t see this day coming, it’s funny really, because I knew the weather was very hot and sunny here in Cyprus. However I feel that I’ve been lied to, I was under the impression that the cost of living would be significantly cheaper than the UK (where I’m from and not known as a cheap place to live). Particularly my beef (FYI that’s also very expensive here) is with the price of sun cream. The last time I bought some, I was in Germany buying a family size bottle for about €6, good luck finding 200ml, SPF 50 (Yeah I’m quite white) for less than €10 here. For someone whose budget doesn’t quite stretch to champagne and caviar (actually here it does €3 and €3,50 respectively, but you get the point), I was looking at affordable pricing through the rear view mirror.

So how do I survive and not look like a tomato? I “borrow” sun cream from generous friends (as long as I can keep getting away with it), and I wear my hat all the time. I say “my” hat but in reality it’s yet another thing “I’ve borrowed”, it’s my friend’s or was. It’s mine now, a part of me, attached and adjusted to my fairly small, oddly shaped head. We’re inseparable and that’s the way it is, but this is it for the moment. As it’s starting to turn into summer (and over 40°C), and I start wondering why I didn’t just move into my oven instead of an equally hot island over 3000 km away from said oven. A solution needs to be found. One answer could be making being burned cool, I could be a trendsetter, but I don’t fancy skin cancer, so no hope there. Another could be the caviar I mentioned earlier, it’s cheaper and could improve my tan, although I’m not sure about its effectiveness also I’d smell like fish. With neither of those options being particularly appealing the search continues…

Said hat