We love it, we look for it and we praise it. It makes us happy. It offers us a sweet caress and a goldish skin. It makes the plants grow. It plays with the colours around us. It is warm or even too hot. We chased its last glimpse at the end of every sailing day to have a new green flash.
It is our friend but we should be careful with such a friend. Its presents can be irreversible and dangerous. So we are super cautious and we are always protecting ourselves. Slip (on sun protective clothing) slap (on a broad brimmed hat) slop (slop on sunscreen) as they say: long sleeves (always for Greg), sun cream, hats, sunglasses and we avoid the hours when the sun is high. We try to be even more careful when it is water game time and we always swim with our sun tops on.
Now that we are in Brisbane, we have to be even more scrupulous as the sun is really really bad. It is the world capital for skin cancer and you feel it. The UV index goes on a scale up to 12. Here, between the summery months (October to May), the index is 11+ every day.
For us, parents we weren’t so protective 30 years ago and saw only the positive effects of the sun. So, we pay it more: Greg goes every 6 months to have his skin checked and had few suspicious moles removed. I discovered that I had a tiny spot in my left eye which is caused by sun damaged. We believe in prevention and try to pass the message on. The kids have their broad rim hat, they roll sunscreen before leaving Merlin and we still try to avoid being outside between 11 and 3. Prevention might not do it all but does help.
