Mental Meanderings

The Sear of the Australian Summer Sun

It's Monday afternoon and I can finally move without being cast into blinding agony. I mentioned going to the beach on Saturday and getting sunburnt but even then I had no idea how badly my skin had taken the sunlight. The pain is easing off at last now but for all that night it felt like it was continuing to burn through layers and layers of flesh. Nothing took away the heat and I was starting to wonder if this is what burns patients feel like in hospital.

You know, the Australia sun is pretty brutal. I wonder how many people out there each and every day are destroying their bodies in the sunlight. I wonder how much my hour in the sun has damaged my skin. Am I a step closer to cancer because of this burn?

I've always been super conscious of the destruction the sun wreaks. I don't like the heat to begin with and tend to keep my home dark and cool. In fact for years I wanted to move elsewhere to get away from the heat of Australian Summers. Now days I just stay home, in the airconditioning and go out infrequently and fully covered to places that are shaded and airconditioned.

Unless of course my sun-loving and skin-tanning sister drags me out into the sunshine where my skin promptly turns the shade of a glittering ruby. To go with sunburn is the inevitable dehydration when no matter how much I drink I still feel dry and brittle.

I can understand why a large portion of this country is desert. I've often had fantasies about living in the outback where the land is barren and dust coats in multiple layers every surface. Where the brown is speckled with cattle that goes weeks on minimal water and the only way to get from place to play is by helicopter or light plane. But I couldn't handle the sun in an environment like that. As beautiful as this land is I've not really got the temperament to withstand it. Damn my English heritage.

Meanwhile I wander around in backless clothing letting the burn heal while I remain firmly away from all light sources. I laze about trying to recover my energy and my fluids, moving as minimally as possible so as not to make my back hurt any more than it already does and I wonder how many layers of my flesh will peel away when the skin begins to heal.

Oh, the wonders of the Australian Summer Sun.