Holiday plans

[fivemack]

[yr hmbl correspondent wonders where to get waterproof spray-on sunscreen, as he sits with blistered shoulders after spending Saturday on the beach at Bournemouth with hsenag et multi alii]

Work is starting to drag in the sort of way that suggests a holiday would be good, so I'm reckoning on taking two weeks off starting next Monday.

I'm hoping it's not going to be the sort of holiday that needs a holiday to recover from it; Saturday and Sunday in Nottingham with my old housemates and hopefully Chiara, Monday and Tuesday in Cardiff with papersky and zorinth, Wednesday probably lazily at home, then heading to Cambridge Thursday-ish, and Friday to Friday staying up on the coast near Middlesbrough on a walking holiday with my parents.

Is there still group activity in Cambridge on Thursday nights?

Comments

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

staying up on the coast near Middlesbrough

I live in Middlesbrough. Do call by, if you can!

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

There's a high probability of some people you know being in the Carlton Arms on a Thursday evening, barring exceptional events like local beer festivals.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Whilst exceptional, presumably local beer festivals are relatively easy to predict in advance. Google tells me there's not a Cambridge Beer Festival that day, but I'm not sure how to check that a Coton, Fen Ditton, Teversham or Whittleford Beer Festival might not be lurking, foaming fangs agape.

In the desperate hope that his company might be preferable to that of the CAMRAns of the far fens,

Tom

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

as he sits with blistered shoulders

This is increasingly shown to be unwise, get the waterproof sunblock unless you really like having bits of your skin removed 20 years from now.

[j4.livejournal.com]

My mum has some spray-on last-for-hours waterproof sunscreen, will ask her where she got it...

People are usually in the Carlton Arms on Thursday nights. I will probably be there this Thursday unless I start panicking about getting stuff packed in time for going to Switzerland on Saturday...

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It'll be wonderful to see you there if you do make it.

[to add further faff, Wednesday evening I'm going to Stratford with my housemate and some work friends to see the RSC's production of King Lear. I suppose it's rather like Fairford; if I haven't done something before nor plan often to do it again, I should try to pick the best example available]

Tom

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

The really effective spray-on sunscreens are generally intended for very small children. Look in their specialty stores, and expect to pay lots. If you read the fine print, you'll see that they expect you to spray it on, and then rub it in, to get the full effect (waterproof, long-lasting, sun protection.) If you just spray, it doesn't work as well. Also, NO sunscreen will work very well if you just put on a little bit. You really have to slather it on to get the proper level of protection.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Is there still group activity in Cambridge

"And stands the clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?"

I don't know if you know that poem, but it contains wonderful abuse of most villages around Cambridge.

As far as the sunscreen goes, I second Adrian's recommendation of looking in the kid's section. I'd also add the bit that Zorinth didn't quite understand -- "waterproof" means "works while in the water" not "can be applied at 10h00 and will last while you're in and out of the water all day". You need to reapply when you get out, and frequently.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I think I only knew the few lines at the end, I hadn't expected the poem (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem231.html) to be several pages long. The abuse is truly fine, especially the variously-blanching strong men, and the Lovecraftian nameless crimes of Coton.

Reapplication is what gets me every time, for the sun-cream is under the shelter on the fine dry sand at the top of the beach; once I've got there from the water, I'm sandy all over, and rubbing greasy, abrasively sandy lotion over already-sore skin is not among the delectable sensual experiences of the world. You sympathise with Miles Vorkosigan.