Sun seeker

If you’re in Buenos Aires and it’s nearing forty degrees on Avenida Corrientes and you wish you were on the beach instead, well… you can be (sort of). For the price of a bus ride ($1.25pesos from the centre of town to Vicente Lopez on the number 29) and a bit of a walk, you can have your own private parasol shading a couple of canary-yellow low-slung seats, and a river (that almost looks like a sea) view. You can even have one of these little sun-bathing stations on sand if you want, because there’s a big rectangle of it specially created further up the ‘beach’ to give you the true Mar del Plata feeling, but, as yet anyway, even on a Sunday in mid-summer, you can enjoy it without the crowds (as they have, in fact, all buggered off to Mar del Plata, where I see from the endess TV coverage, they are crammed (see this brilliant photo by Pablo Cabado to get an idea) onto the real beaches with barely space between them for a single grain of sand).

It was C.’s idea to go to the Buenos Aires Playa. He’d heard about it on the radio, along with its jolly jingle (just check out the cute official website and wait to hear it), and he probably thought the sunshine-yellow brollies couldn’t fail to lift my spirits out of the slight doldrums I’ve been wading through (though not wallowing in, I promise) of late. When the man I love suggests a day out to me, offers me the chance to be a tourist, wants to show me something of Buenos Aires that I’ve never seen… Barbie wakes up, looks forward to candy floss, reminds me to take my camera so I can write about it afterwards. Alas, the mistake she made on Sunday was getting me so excited that I forgot to put my sun block, or indeed any kind of sun protection cream at all in my bag.

I am a shade seeker as a rule. I stopped lying outdoors grilling myself when I was about thirty years old (before that the world hadn’t really heard of Slip, Slap, Slop – it was cooking oil and the lowest sun protection factor possible, in those days). The last time I got sunburnt was in Wales this British summer, but it was only my feet, that had slipped from the cover of my trousers while I slept on the Pembrokeshire pebbles. Now I’ve got a delightful 

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scenario going on, and I’ve been kicking myself all week for my own stupidity.

Thing was, we didn’t get the 29 bus to Vincente Lopez, we took the 15 from our place, and so, got off before it turned onto the General Paz motorway (with the 29 you can get off the stop after, outside the Carrefour megastore), and ended up having to walk for at least half an hour along what really was the car access route – zero shade. I should have worn a shirt, but it was only 10am, there was a luverley breeze, and I had that ‘off to the beach feeling’ where all good things seem possible and I know I am invincible. By the time we’d been installed in our yellow plastic loungers (in shade) for a couple of hours and I noticed that when I pressed my arm it turned white for a moment then bounced back red – you know the routine, it was far too late. And we had to sit there longer, because I couldn’t face the walk back in the midday sun… in the end, we did set off, but poor Carlos had to strip off his shirt and give it to me, soaked in water (from the free showers), and so he (galant soul that he is), now looks like a tomato too.

We did, in spite of almost toasting ourselves to a crisp, have a super time. The grass was pristine (no dogs, littering or alcohol allowed), the kiosko sold the tastiest potato chips I’ve ever eaten in Argentina (smoky bacon flavour), and we sat and stared lovingly at each other for an hour or two, while I forgot some of the other ‘life-decision’ type stuff going on for us at the moment. It was a splash-of-sunshine break in space and time, and I was grateful for it. And, I’m not letting a spot of sunburn spoil that sentiment. No, no, no.

And that’s the trick you see, isn’t it? No matter what happens, don’t let the unexpected sunburn make you forget the blue sky, the fluttering canvas of the parasollies (made up Sallycat word), the birds who strut their stuff on the grass inches from your feet, or the love in the eyes of the man who runs off for ice-creams, drinks, smoky bacon snacks, and who takes his shirt off to protect you from the sun’s killer ray-gun. Learn something, yes. Don’t leave your sun cream at home next time. Use what you now know to make your next plan even better. Get the 29 not the 15 and get off closer to the beach, where there’s a tree shaded walk all the way. Be excited, but not so excited that it makes you lose your common sense altogether… that’s me all over you see. And perhaps it’s the part of me I love the most. The part that says, Just do it Sal. You can worry about the consequences later. The Barbie part.

Today I’m facing a few consequences it’s true, and sunburn is the least of them. But, the sunburn is fading already, and so eventually will the confusing and painful part of the other stuff (which is nothing life-threatening, just new aspects of life, and the VOD factor that can rise in me when any kind of ‘new aspect of life’ raises its head). In the past weeks I have received many many messages of support from around the world. I haven’t even mentioned the detail of my circumstance, but you’ve generously wished me good things. The up-energy  in all of that, plus the small actions that I do every day to keep myself on the level: the relaxation iPod Touch downloads in the night, the yoga CDs on waking, my morning pages, my chats with the people who know me best of all and good professional advice on the topics that need some planning for the future. All are getting me from A to B, where B, I am sure, will be a beautiful beach in my life that I haven’t even dreamed of yet, and as I go, I’m just reminded to enjoy the journey and make it the best it can possibly be. The dangerous aspects of the sun’s rays will always be there, but I can deal with them, once I know their power: I’ll be visiting the Buenos Aires Playa again soon, but this time I’ll be taking the 29 bus, and the Factor 30 is already in my bag. Meanwhile, I’m still working out what colectivo I need to catch for my travels through 2010, and what I need to put in my kit bag. But I’ll get there. And when I do, and the big picture starts shaping up, I’ll let you know.

If you’ve tried to get in touch with me in any way at all and I haven’t replied yet, I’m sorry. It’s just that I sometimes can’t bear to go through it all yet one more time and it is a bit complicado. It’s not that I’m not grateful. I am, more than you know. But, I’m working on attracting the solution, and at times I feel that explaining my challenges over and over again is going to make them bigger, not smaller – know what I mean? So for now, let’s stick with the sunnier stuff. Those bright yellow parasols for a start. Gorgeous aren’t they? If you’re in Buenos Aires this summer, why not go and give them a try? And if you’re freezing in your own country right now, I hope that simply seeing these will make you feel warmer. Now, where did I put that enormous pot of Aloe Vera?