TRUE CONFESSION

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Sandi Toksvig, writing in Good Housekeeping - to which I have a subscription - has delighted me by praising the Victorian bathing machine.  Yes, indeed, those were the days, when you could become half submerged in the water without having to "walk the plank" from the beach to the sea.  Not that anyone gives  a sixty-year-old woman a second glance in Italy, where all enjoy frolicking in the sea, but British self-consciousness does not die easily or lessen with age.

I know, too, that swimming is the best exercise for someone like me and swimming is something I can do.  But my real reason for not going to the beach a lot is the same as my reason for not going to the pool - I couldn't  cope with the aftermath on a regular basis.  I mean, even after a shower and change, there is the whole makeup to be redone, after-sun to be spread all over and then I need the hairdresser!