Day 1 - Beach days and sun.......

Well. It appears I am taking part in the 31 Day Challenge. If you would like to join in, pop over to The Nester and see what it is all about. Loads of people have signed up and now it is time for my first post.

Memories.

These are the images which haunt our subconscious, colour our days and keep us warm on cold Autumn nights. Not that it is cold here in the UK on the first day of October. Oh no. Temperatures have broken all records. it is HOT people. HOT.

But I grew up in Africa, and believe me, it can get hot there. Very hot. When my children were young, we used to go to the beach at breakfast time - often with friends, and while the kiddies cavorted around the beach, we would cook bacon and eggs on a portable gas BBQ called a skottelbraai. It had a big wok-like attachment, and you could cook anything. In fact, the Mums used to have a good laugh, because somehow men, unable or unwilling to cook breakfast in a kitchen, suddenly became master chefs when in front of fire.

Skottelbraai - image courtesy of Google images

It is a male thing - fire. Cooking. Standing around chatting while poking the meat. But I remember those gorgeous African mornings - the skies are indescribable, you know. Just so different,. And, ironically, one of the favourite beaches we went to was Fish Hoek. The same beach where that really stupid man was attacked by a great white shark last week. (He ignored the shark warnings)

Fish Hoek - image courtesy of Google Images

 Fish Hoek is a perfect beach to take children, you see. It is relatively shallow, and the waves are not enormous. Cape Town is at the bottom of Africa, and the 2 oceans meet at Cape Point. The Atlantic is the cold ocean, and the Indian, the warmer one. The huge waves are on the western side (the Atlantic).

Fish Hoek beach - image courtesy of Google Images

The children had boogie boards and a paddleski and they were in their element. Thankfully, back in the 1980s, the in thing was to wear wet-suits on the beach, instead of skimpy bathing costumes, and because my 3 were all very fair (the red hair) this meant they could be out there in the early morning. That takes me back to the beginning - the heat. The reason we all went to the beach for breakfast or for supper, was to keep out of the sun. I must say, the southern hemisphere, with the Australia "slip, slap, slop" campaign too, is very careful about the gaping hole in the ozone layer overhead. Sun awareness is excellent - and was back then too.

Boogie Board - image courtesy of Google images

They made a sun cream like a glue stick too, and the kids all had them in their pencil cases and before they went out to lunch break, they all swiped the sunscreen over their faces. great training. The boogie boards, by the way, had to be the "right " ones - labels were BIG in the preteen set, believe me! Just like the skateboards.

My mother, who is 85 now, spent every one of her summer holidays in Fish Hoek down on the beach. My grandparents rented a house on the beach for 6 weeks every year and Mum and her brother and cousins had the most wonderful summers. But those are more memories for another day......