This is Mel in Vienna. Could be New York, Marbella, Ethiopia or Croydon. She sees some sunshine, a chink (I’m allowed to use that word in this context) in the clouds, a glimmer behind a wall, and she’ll turn and face it, anywhere, anytime. And smile. Because the sunshine makes her feel happy. Ahhhhhhh. I know, it sounds pathetic, but in fact its not, its good sense, good health and logevity. And animals as well as Mel and other humans, get depressed in the dark, dull winter months due to lack of sunshine. SADS. Seasonal affectation Disorders. Very sads.

We’ve had a long and varied stream of (worthless?) advice about sunshine. Its good for you. It’ll kill you. It’s great for the skin, it’ll ruin your skin, you’ll get cancer, you’ll live longer, you’ll be happier, its depressing, and on and on and on.

In the 70s we used to rub oil onto our skin. Sun protection was unthought of, the oil was to help you fry and moisturise your skin so you could burn it longer before going to hospital. And we went from Baby Oil, as an old girlfriend used always on the beach in California, to factor 50, in 30 years. Mainly because the Aussies invented a hole in the ozone layer to become paranoid about.

Well fuck them! New tests have shown that sunbathing makes you live longer. You shouldn’t, you should be a dried up prune with skin cancer, but its not the case. In fact they’ve shown that vitimin D (wot we get from the sun, as well as a tan) deficiency increases a whole range of the usual horrors, including melanomas. Go figure.

The upshot is; they really don’t know shit from shinola when it comes to the Sun. Or vitimin D. I’ve never been a pill popper, not vitimins anyway. But I love the sun, so I’d rather just go on holiday.

Like Kim Jong Un. Well, he went somewhere. The fat little leader of the North Korean peoples disappeared for 6 weeks, only to return yesterday without much comment. Rumours were rife that he’d died, he’d eaten so much as to become immobile, he fell and injured a leg. He could have been kidnapped but unlikely the ransom would cover the food bill for Little Billy 2 Dinners. Because apparently he has a ‘thing’ about Swiss Cheese. Very healthy stuff, even without sunshine. But his ‘thing’ is of an Elvis kind of nature; obsessive, compulsive and with no-one allowed to comment or suggest moderation. Not and live to see tomorrow from outside solitary confinement.

I’ve missed Kim. The world wasn’t the same without him. No, I didn’t actually notice either.

Happy sunny Tuesday (even though its wetter than wet out there)

A xxxx