Ahhh, isn't he cute

You probably, reading this, think I'm the bitch queen from hell. If I sometimes give the impression that I loathe and despise the man I'm married to well, gee, there are reasons, but more of that later on...

In the meantime we spent today apart because he went up to London to be with his mother and he took my daughter with him, which was fine. I asked him to run and errand for me, pop into the big chemist on the way and pick up something from their own label. I gave him my old nearly empty bottle and crossed my fingers, expecting him either to forget completely or bugger the task up.

No, I was wrong. He managed to negotiate the cosmetics counters of Boots and bring home the booty. Being the canny shopper he is he detected the offer, the Spend £15 and get x, y or z Free type of offer, so he bought something else and thereby was awarded the free gift.

The free gift is a selection in sampler size of the top of the range items in this top of the range Own Brand line, and the lippy shade is definitely wearable. So he gets bonus points for that.

I was suitable and unfeignedly graciously thankful for his efforts on my behalf.

I've now, however, had the chance to look more carefully at the second product he bought which was purchased to get the gift; it is a selection of pre-summer pre-suntanning skin products, to get your skin into the best shape to absorb those rays.

Now let me quote two passages from the following:

Diagnosis and Management of Malignant Melanoma
BETH G. GOLDSTEIN, M.D., and ADAM O. GOLDSTEIN, M.D.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
April 2001

First a quote concerning the implications of scoring high on the risk factors:

Table 1 lists the risk factors for development of malignant melanoma. A patient
with two or more risk factors, such as an atypical nevus that is changing in
color or size, has a high risk of having a melanoma.

The Table:


Risk Factors for Melanoma

Risk factor - Relative risk

History of a changing mole - >400
Atypical nevus syndrome
With a family history of melanoma - 148
With a personal and family history of melanoma - 500
Large congenital nevus (15 cm or more in diameter) - 17
White race - 10 to 12
Personal history of melanoma - 9
History of melanoma before age 40 - 23
Regular tanning bed use before age 30 - 7.7
Multiple nevi - 5 to 12
Atypical nevi - 7 to 27
Immunosupression - 4 to 8
Family history (first -degree) of melanoma - 3 to 8
Nonmelanoma skin cancer - 3 to 5
Sun sensitivity (tendency to sunburn) - 2 to 3

And the facts are:

I am 'ethnically' celtic, grew up in Australia, spent huge amounts out of doors playing sports and sunbathing, lost my father to melanoma when I was 10 and he was just 36, have fair skin, hair with a red tinge, burn easily, have been diagnosed with aplastic nevus syndrome (an abnormally high number of nevi) and at 28 had a BCC (basel cell sarcoma) removed from my face. Hmmm.

I don't have a death wish. I don't sunbathe; much as I adore the feel of sunlight on my skin that rarely happens and certainly not during the middle of the day at the height of summer.

And we've been married since 1993 and he thinks I'll have a use for this stuff.

The man can be kind and generous but he can also be one hell of a plonker.