The height of fashion

19th December (again)

‘She looks lovely in all of it’
‘Why doesn’t any of it look good on me?’ my wife, and other ladies of a certain age remarked, at the one-woman fashion show that takes place every day at the Torviscus Playa. A very shapely and attractive Tenerifian woman; ochre, unblemished skin. Jet black hair.
Envy is a horrible thing. ‘Look what they’ve got!’ We say. ‘How do they afford that? We can’t afford it.’ They must have come into some money.
Or even worse…
‘I’m not beautiful like her’ or ‘handsome like him.’
But I’ve got news. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder- we all have someone who loves us. And beauty on the inside is far more beautiful and valuable than anything on the outside. How many beautiful people do you know that are absolutely wicked and horrible on the inside.
The good news is that we can all be more beautiful on the inside- it’s actually something you can change.

In this image conscious world of social media- where our children struggle to look good and fit in -It must he hard. Difficult to understand. Some are bullied for their looks. Some actually hurt themselves. Cut themselves, to make themselves ‘feel better.’ Don’t do it! Please don’t do it! You are all loved.
The animation team, here at the Torviscus Playa, put on a little charade at the poolside for us yesterday.
A beautiful (there’s that word again) woman, dressed in a figure hugging little black number; heels so high she could see over the piles of sun beds reserved for the German contingent- strode out onto the catwalk.
Dark glasses covered cats eyes.
She was flanked by two, excessively attentive, black-suited minders. Nervous of her power, fawning and acceding to her every whim.
I knew what it was all about in the first ten seconds- before she made them fetch champagne, and threw it in the face of one.

I didn’t watch the rest- like most of the other sun-worshippers, scattered like colourful beach litter after a storm.
In the words of PG Wodehouse again;
“A cannibal king, beholding them, would have whooped with joy and reached for his knife and fork with the feeling that for once, the catering department had not failed him.”- absolute genius!
We all got the point- if you only have outward beauty alone, no matter how attractive you are- spoilt behaviour, nastiness and a black- heart is not attractive to anyone. At least not marriage material- for a long term relationship.
I’m lucky that the girls in my life have both- but they don’t agree with me.

The fashion show lady had set out six rails of colourful and flouncy clothing behind our sunloungers -to entice us all to purchase her wares.
Michelle came grinning towards me, holding a pair of elephant-print trousers. How we laughed.
“If we all got a pair, Josh wouldn’t stand out as much in his. People would think they are the height of fashion and everyone would be wearing them.” Perhaps if the whole world bought a pair, we could save the elephants, I thought.
It was silly worrying about Josh and his funny trousers, we realised. It’s what’s inside that counts.
In the world of today, we grasp at what we can’t have- and ruin this beautiful planet for our own greed
Bugger the Elephants and the whales, and the birds and bees. Take- take -take. But there’s only so much our worldly home can take.
We admonish our children for wanting and being greedy- but we can also learn a lot from them. We don’t have a monopoly on knowledge and understanding.

Surely there has to be more to life than this?
I know there is.

I recognise the Music from ‘planet earth 2’ on the sound system – A poolside opera. A perfect moment as the sun warmed every part of me.

I offered to buy Emily the elephant print trousers, but she said she didn’t want to waste the money. I smiled and touched her arm.
The pool aerobics was coming to an end- and the music;

Andrea Bochelli – nelle tue mani – simply Beautiful!