*Sigh*....the summer season is soon going to be over, and we have not had 1 full decent month of wonderful warm weather yet. Rain, rain, go away! They (the weather people) promise sunshine in the next few days, so let's see if they mean "in Copenhagen".
Good thing I'm tanned enough so that I need not "worry" about looking pale and sickly during the winter months. It's funny how in Singapore (or Asia) people tend to hide from the sun in order not to get tanned, but here in Denmark, you'll find the parks and beaches filled with people sun-bathing whenever the sun decides to show itself!
When I was growing up in Singapore, I didn't like being dark-skinned. Asians tend to look down on those with dark skin, and even though Singaporeans live together in racial harmony, there still exists some extent of judging someone by his/her skin colour.
Whenever I went out with my fair-skinned Chinese mum, people tended to exclaim blatantly "How come your children so dark one?!" It got worse when my 2 sisters came into this world because then, people thought I was the young Filipino or Indonesian maid! Sales girls (most likely low-educated) would find it their business to ask my mum in Hokkien or Mandarin if I was her maid while nodding in my direction, without realising that I understood every non-English word they said. Hmm...if I were a maid and they were sales girls serving me, would that not make them my "maids"??? Anyway, nosy strangers like those sales girls can really piss me off.
It wasn't easy for me to get fair, though. I mean, I played tennis out in the sun at least once a week since I was 12, plus I was in the track and field school team for a while, which meant more outdoor training, then I joined my polytechnic tennis school team when I was 17, which meant training outdoors twice a week or even 3 times a week when we got closer to competitions. It was too hot for me to play in long sleeved tops and pants, and I get dark really quickly (just ½hr is enough to see a difference).
I resorted to this: skin-lightening cream, used very much by Indian women. Did it work? Well, as you can see, the tube (which I still keep for unknown reasons) was not even ½ used. I guess I gave up pretty early in the treatment, or maybe I was just too lazy to religiously rub that cream on myself twice a day as instructed for 6 - 8 weeks. I mean, I'm sure that in order for this fairness cream to work, I should also avoid the sun as much as possible, but with my sporty schedules, that was out of the question.
So what did I do instead??? Simple! I packed up and moved to Denmark ;o)! Over here, people are envious of my tanned skin, especially in winter time (or during a bad summer when the sun hides itself). They don't go "Why are you so dark?" in a menacing tone here like it was my fault that I am ½ Indian. Instead, they go "I wish I had your colour!" Guys like it, girls like it, Martin likes it...and I've since grown to like it too. So no more fairness cream for me! If anybody wants my not-very-used tube of it, then it's yours ;o). It's more than 10 years old, though....so not sure if it's still effective (not that I know if it was effective already back then).
In the meantime, I'll just continue strutting around Copenhagen looking tanned and healthy, and when the sun does decide to show itself this summer, then I will just "stock up" a bit more tan for the winter... . Well, I don't have to....but I can ;o).
