I also love my 3/4 length trousers have loads of pairs and as I have bought some of them in France and Italy and the consensus of opinion on the board is that Italian and French ladies are chic maybe that makes me chic too: like Glynis I have long legs though I never really noticed that 3/4 length make everyones legs look short. I think it's the fit that is important. Very few of my Italian friends would dream of leaving the house on holiday or at home without being made up and I have never thought they were 'overdone' and I guess I am as I almost always wear mascara, waterproof if I am swimming. I tried tinting my eyelashes but the dye caused an allergic reaction.

Glynis, are your 3/4 length shorts really 3/4 length trousers, but you call them shorts because your legs are very, very long!!

I am blonde and I had my eyelashes tinted a few years ago and to be honest I couldn't really tell, however, it did not occur to me to curl them as that may have made a bit of a difference.

I tend to wear Max Factor's waterproof mascara all of the time because otherwise when I get hot the mascara tends to end up underneath my eyes. The Max Factor mascara makes my eyelashes look really long. To remove it I either use a liquid eye make up remover, Astral or Liz Earle's Cleanse & Polish hot cloth cleanser.

Glynis, are your 3/4 length shorts really 3/4 length trousers, but you call them shorts because your legs are very, very long!

Believe that happens when I try to wear 'normal' length trousers - they look like cut off's
The eyelashes don't look a great deal different I must admit - but the eyebrow tint makes a world of difference to anyone with fair/blonde eyebrows

I've really enjoyed reading these posts and can identify with you all

One thing I have to say though - those chic European ladies don't look as though they're having half as much fun as us

Just found this thread - brilliant
I certainly do not fit into the "chic" category being in possesion of a set of bingo wings , a muffin top , red face and hair that only frizzes on hols so I am constantly startled by my appearance. So much so last year I said to the girls - look at that woman she looks just like grandma only to realise it was my reflection!!
We went for a long walk along the beach last year , me laden up with all the stuff, hot and sweaty, daughters flip flop broke so had to give her mine (or carry her - she is 5'7!) and jump and hop all the way back.
The sunbeds are always a mess ,can never find all of the shoes, sunglasses , tee shirts at the end of the day.
I spend hours back and fore to the room and seem to be the only one capable of transporting the inflatable crocodiles they still insist on buying!!

But I MAY have solved the wrinkly towel issue - google Itsa - mine is cerise
Lally

I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face with laughter at all of these posts brilliant

I can relate to everyone of them

thanks for starting this post

Is an inflatable crocodile this year's must have accessory? Personally, I would much rather have a pair of really big sunglasses.

Another thing I give up on after a few days on holiday is trying to have an elegant hairstyle in the evenings because in Goa the nights can be quite humid. I spend ages diddling around with my hair in our air conditioned bedroom; I tweak, twizzle and curl and add loads of hairspray only to go out into the night air and have my hair go 'baaa bing' within about half an hour of leaving the hotel. My hair ends up looking like a badly knitted woolly hat. So I spend the rest of the holiday just scrunch drying my hair because there is no point in doing anything else (I don't like having my hair up because I have a chubby face).

sydney wrote:

Is an inflatable crocodile this year's must have accessory?

"I see your crocodile and raise you a dolphin/killer whale/shark/puff the magic dragon etc..."
Is it only us Brits who have to outdo each other with our inflatables? "My boat's bigger than your boat..." and they all have to be stuffed under the sunbed so they don't blow away while the kids can't be bothered playing with them. One year I dragged a dolphin and a big yellow dragon down to the pool every day, and in the whole two weeks they were played with for about 10 minutes.
I also have to have a lilo on my sunbed because I can't lie on the hard plastic - chic ladies don't seem to have a problem with being comfortable on hard sunbeds.

oh how I laughed when I read this thread Last year there was a Spanish family who seemed to look chic all day every day.

Both Mum and Gran looked fantastic around the pool with their lovely long curling tongued hair, Gran must have been about 50/60ish, had a teenaged girl body and looked brill in a simple white bikini, sarong and high heeled shoes whilst waltzing around the pool.

Me?, my hair had 2 styles; the 'swept back just had a swim but could do with a good shampoo' look or the 'Worzel Gummidge frazzled ends' look!! I always remembered to breathe in when getting in/out of the pool. I had the horrid 'they are too tight' sunglasses mark on my nose and I always had sand in my pants from the beach no matter how careful I was at placing those darn beach mats!

cyberspacekadette wrote:

One year I dragged a dolphin and a big yellow dragon down to the pool every day, and in the whole two weeks they were played with for about 10 minutes.

That is just so true, the amount of them that are always attached to our sunbeds, I am sure they are hardly ever used, but seem to get dragged along, just incase they are needed.

I love the look of cut-offs on others and have owned a few myself in the past, but being so very short, (I'm 4ft 11 and a half although my passport as it says I'm 5ft ) I have finally given up on them as I just look like I am wearing a pair of trousers that have shrunk a little.

Holiday hair nightmares are probably a topic in their own right, but can readily identify with either the 'frizz' look or the 'chlorined out look' both of which I have happily adopted on many holidays.

Don't know about crocodiles but last year my son found a really original inflatabel, a huge mobile phone!!!!! It went everywhwre with us, beach and pool and he only played on it for about half an hour tops each day but he had great fun yelling at us, Dom Jollie style every now and again. "MUM.....AM ON ME MOBILE" gave everyone a laugh.

So, if anyones going to the Rising Star in Protaras three weeks from now and happens to see a mobile phone in the pool.................

if you really feel the need to wear it you'd be better off wearing a waterproof one so that it doesn't run down your cheeks

Hi Strawberry7, couldn't agree more but when you realise that you've brought only the ordinary stuff with you there's not much you can do about it in Cuba! And I'd already given away all the mascara I take out to the women professional dancers because decent stuff is so hard to come by out there so I couldn't snaffle one of them either! I'm actually quite lucky in that my lashes and eyebrows are dark (if only the hair on my head was still so naturally black!) but they're definitely on the 'thin' side so tend to use a single coat of mascara to bulk them up a bit - I never bother with anything else in the humidity - you can almost feeling it sliding off your face the moment you leave an air conditioned environment! And as I discovered on that trip - no matter how many hair grips you use or spray to keep that chignon in place - it will never survive complete immersion And nor did the corsage clipped on top which I had originally thought was a nice final touch! And I did at least walk gracefully to the pool and sit down ever so elegantly - it was actually getting into the water which did for me

SM

This thread is hilarious. Wonder how many bidders I'd get if I put my muffin top on ebay ...

The summer fashion look that I hate the most is white knickers under white trousers! Yuk! Especially on big bums!

Better than black knickers under white trousers Kayley

blimey, kayley, what colour knicks are acceptable under white trews, ? I always wear white under white, no way am I going to buy 'flesh' coloured underwear, oooh, I shudder at the thought, ( So would hubby ! )
mind, you , I reckon the chic ladies would !

Got to be flesh I'm afraid! Otherwise you look like a walking pair of knickers! Look around at the people wearing white and you'll soon see why.
If you can't bear flesh you may get away with cream or you could take the advice of my neighbour, a lovely lady in her seventies. I asked her what the secret of a long and happy marriage was....."I get up everymorning and lay out a set of sliky undies on the bed. Then I have my shower. When my husband's not looking, I put them back in the drawer and quickly put on some Bridget Jones'. He's happy and I'm comfy!". They had just celebrated their 50th Anniversary and are as romantic as ever!

Good advice from your neighbour their Kayley.

As for underwear with white trousers, I agree that the wrong undies can look terrible...the same goes with white blouses and white bras.

The tip is to wear skin colour, or 'nude' underwear as this minimises it being seen far bettr than white.

If not just go commando!!!!!!

The look that makes me shudder is the teeny tiny top, hipster trousers and thong waistband showing a good distance above the trousers because the top doesn't go down that far to hide it. It doesn't matter whether the person wearing this outfit is slim or overweight, the look is just not nice.