Life's not a beach

I like the sense of equality the beach provides. All are equal as can be under the sun. Usual markers of class, status and lifestyle become more or less irrelevant.

You can spend hours detailing your sand castle or your irrigation project, but you don't own it and it's gone when you are.

You can spend hours carefully appling suntan lotion in pursuit of that perfect tan, but we all get burned the moment we slacken, or fall asleep after one too many slices of pizza and cans of beer.

You can arrive on the number six bus, the taxi, the mini van or your Range Rover, but we all arrive at the same place, facing the same sea, walking the same coarse sand.

When we get home, we all feeling nicely tired, from having spent the same hot day not doing very much under the sun.