Signs of an ageing face

The lines don’t lie anymore

I was recently interviewed for a series on foreigners living in Croatia, and as always there was a photoshoot.

It was an extremely cold day in Zagreb, in fact that morning I escaped -6 outdoors for a coffee and cinnamon bun indoors. I had also been out the night before, and perhaps was still a bit dehydrated from that.

Why all these excuses? Well when I saw the photo in the article it hit me, my face no longer hid by true age.

Look at me. I look tired and worn out. Perhaps I was tired and worn out, it had been three days of work hard play hard, pitching, presenting and negotiating. But the lines don’t lie. The fresh faced Freer has been replaced.

Never a frown, plenty a frown line

Those Knowles lines that have always impressed my forehead have grown deeper over the past two years. Was it life under Covid or life in the village, I will never know. Or perhaps the Mediterranean lifestyle comes at a cost, with more sun, when even protection doesn’t save you from the rays.

As someone who spends a miniscule fraction of my time frowning, I think I will have to rebrand mine. Expression lines or fun lines, because I use them mostly to share joy or jokes.