So maybe today was just a freak, and tomorrow we’ll be plunged back into wintry greyness, but it’s getting to be that time of year when I have to start covering up when I go outside to prevent all that UV from triggering a flare of my lupus symptoms.

“Covering up” entails wearing high-factor suncream and covering my head and shoulders (at this time of year, at least; in midsummer I try to hide as much skin as possible). I have an array of hats and scarves with which to achieve this and I have mostly gotten over the embarrassment of looking like a twat, or at least standing out from the crowd. What I have not yet perfected is how to wear headscarves properly. Why don’t they teach us this stuff at school?

I can do your basic piratical tied round the head with ends trailing at the back look. When I haven’t had all my hair chopped off recently I can do a decent hair in a bun with scarf tied round in a sort-of cottage loaf thing. What I can’t do is anything remotely elegant. I want to look like a 1950s film star when I put a headscarf on. Or a mysterious Arab beauty (except showing my face so not all that mysterious).

Is there anyone out there who can provide me with some much-needed guidance?