Only just caught up enough at work to find time to report back on my “marathon 7 days without rubber” (sic). Most people are probably already smiling at this challenge – but it seemed like a real challenge to me at the time!
There was the physical side and the emotional/psychological challenge.
The physical challenges were getting used to the vanilla clothes for long periods and getting used to not being protected by rubber from the environment. I can report that I did find vanilla uncomfortable – but this was mitigated by the fact I was able to acclimatize by starting off by wear just walker sandals, shorts and t-shirt once I got to my destination.
The down side to this was all the weather, dust and insects that had free access to my skin. Not used to it – so found myself a little more sensitive to these – particularly the sun! I was always well oiled with very strong insect repelling sun lotion – which turned out to be essential. I don’t have a fair complexion and don’t have sensitive skin, so it was interesting to note I was still browning and being occasionally eaten with my Factor 25 / 50% DEET lotion – despite regularly being topped up by my at tentative assistant!
Then there were the light levels. I guess it would have seem very bright to anyone from the UK, but I normally wear tinted goggles all day with my hood– so the light levels outside seemed painfully strong (from the moment I woke up) without my sun glasses.
Then there was the heat. The odd thing was I found on the first day I was not sweating very much at all. I tackled this on subsequent days by never letting myself go more than 15 minutes without drinking water. I think I have sort of “trained” myself over the last few months to minimize my perspiration. The first few days – I could hardly function from about 11 am to 2 pm. All this with actually quite modest temperatures - usually only around 28C in the shade!
In fact being so reliant on my glasses, packs of water bottles and over-applied oil, if I wanted to leave our villa, seemed slightly kinky in itself…
Anyway, I did seem to start acclimatizing to all these physical effects by the end of the week.
And then I even found something that would help with the emotional / fetish needs in the second half of the week – namely snorkeling. I had my latex flippers, mask and tube to help! Hanging there, in the clear warm water, breathing through a tube and holding my breath was perfect. We were both soon snorkeling addicts. Being together with just the sound of our breathing was most stimulating….
Snorkeling being a good substitute to my fetish was not something I consciously planned on – but it does show how powerful your sub-conscience is at shaping your conscious actions.
So after a week I retuned to my TE lifestyle – and its almost like I was never away. The vanilla part of my brain enjoyed the vacation a lot –while the fetish part of my brain enjoyed just the snorkeling.
At one time my fetish alter-ego was something I would need to regularly satisfy while leading a vanilla life. If I let things go to the natural conclusion I can see I would end up with a vanilla alter-ego requiring just very occasional free rain while leading an essentially fetish lifestyle – but I wonder if I would want to let it drift to that extreme.
Sealed.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Monday, September 05, 2005
Monday, 05 September 2005 Getting SPAM on Holiday?
Re: SPAM
Thanks Xevious for reporting the SPAM and I am Sorry - I am also disappointed about these freeloaders. To protect my readership from having to waste their time reading rubbish, I have chosen to have zero-tolerance from now on. Gratuitously off subject posts will be deleted (and have been). I really object being forced to act as the despotic censor on what I view as being a “community thing”, but it falls to being a responsibility of owning a blog.
I would like to assure readers that I do NOT have a problem to people posting links to other sites – as long as they are relevant and of interest. I have deliberately left critical posts online in the past, although I would prefer constructive or well communicated criticism. Don’t worry if you do (briefly) go off topic, I am not going to delete your post as long as you spend some time either on subject or replying to any of my off-subject posts!
We all know what constitutes a malicious or SPAM post – and I will do my best to protect you from them. I have tightened up a little so that only registered blog users can post and put in a word verification option, which may stop automatic / robot posts.
The downside is that this antisocial behavior by the few, means it is just that little more troublesome for the many genuine people who which to comment – which is a shame. If anybody has trouble posting PLEASE contact me via emailing me at:
e m a i l @ v u l c a n i s e . m e . u k
(remove the white spaces from the email address)
Re: 7 Days without latex
I have finally decided the I am definitely NOT taking latex with me on vacation. It’s just going to be far too hot to wear all day and this is not a challenge I am interested in (too many bad experiences with high core temps). I am not that interested in shorter latex sessions these days, so I am going to attempt a different type of challenge…I fly tomorrow and will have to endure 7 days without any latex enclosure…
For most, including many rubber fetishist, this may seem like no real problem. And from a physical standpoint, it’s probably no big deal – I imagine it akin to the challenge of going to a nudist colony for the first time and/or walking bare foot all day. We are all designed to do it, but it’s going to feel very strange if we are not used to it.
Like Xevious says, it is going to be the emotional impact. Although latex CAN feel a little like a physical addiction resulting from excessive habitual exposure, I have always gambled on it being more like an emotional dependency. More like a cuddly toy is to a child than tobacco or heroin is to an addict. Bereft without it, but not exactly life threatening!
To put you in the picture, I do NOT spend 24/7/365 in latex (unlike Latax Lady) but I do wear latex as regularly as, and for at least as many hours as, most people wear the (vanilla) clothes they wear to work. This is my minimum aim. I have not been able to be too fixed in this rule and my level of exposure does vary from one week to the next (weather temperature, work / social commitments etc). However I do spend as much time as possible in latex TE and, when averaged out since the beginning of the year, have basically been spending much more time wearing latex than any other material.
Getting used to wearing latex most days for between 8 to 16 hours between changes (occasionally 24+ hours) was NOT easy for me. I had spent many years “practicing” regular long exposures, including regularly spending my working day in rubber. Still, the first few months I found it very challenging to reliably meet and then break beyond the 40 hours / week target, week in, week out. It felt like a physical limit, but once through the physical adjustments the real challenge was again a mental test.
Even now, I still find it a mental challenge to regularly attain my ambitions of long periods in Total Enclosure and often find I feel like I want to remove the goggles, face mask or even the whole hood of my rubber enclosure. Total coverage of the head seems an order of magnitude more difficult than just wearing one piece rubber on the rest of my body.
At least I have got past the point finding it easy to wear a suite with integral gloves (usually with extra pair(s) of surgical gloves, for snug fit). Having gloved hands for more than a few hours used to be challenge beyond just wearing a cat-suit. Now I would not think I was really wearing latex unless the hands were fully integral to the suit. Years before that I went through the same thing with feet.
Anyway, I still have a way to go before absolute TE (wearing hood with googles & mask over the mouth) for long periods feels completely normal - and yet something else has changed. Wearing non-rubber no longer feels comfortable or normal – in a way very similar to early rubber exposure – OK, but odd thing to be doing for very long. The loss of the micro-climate between rubber and skin, the way that different parts feel different amounts of air movement, different levels of insulation etc, the way it doesn’t feel consistently like a second skin, the way many materials are not at all stretchy – all as equally as odd to me as rubber would be to a vanilla.
This non-normality of wearing vanilla started off as a mild and very temporary effect but seems to gradually have become more noticeable and longer lasting as I have gone on. Now, due to the proportion of time I spend in rubber, I never seem to get used to wearing vanilla.
In addition to this is the emotional dependency. Just like being at home can be more reassuring than being away (or your own bed, own country, own tribe, being with your loved ones etc), being in rubber TE does come to be comforting due to the familiarity of it’s ever-present and very noticeable all-over feeling. This seems to have become even more significant than the physical comfort – and the feeling seems to get more intense the longer I have been out of latex TE.
The longest I have managed for the last few months with zero rubber is probably a long weekend. Then the whole of the last 24 hours my mind is full of anticipation of the fix of rubber TE I will shortly have.
As of tomorrow morning, I am going to be away from any chance of latex exposure for 7 days and nights. I have been preparing for weeks, so don’t think it will come as a shock to the system. Still, I am nervous I will not be able to sleep…
I will be out of contact for this time, but will report back on my experiences when I get back. Could it be as mentally challenging as going for a rubber lifestyle was? I doubt it...
Sealed
Thanks Xevious for reporting the SPAM and I am Sorry - I am also disappointed about these freeloaders. To protect my readership from having to waste their time reading rubbish, I have chosen to have zero-tolerance from now on. Gratuitously off subject posts will be deleted (and have been). I really object being forced to act as the despotic censor on what I view as being a “community thing”, but it falls to being a responsibility of owning a blog.
I would like to assure readers that I do NOT have a problem to people posting links to other sites – as long as they are relevant and of interest. I have deliberately left critical posts online in the past, although I would prefer constructive or well communicated criticism. Don’t worry if you do (briefly) go off topic, I am not going to delete your post as long as you spend some time either on subject or replying to any of my off-subject posts!
We all know what constitutes a malicious or SPAM post – and I will do my best to protect you from them. I have tightened up a little so that only registered blog users can post and put in a word verification option, which may stop automatic / robot posts.
The downside is that this antisocial behavior by the few, means it is just that little more troublesome for the many genuine people who which to comment – which is a shame. If anybody has trouble posting PLEASE contact me via emailing me at:
e m a i l @ v u l c a n i s e . m e . u k
(remove the white spaces from the email address)
Re: 7 Days without latex
I have finally decided the I am definitely NOT taking latex with me on vacation. It’s just going to be far too hot to wear all day and this is not a challenge I am interested in (too many bad experiences with high core temps). I am not that interested in shorter latex sessions these days, so I am going to attempt a different type of challenge…I fly tomorrow and will have to endure 7 days without any latex enclosure…
For most, including many rubber fetishist, this may seem like no real problem. And from a physical standpoint, it’s probably no big deal – I imagine it akin to the challenge of going to a nudist colony for the first time and/or walking bare foot all day. We are all designed to do it, but it’s going to feel very strange if we are not used to it.
Like Xevious says, it is going to be the emotional impact. Although latex CAN feel a little like a physical addiction resulting from excessive habitual exposure, I have always gambled on it being more like an emotional dependency. More like a cuddly toy is to a child than tobacco or heroin is to an addict. Bereft without it, but not exactly life threatening!
To put you in the picture, I do NOT spend 24/7/365 in latex (unlike Latax Lady) but I do wear latex as regularly as, and for at least as many hours as, most people wear the (vanilla) clothes they wear to work. This is my minimum aim. I have not been able to be too fixed in this rule and my level of exposure does vary from one week to the next (weather temperature, work / social commitments etc). However I do spend as much time as possible in latex TE and, when averaged out since the beginning of the year, have basically been spending much more time wearing latex than any other material.
Getting used to wearing latex most days for between 8 to 16 hours between changes (occasionally 24+ hours) was NOT easy for me. I had spent many years “practicing” regular long exposures, including regularly spending my working day in rubber. Still, the first few months I found it very challenging to reliably meet and then break beyond the 40 hours / week target, week in, week out. It felt like a physical limit, but once through the physical adjustments the real challenge was again a mental test.
Even now, I still find it a mental challenge to regularly attain my ambitions of long periods in Total Enclosure and often find I feel like I want to remove the goggles, face mask or even the whole hood of my rubber enclosure. Total coverage of the head seems an order of magnitude more difficult than just wearing one piece rubber on the rest of my body.
At least I have got past the point finding it easy to wear a suite with integral gloves (usually with extra pair(s) of surgical gloves, for snug fit). Having gloved hands for more than a few hours used to be challenge beyond just wearing a cat-suit. Now I would not think I was really wearing latex unless the hands were fully integral to the suit. Years before that I went through the same thing with feet.
Anyway, I still have a way to go before absolute TE (wearing hood with googles & mask over the mouth) for long periods feels completely normal - and yet something else has changed. Wearing non-rubber no longer feels comfortable or normal – in a way very similar to early rubber exposure – OK, but odd thing to be doing for very long. The loss of the micro-climate between rubber and skin, the way that different parts feel different amounts of air movement, different levels of insulation etc, the way it doesn’t feel consistently like a second skin, the way many materials are not at all stretchy – all as equally as odd to me as rubber would be to a vanilla.
This non-normality of wearing vanilla started off as a mild and very temporary effect but seems to gradually have become more noticeable and longer lasting as I have gone on. Now, due to the proportion of time I spend in rubber, I never seem to get used to wearing vanilla.
In addition to this is the emotional dependency. Just like being at home can be more reassuring than being away (or your own bed, own country, own tribe, being with your loved ones etc), being in rubber TE does come to be comforting due to the familiarity of it’s ever-present and very noticeable all-over feeling. This seems to have become even more significant than the physical comfort – and the feeling seems to get more intense the longer I have been out of latex TE.
The longest I have managed for the last few months with zero rubber is probably a long weekend. Then the whole of the last 24 hours my mind is full of anticipation of the fix of rubber TE I will shortly have.
As of tomorrow morning, I am going to be away from any chance of latex exposure for 7 days and nights. I have been preparing for weeks, so don’t think it will come as a shock to the system. Still, I am nervous I will not be able to sleep…
I will be out of contact for this time, but will report back on my experiences when I get back. Could it be as mentally challenging as going for a rubber lifestyle was? I doubt it...
Sealed
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Saturday, 03 September 2005 – Skin irritation!!!
My working life is going well. I landed some work that is allowing me to work from home most of the time (so far anyway) and wear latex most/all day, almost every day.
I have had one business trip where, obviously I had to don vanilla. Unexpectedly, I ended staying over and spending a second day working on site. Luckily I had thought to take toiletries and spare office clothes with me just in case. Unfortunately, I thought it so unlikely that I would have to stay over that I took absolutely zero latex with me. Woe is me! I could have cried when I got back to the hotel room. Such a sudden change was like a rubberist equivalent to going cold turkey – not at all pleasant.
I didn’t know what to do! Unwind and watch TV? No way that was going to work for me. As for sleeping – forget it! Only those who have got used to a rubbery routine will understand how difficult it is to suddenly have to do without.
It’s actually oddly a little like an occasional rubberist suddenly thinking they should try sleeping in rubber TE – complete with restrictive mask, which they are not able to take off in the middle of the night. Chances of a getting comfortable, let alone sleeping well for the first week(s) is unlikely! You just get used to whatever is normal for you – and a whole day without rubber is fairly non-standard for me!
If it had been more a matter of choice, I think it would have been easier as I would have mentally prepared to adjust. If it wasn’t a fairly stressful day – again, I think it would have been easier to cope. But, out of the blue I was going to have to go 48+ hours without any rubber, rather than the 8 hours I had planned, just when I wanted it most.
When I did finally get back home, the relief was amazing. The feeling of security when the last latex item finally donned tangible. It was a pleasant experience only marred by one thing – on dressing I had discover a number of areas of itchy skin irritation! The vanilla business clothes I had worn were so scratchy that they had caused my skin to come out in red blotches. Not nice. It was probably just that they we new brand clothes from the shop which I wore in a v.dry air conditioned environment, but a lot of things vanilla seem scratchy compared to my usual latex.
Anyway a few days of being back in my (chlorinated) latex and everything was back to normal. The injustice of it did seem ironic however. Received wisdom is that you can get skin irritation from wearing latex – not from abstaining from it! Truth is, you can get skin problems for many reasons, one of which may be a sudden change the material it in contact with it and in immediate environmental conditions.
I have another big challenge coming up. I am off on vacation to a hot climate for a week, where I will be unable to wear rubber for more than a short period. I think that it will be easier as I am mentally prepared and will have lots to otherwise occupy me. I am even wondering about leaving all my latex behind on purpose this time, so I enjoy it all the more when I get back…
A whole 7 days without rubber - whish me luck then!
Sealed
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