Goodbye!?!!

Another sensational week here in Sydney, and now it's time to go! I have been a bit lost in a void of impending displacement all week...places mean a lot to me, and for some reason, I easily fall in love with them ... especially the exploration stage. That's hard for someone who loves to travel so much; I don't find it easy to love and leave places.

I did make progress with research: sent off the book manuscript...hooray!!!!!!!!! and have my conference paper half written. I also had some good discussions with people about the work I'm doing, and feel that it is definitely on track.

I also spent some good time with Sydney:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010: I went to see the Olafur Eliasson exhibit at the MCA. Eliasson has a curious way of locating the spectator with his art, as sometimes you become part of the exhibit. There is one room of photographs hanging on the wall (row after row of related photographs, each framed separately, which reminded me of reading a comic books…how to read the spaces in between – what were the connections between each photograph?) which calls on the spectator to move around the room looking at the walls. But most of the other artwork puts the spectator straight into it, and plays with glass, mirrors and light in curious ways. One exhibit (in a dark room, with black walls, and one spotlight) even uses water, with fine mists spraying down from several nozzles in the ceiling, catching the light from the spotlight, causing fine gossamer threads of colors and rainbows to dance before your eyes, different depending on where you stand in relation to the water and the light. Another room is painted all yellow, and the very bright yellow light on the ceiling causes the people in the room to become the art, as everyone turns a sepia color, like an old photograph. I had a wonderful guide through the exhibit, Robert McMurtrie, who is a PhD student working on the semiotics of art, using a systemic functional linguistic perspective. The coffee and pastry at a French café in the Rocks topped off yet another sensational experience.

Thursday I took the bus down to Circular Quay and started the day with a walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The southeast pylon offers a lookout up top, plus an exhibit explaining its history. Sydneysiders are quite fond of their bridge, and not just because it gets them across the harbour. Almost anyone you talk to who tells you about the bridge mentions that it provided hope for so many as it was built during the Depression. When I got to the top of the pylon, I realized that I was glad to have waited until the end of my stay

to see Sydney from this vantage point because I new what I was looking at. OK, of course we all know this:
















But, if you look at this photograph, you can see way off to the left a green roof - right there is where East Balmain wharf is, where I walked to last Saturday! Curving off over to the right is part of the park I walked through. Had I gone up the top of the bridge pylon my first week, I never would have known that I would become intimately familiar with what I was seeing. Of course, you can't exactly see Norton St. in this photograph, but I know that I lived off over there amongst the trees and the buildings.









After walking over the bridge and back, I went off to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is a wonderful gallery, with a breadth of quite a few 19th-20th century European (and Australian European) paintings and sculptures, alongside indigenous Australian art work. There was something almost bizarre about walking in and seeing the Aboriginal art work on hollow logs and tree bark juxtaposed with some medieval Italian religious art. I felt I had to get away from that, and walked into a room with a good number of pre-Raphaelites (always a favorite of mine since Birmingham days). It is a great gallery, with lots to see, and free to get into...so next time I come back I need to spend more time there.

And in the Botanic Garden, which is right next to the Art Gallery, and which is also free. The Garden is nestled in next to the city center and the harbour, providing interesting juxtapositions and glimpses of sparkling blue (the day ended up being quite sunny!).

How's this for a tangled web!

Then I hopped on a ferry and headed across the harbour for...of course! East Balmain, where I hopped on a bus and headed straight up to Norton Street.

The final treat was...Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Opera House. And it was! The sensuousness of the set and music was punctuated by intervals out on one of the high terraces of the Opera House, with a glass of chardonnay and a bright almost full moon, watching the lapping of the water in the harbour.

I am now here at the airport, with a 7 hour delay! I guess that's what I get for finding it hard to leave...

Sated senses

On Thursday, I did that wonderful walk I discovered earlier this week, but in reverse. I got up in the morning, and set off for Bicentennial Park, and then over to Glebe Point Road and up.

When I got to Bicentennial Park, I couldn't believe what I was seeing! A tree full of these wonderfully colored birds - vivid green, blue, red...if you look closely, you should find them in the tree. I discovered afterwards that they are called rainbow lorikeets.

Later that afternoon, I went to Paddy’s Market…like the Rastro, really, with lots of cheap junk being sold in stall after stall. I did buy a few things, of course, that claimed that they were made in Australia, and there to promote Aboriginal culture. Probably a ploy I fell for! I also went over to the train station where Elena and I had seen an Aboriginal artist selling her own art work, which we both liked. I bought a few pieces, and the artist, whose name is Tammie, gave me the stories behind them. Tammie also told me about her own life a bit, and how she was from a western Aboriginal group, the Gumbayngirr, who, she said, people didn’t pay so much attention to anymore because they were not a remote, recently found group, as they had been discovered way back when the Europeans came. Still, she said, they held on to some of their customs and ways of doing thing. She said that she had learned her language and her dreamtime stories, of the Gumbayngirr, from her grandmother, stories which she tells through her art work. She also told me about her grandmother’s language book, which had been promised to her as the only daughter of her grandmother’s only daughter. Yet her grandmother took her time passing it on to her until recently. Tammie said it was because she hadn’t had any children yet to pass the language book on, although she said that her grandmother had changed her mind because she feels that Tammie will soon (Tammie got goose bumps telling me this!). She showed me the book: a dictionary and grammar of her language. I found it wonderful to see how important a book of language is…how it can help hold the traditions in place, now that the language has been written down. And here is a young woman (she told me that she’s 34) who shows great reverence for her language and culture.

On Friday, I met a friend for lunch on Circular Quay. She took me to one of her favorite restaurants, and I can understand why. I sat there eating my crab cakes and rocket salad with a clear view of the Opera House sparkling in the sunshine across the bay. Saturday I woke up to another beautiful clear sunny day, so I got out my walking shoes and set off for Balmain. This time I knew what I was doing, so I walked directly to Leichhardt Park, and walked all along Iron Cove Creek and Bay, and emerged just a couple streets away from Darling St., which is the main drag in Balmain, full of shops, cafés, and beautiful old houses. I walked down to the East Balmain wharf, which has this great view of the Harbour Bridge. I thought about taking a ferry to Cockatoo Island, but I arrived at the wharf at around 10.30, and the Cockatoo Island ferry wasn't due in until 1.30! So I got on the bus and came back home, and did some work!

This (Sunday) morning (another clear day in paradise!), Elena and Richard picked me up and took me on a tour of some of the Sydney beaches (Bronte, Tamarama and Bondi). Then we headed off up north to a place called The Entrance - about 70 kilometers from Sydney. It is an incredibly beautiful drive. I never knew that when people said "bush" here they meant beautifully forested land. The countryside is thickly populated with trees, and everyone once in a while you catch a glimpse of a deep blue ocean on one side, and off on the other, the blue haze of the Blue Mountains. We drove up to this HUGE lake, Tuggerah Lake, right next to the ocean; it is so crystaline, placid and, well, ...huge! Then we drove on over the bridge of the channel which connects the lake to the ocean (called the Entrance) and parked and walked out over the sand to the ocean, with a beach that opens wide out to the sea, where we could see a line of ships way off on the horizon, carrying their cargo who knows where. I had to splash about a bit in the waves...the water was delightful! Then we drove over to Terrigal, a much more densely populated beach resort area, where we had a delicious lunch (stuffed mushrooms and porterhourse steak) at Le Chat Noir. I have to say that my senses were quite over-sated by the end of the day, as we had the beautiful drive back, too!

Lush weather

Friday-Saturday, Feb 12-13: So….37 degree temps during the day and water dumping out of the sky in the evening. Guess what that means? I woke up at 3 a.m. with a mosquito literally feasting on my arm. Seriously. We tussled (this was a good sized bug) and I won. Small victory after his (his? is the sex of a mosquito discernible?) many battles won. I counted 16 bites! I couldn’t help but think that there are lots of young folk all around here, and this mosquito chose my room to find a feast! I have since bought a spray, and pounce with it as soon as I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Saturday, Feb 13: I thought I would walk to Balmain, an area north of Leichhardt (about 4-5 kilometers) located on a peninsula which juts out into Sydney Harbour. It is supposed to be wonderful: a cultural haven for writers, actors and artists, with great views, history trails, old homes…I haven’t seen it yet, as I took a wrong turning and ended up crossing Iron Cove (a bay on the Parramatta River, which is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour) into Drummoyne. Oops! This after walking and walking and walking in the rain. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, and I found the most wonderful bakery on Victoria Street in Drummoyne where I had the best Danish pastry I have ever had…with real cherries! and just the right amount of that hard white icing! and a much needed cup of coffee. I had thought about taking a bus back, but all of the busses would have taken me to Sydney city center, so feeling fortified, I decided to walk back. And it stopped raining, and I discovered Leichhardt Park! I was somewhat startled on entering to see a sign that said “Acute psychiatric hospital area. Please respect …” (can’t remember the rest of the sign). It is quite a good sized park, just about a kilometer and a half from “home” here, and with great views of Iron Cove Creek (creek? I’ve seen rivers much smaller than this, one that we all know in Madrid!) and Rodd Island, which was full of spectators watching the regattas. I was amazed to see how many regattas were taking place on a Saturday here, both on the bay and on the creek. Quite a sight. And I still have Balmain to explore now that I know how to get there!

Sunday, Feb 14: Elena and Richard picked me up at 9.30 a.m., and we drove up to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, to a place called Katoomba, which has the most incredible view of a valley…except Sunday it was all fogged in! Still, I got a distinct impression about the height of the bluff we were on, looking down into the white mass into what seemed like a bottomless pit. We could clearly see the Three Sisters, formed by three very tall formations of rock, standing side by side. We ate lunch at a place with an incredible view (in spite of the fog!) of the most amazing cable car I’ve ever seen. From where we were sitting, I could see across to another high cliff where there was this tiny tram car inching itself at a 60 degree angle down (down ? of course, there is a cable, but not visible from where I was sitting!).






How's this for clinging tenaciously?


Then, after lunch, we drove south east, towards Wollongong, and stopped at Austinmer Beach (hey, my first close-up view of a beach!) and from there we drove north along Lawrence Hargrave Dr. (he invented the box kite, and thus helped aviation along its way to where it is today). The drive is beautiful, especially the Sea Cliff Bridge, which is actually an off-shore part of the road, rather than a bridge. The original road hugged the cliff face, but falling rock caused too many accidents, so they built the road out over the sea. Then we drove onward towards Royal National Park, and stopped at a vantage point called Bald Hill. Again, the fog meant I had to use my imagination…and my hopes to return someday to see it in bright sunshine! When I got home, I googled it and found a picture
which shows that indeed the view offered extends all along the coast.






I haven’t seen any koalas or kangaroos (I’ve been told I have to go to the zoo for that), but Sunday I did see quite a few spectacular cockatoos!


Monday and Tuesday (Feb 15 and 16) were head down and work days. Though Tuesday I tried a new route home for U Sydney and hit gold in terms of highly pleasant walks. I walked all the way down Glebe Point Road, a road that begins just north of the U Sydney campus, and which goes all the way down to the harbour, angling northwest (the key part of that word being ‘west’, in which direction lies Leichhardt). I have to admit that Glebe Point Road might beat out Norton Street for interesting cafes and restaurants. Plus it runs almost right into Bicentennial Park, which I have now written about twice! So this wonderful road took me right down to this wonderful harbourside park, which then deposits me about 2.5 kilometers from Norton Street. And the walk through the residential streets from the park to ‘home’ really is delightful. The weather turned this week, cooler temps and the humidity has dropped. But all of the rain and heat last week have made for lush growth, and there is, in addition to a rich green color, the most incredible smell of honeysuckle everywhere. Added to that is the smell of barbecue (a favorite Australian way of cooking), making for a delightful walk home. Also, there are a couple of other smaller parks along the way…this is one of my favorites, with the huge tree right in the center of the pathway that cuts diagonally across the park.

Today I went over to Macquarie University (on the north side of the harbour) and gave a talk. It was delightful – everyone was so welcoming, and quite a bit of very fruitful discussion got going, which continued after over some food and coffee, and then continued some more on the train back to city center. All of this good stuff does help me to forget the mosquito bites up and down my arm!

So settled in!

The days are just flying by. I’m not even doing anything very exciting, really, but…where did the week go? I did spend a lot of time writing (I’m on the letter ‘p’ in the glossary for the book…almost done!) and reading (how could I not with that library!) and walking. Every day I try to walk somewhere new or different. On Tuesday I walked down to Darling Harbour, where I had been the previous Saturday for dinner with Elena and Richard, but we couldn’t see very much because it was raining so steadily. This week the sky has been clear blue, so I decided to hike down from Sydney University to Harbourside. So you can get an idea of where the university is in relationship to the center:

though Darling Harbour is somewhat left of center, as it were. I enjoyed the walk very much, seeing all sorts of things down at the Harbour area (it’s huge!), as it’s full of museums, statues and fountains, like this curious sheep statue…is this a sheep shearing thing? No sign to tell me more!

And I found this fountain very pleasant…there’s water constantly running around the spiral, so very soothing to look at (and to stand in on a hot day).

There’s a Maritime Museum at Harbourside, which was closed, of course, as it was after 5 p.m. Still I got to look at the outdoor stuff on display…I enjoyed musing at the juxtaposition of the old ship with the skyscrapers and the lighthouse with the office buildings.

And I found the welcome wall quite moving.

On Wednesday, I walked down to University of Technology, Sydney, to have lunch with Elena. The two universities are very close, as you can see from this photo – that tall building in the distance belongs to UTS.

On the way down I was quite impressed to see this swimming pool on the University of Sydney campus. On the way back from UTS, it was like 30 degrees C, and I wished I could have jumped into the pool, clothes and all!

Then in the evening, I took a long route home…I walked down to Bicentiennial Park, which I mentioned a few blogs ago, a vantage point for the Anzac Bridge. It was tempting to stay and enjoy the views, and watch the kids play and the runners run, but I knew I still had a good walk ahead of me, and the evening was getting on. I went a different route back to Norton Street this time, and loved the late evening walk, as the sun started going down and the air began to cool down, walking through the quiet residential streets of Sydney, to emerge to the bustle of Norton Street.

Yesterday morning (Thursday) I went down to Circular Quay to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and toured the free exhibit, which was a collection donated by Ann Lewis, an art patron who started a gallery in the 60s, and had an amazing eye for art. She helped launch a number of Australian artists into the art world, furthering indigenous aboriginal art as an essential part of contemporary Australian culture. The collection was certainly well worth seeing (I felt Ann Lewis' delight at some of the artwork) and I will probably go back for the special exhibit, by a Danish artist named Olafur Eliasson, called “Take your time”. Sounds like a good idea! This is what I saw when I came out...


The Opera House really is spectacular with the sunlight sparkling off the roof tiles.

Today, Friday, I battened down the hatches...it was 37 degrees C out there! That's 99 F! So I stayed at the university in a cool office, working away. And I didn't emerge until evening was well underway...and, of course! the rain started. And as I was waiting at the bus stop, a bus came by and managed to speed past right on a puddle and splash! Much like the dumpling in Beijing, but this time I was on the receiving end of the splash. Oh well...it did nothing to dampen my spirits...now it is pouring down with rain! I can hear the kids downstairs, enjoying their Friday evening with lots of talk and music. They are sweet...once again they invited me to sit with them for a chat. We have lots of chat in the shared kitchen and dining space, (no exciting dining out experiences this week, as I decided to cook in...ok, so one night I did go out for sushi...) and you might have noticed that I walked a lot this week, so I think it's time for some rest!

University, Darling Harbour, Manly

This past week I experienced a second highly gratifying moment (after the rucola) which was the University of Sydney library! It is hard to imagine something more exciting than being in a huge university library, especially when a) they give you your card right then and there on the spot; b) you can order books from other locations and they’ll whisk it over to you in less than 2 days; c) they have this most wonderful search function called ‘Summon’, which will search all of their electronic databases and their catalog for whatever it is you’re looking for; d) they have databases chock full of just about any journal article you can imagine; and e) the stacks are easy to browse and if the catalog says it’s on the shelf, so far it hasn’t lied. I’ve already checked out several books, and they’re on the desk of the office I’m using in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy. There I am using a Mac for the first time in my life. Now, the screen is big, bigger than anything I’ve ever worked on, which is really useful for sitting back and getting a perspective (and I am having issues with perspective on the book, which, yes, I am still struggling to finish!). But other than the screen, which is not inherently a Mac thing, I have not yet figured out why people say once you’ve tried a Mac it’s hard to go back to a PC. Maybe it’s my learning curve, but there were things I couldn’t do on the Mac that I can on my little laptop. Ah, except the Mac is a lot faster. I’ve been told it’s Windows Vista on this laptop that makes it sometimes go so slow that I unleash a string of expletives at it. So, I am happy with the library, the office and the use of a computer with a screen that I could easily get used to. University of Sydney campus is ideal in many ways: a large campus, right in the city, which is easy to walk around – the building where the office is and the library are quite close to each other. The rather impressive Quadrangle is as well, and I enjoy walking through it on my way to and from the bus (a better photographer would make it look as impressive as it is!). When I emerged from the library at 5:45 pm on my first day on campus, feeling elated by having been surrounded by so many books, I heard the most delightful sound of bells ringing, which played for at least 10 minutes. Apparently, there are 54 bells, and they commemorate the 197 undergraduates, graduates and staff who died in World War I (their names are inscribed on the bells). I must find out when they play – it is quite moving to be standing in the Quadrangle listening to their beautiful sound.



Most of the week was spent at the University – bus there in the morning, and a walk home in the late afternoon/evening. It’s about a 50 minute walk, although I often take longer. If I walked straight along Parramatta Road all the way to Norton Street, it would be 50 minutes, but Parramatta Road is just not pretty at any point. So I try new routes, and discover new areas on the way, villages from the past, like Annandale, with quaint churches, tidy town centers, and old and new interesting houses.

This weekend has brought some outings…not during the day on Saturday. I’ve never seen so much rain! It rained and poured and rained. A good day for working, and then my friend Elena and her husband Richard picked me up at 6.30 and took me out to dinner. We went to Jordon’s, a seafood restaurant at Harbourside, which is at Darling Harbour. Harbourside used to be an industrial port, and the harbor district apparently housed some of the city’s poorest. It was revitalized some 20 years ago, and now has the Aquarium, the Imax Theater, and various museums - along with shops, restaurants, and bars. The weather on Saturday night meant the Harbourside didn’t have its usual bustling activity, especially on a Saturday night, but the restaurant was certainly full and lively, and the food was delicious! I had the garlic prawns, which were light and very tasty, as was the rice flavored with ginger that accompanied them. Then I had grilled barramundi, a white fish - it was cooked to a delicious, delicate perfection. You can see my dessert…Mille Fieulle, or macerated fig grapefruit sauterne: figs topped with mint and doused with grapefruit wine, accompanied by whipped cream (yum).






















Then, Elena and Richard gave me a night tour of Sydney by car, including the Circular Quay, a glimpse of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and a jaunt through King’s Cross, which my guidebook suggests is “a hotbed of sex and decadence”. Now what I saw was lots of young people, bars and somewhat tacky-looking nightclubs – young women in high heels that I didn’t know you could actually walk in (one was positively striding, so I guess I was wrong about that), young men in their trainers, all looking decidedly bent on having a fun night out. I had a very fun night out with Elena and Richard, and was glad not to have to join in on the fun in King's Cross!

Sunday I took the train out to Manly, to another friend’s house for a lovely Sunday lunch. Given that Manly is on a peninsula, the setting of her apartment would be hard to beat…you look out one window and see the Pacific Ocean, and out the other you see the harbor. The peninsula itself is also quite beautiful – hilly, very green, with rock-faced cliffs. I was quite proud of myself for taking a bus, a train and a bus and making it there all on my own. I was also startled to discover at one point that the train I was on was actually taking me right onto and over Harbour Bridge! I got a closer look at the people who were climbing up, doing the Harbour Bridge walk. I definitely think I will give it a try! I was also intrigued to see that the bus towards Manly, which I took after I got off the train, would pick up young barefoot men, with their surfboards tucked under their arms, off to the end of the bus line and the ocean, for an afternoon of surfing. Now that I probably won’t be trying!

Leichhardt and beyond

I am now feeling quite settled into Leichhardt, a little suburb about 5 kilometers west of the center of Sydney. The area is named after an explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt, who traipsed all over the Australian continent in search of new routes and connections, and then vanished without a trace on one (well, obviously the last) of his expeditions. The suburb Leichhardt now is known as (with no connection to the explorer) “Little Italy”; indeed, in my wanderings around I have heard Italian spoken, and Leichhardt is home to the Italian Forum – an area right off Norton Street designed to look and feel like a typical Italian piazza – a very large open courtyard, ringed by cafes and shops, and the Leichhardt Library – the shops are full of Italian designer clothes, shoes, and handbags. All up and down Norton Street there are dozens of Italian restaurants. I tried one last night…the rucola (rocket) and shaved parmesan salad was delicious (I think there is no better way of getting one’s greens than a big plate of rucola!) and the usually unexciting penne napoletana was delicious…la pasta al dente, the tomato sauce had just the right touch of sweetness, and the basil plentiful. I did hunt around for the right Italian restaurant to choose, and in my wanderings up and down Norton Street, the main drag in Leichhardt, I passed all the different varieties of restaurants: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Lebanese, trying to figure out which cuisine best suits the traveler on her own. The Lebanese restaurant advertises a cushion room, hubbly bubbly and a belly dancer”, so I can’t see plunking myself down to a meal with my newspaper there. I had my qualms about Italian because, let’s face it, people seem to be having so much fun at Italian restaurants, but I had had Japanese already last week, and had had Chinese in Beijing (of course!). That left Indian or Italian, but I was bent on Italian, just me and my newspaper. And it worked out just fine.
I have ventured beyond Norton Street…last Saturday I took a walk up Norton to Parramatta Road, the main drag which leads to Sydney center and to the University of Sydney. It’s not a very pretty walk – just a very busy major road lined with shops, closed shops, auto repair places, etc. I did discover more restaurants – Swiss, Turkish and even Spanish (in case I really miss the jamón serrano!!). On the same road, on my walk back from the U of Sydney this evening, I stumbled across the Marco Polo Café, which serves “pizza and Thai food”, which seems like a bizarre combination! And oddly there are literally dozens of bridal shops along Parramatta Road just at the top of Norton Street – I’ve never seen so many in one area.
Sunday I took myself off on the bus to the Sydney Harbour area. The Opera House is stunning, isn’t it? I hope to get inside at some point. The Harbour Bridge is beautiful…you probably can’t see the tiny figures walking over the top, but they are there. I’m thinking about doing the Harbour Bridge walk…I hear the views are magnificent. It is a bit pricey, but then, hey, I may only be here once! I had a coffee at an outdoor café on Circular Quay, with a view of both the Bridge and the Opera House, and was much intrigued by a sign that warned “Please Be Aware. Birds will try to take your food from your plate”. Luckily they’re not interested in cappuccino!







Monday morning I walked over to Jubilee Park (about 4 kilometers away from where I’m staying I was happy to discover after studying my map), one of three contiguous parks which overlook Rozelle Bay and which offer a view of Anzac Bridge (named for ‘Australian and New Zealand Armed Forces’) and beyond to the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney central business district. I plan to revisit the park area: the other day it was just a major triumph to have found it. I have yet to find a map which names all of the streets, so I felt just tiny bit like Ludwig Leichhardt out on an expedition. I had a couple of wrong turns (dead-end streets, major highways and train tunnels getting in the way) so I was pretty tired when I got to the park. Of course on the way back I had worked out the direct route, and think I can do it again in reverse. Some of the young persons staying here at Georgia House would also like to join in on this trek, so no danger of me disappearing in my explorations.

Georgia House continues to delight…there are young people (around 30-40 right now, although the place can accommodate over 100 – but it is summer here now, so the house isn’t full) from Spain, Italy, India, Pakistan, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Russia...and Australia, of course. We have a great big kitchen (after all, this was a residence for senior citizens) that we can cook in, so any meal preparation includes chats finding out where people are from and what they are doing here. Good energy!

Today was my first day at the University of Sydney, where I’ll be holed up in an office doing my research, with occasional forays over to the library, and meetings with people to bounce ideas around. The University is huge, and some of the buildings , like the Main Quadrangle, quite impressive—apparently designed to emulate the halls of Cambridge and Oxford. Tomorrow we tackle the bureaucracy of getting the library card and the university log-in.
Of course I had to buy a hat. One prof today admonished today that, yes, I might be used to being careful of the sun in Spain, but at least with the benefit of ozone, something people are very aware of lacking here. So I wear my hat!