Sunburnt Country

Despite the huge campaign urging Aussies to "slip on a shirt, slap on a hat and slop on the sunscreen", nobody's doing it. In the city, men are sweltering in dark suits and ties, but no hats. In the suburbs, young women are wearing pretty, sleeveless sundresses, perhaps with sunscreen, but again no hats. It's the schoolchildren who are paying attention, or more likely being required to. Younger ones of both sexes wear broadbrimmed cotton hats in yellow, green or navy; high school girls wear flattering panamas with a band bearing their school crest; high school boys wear.....haven't noticed what boys wear yet. All of them wear school uniform of course - none of that freedom to wear jeans and skimpy tops, just like all of the other kids, that so characterizes Canadian schoolgoers.