'A change 'or 'Me sombrero nuevo'

Its not every day you make the decision to part with something personal that has been with you for ... well for your entire adult life and then some.
My old Akubra was truly an old friend. For 20 years it has kept the rain and sun off my head. Through just about every adventurous pursuit you can manage in the Blue Mountains. Camping and snow treks in several continents including walking the length of Zion National Park in Utah, and climbing in the Denali area of Alaska I wore it every day for years as a geologist in various parts of Western Australia and think I set a trend with it at Uni. In some outback pub some place I got Ted Egan to sign the inside. At the time he noted that about 20 years ago a boy had asked him to do the same in Alice Springs. I told him I was that boy, that the signature had long since faded but that he was singing the same songs. In it I have sat by campfires and rivers and dirty café tables in dusty foreign lands. I had some damn good days in that hat.
After all those years it is getting on, it has perhaps too much character. With its floppy dirty brim, missing band, burns, stains and crushed in top it may not be as iconic as the bush tucker man’s but I was recognisable in it.
The in the sales during the sad closure of Gowings I took the opportunity to purchase a new hat. Its fits my slightly bigger, or should that be fatter head. Shades me better and looks, well, it looks new. I’ll post an update in another 20 years but somehow I don’t think they will be quite so adventure packed as the last decades.