A Greek moment

There's no doubt you have to change the way you dress to suit the local environment. Here I am having a Greek moment, sticking to my love of black in Gail Sorronda for target tank with sequins (a favourite, I also have it in white), Carla Zampatti cotton skirt, gold accessories including my adorable Shy sandals with honeycomb effect block heel - so comfy to wear, yet chic and very different.

The weather, lifestyle, moral standards and local fashions cause us to subtly alter our usual Sydney style. Sydney is a city where you have a lot of freedom to express yourself. Also, the people are overall well-dressed and well-groomed in that expressive, unstuffy, occasionally glitzy and unrestrained Sydney way. Sydney my home town, I love you and the freedom you give me to be who I am and to express myself every day in my appearance.

Here I am having a Greek moment, a feature of which is high maintenance hair. Sure, the Greek women have cut back on hair maintenance since the Greek economic crisis hit. The prevailing crisis has caused job losses, dramatic pay cuts and even substantial pension reductions. Some university academics are having to wait weeks to get paid. Nevertheless, when in Rome do as the Romans do - or, when in Athens go to an Athenian hair salon and get a Greek style "do".

After the week swimming and sailing, with no comb or brush, my hair well-doused with conditioning treatment and UV protecting gel, it was undeniably wild and unruly, as you can see from the photo.

However, after a visit to the hair salon in Aghia Paraskevi, wild hair turned into Athens hair, complete with Greek style highlights (special note to Angela K, as this is a topic previously discussed by us).

From May to September, it's a hot place where people spend a lot of time trying to stay cool in the summer, so showing a bit of skin doesn't raise eyebrows. Long gone are the days of puritanical, stone-throwing village people and tut-tutting social police.


They do have a tad too much label consciousness, and too much clothing with English slogans, not enough colour and individuality. But they seem to like my kind of individuality.


I love Athens, it's my second home and always look forward to returning there.


As my step-d Annie says, "it's an underrated city", and highly recommended for a visit.