Travelling Light - Packing for a Week in Greece in May With Hand Luggage Only

Have I mentioned that I'm off on our travels again? Despite the hiccup of being dropped off at the wrong hotel in the middle of the night last year, we've decided to risk another package holiday. Although we'd much rather travel independently, the price for a flight, coach transfer to the hotel (a two hour drive from the airport) and a week's accomodation in a small Greek owned business was an amazing £238 and seemed far too good to miss. 

Being a package holiday, the cost also includes a generous luggage allowance of a 20kg check-in bag, 10kg of carry-on baggage plus a small personal item. That's over 60% of my bodyweight! To me, part of the fun of planning a trip is agonising over all the fabulous clothes I own and whittling them down to squeeze into my cabin bag which I can carry all on my own and stow into the overhead locker with ease. Doing away with check-in bags means we can check-in online, go straight through security and be enjoying a pre-flight beer in Wetherspoons whilst the rest of the passengers are still queuing at the baggage drop-off desk downstairs. 

My trusty little wheelie cabin bag weighs in at a total of 6kg. 

So what am I taking?

 1. A vintage embroidered velvet waistcoat 

2. A fold-up panama hat

3.Love Binetti cotton kaftan 

4. Vintage Greek tote bag

5. Naked Generation maxi dress

6.Anokhi maxi dress

7. Teva flatforms

8. Devotion Twins Greek cotton woven tunic

9. Kulu, Australia bikini

10. Vintage fringed leather bag

11.Gado Gado, Ibiza cowboy boots

12. Slazenger retro print swimsuit

13.Vintage wash denim jacket

14. All About Aud recycled sari silk wrap top

15. Haris Cotton woven co-ord

16. Vintage tooled leather belt

17. Selection of silver pendants

18. Tassel earrings

19. Rajasthani silver earrings

20. Silver rings

21. 2 x pairs of sunglasses

22. Fimo snake earrings

23. Sterling silver & turquoise stud earrings

24. Three Indian silver bangles, a vintage charm bracelet and 5 gemstone bracelets

Make-up: Eyeshadow, 2 x brushes, bronzer (found in a charity shop last week!), eyebrow pencil, eye liner, mascara, blusher, lipstick, pencil sharpener, tweezers, eyelash curlers, magnifying mirror.

Toiletries: Decanted once a day suncream, facial sun cream, Lush shampoo and conditioner bars, hair serum, moisturiser, tooth brush, toothpaste, interdentals, soap, make-up remover wipes (plastic-free obvs!), razor, bamboo cotton buds.

Hair stuff: Tangle Teezer, hair stick, hair bands, vintage hair slide. 

Also taking (but not pictured): varifocals, Pestects bracelets, one pair of knickers and one pair of socks, my Kobo Ereader, phone, camera, travel towel, silk wrap and a shower cap.

I'm travelling in the Anokhi dress & velvet waistcoat (just peeking out) with a denim jacket, Gabo Gabo cowboy boots, the scarf I picked up in a charity shop last week, the Greek tote bag, knickers, socks and my tassel earrings (the rest of the jewellery goes on when I've passed through security).

How do I choose what to pack? 

I check the weather apps daily, study average temperature charts and hunt down live webcams of the place we're visiting so I've got a good idea of what the weather's going to be like. Currently it's warm during the day but cools down after sunset so I've packed two dresses with sleeves, two strappy dresses I can layer up with a waistcoat or the sari wrap top and a co-ord, all of which can be worn with my denim jacket if needs be. 

A seven night trip means a minimum of twelve outfits so by taking five dresses each will be worn at least twice. I could have got away with taking  four but couldn't resist the blue and white co-ord even if it might be a bit too Summery for May. 

Last year, the holidaymakers we met at our hotel in Halkidiki couldn't believe how I could get all my belongings in a little carry-on. It turns out that most of the women I spoke to had a thing for shoes (several had packed a different pair for every night they were there!) Since I discovered Tevas they are the only footwear I pack, they're stylish, waterproof and so comfy to walk in it eliminates the need for trainers. I travel in my cowboy boots as it's not exactly sandal weather here in the UK and I'll probably wear them at night if it's chilly. 

Before I make my final selection I try everything on. I'll often wear things around the house for an hour or two to ensure they're comfy and don't require any adjustments - trailing hems get taken up, slippy shoulder straps get shortened and anything that needs a underskirt or creases easily gets ousted. I prefer to plan my outfits in advance rather mindlessly chuck the things I like into my bag so, once it's made the grade, I'll lie each dress on the bed with the jewellery and bag I intend to wear with it. Oh yes, and when I'm trying my clothes on I never wear makeup or jewellery or do anything with my hair. If something makes me feel good when I'm looking like the Wreck of the Hesperus, with a tan, my jewellery and some shocking pink lipstick, it's going to make me feel like an absolute goddess.  

And it might sound a bit geeky but I always photograph what I'm taking and create a Pinterest board for each trip. Hopefully one day I'll have photos of everything I own so I won't have to drag everything out of my wardrobe every time I go away, I can just look at photos!  

I absolutely loved the soft muted tones of this Love Binetti cotton kaftan I snaffled from Vinted for £8 (it's by an Argentinian designer and originally retailed for around £800!) 

Devotion Twins is an Athens-based designer label which champions traditionally woven Greek textiles. You'll find it in those high end chi-chi Greek boutiques that cater for the wealthy European jet set. I managed to find this Oxia shirt dress online, it had been reduced from £250 to £30. I've kept the label for posterity! 

Haris Cotton is a high end Athenian clothing brand found in cities all over Greece and, like Devotion Twins, specialises in hand woven traditional textiles. You'll often find me in one of their boutiques fondling their textiles and wishing I was rich enough to afford one of their dresses. I spotted this co-ord on Vinted and as it had been listed for six months the seller kindly accepted my cheeky £20 offer.

Hopefully it'll be warm enough to wear it alone but it looks good with this tatty denim jacket Jon found for me.  

 A couple of old favourites. This Naked Generation dress was an eBay find a few years ago. You may remember me wearing it to visit Knossos (the tote bag I'm taking with me is a 1970s souvenir from there.) The chazza shopped denim jacket and recycled sari wrap top (bought from All About Audrey back in 2018) should keep the chill off after sunset.

I bought this beautiful block printed dress from the Chowpatti Beach branch of Anokhi when we last visited Mumbai in 2020, a reissue of a 1970s dress from their archives. It can be worn alone or with the velvet waistcoat, the All About Aud top or both. 

I'm not off just yet, I'll be back in a couple of days to report back on a day of adventure in Birmingham!

Social Butterfly

Hola! What a busy (but fabulous) few days. 

After I signed off on Tuesday, it was a quick change into my vintage Hindu Kush dress & Afghan coat and a sprint into Walsall to meet Brendan and Lynne for drinks and artisan pizza at the Light before being blown away by the National Theatre's live screening of Nye.

Nye was the 100th production to be screened in this way and it gave us shivers down our spines to know that audiences in twenty-two countries across the world were watching the performance at the same time as us and more than likely as incredulous as we were over Michael Sheen's powerful portrayal of one of the UK's greatest ever politicians.

And somewhat ironically, after spending an evening celebrating the life of the founder of the National Health Service, the following day I was back in the care of the NHS for my appointment with the optical consultant at the Eye Infirmary at New Cross Hospital over in Wolverhampton where, after a thorough examination, I was told that my eye was healed with no vision loss, scarring or inflammation. Although 50% of Iritis cases have no underlying causes, they've taken blood tests just to rule any undetected conditions including syphilis and TB (how very Victorian!) 

On Wednesday I wore a Dilli Grey midi dress (via eBay, 2021), a quilted Monsoon waistcoat (retail sale buy, 2022) and those green cowboy boots (above). On Thursday (below) it was a Dilli Grey maxi I'd bought new in 2022 with my cherry red Docs, Greek Gucci sunnies and a chazza shop necklace made from horseshoe nails. 

Despite still being horribly cold, it was so bright on Thursday morning we were up, out and at the baths when the doors opened. Once again I was on top form and managed to do 50 lengths and 50 poolside pushups in 35 minutes. 

After a 'Spoons breakfast we popped to Lidl and picked up a £1.50 Waste Not box.

Later in the day we headed back over to Wolverhampton as we'd got tickets for a gig at the Wulfrun Halls. Jon's not really as angry as he looks, he's just muttering Get a move on, I'm effin' freezing as I insisted on the obligatory going out photos as we left the house. He's in a Stronghold, Los Angeles workers jacket, an Indian army camo shirt and Levi's (all charity shopped) and I'm in a vintage Hilary Floyd psych maxi (a friend found for me in a charity shop) and a 1970s wizard sleeve velvet jacket (bought from a fab vintage trader mate). 

After the stress with the virtual ticketing when we'd been to see Roisin Murphy back in February, we were delighted that the teething problems with the app had been sorted out. After stopping to chat to the charming door staff who were in awe of my Egyptian Revival pendant, we headed straight to the bar.

The support act was The Dhol Foundation, founded in 1989 by former Alaap member, Johnny Kalsi. Dhol, as I'm sure you know, is a traditional drum from the Punjab. The Dhol Foundation are regulars on the festival circuit and played the Bandstand (the stage directly outside the Kinky Melon shop) at Glastonbury last year where a huge percentage of the 250,000 festival goers turned up to dance bhangra in the Thursday afternoon sunshine.

Their energy is so infectious and had most of the Wulfrun waving their hands in the air and singing along. The Dhol Foundation's music has been used on films including Gangs of New York and Rabbit Proof Fence and they opened the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006. I can't wait to see them at Womad. 

The main event was Kula Shaker, the British psychedelic indie rock band who were huge in the late 1990s. I saw them play at the legendary Oasis weekender at Knebworth in 1996 (which I'd completely forgotten about until I started writing this post) and they supported one of Jon's post-Charlatans band projects around the same time. 

Although the public loved Kula Shaker, with their debut album K reaching number 1 in the album charts & going triple platinum and being voted Best Breakthrough Act at the Brits in 1997, the music press loathed them, dismissing them as privileged public school boys (frontman Crispin Mills is the son of Hayley Mills and grandson of Sir John Mills, bona fide British acting royalty). They also hated the band's fixation with Indian culture, music and mysticism (top ten single, Govinda, which charted in 1997, was sung entirely in Sanskrit.)  Simon Price, The Observer's music critic actually described them as A joke band in 2016 (how rude!)

Anyway, b*llocks to the British music press, Kula Shaker were magnificent. 

The music, the sound, the attitude and those incredibly trippy backdrops and lighting....wow! 

The band were joined on stage by a proper Bollywood singer (I didn't catch her full name) and I was thrilled when they performed Chura Liya Hai Humne Jo Dil Ko from the 1973 movie Yaadon Ki Baaraat which was originally performed by Asha Bosle (HERE), a vintage filmi tune I absolutely love.

We'd already bumped into one of our vintage trading friends from the sorely missed Moseley Vintage Fair plus a couple of our regular customers plus a girl we ended up spending a crazy weekend with at the Big Chill festival back in the noughties. Towards the end of the gig I got a text from Claire. Just read your blog, are you at Kula Shaker? It turned out that she and Gareth were, too.We managed to find them and danced along to the final three songs (the last time we'd been to see a band together we were dressed as unicorns! HERE)

The night had already been amazing but when Johnny Kalsi joined Kula Shaker and covered the epic 1990s dance anthem, Dee-Lite's Groove is in the Heart - already one of my all time favourite songs but with Hendrix-worthy guitar riffs, dhol drums and the dulcet tones of a proper Bollywood filmi sensation - it took my breath away. My friend Elaine's managed to find a clip of their rendition of this at Cardiff Tramshed the previous evening (minus the Bollywood vocalist) HERE. Thanks, mate! 

 Straight into the top ten of best gigs ever! 

The first gig I ever went to was The Stray Cats play the Birmingham Odeon (now a cinema) in 1981 with Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages as the support. Liz's Dad dropped us off and my Dad picked us up at the end of the night, I'd just turned 14 and felt so grown up ditching the parents and having a night out in the city! 

What was your first gig? 

I woke up this morning (Friday!) with my ears still ringing. I wore a Seventies Soul block printed maxi and a vintage tooled leather bag (with a big coat over the top!) for a morning of charity shopping.

It was a decent day for vinyl. I've already got Legend but at £2 you can't leave Bob behind! We've seen Hawkwind live (utter madness) and Jon's seen Simply Red (not with me, I hasten to add!)

After a very social week, this weekend is mainly going to be spent decorating. We've got the final episode of the uber-stylish and utterly absorbing Ripley to watch later (thanks to Sarah from Sussex for the recommendation) and hopefully I'll actually get my bag packed for Greece.

See you on the other side!

Lost In Music

There was a distinctly musical flavour to the weekend as we watched two of the DVDs we'd bought from the Air Ambulance charity shop; Mamma Mia and the Spandau Ballet docudrama, Soul Boys of the Western World along with the brilliant Pet Shop Boys interview with Alan Yentob currently on the iPlayer. 

Amazingly, we had a couple of dry days enabling Johnny the builder to finish repointing the brickwork and for us to finally to repot our houseplants, an outdoor task we'd had to postpone for a while.

Only having three windows with sills and, due to the veritable forest in our garden, our interior is perpetually gloomy so finding suitable spaces for houseplants to thrive can be a bit of a challenge.

We've divided the spider plants and the Mother-in-Law's Tongues. Our friends, Claire & Gareth, gave us Cactus Cawood (so-named in honour of Sarah Lancashire's character in Happy Valley) last year after I'd mentioned that I have no luck with cacti - she's still alive! 

When I bought this Umbrella plant in 2020 it was 12" high. We've had to lop a bit off the top as it's now too tall for the house! Don't worry, we've managed to root the cuttings and pot them up.

I had a bit of a brainwave and suggested we put a shelf across the window at the top of the stairs so we could accomodate a few more plants. As luck would have it, Jon had some vintage Singer brackets in the shed and found an offcut from an old skirting board in the woodpile and my idea became a reality. 

 This Peace Lily was 75p from the B&Q clearance shelf in December 2010.

Our friend Tina gave me this cheese plant many years ago, it's very happy in the hallway. 

Our lovely mates, Lynn & Phillip sent me the orchid as a get well present when I had Iritis (I'm back at the hospital tomorrow, wish me luck!), I've never had an orchid before it it seems to be quite happy. There's some of the Umbrella plant offspring from the beast in the middle room.

I spent half an hour watching some hair tutorials with this gorgeous young woman on YouTube and had a go at her droopy braid hack . After some vigorous housework I'm happy to report that my hair stayed intact all day. I got Jon to give me a trim after I'd washed my hair - the first time a pair of scissors had been near my hair since 1st April, 2022! 

Before meeting Tony in the pub, we'd intended to spend Monday morning clearing up the front of the house but needless to say, rain stopped play. I wore the handmade kaftan I'd found on Vinted for £3 and my green cowboy boots (Vinted, £10). Can you tell that I'd had a whole inch lopped off my hair? It's now 32" long. 

The weather was grim, Wetherspoons was rammed and I had my favourite Mangalorean cauliflower curry for lunch. We met Tony at 12.30 and stumbled out of the pub seven hours later delighted to discover that the rain had finally stopped. 

Today's been a typical Tuesday with swimming (a personal best, 45 lengths in 30 minutes, a skinful of lager is obviously very good for you!), a Spoons breakfast and a look around the chazzas. I wore this Zara satin maxi dress (£3 via the clearance charity shop), my charity shopped River Island "Gimp" cap (£1) and a vintage 70s Anokhi block printed waistcoat (£9, Vinted). 

Not particularly warm (a feeble 9°C) but mercifully dry, we've spent most of today doing the outdoor tidying we wanted to do yesterday. We've got to keep the pots to a minimum as the next job is having the exterior painted. The painter was hoping to come next month but, with the incessant rain, he's running a few weeks behind schedule so Stonecroft will continue to look a bit shabby for a while yet. 

We're off to meet up with friends for the live screening of the National Theatre's production of Nye starring Michael Sheen this evening at Walsall Light. As our lovely local cinema has a bar & also sells artisan pizza, we're making a night of it.

The musical flavour continues as I've managed to blag a couple of last minute tickets for a gig on Thursday night, I'll report back soon!