I was recently given the opportunity to send off some questions to top hair stylist Barney Martin. In the interview I cover easy ways to change up your hair and must have products/tools for both women and men. Enjoy.
Interview with Hair Stylist Barney Martin
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I was recently given the opportunity to send off some questions to top hair stylist Barney Martin. In the interview I cover easy ways to change up your hair and must have products/tools for both women and men. Enjoy.
H&M is coming to Australia- But will it be another disappointment?
H&M is coming to Australia! They are scouting out possible locations in Melbourne, with plans to also open a store in Sydney. This news made me every excited. H&M was my favourite store in Europe, and I did go crazy buying stuff, all the while wishing I had a store to go back home to. However, my excitement died down pretty quickly when I remembered that Zara was pretty amazing in Europe and its, well, quite shit here. In the Zara store in Rome I purchased a work dress, a pencil skirt, black shorts, a leather bag and a satin blouse all for under $30 each. You would be hard pressed to find anything AT ALL for that price in Zara stores in Australia. Actually, no, you might find a plain basic singlet or tee for around that. I had been told that although the Sydney store is pretty bad the Melbourne one is much better. So, a few weeks ago, while in Melbourne I (and the girls that I was accompanied by) went with high hopes that it would be more similar to the Zara chains in Europe- this was not the case at all, a quick browse of the store and we saw nothing that caught our attention and prices that weren’t impressive at all. We were so disappointed (ok, and a little tired from a big day of shopping) that we didn’t even bother to check out Melbourne's (and Australia's only) Topshop (although, to be fair, I wasn’t a big fan of Topshop in London, either).
So, with that memory fresh in my mind my excitement about H&M quickly faded. This does make you wonder why these stores are such a disappointment here- why isn’t it the same designs and prices? I understand the prices may be a little higher because of shipping and such but the whole point of these stores is discount fashion. Maybe they think we don’t know better and will just buy for the label? But the thing is a lot of Australian youth do know what these stores are like overseas and because of that won’t buy.
All the being said, I do hold a slither of hope that H&M will be different and the stores here will resemble what they are like overseas- a variety on trend youth fashions on the cheaper end of the scale. Please be the magical store that you can’t help but entering when you spot it.
Travel Tour Groups- Pros and Cons
If you have been following my blog you may already be
aware that I, earlier this year, travelled around London and Europe. About half
my travels were done with my highschool bestie, B, and the other half was done
as part of a tour group (Topdeck). It seems that every other person going on an
overseas adventure is planning on doing, at least part of it, as part of a tour
group. The popular two
being Contiki and Topdeck tours. And I’m sure other travellers, like I was, are
curious to know what are the advantages and disadvantages of travelling with
such a group. There are some different perceptions out there regarding such
tours group, a popular one being that one tour company in particular is more about
partying and “hooking up” than
travelling and experiencing different cultures. Then there is also the criticism
that it’s a total whirlwind and more about ticking off as many countries as you can than really having a
chance to experience the cultures. Having experienced a little of both group and independent travel, the pros
and cons of tour group travelling soon became evident. And, so, I bring you my pros and
cons list of tour group travels (note: this list is probably most specific to
youth tour group travels):
Cons:
- It is exhausting. You have to get up early do a full day of touring the city or to get onto the bus to leave for your next destination. And if you, like a lot of the crew, are eager to experience the night life and more social aspects of travelling you will be in bed late, most nights only catching a few hours of sleep. After the tour ended the thing we appreciated the most was getting a full night’s rest!
- The social dynamic is very similar to highschool. I didn’t really see this as a con but I’m sure there are a lot of people that are glad to leave cliques and a fast moving rumour mill in highschool. But, like I said, I didn’t really see this as a con- it was never exclusive groups nor was there any maliciousness. I think in most social situations the formations of cliques is natural, but I have to wonder if I would of enjoyed the tour experience as much if I hadn’t found a group I meshed with so easily.
- The food. In some of these tour options the majority of your meals are provided for you. In the tour I did every breakfast and dinner, bar one, was included. Having breakfast provided was excellent, after a week of independent travel it was nice not having to wake up starving and having to organise where to get food or having to make do with what we had (which was usually biscuits, candy and chocolate). However, having dinner provided was a little annoying because they usually weren’t amazing and so in countries such as Paris and Switzerland we really felt like we missed out on trying delicious, genuine, local cuisine. That being said, you aren’t forced to have dinner with the tour but I think we all saw it as a waste to skip the meals since we had already paid for it.
- Time restrictions. This wasn’t a huge deal for me, going into an organised tour I knew this was to be expected but there were times (such as in Oriveto) where having to meet the group at a certain time meant certain experiences were rushed.
- You are typically limited to only seeing the touristy perspective of a city. Because you really have one day to explore each city you are obviously going to go see all the major attractions (e.g. Eiffel Tower, Lourve etc in Paris) which means you only really encounter tourists and don’t really get exposed much to the culture. When doing independent travel we had much more time to interact with locals and just observe cultural difference and such.
Pros:
- Travel friends! The tour ensures you are meeting a group of people you have something in common with- a love of travel. Everyone is in high spirits and having the time of their lives. I loved sharing the travel experience with a group of people that were sharing the same emotions as me- whether it be the disbelief at what we were doing (for example on the first day of the tour we all shared that feeling of “Cannot believe I’m here, in Paris, and there is the Eiffel Tower, an icon we have grown up hearing about”). And aside from having some more people to travel around with, it was the best feeling to meet a fairly random group of people and bond so instantly with them. We were all amazed at how quickly we grew close. It’s been almost 6 months now since I finished the tour and I still miss my Topdeck family like crazy and am in regular contact with the ones I was closest with.
- Safety. This was especially evident the night we went out in Florence- it was a great advantage to have the Topdeck boys present to ward off any unwanted advances of Italian men. And just in our everyday travels we all had an eye out for each other and people were always keeping tabs on everyone’s whereabouts.
- Easy. Last year was intense for me academically, the majority of my energy going into creating my thesis. And not only was I making arrangements for my Europe trip but also my trip to Sri Lanka, which I did completed only a week before leaving for Europe. So, by the time Europe trip came around my brain was exhausted and I was over planning and organising and just wanted to relax and go with the flow. This was not so possible when independently travelling, everything was a decision to be made- what and where to eat, where to go, when to go, where to stay, how to get to places etc. Tour group travel takes care of all the boring details such as transport and accommodation so you are free to just explore and socialise. This really is a big draw to the tour travelling. It was the biggest hassle and time consuming task to find somewhere available, cheap and safe to stay when we were independently travelling.
- Having breakfast provided. I know I said food was a con but after a week of having to source breakfast it was so nice to wake up hungry and just walk over to the dining area and have a wide range to choose from.
So, at the end of the day would I recommend doing a tour group? Yes! I loved it but I would say supplement it with independent travelling. If you plan on covering places that are part of the tour independently as well I would say do it as part of the tour first, gives you a vibe for the place and get to tick off the major sites.
Are We Fashion Sheep?
Out window shopping one night when we came across a rack
of coloured pants. Upon seeing them I commented on how I really wanted a pair
of burgundy pants, to which my friend replied with a statement that went along
the lines of- you only want them because they are in fashion now, and there is
no point buying them towards the end of the trend. Of course I protested with “No!
I want them because I like them and not because they are in fashion and will
wear them even when the trend is out.” But
it did raise a thought- it’s a little more than coincidence that my desire for
burgundy pants came about the same time it was in trend. Are we just fashion
sheep? Do we like what we wear because we like it without influence or because
we are told we like it? I guess this really raises the larger question of do we
truly like anything free from outside influences? But, let’s just stick to
fashion today.
I think the key thing here is exposure, something comes into fashion and our exposure to it greatly increases- we are not only seeing it sold in stores but more people are wearing it. Research has shown that we are more likely to like something familiar, and thus something we are exposed to more. And with the weather getting cooler pants/jeans fast become some of the more popular items in your wardrobe. After awhile, however, you become tired of the limited options- usually having to pick between blue and black. And then you see more and more people rocking coloured pants, adding a flash of colour to their outfit and begin to warm to the idea of getting a pair yourself. Maybe this is not everyone’s thought process but it was mine. And I’m sure there are people who just blindly follow the herd with the frame of mind that “It’s cool, if I wear them I am cool/will fit in more”.
I think the key thing here is exposure, something comes into fashion and our exposure to it greatly increases- we are not only seeing it sold in stores but more people are wearing it. Research has shown that we are more likely to like something familiar, and thus something we are exposed to more. And with the weather getting cooler pants/jeans fast become some of the more popular items in your wardrobe. After awhile, however, you become tired of the limited options- usually having to pick between blue and black. And then you see more and more people rocking coloured pants, adding a flash of colour to their outfit and begin to warm to the idea of getting a pair yourself. Maybe this is not everyone’s thought process but it was mine. And I’m sure there are people who just blindly follow the herd with the frame of mind that “It’s cool, if I wear them I am cool/will fit in more”.
But it’s not as simple as we are exposed to things
chosen by certain higher forces and we all go “Baaa” and run out and buy it.
This is when our own freewill, tastes and opinions kick in. If
exposure/advertising/what have you was the only thing in play then I would own
jeggings, and that will never happen. I
don’t care how many celebrities/models wear them and how many media outlets
claim that they wedge the gap between style and comfort. They are gross and
promote leggings as pants. But jeggings are a whole other topic (if you are
interested in reading my rant regarding them you can do so here),
So, I’m not denying that maybe our love of certain
trends is directly correlated with certain forces exposing it to us. Exposure
to it raises our awareness of it and we then form our opinion. And it may come
across sheep like because of the mass consumption but these “higher forces” are
not just randomly throwing out random products but, rather, are creating and
advertising products/items etc that they predict will appeal to the masses. So,
in a way, its like a cycle. We influence what they decide they will influence
us with and how we take to that influences what next they will pick, and so on
(yes I realise that was a hard to follow sentence but gist of it is it’s a cycle).
But what do you think? Are we sheep or are our fashion
choices entirely our own?
A Day Trip To Naples
Since moving from Rome once the tour ended was not ideal in terms of
cost B and I decided that a day trip would be our best option for exploring
more of Italy. Looking at the surrounding cities, Naples appealed to us both the
most- the birthplace of pizza, how could we resist? We booked our Eurostar Frecciarossa tickets (through Trenitalia) prior to leaving for Europe as B had found a good deal. Lizzy, from Topdeck, also decided
to join us and purchased her ticket the day before we left. However, her's cost, I think, a little more than ours, had a much ealier departure and arrived
after ours! So booking in advance can definitely save you some time and money.
Already
running late, in addition to being confused at the station, meant a frantic sprint to catch out train in time. However, like all things seemed to be
in Italy, the service was running late-even later than us and the train sat at the
platform for a further 20 minutes. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of appearance, and thought the train may contain little compartments like the
trains in Harry Potter and Eurotrip (no "Ah mi scusi" like indcidents
for us!). But, perhaps, because this was not an overnight journey the train was
set out like one of our city rail trains (the newer ones) but with less seating
and tables between the seats. The train from Rome to Naples took a little under two hours.
As we waited for Lizzy to arrive we talked to the friendly people at
information. They were super helpful and mapped out different things we could see (like visit some of the castles in the area).
We soon met with Lizzy and first on the agenda was checking Lizzy
into the Hostel she would be staying at (she was to continue on her own solo
journeys from there). This proved to be a much harder task than anticipated and
we jumped on one tram but after awhile had a feeling we may be heading in the
wrong direction so got off and caught a different tram going in the opposite
direction. We did finally manage to find the place- Hostel of the
Sun. I don’t know what the living conditions are like here but the staff are
really friendly. The receptionist lady had a nice chat with us and had a lot of
great advice for Lizzy about when and how to travel from Naples to other cities
she was interested in. If I were to stay in Naples this would be the place I would pick (plus it seemed to have really good reviews).
 |
| Lizzy and I posing with our 3 Euro umberellas |
Across the street from the hostel was a little café where we purchased Sfogliata, a sweet pastry that originated in Naples.
Although we had been blessed with a mild winter and a shining sun for most of
our trip, the weather that day was miserable so we huddled under our umberellas
(Lizzy and I purchased two brightly coloured ones from some streets
vendors for only 3 Euros!) and savoured our sweet treats. It was
delicious- crispy pastry and an zesty orange cream filling.
Since we had lost our bearings a little we didn't end up
following the route that the people at information had mapped out
for us, instead we just freely explored heading in the general direction on the
famous Sorbillo Gino Pizzeria. Naples has a lot of the stereotypical Italian alleyways with
clotheslines spanning out between all the buildings. And, if not suburban, they
were lined with stores whose merchandise would spill over to the streets. The
majority of stores were selling touristy trinkets and nativity displays, which Naples is also famous for. We also noticed that everywhere had red chilli merchandise and
had no idea what that meant- was Naples also famous for chilli? This question
would be answered at the end of the day.
Now, for what we went to Naples for- the Pizza. We went to THE
place and it was easy to spot by the crowd gathered outside waiting for a
table. The place is called Soribillo Gino Pizzeria (Via dei Tribunali, 38 80138 Naples, Italy). We left our name with the door lady and waited to be called. It was
quite annoying because of the rain we were all under the little shelter and were
being harassed by people asking for money. They were very persistent and would
just stand near us and keep asking, even when we had said no. In fact, it was a
little scary because even when we moved down the street these two men kept
following us and we ended up hiding out in a bakery and then sneaking back to
the restaurant. Luckily, our name was called soon after and we were seated. The restaurant is nothing fancy and the patrons are all squished together. But you knew
that meant the Pizza alone was enough to draw the crowds. And we were pleased
to see the restaurant was filled mostly with local Italians, so not just a
tourist trap. We were amazed at how cheap the pizzas were, I think averaging
around 5 Euro. In Australia, a place as famous as this for a certain dish would
for sure be out of our price range. But that’s the thing I find about travelling
to other countries- its much more affordable to eat nice than it is back home.
We each ordered a Pizza each, as was the go in Italy. And they are huge Pizzas,
as you can see below. But, oh my, so delicious! Best pizza I have had, ever. Its
really simple in its ingredients and doesn’t have a million toppings but it is so
well made- the crust is not heavy and the sauce is more natural and full of
flavour. I must admit, near the end of the Pizza I was so full that it was a
total struggle to finish but I (cheered on by Liz and B) did manage- and felt
like death afterwards! But totally worth it. I would go back to Naples again just for that Pizza. Ok, shall end the
pizza love rant.
As we continued exploring we stumbled upon a lemon “factory”,
factory was the word they used but more like a store with a kitchen in the
back. What really caught our eye was the sign out front that said free tastings
(who doesn’t love free!) . The store mostly sold Lemonchello, in
really cute bottles which we stocked up on as gifts. They also sold various lemon
sweets. While there we sampled the original lemonchello and a milky variety.
When searching for things to do in Naples I read about the Naples
underground tour which you could do. I would highly recommend you do this if in
Naples. Was really interesting and something different to the usual church and
tower tours of other Italian cities. The tour led us around various parts of
the Naples' underground and explained the history of it. The tour guide was full
of interesting anecdotes, like the various uses the city thought of for underground
in current time- such as creating underground canals! The only people I would
not recommend this to is claustraphobics as it involved walking through a lot
of tiny, tight and dark tunnels. Personally, I thought that all added to the fun of it. We asked our tour guide what was with all the
chillis which caused him to laugh. They were actually not red chillis but
horns, warn to ward off evil. He also told us that the ladybugs we may have
also seen was thought to bring luck.
After the tour we headed back to the station and said a sad
good-bye to Lizzy. We stopped by the station café and I tried my first Italian
coffee. I don’t really like coffee and definitely chose the wrong drink, it ended up
being a straight shot topped with whipped cream. It was actually amusing at the
bar because a lot of the drinks were served with a water chaser. We also
purchased some more Sfogliata for the journey home.
And that ended our day in Naples.
How to Style a Pencil Midi Skirt
While shopping in H&M over in Europe I spotted a bright green, midi length pencil skirt (pictured to the left). My eyes were drawn to it and I wanted it. I ignored my brain telling me things like "You're short, midi length is not for you", "Do you even know how you are going to style it with your existing wardrobe?" which all led to the big question- "Will you ever wear it?". I ignored all those thoughts and bought it. Fast forward four months and the tags are still on it. The colour, length and even the material made it difficult to wear. I found the cut and length made it to formal for every day wear and the colour a little too much for corporate attire (not that I have really needed to wear corporate attire in the past months). So I searched the internet for some styling and inspiration and here is my guide to styling a midi skirt, a bright coloured skirt and pencil skirt. Or all in one!How to style a bright coloured skirt:
- If you want to pass it off in a work setting pair it with neutral colours e.g. your blacks and whites.
- But if its for everyday wear why not have a little fun and pair it with a clashing block colour- embrace the colour blocking trend.
- Below are two ideas of styling: for work and play.
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| Courtesy of DirtyHairHalo.com |
How to style a midi skirt:
- Personally, I think wearing a midi skirt higher on the waist is most flattering and belting it will reduce it looking frumpy.
- If you are a shorty, like me, go for a shorter length midi skirt and try pairing it with heels.
- Also keep the top simple, nothing too busy or frilly.
Armed with those tips I think I am ready to try out my new(ish) skirt, hope they helped you too!
Rome, On Our Own
Topdeck Day 9
Day is a little bit of an exaggeration, more like "Topdeck Morning 9". Even though we weren't getting on the bus that morning those of us who were finishing the tour that day still had to get up and be packed in time for breakfast and check out. This was especially hard because we had probably gotten like two hours of sleep the night before. Throwing a ski jacket and boots over my PJs I joined the group for our last breakfast (in my defence I was wearing Peter Alexander's DAY and night range of PJs). The goodbyes weren't as emotional as we had anticipated because, well, we kind of missed them! At breakfast we said proper good byes to those we were closest to but were all under the impression that official good byes would be done at the bus. Lizzy, Jordan, and a few others who had also finished the tour had rebooked to stay at the same accommodation (Becky and I had already booked a serviced apartment a few towns over a couple of months prior). They decided to go check in before going to the bus, so we joined them. We then realised we weren't sure where the bus was parked so waited near the front entrance of the place....and waited. After awhile we realised we were probably waiting at the wrong place and the bus wasn't coming past this way. So that was a slight let down but at least we had gotten to say good bye to some people. But that did mark the end of our Topdeck tour. It was totally amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves doing things in groups. I know some people are turned off by the idea of travelling with a group, particularly with a group of tourists but I think it added to the fun of it- discovering and exploring all these new things and sharing it with people who were also doing it all for the first time and having the same reactions. Plus, now I have couches to crash on all over Australia and New Zealand.
Post Topdeck
Day 9 was pretty depressing. Suddenly it all seemed quieter and it was sad that we couldn't just pop next door or across the road and see the others. It was kinda like we had been dumped by our amazing partner who was onto bigger and better things, having fun while we got left behind. It probably didn't help that we were totally exhausted (I actually have no idea where the rest of the group found the energy to continue for 20 or so days!). The day was a little pathetic and pretty much consisted of lazing around, a maccas run (this may sound totally uncultured but sometimes you just need a Maccas hit, and we were a little over Italian [never thought the day would come]) and dinner at the bar (while observing the new Topdeck group that had arrived). Becky and I did briefly leave the hostel to check into our apartment a few towns over, however we returned soon after to Lizzy and Jordan's and ended up staying the night there.
The next morning we woke up from the best sleep we had had in awhile and were determined not to waste the day. We had breakfast at McDonalds, except in Italy they don't actually have a breakfast menu so it was really like lunch. The thing about McDonalds in Italy is that it is extremely slow service, there is nothing fast about this fast food chain here. We would literally be the only ones in the line and they would take forever to serve us and then we would each wait like 10-15mins for our meals. We joked they were trying to punish us for eating such junk in such a foodie city. After breakfast we said a sad goodbye to Jordan who was flying out that afternoon before heading back to our hotel with Lizzy. Finally showered and changed out of my PJs and into a proper a outfit before hitting Rome. Since we had already seen all the major tourist sites with Topdeck we just kind of explored at a slower pace. Some of the Topdeck people had told us they went to this gelato place which was supposed to have the best gelato in Italy so we went and checked it out. The place is called San Crispino and is identifiable from the other gelati places because all the different flavours are kept in big silver covered tubs. The place has a few flavours that we hadn't seen in other gelati stores. The gelati was yummy but the three of us couldn't really taste a significant difference from the other gelato we had in Italy. What really appealed to us was the man that served us, he was an Indian man and impressed us with his vast language abilities. We heard him speak perfect French with some customers and then perfect English with us. He told us while working there he just picked up these languages and spoke several including Japanese, Italian and his native Indian language. Becky and I actually returned there a few days after just to visit him but the line was out the door so we gave up (that was a Saturday, our first time was on a weekday and there was no line so best to go then).
The next day we went to Naples but will go into more detail about that in my next travel post. Our other days in Rome pretty much consisted of shopping, exploring and eating delicious foods.
Day is a little bit of an exaggeration, more like "Topdeck Morning 9". Even though we weren't getting on the bus that morning those of us who were finishing the tour that day still had to get up and be packed in time for breakfast and check out. This was especially hard because we had probably gotten like two hours of sleep the night before. Throwing a ski jacket and boots over my PJs I joined the group for our last breakfast (in my defence I was wearing Peter Alexander's DAY and night range of PJs). The goodbyes weren't as emotional as we had anticipated because, well, we kind of missed them! At breakfast we said proper good byes to those we were closest to but were all under the impression that official good byes would be done at the bus. Lizzy, Jordan, and a few others who had also finished the tour had rebooked to stay at the same accommodation (Becky and I had already booked a serviced apartment a few towns over a couple of months prior). They decided to go check in before going to the bus, so we joined them. We then realised we weren't sure where the bus was parked so waited near the front entrance of the place....and waited. After awhile we realised we were probably waiting at the wrong place and the bus wasn't coming past this way. So that was a slight let down but at least we had gotten to say good bye to some people. But that did mark the end of our Topdeck tour. It was totally amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves doing things in groups. I know some people are turned off by the idea of travelling with a group, particularly with a group of tourists but I think it added to the fun of it- discovering and exploring all these new things and sharing it with people who were also doing it all for the first time and having the same reactions. Plus, now I have couches to crash on all over Australia and New Zealand.
Post Topdeck
Day 9 was pretty depressing. Suddenly it all seemed quieter and it was sad that we couldn't just pop next door or across the road and see the others. It was kinda like we had been dumped by our amazing partner who was onto bigger and better things, having fun while we got left behind. It probably didn't help that we were totally exhausted (I actually have no idea where the rest of the group found the energy to continue for 20 or so days!). The day was a little pathetic and pretty much consisted of lazing around, a maccas run (this may sound totally uncultured but sometimes you just need a Maccas hit, and we were a little over Italian [never thought the day would come]) and dinner at the bar (while observing the new Topdeck group that had arrived). Becky and I did briefly leave the hostel to check into our apartment a few towns over, however we returned soon after to Lizzy and Jordan's and ended up staying the night there.
| Maccas salad, Italian style. |
The next morning we woke up from the best sleep we had had in awhile and were determined not to waste the day. We had breakfast at McDonalds, except in Italy they don't actually have a breakfast menu so it was really like lunch. The thing about McDonalds in Italy is that it is extremely slow service, there is nothing fast about this fast food chain here. We would literally be the only ones in the line and they would take forever to serve us and then we would each wait like 10-15mins for our meals. We joked they were trying to punish us for eating such junk in such a foodie city. After breakfast we said a sad goodbye to Jordan who was flying out that afternoon before heading back to our hotel with Lizzy. Finally showered and changed out of my PJs and into a proper a outfit before hitting Rome. Since we had already seen all the major tourist sites with Topdeck we just kind of explored at a slower pace. Some of the Topdeck people had told us they went to this gelato place which was supposed to have the best gelato in Italy so we went and checked it out. The place is called San Crispino and is identifiable from the other gelati places because all the different flavours are kept in big silver covered tubs. The place has a few flavours that we hadn't seen in other gelati stores. The gelati was yummy but the three of us couldn't really taste a significant difference from the other gelato we had in Italy. What really appealed to us was the man that served us, he was an Indian man and impressed us with his vast language abilities. We heard him speak perfect French with some customers and then perfect English with us. He told us while working there he just picked up these languages and spoke several including Japanese, Italian and his native Indian language. Becky and I actually returned there a few days after just to visit him but the line was out the door so we gave up (that was a Saturday, our first time was on a weekday and there was no line so best to go then).
The next day we went to Naples but will go into more detail about that in my next travel post. Our other days in Rome pretty much consisted of shopping, exploring and eating delicious foods.
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