“Remember laughing? Laughter enhances the blood flow to the body’s extremities and improves cardiovascular function. Laughter releases endorphins and other natural mood elevating and pain-killing chemicals, improves the transfer of oxygen and nutrients to internal organs.
Laughter boosts the immune system and helps the body fight off disease, cancer cells as well as viral, bacterial and other infections. Being happy is the best cure of all diseases!” Patch Adams.
I have recently had 2 days of solid laughter, the knee bending, belly aching, eyes streaming, need to catch your breath type – I had a much-needed laughter, injected 48 hours with dear friends, enjoying their company, walking and dining in Athens, ‘doing a bit of work’ and being silly.
Owner of Flow boutique and close friend Panos, organised a semi break for me and my bestie to enter a buyer’s life for a day. Thank god it was just for a day! So tiring!!! The behind the scenes of having a boutique is underrated difficult and strenuous, so not what I thought it to be! Dealing with fast fashion, Panos’ trips are frequent, pressured and exhausting. A consistent ‘flow’ hence the name, with new things arriving weekly and monthly require him to visit showrooms on a regular basis.
One day was enough to witness what goes on. We chose, helped, laughed, tried on, stressed Panos out plenty and made him buy more than what he had bargained for. I bet he’s not taking us a long with him again. FYI if you live in Cyprus, lots of easy, laid back clothing is on its way. Lucky us!
Arriving on Sunday night we went for a long walk around Thiseio which was buzzing with tourists and culture. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus was on fire, housing Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi. Magnificent music coming from the theatre evoked a satisfyingly deep, empowering feeling in the three of us. From opera divas to tenors, the world’s best performers have appeared on Athens’ most majestic stage and it was great just being there. We ended up dining on a beautiful roof top restaurant overlooking the Acroplis at ‘Kusina’ – very good food may I add!
Monday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, found us eating an on the run breakfast and spending the day visiting showrooms and placing orders for Flow’s Autumn, Winter ‘17/’18 and Summer ’18 collections. The life of a buyer is not easy! Our day ended amidst laughter and mouth-watering food again at Castella port. Eating at Tony Bonanno, we enjoyed our over consumption of Italian food, the view and each other’s company.
Tuesday found us strolling the streets of Athens, doing a spot of shopping (more like window shopping) having coffee and eating again and again! Unbelievable how in two days you can feel like a barrel. Our day ended at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center which was simply breath taking – in design, architecture and what it has to offer.
Spending time with friends, bonding, being silly, LAUGHING and just having fun is a pre requisite in our fast paced, pressured world. The much needed unexpected laughter that took place was a great energy booster and totally therapeutic. Thank you Panos for a wonderful experience. Cat and I had a whale of a time!
