We have been meaning to eat at Hanoi Hannah for ages, but the waits are always long and to be honest, we just haven’t gotten around to it. But when our awesome friends Cheryl and Tim suggested it for a double lunch date one day, I was on board immediately!
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It All Started With a Massage…
I still remember the first massage Denis gave me. We were good friends at the time. Sure, we’d flirted a little but nothing more. “I’m writing a couples massage course,” he told me. “I need someone to try these techniques out on.” What a line, right? Certainly more appealing than: “Do you want to come [...]
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Why You Should Make Out. Like, Now.
I don’t know about you, but I love to kiss. I could happily make out for hours and hours – though, it’s been years since that happened. We just don’t kiss enough as we get older. Remember the hot and heavy sessions you had as a teenager? Too naïve to go any further, you’d simply [...]
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Grand Designs Live: $30 Date Night Deal
We said we’d never renovate. Who the hell were we kidding? Years ago, when Den and I were ensconced in our cozy, new high rise CBD apartment (renting, of course) we saw friends who had bought their own places going through renovation hell. The arguments, the fatigue, the dust… We, we smugly affirmed to each [...]
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Can You Be in Love With Two People at Once?
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” Forget Browning and all her permutations of love. What about counting the amount of people you can love all at once? Whatever number that is, surely it can’t take more than the fingers on one hand to sum them up (?). Is it possible to [...]
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The Three Stages of Love: A Transcript
This is an adapted copy of a speech I gave the other night at my Toastmasters club on the three stages of love. How do you measure love? It’s a tough question, isn’t it? Love is not something you can see, something you can pin down. Love and science aren’t two things we see in [...]
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Listen: The Bash Radio Show
If you missed it, last Thursday night I did a segment on The Bash Radio Show on North West FM with host/actor/man about town extraordinaire James Liotta, talking all about first dates. Specifically… Are first dates dead? What should one do on a first date? What should one not do on a first date? Do [...]
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Want to be Happier? Try This Today
Looking for a happiness boost? I just had to share this video. First, watch. Then let’s talk about how we can apply this to our own relationships. Isn’t that beautiful? Being grateful for things we already have is free. But it’s something we often forget to do in our everyday lives. If you could do [...]
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3 Easy Solutions to Common Relationship Problems
Every relationship has obstacles to overcome. Some of them can be easily solved while others have a tendency to niggle. And niggle. And niggle. The relationship website eHarmony Australia knows a thing or two about what makes relationships work, having brought together many compatible singles over the years, and the below is some advice for [...]
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“You’re my wife? Holy sh*t! I hit the jackpot!”
This is absolute gold! It’s like a grown up version of David after Dentist. Jason Mortensen is waking up from an operation and due to heavy sedation, he doesn’t recognise his gorgeous wife who is standing right in front of him videoing the whole thing. At first, he thinks she’s a nurse sent by the [...]
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Interesting: Will Smith Speaks About His Marriage
People are fascinating, I love that everyone has their own approach to marriage… in particular Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith. This is an old clip, but a good one if you’ve never seen it. They speak about managing their marriage/family as a business plan; at first glance this sound manufactured, cold and boring but as [...]
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20 Beautiful, Inspiring Relationship Quotes
One of my most fervent loves is language… I love to read, I love seeing words arranged in beautiful sequences, written so perfectly that they make your heart skip a beat. After years of seeing tacky, cheesy and downright soppy relationship quotes, I thought it was well overdue that I put together a collection of [...]
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Porn Sex vs Real Sex: The Viral Vegetable Video
Porn sex versus real sex, as explained with vegetables. There’s a reason this video is going viral. Every single person who’s had sex, or even just thought about having sex needs to watch this. Things are never quite as they seem when it comes to the magic of movies. Especially if they’re porn movies.
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Should Girls Ask Guys Out?
Equality between the sexes has come a long way. But even after decades of increasingly fairer pay, job roles, rights and more, we’re still stuck on one area in particular… Love. The big question is: should girls ask guys out? As a woman, I think I can safely speak for a vast majority when I [...]
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Do You Need a Sex Date?
There’s no doubt that sex is a great cure for what ails you. Even the medical science boffins will attest to that. Sex is reputed to fix everything from high stress levels to blood pressure, to boosting immunity, increasing self-confidence, helping lose weight and of course, giving you that hard-to-replicate glow we all covet. But [...]
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How Big Is Your “Too Hard” Basket?
I used this speech earlier this week on a new candidate that had applied for a job with Merkas Health (a massage business I own). She was given the role and then declined after the first day of training. There’s something great about her I know it, but I could tell she was lacking confidence [...]
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We Don’t Want Your Money, Just Your Kisses!
I LOVE this. Metro St James Cafe in Sydney is giving away free coffee in the month of June, all in the name of love. Couples can pay for their morning coffees simply by kissing in this charming French cafe. The kiss must be real. In the clip, this waiter warns one couple that he [...]
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Does This Sound Familiar?
It’s the essence of all female/male arguments… it’s not about the nail! The newest viral video to hit the web.
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3 Date Ideas Beginning with Z
Omigosh guys… You made it! Congratulations, really. If you have done an entire alphabet worth of date ideas with your partner, you are amazing. Stop and give each other a literal pat on the back, or maybe a fist bump: Without further ado, I present to you the last letter of the date night alphabet… [...]
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3 Date Ideas Beginning with Y
You’re nearly there, daters! How exciting! This letter doesn’t yield (ha) many great ideas, though we’d love to hear any you might have to add. Here are 3 Date Ideas Beginning with the letter Y for you to use in your ABC Dating Challenge. Yoga There are so many different types of yoga you can [...]
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Couples Photography Session: Date Night Review
We went on the most beautiful date recently. It was an afternoon spent at one of our favourite places - the Fairfield Boathouse. We got dressed up, we took out a rowboat, we walked memory lane... and we just happened to have a photographer with us too to capture all the fun!
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3 Sexy Date Ideas Beginning with X
Oooh X and its crafty ways. There aren't a lot of date ideas you can shoehorn into this letter but you can get creative with these letters that don't give you much. And if anyone else has some genius ideas, we’d love to hear them!
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9 Wonderful Date Ideas Beginning with W
Wonderful date ideas that start with the letter W. These posts are specifically created as inspiration for our daters who are taking on the ABC Dating challenge, but really it's just a list of damn good date ideas.
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9 Vivacious Date Ideas Beginning with V
Date Night is about getting creative. Take a look at these 9 date ideas starting with V!
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Bending The Rules
It may not be politically correct of me (and it won’t make me popular), but you should know that I’m a Rules girl. If you’re not familiar with the popular but exceedingly sneered-upon franchise, The Rules has alternately been called a Dating Bible for single women
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6 Date Ideas Beginning with U
U is one of those tricky letters you have to be a bit clever with! Here are six date ideas I could muster up to get you thinking. We’d love to hear yours! USA Cuisine Classic American-style diners aren’t everywhere here in Australia. So it’s a novelty when you find one – usually still stuck [...]
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10 Terrific Date Ideas Beginning with T
Ten Pin Bowling Oooh, it’s an oldie but a goodie. This is the very first date Den and I went on when we kicked off $30 Date Night. Sure, it’s cheesy. Sure, the shoes are ugly. But you know what? It’s a heap of fun, it gets you active, you can pig out on fries [...]
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The Secret to Desire in a Long-Term Relationship
I just stumbled on this TED Talk last night and had to share it. I have nothing to add really, just the below text from the TED website and the talk itself. Grab a coffee and sit to watch. It’s well worth it. “In long-term relationships, we often expect our beloved to be both best [...]
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Why Pick Up Lines Don’t Work
My last few weekends have been spent on many a dancefloor at many a club, burning up the kind of energy usually reserved for singles on the prowl. It’s not often you find a married, with-a-mortgage female out dancing until 4am on a chilly night when DVDs and the couch are putting up a damn [...]
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Welcome to $30 Date Night
This blog comes to you from Australian-based newlyweds Denis & Emma Merkas, reviewing date ideas taken from their $30 Date Night site, giving you new date ideas and offering a tiny insight into day-to-day dramas of life as a couple.
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