define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); mX Column: How Was it For You? | $30 Date Night
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mX Column: How Was it For You?

By ⋅ January 24, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

For our out-of-town readers: mX is a free newspaper available in the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane CBD at the end of the day, giving 700,000-odd people something to read on their commute home on trains, trams and buses. mX covers the issues that matter most in a concise, upbeat, funky, intelligent and sexy way.

Our very own Emma Merkas is their new Relationships Guru and her column will be published every Friday on the Flirt page of the paper. We’ll run a copy of it here every Monday for people that don’t have access to the publication. Happy reading!

I recently got married. Last March, in fact, which I think technically still makes me a newlywed.

It’s a weird phase to be in – you’ve made it through the thrill of the big day and the fun of the honeymoon, through that lull after the wedding-high disappears, after all the nuptial planning stops consuming your life, and into that period of time where it dawns on you that your are a bound to another person – for real. Like, by law.

But it feels like just a heartbreak ago that I was single.

Nights out in bars dancing, roaming in packs with other singletons, going on first dates, going on bad dates, laughing about the dismal dates over brunch with friends.

I was so busy having fun that I was hardly home.Why is it we seem to have so much more energy when we’re single? Is it some primal, peacock-like drive to put ourselves out there on show until we find a suitable mate?

And then why, once we’ve found, dated and conquered our perfect match, does the couch suddenly look so much more attractive than a night on the town?

It’s because of all this that my husband, Denis, and I still date – each other that is. And to share the fun, we set up our own business aimed at helping make relationships and dating better for everyone.

Our baby is $30 Date Night; a date ideas website to inspire couples to keep dating each other long into their relationships.

$30 Date Night appeared when we realised that contrary to popular belief, there is no automatic Happily Ever After. We’ve discovered that if our relationship (if any relationship, for that matter) is going to have a fighting chance at success, then we need to tap into some of that single-person energy.

Which is why Den and I still date. Every week.

We take it in turns to organise the date. We do something different every time and it can’t cost more than $30 for two.

So far (among other things) we’ve been ice skating and star-gazing, got lost in a hedge maze, spent a night parked at a roulette table at the casino and, most recently, took a revealing trip to a nudist beach.

As for this column, even though I am married, I won’t just be talking matrimony. Expect a bit of everything from flirting, dating and sex to romance love, and all that falls in between. And I have to say, I’m looking forward to our standing Friday date.

Emma x

Originally Published in mX newspaper on Friday 22 January 2010

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Writer, dating columnist, wife, coffee addict, foodie, fashionista... Melburnian through and through. Muser, dancer, blogger, tweeter. Likes to get her head on telly now and again. Sleeper, dreamer, a sucker for romance. And of course... a cheap date.

Discussion

One comment for “mX Column: How Was it For You?”

  1. Posted by That Guy from across the hall | January 29, 2010, 2:55 am

    Fantastic news that you’ve been picked up by MX!

    I’m sure this is just the start, and in the future I’ll be able to tell people “I used to live just across the hall from Emma!”.

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