Relationships
Can You Define Romance?
Everyone’s got a different idea of romance… lets take Valentine’s Day for example. It’s around the corner (only a few weeks away) and it’s pimped out as the MOST romantic day of the year. Whether you accept it or not, that is how most of us feel. In a perfect world what would your partner [...]
mX Column: A Little Privacy
A friend of mine has taught her husband how to wax her pits for her. They are clearly a couple who are very comfortable with each other. Me? I like to keep a bit of mystery going on in a relationship. Some things are best done behind closed doors. Hell, I wouldn’t even reference my [...]
Marriage is Good For Your Health!… Until It’s Not
Marriage: When it’s good, it’s very good. But when it’s bad, it’s… deadly? New York Times Magazine recently published this long piece on whether marriage is good for your health or not. Very early studies into the matter, circa 1858, concluded that marriage is a healthy estate and that single people died from disease “in [...]
mX Column: Dating Games
Out with a group of girlfriends the other night, one sidled up to me when we were touching up our gloss in the bathroom. “I just sent a text to my ex,” she confided. “Do you think that was a mistake?” Not just once. It turns out she had sent him two messages. Once to [...]
“Me? Oh, I’m Naturally Gorgeous…”
I had just jumped out of the shower this morning and was in the office, pre-make up when Den suddenly asked me what was on my face. “It’s all shiny” he commented. I’d just moisturised. It was nothing different to my usual daily routine, but he’s usually at the gym still when I’m getting ready [...]
Will Marriage Always Have a Place in Society?
It’s pretty much common knowledge by now that the marriage rate in the Western world has been on a steady decline since the 1950s. Even moreso in Europe than in the US, people are electing again and again not to get married. The divorce rate is insane, and divorces are easier and cheaper than ever [...]
mX Column: Man-Hot vs. Girl-Hot
It’s all about new-season fashion as we hit the shops, inspired by last week’s L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival – but how much of what we see walking the runways during the shows will show up in our own wardrobes? And what will the men think of it all? I’m wearing a dress today that I [...]
The Same Four Tracks
You learn a lot about a person when you work and live with them all day, every day. I am fast learning that my husband is a creature of habit. He gets very comfortable with the things that he knows well. For example: All day every day, we hear the same four music tracks over [...]
mX Column: The Age of the Bromance
I think my husband may be having an affair. G. – the object of his affection – is tall, good-looking, and also happens to be our next door neighbour. They see each other every day. They are members of the same gym, take frequent coffee breaks and if they can’t be in the same room [...]
Alphabet Dating: 9 Date Ideas Beginning with A
So to support you (and us) through an Alphabet Dating adventure, we are going to publish a list of date ideas each week that start with our Letter of the Week (Sesame Street, we’re coming after you!) If you’re thinking of Alphabet Dating, now’s a great time to start. You can check back in every [...]
A 3-way Relationship? Bingle, Clarke, and the Rest of Australia
The end of a relationship – or facing any relationship problems, for that matter – is never easy, never clean-cut. In the case of Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke, the nude photos, the Fev affair and the very public flight home from New Zealand have made it even less so. I feel for them both, [...]
Love Plug: Hollywood Make-Out Mints
I have just fallen in love with these cute-as-a-button Make-Out Mints… packaged in a sexy retro pink tin with embossed hearts on it, it’s the perfect product to keep you date night ready in a crisis. Tuck them into your handbag and freshen yourself up pre-date with the tiny pink heart-shaped mints inside. Says the [...]
The Post-Break Up Makeover
I’ve just finished reading this great post The Power of the Post-Break Up Makeover from the ever-fun Zoe Foster over on Primped. Says Zoe: “Nothing says “I’m over you” to your ex-boyfriend than hiring a Monster truck and gleefully driving over his car, or in the case of Miss ABBIE CORNISH (who recently split up [...]
mX Column: Lessons from Marriage
It’s my first wedding anniversary today. I can hardly believe a year has flown by, but at the same time it seems almost a lifetime ago. I’m acutely aware that each anniversary is cause for celebration – particularly when statistically speaking, there’s at least a 40% chance that any given couple may not stay married [...]
8 Paper (First) Wedding Anniversary Gift Ideas
It’s our first wedding anniversary today! That makes it a paper anniversary. We’ve decided that we’re going to stick with the traditional gifts in the traditional order. Of course being a guy, Den automatically went “Well, what do I get you? A ream of A4?” No, Den. No you don’t. Here’s a list of paper-anniversary [...]
mX Column: Money Matters
It’s the last few days now of Febusave. More frightening than Febfast (cutting out alcohol), Febusave is an initiative set up by the ANZ Bank to encourage women to pay better attention to their finances. I rallied, and decided it was time I started taking an active role in looking after my own financial situation. [...]
Rate your Woman’s Driving Skills
My wife’s driving freaks me out! There are 2 ways she manages a car. 1. Foot flat on the accelerator 2. Foot hard on the brake Coming to a halt is in a series of multiple stabs at the brake pedal as if we’re bunny-hopping a manual car – BUT the car is an auto! [...]
mX Column: Hand-in-hand
Nothing melts the heart quite like watching an elderly couple walking along hand-in-hand together. I saw an octogenarian couple crossing Swanston Street the other day. They didn’t even look as though they could negotiate the street without one another. The husband had a walking stick, the wife a hunched back. They were clinging to each [...]
Me and Febusave
I am the first to admit that I’m crap when it comes to saving money. For a long time, I was convinced that there were many more interesting things I could be doing with my money, rather than hiding it away where it would never come out to play. Things have changed. For one, I [...]
How Much Does Your Man Pay Attention?
I wrote late last year about creating Love Maps in your mind, to track the small details about your partner that are important. The Daily Mail has reported how millions of men don’t know the most basic of details about their partner – including dress size and even eye colour. 2,000 men in the UK [...]
Why Don’t Men Listen?
I get Deja Vu on a regular basis, what with the amount of times I have to repeat myself during the day. I don’t know what goes through Den’s head when I talk. I can only imagine it’s something along the lines of “miow-miow-miow-miow, miow-miow-miow-miow, miow-miow-miow-miow-miow-miow-miow-miow”… Or perhaps the grating pitch of my voice inspires [...]
From the Velveteen Rabbit
So, I’m in the midst of trying to organise my very messy office, desk and paperwork for the new year (even I am sick of the mess I make!) and I came across all my notes from planning our wedding… this excerpt from the Velveteen Rabbit makes me smile every time, and it unfortunately never [...]
New Year, New Goals
Welcome back! I feel like I’m waking up from a really long hibernation today…. so much to do to! So many things to think about! A new year is a great time for couples to set new goals together… something you can both look forward to, work on together or learn as a couple. It [...]
To Have and to Hold, and to Buy All the Presents.
Ah, the Christmas season. What I want to know is, where on my marriage certificate was the small print that stated “now that you are my wife, the job of sourcing, buying and wrapping presents for everyone we’ve ever known in the history of the world – including my own family – falls to you. [...]
Mystery Date Box Idea!
This great, inspirational dating idea was submitted by Kirsty, one of our users over at $30 Date Night – I thought we should share it with you here! “Combine all your favourite date ideas and put them in a box! My partner and I have created the ‘Mystery Date Box’ – Each fortnight we pull [...]
Is Music Unhealthy for Your Relationship?
The Boston Public Health Commission has proposed a new initiative to categorize music into “healthy for your relationship” and “unhealthy for your relationship”. The campaign will arrive in the form of a badge – kind of like the health department’s tick of approval on healthy foods – and is aimed at teenagers, encouraging them to [...]
In Sickness and in Health?
I was fairly taken aback to read recently that a US doctor has just discovered that women with terminal illnesses are seven times – that’s seven – more likely to go through a divorce than men with the same illnesses. Says the article: “When Dr. Marc Chamberlain, a Seattle oncologist, was treating his brain cancer [...]
Are You and Your Sweetie Speaking the Same Love Language?
It turns out, Denis and I are not speaking the same Love Language… in fact, our Love Languages are so different that Denis might as well talk to me in Klingon for all the good it does to get through, and likewise right back at him. The Love Language theory was developed by a lovely [...]
When Musical Tastes Collide
I went to see Britney Spears last night! I love her, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Den didn’t come, of course. Britney is definitely not his thing. But, bless him, he’s tolerating it right now as I play her entire back catalogue through his precious Bose speakers and into the apartment. And sometimes, [...]
Elizabeth Gilbert Talks Soulmates
I was sitting down to lunch the other day and I flipped on the TV to find Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the beautiful book Eat, Pray, Love, was on Oprah. I’d been looking for some source of inspiration all week after feeling a little stuck and Elizabeth was a breath of lovely, fresh air for [...]
Love Plug: Old School Polaroids
What is it that’s so romantic about having an old Polaroid photo? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the sense of nostalgia is overwhelming. We found this site Rollip.com where you can work back your favorite pics of the two of you into vintage-style Polaroid. Here’s a few I prepared earlier…
Do Soulmates Exist?
I got thinking about this after reading a recent guest post on Mamamia… Do soulmates exist? I think… I think so, but I think there is more than just one other true soul mate out there for everyone. Like maybe there’s a certain – batch – of people that we are somehow connected to. The [...]
Tinky-Winky-Pummy-Umpkin-Snookie-Bum.
Rove’s little presenting dance got me thinking… It’s amazing the things we’ll do in a relationship. The way Den and I act sometimes, I swear… there’s the silly in-jokes that make no sense to anyone, chasing each other around the house squealing like children, singing silly songs loudly at each other with made-up lyrics (in [...]
Rove Interviews Tasma – Adorable!
Okay, so I’m a little behind the eight-ball on this one. I didn’t see the actual show (it was a couple of weeks ago) and my sister-in-law just told me how seriously cute Rove and Tasma were together on Rove’s show! (Ah, for our American audience, Rove is our favourite talk show host over here [...]
Pleased to Meet You!
After our marriage in March, I started to go about the process of changing my name. It was a decision I made (with some very strong encouragement from Denis) and am still very happy with. I like the idea of being on Team Merkas, of me and my children all having the same unified family [...]
“Some People are Just Happier in a Relationship”
I know I’m one of those people. Last time I was single, I gave myself a horrible haircut, dyed my hair a different (hideous) colour and promptly stacked on 10 kilos (that’s 20 pound in American-speak) which was quite the feat considering I was training in dance for hours per week… I was the exact [...]
What are the Best Breakup Songs?
I recently found an old friend I’d all but forgotten: my Missy Higgins The Sound of White album. This album and I go way back. It got me through a hideous breakup with hours of cathartic sobbing, crying and feeling generally sorry for myself. I had it on repeat for months and months… Do you [...]
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