Adieu, May. See you next year!
It feels like May has been a really long month for us – probably because almost every day of it has been taken up with a pretty big re-modelling of the Mr & Mrs Romance site. We’re really happy with how things are looking and navigating, but let us know what you think.
Take a look at our modified homepage here or our brand new Start Here page and let us know.
But apart from taking a shovel and pick to our site, Christina and I have had plenty to keep us occupied: Mother’s Day, International Chardonnay Day, Vivid Sydney, a getaway stay in a historic cottage in the middle of a national park and – most importantly – my birthday!
We hope you enjoy this taste of May.
Cheers – Jim & Christina xx
Sign up to our free newsletter here for more travel inspiration. You also get your own copy of our travel ebook — it’s on us!
This evening, as a newly anointed member Balmain Rozelle Chamber of Commerce, Christina’s out at the London Hotel in Balmain for a business productivity learning session with Anne Rayner.
Anne is a business consultant and speaker and helps businesses to design their work weeks and unlock time. I’m sure Christina won’t mind me describing her as easily distracted, and so this workshop was perfect for her to help boost her productivity.
She came home with so many great tips and also some real solutions to help reduce distractions so she can get more done in less time. I’ll report back soon to see how they work in real life.
Overall, the event spaces at the London are great, it was an excellent opportunity to catch up with other local businesses and realise we’re all facing similar challenges in our working lives.
Today is Mother’s Day in Australia and to celebrate mums everywhere, but specifically the ones in our direct cohort, we’re at Bobbin Head Reserve north of Sydney for a lovely picnic, which isn’t something I usually say!
This is a beautiful bit of parkland with plenty of tables and benches (one of the reasons I don’t mind having a picnic here!) but it’s also right on the water. Cockle Creek runs all the way from the Hawkesbury River to here, where you can rent a pedalo for half an hour.
Christina and I offered to do all the catering for today’s festivities, though it must be said Christina has done the vast majority of the work.
Everything from chocolate brownies and miniature muffins to cheesey scrolls and hundreds of crustless finger sandwiches with prawn mayo, and chicken and toasted pinenuts. She even baked and decorated a focaccia you can see here in Frame 3.
My contribution is the raspberry and almond frangipane, which turned out much better than I expected it to – it had sunk a bit in the middle.
We get back home from the Mother’s Day picnic in time to see our faces on the TV! You might remember we were Rent-A-Crowd for the film of the Balmain Rozelle Heritage Pub Trail for Sydney Weekender last month.
We’re quite surprised just how much screen time we get on the segment. You can watch it here – don’t worry, it’s not that long.
Today, we’ve travelled the hour or so south to the little village of Bundeena for a couple of nights in one of the most beautiful cottages.
This is Simpson Cottage and has a history that dates back over 150 years to the 1860s. This atmospheric sandstone treasure is not only lovely to look at from the outside, inside has been styled to breaking point. Every corner is a carefully curated vignette, every angle an Instagram-worthy scene in its own right. It’s just beautiful.
We’ll be bringing you a full review of Simpson Cottage as well as an extensive walkthrough video, but until then, you can see the cottage in The Last Anniversary, an excellent limited series on Netflix.
We’re here in Bundeena for the most important day of the year: my birthday!
There aren’t many dinner places in this little secluded village trapped between the edge of the Royal National Park and the shores of Simpsons Bay. But there is the bowlo and RSL. And I tell you what, the food here does the town justice.
Professionally shucked rock oysters and some substantial schnitzel work are a credit to the kitchen.
Gifts-wise, Christina’s outdone herself this year, but the apex has to be the tickets she’s managed to get to Greg Davies’ Sydney leg of his Full Fat Legend stand-up tour in November. It’s not like I’m wishing the year away, but I’m pretty excited to get to the end of 2026 now!
It’s not just my birthday this week, but my best mate Anton’s too. In fact, it’s his 25th (again), so a bit of a landmark this year.
Anton also shares the same birthday as my dad, which is a bit spooky.
Things start out for Anton’s big day with a bottomless lunch at 20 Chapel in Marrickville, then the party proper kicks off at our mate Paul’s house, where things go till late.
Happy birthday, cobber. Hope you had a good one.
And here we have it: after months of thinking about it, more months of planning and drafting, and another month on top of that to execute this thing in the background, we’ve finally soaped, scrubbed, refitted and rebooted MMR.
This is the new homepage and our regular readers will notice everything is different. If you don’t see any difference and you’re happy with the way things look and work, our job here is done. Our aim was to make the navigation system as intuitive and reader-led as possible, so you kind of guide yourself to our best and most helpful stories.
We really hope you like the new look and feel of MMR. Let us know if you’ve got any feedback (and if you experience any bugs). We’re still flattening out creases and we’d love your help.
This afternoon, I’m in the wonderfully cosy Doss House in The Rocks. This old sandstone bar, buried beneath the oldest streets of Sydney, is the perfect spot for the latest tasting panel for the next edition of booze industry magazine The Trade Buyer’s Guide.
This time round, we’re looking at nearly 40 different whiskies from North America.
There are roughly four categories – Bourbon, Single Malt, Rye and Liqueur. There are some superb spirits to taste here, which makes the judging both difficult and enjoyable.
As you probably know, Christina and I are big into Chardonnay – especially from the Hunter Valley. So whenever May rolls around, we get pretty excited because 21st May is International Chardonnay Day!
More than that, our favourite Chardy makers – Scarborough Wine Co – are celebrating Chardo-May, making the whole month about this much loved varietal.
With Scarborough, we’ve made a fun little IG video you should check out, where we ‘rescue a little Aussie native stuck in the bush’. Lucky we were around really!
This evening we’re out to dinner with some new friends! Annette and Daniel from local law firm Morgan & English, who we met at the grace of the Balmain Rozelle Chamber of Commerce, have invited us to the Dry Dock for a bite and a natter.
The Dry Dock was completely transformed a few years ago from an ailing old boozer to an up-class brasserie style boutique pub, though still with hints to the old charm of the original hotel. Out the back is the Dining Room, which has received huge plaudits and even a Hat for its wine list.
If you get the opportunity, definitely come here for dinner. The food’s great and the service is perfect.
The month of May also heralds the start of one of – if not the biggest – festivals in Sydney: Vivid. Bringing millions of people every evening for a month, Vivid is a spectacular city-wide interactive light show that seems to get better and bigger each year.
As you can see in Frame 2 above, the drone show is back. The organisers canned it last year because its popularity caused dangerous crowd numbers around Circular Quay the last time. This year, held at Darling Harbour, hopes are high for the show’s renewed success.
Sadly, this might not be the case however. Frame 3 is a shot of the ill-fated drone show of Monday 25th May when everything glitched. Drones froze in a weird amorphous shape, flashed red, green, blue and white for a while, then started dropping into the water below. Time will tell if the show indeed will go on.
This weekend is the annual Pyrmont Festival. We can see the party going on from our office window and as it’s only a quick ferry ride and short walk away, it would be sinful for us not to head over.
We’re so glad we did: not only does the rain hold off all afternoon, the sun even comes out (I think it’s because I’ve brought a brolly and left my sunglasses at home). We work our way round some of the NSW wine tents that are here, check out the food and craft offerings, annoy the owners of a lovely Alaskan malamute and contemplate a game of crazy golf.
Then we head back to the wine section and have a good old chat with our friend Sally Scarborough of Scarborough Wine Co fame we mentioned earlier. She’s absolutely top – if you don’t believe me, check out our interview with her here!
Sally, her brother Jerome and Jez’s wife Liz now run the company now, having taken over from Sal and Jez’s parents Merralea and Ian ‘Scarbs’, to bring this two-generation winery to new heights.
In fact, Jerome is celebrating his 25th year as head wine-maker at Scarborough, which is just amazing. He and Liz have taken home some serious wine awards over the years, and Sally’s marketing prowess forges new paths for this consummate wine company.
Every now and again, Sydney receives a good sea fog. A deep, dense pillow of cloud sitting across the water, clinging to trees and wrapping around the tallest buildings.
We see this happening and go out exploring. The air is as still and quiet as it is when snow falls in colder places, and the the water around the harbour looks like set concrete. These are some of the frames from our Instagram Carousel – you can see the rest of them here – but I think you’ll agree, the fog gives everything a whole different spooky dimension.
Usually, the fog only lasts one night and next morning, but this is the following night, and I had to share it with you. Such a strange, beautiful sight, isn’t it.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this Flavour of the Month of May.
Jim & Christina xx