Happy New Y… oh yeah, that’s right. There’s only a week left of January. 2017’s not really that new anymore, is it?
How did that happen? After a leisurely Christmas break, time has started doing is turbo thing again and once again it’s time for our IG Edition.
One thing that’s made this week come around so quickly is how sick Mrs Romance and I have been. It’s quite strange for both of us to be unwell at the same time, and the fact that neither of us are particularly good patients has made it an interesting time here at Romance HQ.
Our horrible flu, coupled with a few incredibly hot days here in Sydney, has meant we’ve been a bit limited in what we’ve been able to do over the last week.
Still, soldiers that we are, we’ve managed to get enough together to bring you yet another (hopefully) entertaining update on what’s been happening here – minus the grossness of a head cold of course!
Hope you enjoy our latest IG Edition. See you again soon
Jim & Christina xx
The skies around Sydney have been so beautiful these past few days. Sometimes we’re so caught up in what’s going on at our feet and in our heads, we forget to look up.
The view from our friends’ veranda is helping us remember to see the sky and dream.
From our office window, we’re lucky enough to watch the cruise ships come in and out of Sydney. As they float slowly past, it’s usually hard to get some scale.
This time, however, one of the Sydney ferries has gone close enough to this (relatively small) cruiser and you get a real idea of how big these floating cities are.
The ferry you can see is the Charlotte, which can hold almost 400 people.
Tonight is a very exciting night! Tonight is the launch of our friend Kathleen’s latest venture: The Aussie Tipple Company!
The Aussie Tipple Co is a stroke of genius: bottled cocktails that are ready to drink. All you have to do is chill, pour and chill!
This is going to take out a lot of the waiting time at bars, save so much space in smaller venues and best of all remove the stress from making cocktails at home. And the thing we really love about these packaged cocktails is that they’re made with Australian craft spirits something we believe strongly in.
I’m flying solo tonight – Mrs Romance is still too sick to go out – to celebrate the launch at The Aussie Tipple Co’s designer’s offices in Waverley. Mrs R will be gutted when she sees the cheese platter!
WilEastley (on the left) is making my cocktail, which is pretty cool; he’s one of the mixologists who designed of the cocktails that go into The Aussie Tipple Co.
And now he and Rob Scott on the right are seeing how much everyone’s enjoying them at this awesome launch party.
Very excited about this new creation – these cocktails are an absolute first. And for my first taste of one, I’m going for a Rum Old Fashioned.
And here we go! A traditional old fashioned usually has whisky as its main ingredient. But Kathleen is using one of the best Aussie rums around from Black Gate Distillery in Mendooran, NSW.
This cocktail has rum, falernum syrup, and fig and cinnamon bitters (also Australian made) in, and it’s superb.
And here’s the lady of the hour: Kathleen Davies. Her amazing brain will bring Australian craft spirits and beautifully made cocktails within easy reach of anyone smart enough to want to try them.
Either side of her are the beautiful Hollingworths – Brian and Genise. These guys are the owners and creators of Black Gate Distillery.
The Aussie Tipple Co currently makes 4 different cocktails:
The White Rye Espresso Martini – using white rye and black rye coffee liqueur from Belgrove Distillery, TAS
The Negroni – using gin from Stone Pine Distillery, NSW and vermouth from Regal Rogue Distillery, SA
Rum Old Fashioned – using rum from Black Gate Distillery, NSW
The Dry Martini – using gin from Stone Pine Distillery, NSW
Check them out and buy them for yourself here!
Today is ridiculously hot. So we’ve decided to do the obvious thing and go for a walk! The foreshore around Sydney is just so pretty – especially on a beautiful day like today.
But the best part of walking in boiling temperatures is having a dip after. Do you get the impression I’m excited about this bit?!
Let’s just hope the rest of the week’s not quite so stinking hot.
This week’s Travel Recap
Each week we go back in time over some of our favourite travel destinations using never-before-seen photos of our travels. Here’s where we’ve been looking back on this week.
The Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris is a beautiful place to relax from the city. It feels like a local secret and you can spend all day here people watching.
We love going to the wineries around Adelaide. The countryside is so pretty and the wine is always on a different level. We can’t wait for our next trip. In the meantime, we’ll be brushing up on our cellar door techniques we learned from people in the profession.
Check out our post on cellar door etiquette here.
A place we’d love to go back to is Lake Como in Italy. Varenna is such a gorgeous town on the eastern shore of the lake across from Bellagio. It’s a direct train to Milan – check out our post on how to make the train journey here!
Last time we were in London we had blue skies! Fingers crossed we get the same for our trip later this year. I think London in the sunshine is one of the happiest places on the planet. On a winter’s day is a different story…
Travel photography is a real passion for both of us. We were very lucky to meet and travel with the talented Susan Seubert aboard the National Geographic Lindblad Orion around the Kimberley. It was amazing to watch her work and she was so generous with her knowledge and advice.
Check out our time in the Kimberley and aboard the beautiful ship Orion.
By the way, this is the scene that Susan was shooting in the Kimberley. Crocodile Creek is one of the few swimming holes that is safe to swim in up in these croc infested waters. Although it’s called Crocodile Creek, it’s rare there are any of its namesake swimming around here.
The tides around the Kimberley are amazing. At low tide the 9-meter climb up into this waterhole is beyond even the most agile croc. But at high tide, they can swim in quite easily. Thankfully we had a team of National Geographic naturalists and croc experts with us to make sure it was safe.
Check out more of our experiences in the Kimberley – Australia’s wild north-west – here.
Burano in Venice is one of the most colourful places we’ve ever been to. Burano is a vaporetto ride away from the main part of Venice and an absolute must-do!
Here’s our post on Burano, how to get there and what you’ll find when you’re there!
Lake Como is one of the great beauties of this world. It’s just amazing. While we were there, crossing from Varenna to Bellagio on the local ferry, we spotted this beautiful villa.
And then we spotted its name. #moodkiller
We hope you’ve enjoyed our latest IG Edition. We can’t wait to tell you more about what’s been going on with us next week. We’ll see you again then!
Cheers – Jim and Christina xx
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