A hair masterclass, a new gin and our 1st birthday!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - AB1 Sydney Harbour

Not long now till this very bridge will be exploding with millions of dollars worth of fireworks. I really can’t believe where this year’s gone… but it’s been a pretty good one, all in all.

Caroline Childerley of the newly established but already much-loved site The Gin Queen has put us onto this new gin: Four Pillars. It’s a Melbourne brew and we’re now massive fans. We can’t wait to get down to their distillery and check them out.

We’re in the Rook in Sydney’s CBD for Four Pillars’ Sydney event. We start slowly with a good ol’ G&T.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM1 Four Pillars g&t

We very much enjoy our GAT so we move swiftly on to our preferred gin-carnation: the martini. They serve it with a twist of orange in the Rook. I’m okay with that. Especially as it compliments the citrus flavours in the Four Pillars.

For more tasting notes and a closer first-hand description of this new, excellent tipple, head over to The Gin Queen. She loves this stuff even more than we do!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM2 Four Pillars martini

After the Four Pillars Gin event, we head home. I discover that Mrs Romance has been ‘procrasti-baking’ today. She’s knocked up a batch of spelt flour muffins! Top drawer, Mrs R!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM4 Mrs R bakes

This morning, we go out for a short walk to clear our heads for what’s going to be a day of hard work. We head to Hyde Park. It’s a spectacular morning in the city. Check out that blue sky!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM3 walk in the park Sydney Tower

On our wanderings, we come to the monolith in Hyde Park. It’s supposed to mark the dead centre of the city… though I’m not sure that’s true anymore. Once again though, how’s that blue sky? This was published using no filters or effects. Unbelievable.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM12 Hyde Park monolith

Mrs Romance’s side of things – Hair Romance – is an ever-burgeoning power of hair force – no I don’t think that’s a thing either. Anyway, tonight she’s giving a masterclass in ponytail education. The Etsy pop-up store in Castlereagh Street has organised a space.

We get there a bit early to get everything set up and to fill the goodie bags Mrs R will give away as part of the class. I’m the event photographer. No, I’m not nervous. Your nervous… you nervous… nelly…

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - HR1 Mrs R's ponytail workshop goodybag

The ponytail class is underway and Mrs R has her new students rapt as she twists, turns and twirls her locks, and spills the secrets to a perfect pony. She says she’s not a teacher, but I think she’s getting the buzz everyone does when they’re in front and teaching.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - HR2 Mrs R's ponytail workshop at Etsy popup

We get home from the class and Mrs R is on a roll! She whips up this delicious meal of barramundi with a quinoa, capsicum and avocado salad. I’m astonished!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM5 Mrs R cooks

This delivery happens this morning. Someone’s been shopping online again. And not for Christmas presents. Mrs Romance always has a good reason for new jewellery – hair tutorials, videos, events… I’ve given up arguing about it and just embrace her taste in bling!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - HR4 someone's been doing a little online shopping for herself

Tonight we go our separate ways. Mrs Romance heads out for a drink with the girls and I’m off out for my football (soccer if you will) team’s Christmas curry.

Mrs R gets straight into the sparkling. Nice work!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - HR5 Friday happens

Meanwhile, I’ve got a six-shooter of beers to deal with.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM6 beer o clock

Pictures of curry rarely look good. For that reason, I’ve omitted images of my dinner. That and the fact that my mates are all pigs and there wasn’t much time to take a picture before it was pretty much gone.

Mrs R’s burger from Chur Burger on the other hand, looks exceptional – though I wonder if it was around much longer than my curry!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM7 Mrs R @ Chur burger

Mrs Romance and her photography skills are a force to be reckoned with. Not just the taking of the pictures and the composition, but what she does with them afterwards… she has so many ideas!

This has to be one my favourite posts of hers – she’s told me this stuff before but I’m still enthralled reading it! Five fun things to do with your holiday photos – read it now if you haven’t already!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM8 Mrs R pumps out a brilliant photo post

It’s a creepy old day weather wise out on the harbour this morning. I’m still in bed but Mrs R is out and about exercising.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM9 weird cloud & high humidity

After my failed attempt at buying Mrs R her yearly dose of peonies last week (the ones I bought didn’t open and just started to rot) I head back to our florists and try again. This time the shop owner picks out the best of what he’s got. Mrs R is well happy.

It always surprises me the effect a little bunch of flowers can have on her. Even after we wrote this post together about when I buy her flowers. Still don’t really get it!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - HR3 peonies for Mrs R

Lunch is always a bit of a pain for us to agree on. I usually can’t be bothered with it these days and just want to keep working. Mrs Romance, however, gets a bad case of ‘Hangry’ if she doesn’t keep her food intake up! Hangry, by the way, is explained here: He Said, She Said: what to do when you partner gets hangry.

To avoid physical pain, I take Mrs R next door to a little Japanese cafe called Origami. This bento box is $12 and is so filling, she can’t finish it all!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM10 we go bento metal

Date night! We’re off to the cinema. But instead of going to the usual big chain screens, we head out to Leichhardt to the Palace Cinema. It’s only been open since the 22nd December after a big face lift.

We have a lovely evening – especially as there are only two other people in our cinema screen and we’re allowed to take a cocktail to our seats too. By the way, Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney is brilliant. Stressful, bit brilliant!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM11 date night

We get an unexpected delivery this morning: a merry Christmas bottle of bubbly! Thank you very much Angelica and Scott from Direct Wine Cellars for this beautiful bottle of Calappiano 18 Carat Prosecco.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM13 a christmas present from Direct Wine Cellars

Friday is – or should be – always pub day! I can’t think of any pub I’d rather be in than the Royal Albert Hotel in Surry Hills. Especially when they’ve fitted it out with proper pub stuff like horse brasses and mirror signs like this.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM14 great sign in the Royal Albert

We head out to Balmain for a farewell brunch with the vivacious Steph from LipstickAndCake.com. We eat in Kazbah on Darling Street, an amazing place serving up delicious Middle Eastern food Sunday to Saturday.

This is my lamb tagine for one with pita and Turkish bread. So tasty!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM15 my brunch at Kazbah

Mrs Romance tucks into a fritter with poached egg, spinach and spicy capsicum sauce with a pork belly skewer on the side.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM16 Mrs R's brunch at Kazbah

All three of us decide it would be rude not to have one of Kazbah’s epic pancakes. This one has raspberries and chunks of chocolate through it, a caramel sauce over, under and through it and a big dollop of choc ice cream on top. Heart-congestingly brilliant!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM17 dessert at Kazbah

 Today is MrAndMrsRomance.com’s one year birthday! As I said before, we can’t believe how quickly this year’s gone. To celebrate our site’s birthday, we’re running a prize give-away of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot – our favourite champagne – to one person. You just have to pick your favourite picture from our Instagram feed and repost it.

The instructions are all here on our give-away post.

Good luck!

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM18 birthday promo

We go out for dinner to our local Italian – Parma Cucina. Mrs Romance gets the ball rolling with an Aperol spritz. My aperitivo of choice is a negroni. Both are excellent… unlike my photos of our food, which is why we haven’t got any pics.

Mr & Mrs Romance - Insta Diary - MM19 negroni at Parma Cucina

It’s a shame. Our mixed antipasto is full of assorted meats, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, smoked salmon and bread is great. Then Mrs Romance’s salmon fillet is also very good, with a nice crispy skin served with an asparagus and red onion salad.

My gnocchetti, however, is genius. It comes with pieces of Italian sausage and blobs of my most favourite cheese: stracchino. If you haven’t heard of it before, look up where you can get some. It’s delicious!

Here’s our review on Parma Cucina Italian Restaurant for more info.

Good luck with the competition and have a great week!

Images by Mr and Mrs Romance via Instagram: @MrAndMrsRomance, @HairRomance and of course @AngryBastard!

2 Comments

  • Reply December 18, 2013

    Sonia

    What a week! You guys certainly pack it in!
    I would so love to attend a Mrs R hair masterclass one day. You are seriously my hair idol, Christina!
    My husband is with you, Mr R – he’s given up asking whether something is new or where I got it from. I’ve explained it to him like this: “Your passion is sport. You play sport, watch sport and talk about sport with your mates. My passion is fashion. I go shopping, online shop and talk about shopping with my friends.” End of story!

    • Reply December 19, 2013

      Mrs Romance

      Awww thanks lovely, your hair always looks amazing so I don’t know how much I could teach you! You can take me shopping for a styling session in return though! xxx

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