Mrs R makes the world’s best cookies ever, a weekend beach escape and the Good Food & Wine Show

Wow! what a quiet start to the week! Not that I’m complaining, of course! The most momentous thing that’s happened so far is our 3 Top Drinking Gadgets is up on site now.

We’ve given the low-down on three little gizmos that we use all the time to make our drinking life at home as good as the one we live outside!

I don’t think the rest of the week’s going to be as quiet though – we’ve got lots planned, not least a stay-cation at Coogee Beach and a visit to the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show at Homebush planned. Click on through to see what we get up to!

A lovely and very much unexpected package came in the post today. The absolutely astounding Chantelle from FatMumSlim.com.au sent us this brilliant press release/care package. Her photo app Little Moments is coming out at the end of the week.

The lollies get the Party Seal of approval and so does the app. We’ve seen a preview of this program and it’s amazing. You can edit your photos with some lovely little filters and add text and cool overlays too. It’s also geared towards Chantelle’s ever-popular Photo a Day Challenge, with full connectivity to Instagram.*

*Sadly this app is no longer available.

Last week Mrs Romance did the right thing (as always) and made me my favourite biscuits. The recipe she’s kindly sharing on site today is simple (only 5 ingredients), quick (only 20 minutes all up) and gluten free (there’s no gluten in them)! Here’s the link to Mrs R’s choc chip peanut butter cookies!

Well. That was stupid. I usually play football (that’s soccer to some of you!) on Wednesday nights, but last night there was no game.

“To the pub,” I announced to my team, and so there we went. To the best pub in Sydney: The Royal Albert.

To my surprise and delight, Royal Albert hotelier and general top bloke, Mikey Allen was in the pub on a rare night off. He sat with us and before I knew what was happening, I was involved in an impromptu lock-in drinking (quite heavily) with Mikey, Kristy and Dan and drinking JD Single Barrel. On a school night, no less!

Anyway, this sandwich is an attempt to get back on an even keel. I’ve got a feeling it’s not going to clear my head much, but it’ll certainly fill my stomach… which is very empty as I skipped dinner last night. I know; drinking whisky on an empty stomach. What was I thinking?

[Ed: the sandwich made me feel very sleepy too by the way. I had a nap shortly after this pic was taken!]

Mrs Romance is schmoozing the life out of it tonight. She’s at the Yves Saint Laurent movie advance screening event at the Verona in Paddington with some of her peers – i.e. incredibly glamorous, glitterati cool people. I’m at home where I belong!

She says the film is gorgeous – stunningly shot and acted. The story is dark and sad in places but still incredibly beautiful. And the clothes! It’s at cinemas now and well worth a watch for an insight  into the life of one of the most important fashion designers of our time.

Hello, Friday! Where on earth have you been all week? Today, Mrs Romance and I are heading off to Coogee (pronounced ‘could-gee’ by the way) for a stay-cation at the Crowne Plaza. We’re very excited about it, so I try and smother this enthusiasm with a delicious breakfast – I don’t want my dour English facade dented with any kind of positivity after all!

What I have in front of me is Goats on Toast from a little cafe called Two Good Eggs in Surry Hills. It’s two slabs of goat’s cheese on toasted sour cherry bread, drizzled with sticky honey and smashed walnuts. There’s a bit of sliced apple too. And it’s my favourite thing to have here, as you can imagine.

On site today is our latest blogger cocktail – or ‘blogtail’ if you will! This one’s for the awesome Nikki from StylingYou.com.au. It’s our Styling You Mocha Espresso Martini made with Nikki’s new favourite spirit, Mr Black. Mr Black is an Australian craft spirit made with cold filter coffee – and it’s delicious!

Here’s the recipe for the Styling You Mocha Espresso Martini!

Coogee! We’re finally here. The beach is pretty good too, isn’t it?! Love the beach in the winter. But more on that in a moment.

Here’s the view from our hotel balcony! Not bad? No. Awesome? YES! We love going on a stay-cation – in fact, here’s one we did in Pyrmont a while back – but when it’s coupled with views like this… this is bliss!

We’re staying at the Crowne Plaza Coogee – part of the InterContinental Group – and we’ll be publishing a full review of the hotel and of Coogee next week, so keep your eyes peeled.

We’re up and about pretty early this morning considering we enjoyed perhaps a cocktail too many at the Crowne Plaza’s Oceans Bar last night! But it’s a beautiful morning and we’ve never really explored the southern end of Coogee’s coastline. It’s amazing! So much to do… but we’ll tell you more about that in up-coming posts!

The weather takes a turn for the worse this evening. A big storm has come up from the south and is sitting just off the coast. So many lightning strikes! I manage to snap this little belter on my iPhone with this little trick!

This morning is back to normal weather-wise. Last night’s storm has left the coast a little chilly, but we brave it to enjoy our room service brekky on the balcony. Well, it’s hard to pass up a view like this, isn’t it?!

Besides, we check out of the Crowne Plaza Coogee today, so we’re making the most of the facilities. Mrs Romance loves room service, so this is the perfect way to end our stay. Great posture, by the way, Mrs R! Your mum will be proud!

This afternoon Mrs Romance and I head over to Olympic Park for the last day of Sydney’s Good Food & Wine Show. There’s so much to look at, to taste, to buy – it’s overwhelming! To finish off the day, we have a cooking lesson in the Barilla kitchen stall with famed Barilla Executive Chef Luca Ciano.

It’s a lot of fun and we both learn a lot from the lesson – even though it’s essentially a pasta and sauce dish. That’s skinned Italian sausage on our chopping board, by the way. No need for concern!

It’s the end of a hectic past couple of days in the Exhibition Centre of Olympic Park. The vendors we’ve spoken to today are all frazzled and very much ready for home. It’s not surprising – the venue was so packed when we first arrived there was barely enough space to move. And this is a big venue!

So all in all, it’s been quite a good end to what started out as a quiet week!

How did your week go? What was the best thing you ate last week? Have you tried a stay-cation? Tell us in the comments!