It ticks all the boxes as far a great date night goes for us – something new we’ve never done before, cheap and above all, fun, giving you something to talk about while on your date. (Because let’s face it, some weeks, if you and your partner have seen an awful lot of each other, you can run out of things to say unless you’re keeping it fresh.)

So I promptly registered for everything that films in our hometown of Melbourne. Given we’re not a huge city, we were limited to a select few shows – mostly entertainment and game shows.

Then we received a call from Deal or No Deal.

You need to be patient about this date as the process of application and auditioning can take a few months. Best to register now and then wait it out to see what happens. I kept it a surprise from Den until I got confirmation for the audition day just to make it a bit more exciting.

Audition day came and went without much fanfare… in fact, it was a bit of an anti-climax on audition day. Line up, have your photo taken, fill in another application sheet and then sit down to meet with the producers who have a chat with you to get to know you, and process your application. We left not sure what to expect next. They told us the wait could be up to 6 months before we got to a filming.

If you do get into the filming, there is no guarantee that you’ll make it onto television. With 150 people in the audience, there’s a five-in-seven chance you’ll get to hold a case and have a punt at $500 for guessing the case right. There’s a 1-in-35 chance that you’ll be THE person picking the cases off for the chance at $200,000.

They film quite a few shows in a row, so it’s a long day. They provided a yummy lunch and lots of laughs by way of the crowd-warmers that throw jokes around behind the scenes all day. Not every filming will take so much time and energy, but the key is to keep your spirits up as they are always looking for animated people to jump onstage. Which means you have to be over-the-top cheesy most of the day if you want them to notice you.

Guess what? They picked me. Most profitable date night ever! Unfortunately, as you’ll see here, I didn’t get anywhere near the $200,000 I could have had. But you know what? I had a ball doing it! It pushed our comfort circles way out (particularly the night it was going to air when I was nervous as all-hell.)

To check out the events as they unfolded behind the scenes and on national television, see below.

The last video only had room for about 30 seconds in it – to spare you the watching (and me the uploading!) I’ll just tell you – I had the $4,000! So after all that bad luck there was a little tiny light at the end of the tunnel. But despite kicking myself for days afterwards about choosing the wrong case (Why didn’t I pick Den’s birthday, or my father’s birthday? We could have had $15,000! Or $20,000!), in the end it was a great date night.

I recommend it – it’s a barrel of laughs!

And if you’re good at something, like general knowledge, why not try your hand out at an actual game of skill? Or if you have a favourite television show that you watch all the time, attend that together for a great insight into how it’s made. Television is a fascinating process if you’ve never seen it before.

Date Night Rating Overview
Romance Factor: 0/10
Cheese Factor: 10/10
Fun Factor: 10/10 (assuming you get on as a contestant… otherwise I’d give it a 7/10 fun factor)

Related posts:

1. Deal or No Deal, Baby!
2. Video Game Arcade Date Night Review
3. Love Plug: Nookii Adult Board Game for Two

Picture this: you’re enjoying a blissful Date Night with your partner. The mood is perfect, there’s ambient lighting and smooth background music. You close your eyes and lean in for a kiss but suddenly your partner recoils in horror “What IS that sticky stuff on your lips?!”

Many a Date Night has had the mood spoiled by too-sticky lipgloss. As far as guys go it’s the mortal enemy, never mind the fact that you spent $50 on it and it comes in a pretty case with a designer logo. They don’t care about that.

There are certain things to avoid when you know you’ll be locking lips with your other-half.

Sticky gloss
This is the best way to make your guy keep his lips well away from yours, avoid at all costs! Try something with a smooth non-sticky texture like a nice lip balm (Lanolips are my favourite!) (I like Hissyfit’s Lip Service which comes with an SPF or Ye Olde Paw Paw Ointment – Emma)

Cracked or Flaky lips
Kissing frogs is for fairy-tales, not real life. Unless your man has a reptile fetish; scrub those lips immediately! Lush make an amazing sugar lip scrub that’s perfect for gently buffing away dead skin. It comes in two flavours: mint chocolate and vanilla chocolate, there’s nothing wrong with getting both!

Super bright lips
Red lips are glamorous, elegant and chic – sounds perfect for a date night right? Well, I can tell you that it doesn’t look so glamorous when smeared all over your man’s face. Try a long-wearing version for better staying power like Mac Pro-Longwear, to keep the colour on your lips and not his. Even better is a lip stain which gives your lips a nice dose of colour and will not budge through even the most ‘enthusiastic’ kissing session.

Related posts:

1. Fuss-Free Beauty – Things I Love
2. How to Make a Love Map
3. Love Plug: Hollywood Make-Out Mints

Here are some brand spanking new things to make your daily life that much more glamorous – with minimal effort required!

1. The New York Manicure
I always feel more pulled together when my nails have been done. And I will not wear open toed shoes (or even show my feet in front of mister if I can help it) unless they’ve been pedicured. Which is why I’m out-of-my-brain excited about this:

The world’s first hybrid gel-polish manicure has arrived, ladies! Shellac is incredible. Firstly, it is set and dried instantly under a UV light so nuffies like me can’t smudge it the second they’ve stepped out of the salong. Secondly, it comes in a range of divine colours from pale, girly pinks to vixen reds to Twilight-blacks. And (here’s the best bit) unlike normal polish manicures, this baby lasts for two whole weeks without chipping!

TWO WEEKS. And yes, it really lasts two weeks. They’re not just saying that. Of course, for something so stellar it costs a bit more than your average mani. But I think $50 (that’s $3.50 a day) for two weeks of perfect fingertips is not a lot to pay.

The polish is removed with Shellac’s special acetone-soaked pads which sit only on your fingernail to minimise contact with the skin.

The only place I know of in Australia doing the New York Manicure so far is Beaute @ 2001 in Doncaster, Melbourne. There’s nothing else on the web yet announcing that anyone else is doing it, but if you know of anywhere do post it below for us! Here’s a pic of gorgeous Sarah Willcocks from Style Melbourne getting her nails done at the Beaute Sparty.

2. The Cellulite-Sucker
I trialled this techniSPA treatment by Guinot the other day at the Beaute VIP Sparty (Spa Party) held in the divine Style Suite at Westfield Doncaster. They were also showing off their New York Manicure above and a host of other decadent pampering stations, all served up with bubbly and cupcakes. Quite a nice start to the week!

Cellulite reduction wouldn’t usually be my first choice of treatments as I (praise the Lord, I’m hoping it’s good genes and it stays this way) don’t have much cellulite to worry about on my thighs, plus, I don’t get my pins out all that often.

But even with that considered, I was blown away by this treatment. A special gel is applied to your thighs and butt region and then they hand you a metal rod to clutch. Then, they get a little machine that looks and feels like a baby dustbuster and run it over your entire leg and buttocks. It doesn’t hurt at all, feels quite nice actually.

It works to stimulate the fat cells through the skin, draining and firming them with stimulation. At the same time, it physically breaks down the cellulite structure and dissolves the fat, letting it process through your system.

I felt the results immediately afterwards when I was inspecting my thighs at home in the bathroom. The skin is firmer, more lifted. A course of 12 treatments is optimum, with case studies showing thigh circumference reduced by 3.44cm and a 35.46% increase in firmness.

It will usually set you back $120 per treatment so it’s a bit of an investment but if your thighs really do bother you, I say it’s reasonable! Right now, our friends at Beaute Medi Spa have it at $60 per treatment for the month of July (hurry!).

3. Cadiveu Brazilian Keratin Treatment
This one has just knocked not only my socks off, but all the frizz from my hair.

I have unruly hair. Cowlicks, frizz patches, won’t obey the blowdryer. And after years of highlighting, it’s looking a little worse for wear around the ends as well.

So when my hairdresser offered me a chance to trial her new Cadiveu Brazilian Keratin Treatment, I thought it sounded too good to be true. And of course I jumped at it.

The promises are simple: Keratin (which your hair is made of) will reseal the hair shaft, filling in any damaged places and leaving your locks silky, shiny, smooth. One great side effect is the straightening.

The Cadiveu treatment is the new frontier in Brazilian Keratin. The brilliant thing about this one is that you can wash your hair immediately afterwards, unlike the older generation treatments where you can’t wet your hair, or tie it up for four days afterwards. This also means the chemicals are washed out of your hair before you even go home. That’s a bonus in my book.

The before and after pics speak for themselves:

This is my hair dried off before the Brazilian Keratin treatment. No brushes used.

This is my hair dried off after the keratin treatment. No brushes used whatsoever. It sits looking like this no matter what. I’ve since washed it and it took me half the amount of time and effort to blow-dry it. I did a whole sweaty Zumba class and not a hair was out of place once I’d finished.

The treatment will probably set you back anywhere from $300-$500 depending on your hair length and thickness. You can email Ally to ask any questions you have and get a quote for your hair. She’s in Melbourne. So far, I like it!

And that’s it so far daters! What great new things have you discovered to cut down your daily beauty routine or make you feel better about your “standard self” when you’re hanging around your house with your sweetie?

Related posts:

1. Fuss-Free Beauty – Things I Love
2. A Week of Beauty on $30 Date Night
3. Date Night Review: Joint Manicures

In an ideal world, one of two things would happen.

1) I would roll out of bed every morning to be greeted by my make up artist, hair stylist and fashion consultant who would press a hot latte into my hand and go to work on me while I sit, zombie-like, trying to wake up properly.

(Side note: While I’m lazy on a day-to-day basis, I LOVE having beauty treatments done by someone else. I adore day spas, I love chilling out in the hairdresser’s chair for hours and nothing is quite so relaxing as a pedicure during a stressful week. I could spend all day, every day just having back to back beauty treatments and not be bored.)

Or

2) I would wake up with perfect hair/skin/nails and simply walk out to face the day looking perfect with no effort whatsoever involved. Maybe just a lick of mascara and a swipe of a lip gloss.

Seeing as neither of these things is likely to miraculously happen, I’m going for a sort of a hybrid of the two.

Get other people to do as much work as possible for me so that I can roll out of bed and do as little work as possible to make myself presentable. Because let’s be honest, once you’re in a long term relationship (or married) you kind of give up the whole single-girl energy of keeping up appearances. Which is nice. You don’t want to be switched on all the time.

But if you’re going to be switched off, you can still look good doing it.

Let’s talk skin and face today.

I’ve always had problem skin. I had acne as a teenager, and despite the entire world telling me not to worry, that I would “grow out of it”, I still get pimples now ALL THE TIME. Stupid oily skin.

The best my skin has ever looked was at my wedding – and that’s only because I had a monthly facial for a year beforehand and stopped drinking alcohol and eating sugar for two months before my wedding date. Soooo not sustainable.

But right now, I’m very happy with the way my skin is headed. And there are a few great prods I love that help keep me happy:

Omnilux Light Therapy

On the advice of Beauty Guru Zoe Foster over at Primped I went in for a course of Omnilux treatments at Beaute @ 2001 in Melbourne.

This light-therapy works to stimulate collagen production in your skin. As my beauty therapist put it: it “tricks” your skin into thinking there’s something wrong, so it puts its natural healing properties to work.

A course of 9 treatments is recommended to start, but you’ll notice results instantly after the first one.

It’s about $100 per treatment, so it’s not cheap, but it has drastically improved the quality of my skin. I don’t get huge, sore, blind zits anymore – I get small manageable ones and they heal very quickly. It helps even out your skin tone and plumps it up, erasing fine lines and wrinkles and making you appear youthful and vibrant.

It’s gone a long way in helping get my skin healthy. My next step, though, to help erase the years of solariums (I KNOW. What was I thinking?) is going to be microdermabrasion. I’ll keep you posted.

Monthly Facials, Daily Routines

I still get a facial every month. And believe me, if I skip one, my skin lets me know about it. I’ve been on Dermalogica for years, which I still have a soft spot for even though I’m getting a little more hardcore about my skin approach lately (as mentioned above).

And while I’m lazy, I’ve now gotten myself into my daily skincare ritual and I feel wrongtown if I try and skip it. Even if it’s been a huge night out and I’m dead-on-my-feet tired, I still have to take off my makeup, cleanse, tone, rosehip oil and moisturise my face before I go to bed. And every morning after my shower (don’t ever cleanse in the shower – the water is too hot for your skin in there!) I do it all again plus an SPF as well. 30+. Every day. (Solarium lesson learnt.)

Carmen the Eyebrow Queen & Benefit Browzings

Carmen is a godsend, I’ve been going to see her for at least ten years now. The secret about having perfectly groomed brows is that it’s an instant facelift and you won’t feel like you have to wear as much make up.

But you want to go to someone good.

Carmen isn’t cheap, but the $50 fee is worth it to reap the benefits of amazing brows that are shaped perfectly for your face. And I only need to go every 2-3 months for maintenance, as I keep them tweezed and shaped in the meantime on on a daily basis. Carmen will cut, pluck and wax your unruly brows into perfection in a matter of minutes.

And if you’ve never had an extreme brow makeover before, don’t freak out! It will look weird to you for the first few days, but trust me, you’ll grow to love it.

The other great thing to help keep your brows looking great is Benefit’s little Browzings kit.

Comes with a baby pair of tweezers, two brushes, an eyebrow wax to fill in gaps in your brows and a powder to fill colour in on your brows. A-ma-zing what a difference it makes! Head over to this great tutorial on Primped to learn how to use it.

ID BareMinerals Foundation Powder

The ultimate can’t-be-assed make up that doesn’t even feel like you’re wearing any. Because if I’m just hanging at home with Den, I don’t really want a full face of heavy liquid foundation on.

ID BareMinerals buffs into your skin and sits on it perfectly, is light-weight but still gives great coverage, lets your skin breathe and even has an SPF in it. It’s the kind of make up you aren’t afraid to get messy in.

There’s nothing worse that not being able to have a pash with your partner or snuggle into their shoulder for fear of ruining your make up, or getting it all over them. With BareMinerals, you don’t have to worry. And men love that, trust me. They get scared of thick foundation and false eyelashes.

It’s perfect for my sensitive skin, it doesn’t make me break out and you can put it on right after a facial. It’s so pure you can even sleep in it, so if you are the type that’s prone to forgetting to take it off before bed, it’s perfect for you.

What about you? Share your favourite low-fuss beauty tips here so we can all benefit from it!

Related posts:

1. Fuss-Free Beauty – New Fun Things
2. A Week of Beauty on $30 Date Night
3. Get Lips Guys Will Love!

Why, you ask? What does that have to do with dating and relationships?

Plenty, it turns out.

Because if you feel good about yourself you’ll feel better about your relationship. You’ll flirt more with each other, you’ll love the appreciative glances from your sweetie and you’ll certainly get their attention.

I myself have been feeling in a bit of a beauty rut the last few months. So I’ve decided it’s time to pull myself out of it.

The problem with living with someone 24/7 is that they see you at your most unglamorous. And we rarely dress up anymore for our partners, or slick on some lipstick to impress them.

When you start dating, you get excited that they’re coming to see you! You spend hours de-fuzzing yourself, doing your hair, putting on make up, sliding into stay-up stockings and a pretty new dress…

Then it starts to slide a little. When you begin having “sleepovers”, it becomes trickier. I used to wake up early and slide out of bed silently, then go to the bathroom and whack on a little natural make up (no overkill, just some cover up, mascara, a little powder. Brush my teeth, run a comb through the hair and then slip back into bed like nothing had ever happened, ready to wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! That’s natural beauty.

Those days are long gone. Now I’m lucky if I run a razor over my legs once a month. And that’s marriage for you.

So – rather than talking about beauty rituals that take hours of effort, let’s come up with a new strategy.

I’m going to investigate all the new beauty and spa products that make us effortlessly gorgeous in our own homes without the hours of hard work.

Little tips like getting a regular leg wax instead of shaving keeps you silky smooth longer… getting your skin to glow without the make up on so that you barely NEED to cover it up at home…. The best of both worlds, yes? Looking good for your partner without even trying too hard.

Stay tuned, it’s going to be a fun week! Drop a comment or question here if you have anything to add to the discussion…

Related posts:

1. Fuss-Free Beauty – Things I Love
2. Fuss-Free Beauty – New Fun Things
3. Date Night Review: Joint Manicures

Which we already discussed awhile ago. Click this link to see our Gorgeously Green Date Ideas list, compiled for us by Cate and Chris at GreenRenters.org

G is for Games

Like, board games. And such. Either hold a game night at home for the two of you or tuck your Monopoly set under your arm and head to a pub with a lounge setting and maybe an open fireplace to play a few rounds with your partner.

There are also new board game cafes that have sprung up around the place. Find a local one and go utilise their games.

G is for Gardening

If you have a backyard, great. Plant yourselves a veggie patch! If you live in an apartment, perhaps a little potted herb garden on your balcony would be less ambitious.

Head to the hardware store and get your pots, soil and seedlings then get sweaty and dirty together in your backyard.

G is for Golf

Whether you get out and attempt to play 9 holes, head for a driving range or just go for Mini-Golf, this is guaranteed to be a bit of a laugh.

G is for Grease Monkeys!

Assuming one of you is mechanical, put on some old clothes, grab your partner and head out to the car. Have a lesson on changing oil, topping up water, cleaning spark plugs and more. Make lots of jokes about tools and such.

G is for Greek Food

Find a cheap but good Greek restaurant in your area – the kind that serves wine in old jam jars! Feast on spanakopita, taramasalata and dolmades. Yum!

G is for Garage Sales

Get the papers and takeaway coffees on a Saturday morning and trawl the Garage Sales in your local area (or pick a really swanky suburb if you want some amazing trash and treasure finds!).

Related posts:

1. 5 Date Ideas Beginning with D
2. Alphabet Dating: 9 Date Ideas Beginning with A
3. Alphabet Dating: 9 Date Ideas Beginning with C

The Daily Mail reported last week that: “More than six out of ten adults in a relationship admit there is a lot they could do to improve their love life – and four out of ten admit they have considered leaving their partner.

One in ten no longer even trusts their partner.

More than half of those polled said their partner was no longer the ‘affectionate and giving’ person they were when they first started dating.

And for 33 per cent acts of spontaneity – such as booking romantic trips away, cooking a favourite meal or bursting in with a bouquet of flowers – are all but dead-and-gone.”

People do try harder at the start of their relationships – that’s just a matter of hormones. We are given floods of spontaneity hormones and a drive to want to please our partners, courtesy of love-drugs such as dopamine and seratonin flooding our nervous systems.

But it’s not designed to last (we’d barely eat or sleep if it did!), Daters, which is why it naturally wears off over time, only to be replaced by more placid, comforting, bonding hormones that keep couples in longterm relationships.

Of course we all crave that initial excitement, for the rest of our lives. And with a little effort, even couples that have been married for years can recapture it.

But that’s the problem. That particular plan smacks of effort. And we humans are nothing if not inherently lazy.

So I say? 6 out of 10 people need to try harder.

The top 5 complaints about relationships were:

1. Lack of spontaneity
2. Lack of romance
3. Terrible sex life
4. No time to give each other attention
5. Lack of time to talk

Quite honestly, I feel ridonkulous even spelling this solution out for people because to us, it’s so blaringly obvious. It’s the same drum we’ve been beating for two years now, and will keep beating until people hear us.

To have a romantic, exciting relationship – to have a relationship where you can give each other attention and can talk properly on a regular basis – all of which will lead to a great sex life… it’s as simple as making time for each other and rekindling that dating couple that you used to be.

DATE NIGHT. Do date night. Regularly. Do new things every week. Take it in turns to do new things every week. Get inspiration from the ridiculously easy date ideas generator that we made especially for you!

If you don’t TAKE the time, you’ll never HAVE the time.

I’m sorry, but this is not Hollywood. Romance doesn’t “just happen”. It’s going to require some effort at the start, and then before you know it, it will become natural. You’ll be part of a loving couple. Get yourselves into the routine and stop bitching about it when you haven’t even tried to make it work properly yet.

Too harsh?

Related posts:

1. “Some People are Just Happier in a Relationship”
2. Living With Messy People
3. mX Column: Damn Smug Morning People

I knew it! I’ve been saying it all along.

Says the Daily Mail in London:

“Half of men will upgrade a common cold to flu and describe headaches as a migraine to gain maximum sympathy.

They will also moan more than women when suffering a bug or virus.

This is despite the fact they catch fewer colds and flu each year – five compared with women’s average of seven.”

Certainly rings true for me – we’ve spoken before about Den and his Man-Colds. The worst of it is, he refuses to go to a doctor, happier instead to self-diagnose and then sit on the couch with a little silver bell, ringing for my attention when he needs his nose wiped and whatnot.

But I have another thing to put forward to you – men use this same talent of gross exaggeration in the opposite way as well. Den doesn’t usually cook in this house. For three years now, cooking has been mostly my domain. Sometimes I relish it, but lately I’ve lost my cooking mojo and happily left the task to Denis for a couple of weeks now to see how he would cope. He’s stepped up, but my Lord is it at a cost.

You see, every meal he makes – whether it be throwing hunks of meat into the slow cooker or whipping up a spag bog – has to be fawned over for at least 48 hours after the fact. How good it was. How great it tasted.

And yet, if I do the same I’m lucky to get a “tastes great” without fishing for one.

Anyone else find the same thing? Men and their exaggerating? Do women have an equivalent affliction I can’t think of right this second?

Related posts:

1. Do Soulmates Exist?
2. In Sickness and in Health?
3. “Some People are Just Happier in a Relationship”

1. Visit a Morning Market
Pop down to your local farmer’s market and purchase some fresh produce. Farmer’s markets are a great opportunity for farmers and food producers to sell organic and pesticide free goods to customers. Freshly baked breads, free range eggs, homemade jams, local fruit and vegetables, regional cheeses…Enjoy a fair trade coffee and a home baked muffin then and pop home to cook up a feast!

2. Hold a garage sale
Holding a garage sale is a great way of decluttering your home and can really place your values about consumption and having ‘stuff’ into perspective. Invite all your mates and put up plenty of signs around the neighbour. Pop your unwanteds out front of the house and make sure you have plenty of change. Price your goods but prepare to haggle. Your leftovers can be donated to the op shop and you can use your sale money to buy something

3. Go for a bike ride.
Borrow some old bicycles and helmets and go for ride along a creek or river. Girls, this is a chance to wear a pretty dress and cardi, and guys, definitely no lycra! Unless you’re both super athletic, think leisurely not speed racer. A great opportunity to be outside and in the fresh air. Leave your car at home and enjoy a flask of coffee or mulled wine in a grassy spot before you cycle home.

4. Join a Permaculture blitz
A Permablitz is a gathering of people at someone’s home to create a garden, share permaculture skills, enjoy a Melbourne and have fun. Help plant a veggie patch or build a chicken coop and enjoy a chance to meet your neighbours. It’s s great way to get involved in your community and you might even get a chance to have your garden permablitzed!

5. Board games by candlelight
Snuggle up under some quilts for an evening playing old school board games like Scrabble, Monopoly and Scattegories and enjoy a night by candlelight. Enjoy some hot chocolate and your favourite dessert and leave the lights and television off for an energy saving evening. You can even go outside to look at the stars (a great to sneak a look at your partner’s scrabble letters)!

About Green Renters
Green Renters is a not for profit for those striving to lead sustainable and ecological existences within the confines of rental property.

Frustrated by constantly attending conferences and exhibitions that only provide products and advice to home owners, Cate and Chris provide advice for those who are unable to make major changes to a property but still intend to spend many years and call somewhere home.

The Green Renters are available for workshops, stalls, presentations and panels with a host of tips, advice and home made goodies!

Related posts:

1. 7 Great Date Ideas Beginning with G
2. 10 Fun Date Ideas for a Lazy Sunday
3. 9 Fabulous Date Ideas Beginning with F

F is for Festivals
If your city is anything like our city, there’s a freakin’ festival going on every time you turn around! Food Festivals, Film Festivals, Theatre Festivals, Jazz Festivals… make the most of the free events and the great talent that converges surrounding the next great festival in your town.

F is for Ferry Trip
In my opinion, taking a Ferry is one of the nicest forms of public transport possible. Leave the car behind and jump on one, wind in your hair, to visit a nearby stop. Jump off, explore, shout your date a coffee or an ice cream!

F is for F is for Fondue
Stay home (nab a fondue set from someone) or go out and delve into a fondue dinner together. You know the rules for the home one – if a piece of bread falls in, you gotta remove an item of clothing. (Is that how it goes?). If cheese isn’t your thing, go for dessert fondue – cut fruit, marshmallows and donuts dipped into a chocolate fondue! Who wouldn’t love that! Get – ahem – creative with the melted chocolate if you are so inclined. (Wouldn’t recommend that with the cheese though. Unless you’re into that kind of thing. Which is, frankly… gross.)

F is for Firefly Hunting
Believe it or not, we don’t have fireflies here in Australia. I did however, have a stuffed toy called a ‘Gloworm’ when I was a little girl that was supposed to be based on a firefly. His little face glowed orange when you hugged him hard enough. He stopped me being scared of the dark.

Anyway, I digress. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere there are fireflies, go catch some together! Just be sure to let the little poppets go once you’re finished marvelling at them. I’m pretty sure the dead ones don’t glow.

F is for Fish and Chip Picnic
One of the most fun dates you can do for under $30! In summertime, find a beach or a park and go get a big batch of greasy fish and chips and beverages takeaway (you can fit alcohol in your budget on this one!). Sit under a tree and eat from the paper with your hands, getting yourself all messy in the process. Divine.

F is for Farmer’s Market
A great weekend date! Get the calendar online for your upcoming local farmer’s markets and go along for breakfast together. Think free range egg and bacon rolls, organic free trade coffee and the freshest of fresh hand-reared produce from local suppliers to take home. Too delicious for words!

F is for Fireworks
Take a blanket and a picnic to your community’s next free fireworks show!

F is for Fishing
Surely someone you know has some fishing rods you can borrow to head out for a quiet day on the water. I’ve never been fishing myself, but I imagine it to be serene and relaxing. Especially if I can convince Den to hook the bait, kill and scale the fish and cook the fry up for dinner.

Just remember: Fish don’t eat cooked fish! Best use worms.

Related posts:

1. 5 Date Ideas Beginning with D
2. Alphabet Dating: 9 Date Ideas Beginning with A
3. Alphabet Dating: 10 Date Ideas Beginning with B