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)

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1. Deal or No Deal, Baby!
2. Video Game Arcade Date Night Review
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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.

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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?

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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!

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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…

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6 weeks ago we went to the studios of Channel 7 and made it on Deal or no Deal!

The episode airs tonight (Thur 15th July) – in Australia – 5.30pm EST on Channel 7.

Em’s was the lucky one to be on centre stage with Andrew O’keefe and the lights the cameras and the butterflies – I spent my time conveniently hiding behind my case.

You don’t know if you’re going to be on until they yell out your name, then BAM the camera is in your face and you’re jumping up and down like a clown. Emma and I had already spent the cash in our heads well before we got to the studio, and we were sure that we would walk away with a cool $40,000. It seemed like most people in the audience had the same idea!

We thought we could easily walk away with $40,000 – this kinda cash could make a huge difference in our house hunting extravaganza which is a whole other post… still to be written! And it would pay for a nice getaway which we’ve been wanting for a very long time!

They film 5 episodes in a day – so whichever way you look at it, it’s a very long day – lunch was provided and they gave us cookies in between shots as well.

This type of date idea isn’t one that you’ll do spontaneously. Emma applied for a bunch of game shows and studio audiences in 2009 – and it took Deal or No Deal over 9 months before we were contacted. And after that you still have to go through an interview process and then wait more time etc. Even with such a long lead – it’s still a great type of date idea, and experience you should try.

So, what do you reckon? Could you do it? Could you get up there in front of everyone and the cameras and take a shot at the $200,000? Has anyone else been up? How well did you do?

Stay tuned – we’ll get some footage of Emma’s game up within the week.

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After all, it’s only us Australians and the US that call it soccer. To the rest of the world, it is Football.

You should know, I don’t go out for sports. They’re just not my thing.

I don’t play them (sadly, I, like 1 in 16 children worldwide, was born with a complete lack of hand-eye coordination. Which means if I try and get involved in ball sports, I usually cop a few bruises on the head. It’s a worthy cause, these unco children, and they should really start a charity for it. They could give out free helmets to nuffy children like I was to stop us getting concussions.), and damned if I’m going to waste time actually watching them when I could be doing productive things instead. Like shopping. Or drinking cocktails.

Except.

Except for soccer, once every four years. The world cup sees me turn into a huge Socceroos fan, which is how we found ourselves awake at 4am to catch Australia v Germany back in round one.

Rather than sitting in the comfort of our loungeroom, we thought it would be way more fun to get amongst the action down at Birrarung Marr, the parklands where they were screening the match live on big screens.

It was all good in theory, except for one thing. We arrived late. We arrived, in fact, just after Germany kicked their second goal against us.

There was no anticipation left in the air. There was no excitement of what might come. There was no geed-up crowd buzzing for Australia.

What there was, was 15,000 cold, tired, pissed off Australians wondering why they’d bothered getting out of their cosy beds in the dead of winter for this.

It’s hard to come back from a 2-0 score in soccer.

(As someone aptly pointed out on Twitter this week:
Twilight’s like soccer. They run around for two hours, nobody scores, and its billion fans insist you just don’t understand.)

Sigh. I think it would have been fun if we’d been out there a little earlier to soak up the anticipation and the atmosphere. I think it would’ve been fun if we’d bought some cash so we could grab an early breakfast snack and a coffee. I think it would’ve been fun if we hadn’t been freezing our butts off! A little bit of planning goes a long way, especially when you’re not thinking straight at 4am.

As it was, it was an okay date. We left early when we realised there was no chance at all of a comeback and we slept late that day because we’d had an interrupted night’s sleep.

So my advice, if you’re going to do a date like this one is to remember a few key things:

1. If you’re really not into sports, pick a match that has some significance. The Grand Final of the World Cup, The Super Bowl, Wimbledon, etc. At least that way when you go watch a live screening, it will be easy to get swept up in the atmosphere.

2. Jump in with two feet. Get to the match early, wear the team colours and if you’re at a baseball stadium, eat a hotdog. Embrace the traditions and you’ll enjoy it much more.

3. Place your own bets. If you have no real alliance to either of the playing teams, pick one each and place bets on the outcome. Household chores, cooking dinner and sexual favours are all good bartering chips. Then you will at least have some personal interest in barracking for your team to win.

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The Three Stages of Male Life…

SINGLE LIFE

MARRIED LIFE

DIVORCED

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As Razzie suggested, we cranked the tunes, poured ourselves a glass of wine and sorted a platter of cheese, dips, crackers and chips. Of course Emma had nothing in her wardrobe that she WANTED to put on ebay – so went through mine instead.

2 shirts and a hat! The shirts I’d still wear if they fit me – alas they don’t fit anymore. It’s a shame cause I only wore them a couple of times.

The ebay date idea is cruisy and easy to do. It was a lot of! Now that we’ve done it, I would recommend making sure you both get involved in the searching for the items that you’ll choose to put on ebay. Sit back on your bed and hit the wardrobe together. We kinda didn’t do that… and I reckon it would have been way cooler to make this process a team sport.

To view the above listing on ebay click here Politix Men’s Shirt

To view the above listing on ebay, go to Gangster Hat

To view the above listing on ebay, go to Christopher Chronis shirt

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This article from the Evening Tribune is a good one:

“It is not only important, it is critical to a healthy marriage,” said Kristy Hemmele, a licensed clinical professional counselor at Counseling and Family Services in Peoria, Ill. “The divorce rate is, like, 50 percent. One out of two marriages end in divorce. You court before you’re married and you have that fun. Then you settle in life, and life begins to happen, kids begin to happen, bills. You become comfortable and you forget. You don’t feel valued by your spouse. You don’t feel respected. And when that doesn’t happen, a spouse has a tendency to wander to someone else who would make them feel important, make them feel valued.”

“If they don’t take time to spend with each other, they lose track of who they are as a couple,” said Leia Ogburn of Ogburn Counseling Services in Peoria Heights, Ill. “It’s so easy in this day and age with all the pressure we have from our careers, from all the activities that children get involved in, from outside influences such as our extended families, our friends. It’s so easy to lose sight of their relationship – the couple relationship.”

Click through, read the article. Then phone your partner and schedule your first date night. Because it’s important. One of the most important things you will ever do for your relationship.

If you can still think of great excuses why you can’t have a regular date night, maybe you should read this.

And if you do want to start your own reconnecting with your partner, here is a great place to start.

Happy Dating.

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