Yes, time surely does fly when you’re having fun! This week marks ten years since the man of my dreams took me out on a date which blossomed into a love story which has no ending. If this is already too mushy for you, you better stop reading now.
For those who want to read on, it’s a story which proves that there is someone perfectly suited to you – you just have to do some hard searching. For Andreas, he had to travel to the other side of the world (he’s from Germany) so that we could meet each other. Yep, that perfect partner might not always be from your backyard so be prepared to search the world! Treat life as one big adventure and not something you have to drag yourself through.
Since Andreas and I hooked up, we’ve experienced a lot of great stuff together. We had a baby who’s a little challenging at times. He’s now eight years old and pushing the boundaries of what a parent can cope with. We’ve changed careers and built this great little photography business (Freshphotography) which is doing really well for us. It’s doing so well that I’m giving up my long standing career as a Myotherapist to work full time as a photographer. I could bore you with the endless list of great stuff which we have achieved, but I’ll leave that for another time.
The First Date
He took me to this funky new restaurant, Gingerboy, in the city. The food was delicious and we were chatting so intensely that by the time we looked around, the restaurant staff were sitting at the bar waiting for us to finish up and leave. It was late and he whisked me off to a swish cocktail bar nearby – 1806. This cocktail bar, with it’s olden day charm, struck a perfect note with me. We sat in a corner on some chesterfield armchairs and indulged in some cocktails which we definitely didn’t need by this stage.
Being the gentleman he is, he put me into a taxi and paid the driver fifty dollars (told the driver to keep the tip) to take me home safely to South Melbourne. Andreas had no idea where South Melbourne was as he’d only been in Melbourne for a short time and figured it was some distance away. The lucky taxi driver pocketed a forty dollar tip!
We couldn’t get enough of each other and saw each other again the following day. My stomach was not happy with me and I just put it down to being hung over. Andreas wasn’t too good either. This hangover lasted for days! That was until we got a call from the health department asking if we’d been sick this week. Turns out that half of the customers who were at Gingerboy that particular night caught gastro, some needed hospitalisation! Our hangover was really a gastro bug. A health inspection found nothing wrong with the restaurant so we guess it was either a staff member or a customer who spread the nasty thing. We did return the following year to celebrate our first anniversary at Gingerboy and fortunately didn’t catch anything nasty that time.
A Decade Later
Fast forward ten years and we still can’t get enough of each other. We live and work together, which is enough to drive a lot of marriages to divorce. Not us. We actually work well together. What’s the key to such a successful relationship? Respect and lots of laughter. Those who are in great relationships know what I’m on about here. We have great respect for each other and that’s what keeps it all together. With us, every dream is possible and nothing is too difficult. Kind words are spoken often and there’s plenty of laughter. Regular adventures must be planned and executed. Our aim is to see and experience something new regularly. We prefer to collect experiences over objects. We’re grateful for what we have and family time is important.
Anniversary Date
We still like going out on dates and our ten year anniversary called for something special. We started off the night at one of our favourite places in Melbourne, The Rooftop Bar. It was such a mild night to be out and about. And being a Sunday, we were able to get the lift up to the top (normally a six storey hike up stairs!) and we were able to walk straight in and get a table! It’s a different story on a Friday or Saturday night up there. It’s really a great venue for chilling out with friends or a date with a wonderful view of the city. The music is somehow always good.
Dinner By Heston Blumenthal has been in Melbourne for three years now and we have not been until now. This was one occasion which called for something a little more fancy and Dinner is a fancy restaurant – by our standards! It’s not cheap but the experience was worth it. We loved our experience there. Make sure you read more about it!
The night had to end with a visit to where it all began. We had to visit the cocktail bar, 1806, for a cocktail or two. It’s open till late every night and we haven’t been there since our first date ten years ago. It was exactly as we remembered and the cocktails were just as good. We even sat in the same chesterfield armchairs and drank those wonderful cocktails which we really didn’t need by that time of night. The lovely barman, Adam, took time to chat with us and gifted us with their 10th Anniversary edition (as it was also our 10th anniversary) of their cocktail book before sending us on our way home. We went home with our stomachs full of food and alcohol. It was a perfect end to our perfect night.
(Pictures snapped on my iPhone 8plus)