FIREWORKS, romance and A virtual reality bathroom EXPERIENCE

Well it’s been a tumultuous week if nothing else. love that word – tumultuous. Tumultuous.

Anyway, it’s been a week of ups and downs – thankfully more ups than anything though. We managed to catch a stomach bug from our friends’ kids last weekend, which didn’t seem too bad… until we both found ourselves near to passing out with weird low blood pressure at different parts of the day.

I was on a bus and sitting down. That meant I was able to reign things in and convince my brain and body not to put the ‘back in 10 minutes’ sign up. Mrs Romance, however, wasn’t so lucky. She was at a media and celebrity dinner and was laid low by it. She was more embarrassed than anything – and disappointed she missed a world-class chef cook her dinner.

Best of all it [turned out to be] a 24-hour thing and we’re back up and running now. The second half of the week was much better – as you’re about to find out!

Hope you enjoy our latest IG Edition. We’ll see you again soon.

Jim & Christina xx

We’re at lunch in Uccello today and very nice it is too! The sun’s out and the pool at the top of Ivy in Sydney looks amazing. If you’re looking for an excellent modern Italian-style meal at a really quite high standard, this place is hard to beat. gets busy though, so make sure you’ve got plenty of time the other side of your meal. and definitely book.

This morning we’re trying out some very amazing tech. It may not look like it here, but I’m actually having a shower! This is a new concept by the blue Space, who create renovation options in a virtual reality space.

You give them the measurements of your room – at the moment they’re doing bathrooms and kitchens – and you can fill the space with the carefully curated products in their inventory. You get to see how your new room will look and feel to be in before you start work on it.

As you walk around the ‘room’, you can flick through the catalogue and see the different items in situ, and make your choices from there. Smart, huh?

These guys have only just launched, so Mrs romance and I were excited to come and see what they can do.

I’ve got to say, we’re impressed. Such a clever use of this technology.

And this is the kind of thing you get. believe it or not, this is a room by the blue Space’s VR program. You can even see which way the light will come in through your windows so you can choose lighting solutions too.

Also, these guys curate from high quality Australian brands to counter concerns with the products not being as good in real life.

The weirdest thing about the VR experience is that you can actually get in the bath and see how big it is. apparently most people can’t help but put a leg up to climb in, which made me feel better when everyone started laughing at me!

This is such a smart way to plan a renovation. So much safer than leaving it to guesswork and swatches.

Mrs romance and I are quite tired. It’s been a hell of a week and we’ve just spent the whole day with our agency – the wonderful people of Gravitas – working on brand strategy. It’s been really interesting and we’re so excited about the new stuff we’ve got planned to bring you, but now it’s time for a beer! Here’s to the weekend.

We’re about to head out to dinner this evening and it looks like it’s going to be a stunning night. Mrs Romance’s hair is looking particularly fine, the Harbour Bridge is in fine form and the moon has even come out too!

Let the eating begin! My mum and dad kindly bought us Red Balloon vouchers to go to Nick’s seafood restaurant in darling Harbour and tonight we’re cashing them in! The food is actually amazing – we didn’t know what to expect – and plenty of it too.

You get three platters – one for each course. This is the entree with a substantial Moreton Bay bug, amazing smoked salmon, oysters, salt and pepper calamari and avocado. Yum!

We’ve carefully chosen tonight to go to dinner because there are fireworks here every Saturday night. even though we’ve lived in the city for so long, we’ve never actually come to darling Harbour for the show. We’ve missed out!

Here’s a link to a quick 8-second video of the fireworks display – obviously it went on for much longer than that!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s IG Edition. As you can see it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. this week is looking like it’ll be much the same with an amazing behind-the-scenes look at one of the world’s largest cruise ships, lots of lunches in different places and an upcoming overnight trip down to Melbourne.

So watch this space for more from us!

If you haven’t already, definitely sign up to our weekly newsletter that I send out every Friday. In it is a rundown of the week’s posts plus news on what’s going on with us. We also give you exclusive notice on any competitions we’re running or prizes we’re giving away.

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This week’s travel Recap

Each week we go back in time over some of our favourite travel destinations using never-before-seen photos of our travels. Here’s where we’ve been looking back on this week.

How about this for a heavenly spot? On our last check out to Thailand, we managed to get a villa at the stunning Sala Phuket. That’s right, this is our own private pool! The walled villas here are absolutely stunning and so incredibly private.

You can find our full review and video walk-through of the resort right here! The place at the end of the video is worth the wait. villa Noi, which means literally ‘big villa’, is quite something!

The waters of the Caribbean off the southeast coast of Mexico are just incredible. even better – this is the ‘front garden’ of our amazing little hotel Casa de las Olas. This place is unquestionably the best place to stay in Tulum, a little piece of Mexican heaven!

Check out our review on Casa de las Olas (House of the Waves) or what we got up to in Tulum, Mexico. Also, if you’re looking for other types of accommodation in Tulum, make sure you check out our pal Marion’s company. home in Tulum is a travel concierge service for Tulum and it’s really really helpful.

Our mouths are still watering from thoughts of the food at The farm at Byron Bay. This is the pork gado gado Mrs romance ordered. everything on the plate has been grown on The Farm, then cooked by the artists at three Blue Ducks.

Find out more about this incredible sustainable concept here – we explore where to eat and what to do in Byron Bay.

Dinner on the beach at Aleenta Phuket has to be one of the all-time most romantic dinner spots we’ve every eaten at. Such a stunning setting – and delicious food too.

It’s all part of our review and video walk-through of the amazing resort in Thailand. 

Come on in – the water’s lovely! Mexico’s Caribbean coast on the country’s southeast is just so beautiful… and the water really is lovely. just down the road from this beach in Tulum is Chamico’s, one of the coolest little beachfront barefoot dining anywhere.

Chamico’s and everything else we recommend you do here is in our vital guide to Tulum. check it out!

Just across the road from the capital building in Havana, Cuba is the Gran Teatro de la Habana, inaugurated in 1838 – probably one of the grandest and most elegant buildings in the city. and as you can think of it’s up against some stiff opposition. The architecture in this city is absolutely astounding.

If you like this, you’ll love our full library of posts about Cuba. Here’s a link to the whole lot!

Absolutely love these trees – this is a Joshua tree in the aptly named Joshua Tree national Park, California. This park is one of the best places to see the famed San Andreas fault and of course the largest number of these endemic trees. It’s next to one of our favourite little middle-of-nowhere us towns Twentynine Pines.

This was all part of our ‘long way round’ road trip from San Diego to Las Vegas! check it and our free downloadable itinerary out here!

We hope you have an amazing week, and we’ll speak to you again in the next couple of days with our next post. Cheers!

Images by Mr and Mrs romance via Instagram: @MrAndMrsRomance.