Hotel Realm

For those of you travelling to Canberra, I highly recommend Hotel Realm.

They have everything at your fingertips. Fine dining, gym, day spa, bar, and the staff go the extra mile.

The boyfriend and I were lucky enough to have a couples massage at Mudd Spa on Valentines Day. Lucky for me, they have complimentary hairspray, moisturiser and deoderant in their changerooms. Because our 1 hour head to toe massage was followed by a bottle of champagne at Ostani Bar, and then fine dining at Konoba restaurant... and I was completely un-prepared! As you get with surprises!

After our massage of bliss in a candlelit room, the massuese handed us each a pretty red rose which tickled me pink! Once we were settled in with complimentary bread and dip at Konoba restaurant, the maitre de placed another red rose on the table for the 'lovely couple'.

"I'm not usually a fan of beetroot, but couldn't go past this entre. The goats cheese finger and beetroot were an ideal combination of strong and subtle flavours."

Beetroot & eschallot tarte, crispy goat cheese finger, banyuls dressing
17.50

Braised lamb shoulder, roasted rack, gremolata, ratatouille, cooking jus
33.00
"I love ratatouille, and have never had it presented in such a way. All of the vegetables were diced into perfect cubes, making it so easy to get a bit of everything on the fork. The lamb was cooked to perfection and fell off the bone."

I cannot fault their attention to detail and thank them for helping make our night special.

We walked away talking about the possibility of having our wedding ceremony there... which is precisely what a girl wants her boyfriend to be inspired to bring up on Valentine's Day before he has even popped the big question!

Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I love seeing all the ladies that get flowers in the office on Valentine's Day! I don't really know the background of how St Valentine's day became so romantic/consumerist but I love it all the same.

I was lucky enough to wake up to some heart-magnets on my fridge this morning! They are from Kikki.K, my boyfriend knows me very well. I had also sourced Kikki.K for his Valentine's surprise which is a jigsaw card in the shape of a heart. They have a few others, a cute little car and a duck. I think they are just adorable. Adds a little more anticipation to see what you have written as you have to put it all together.

Last night a girl with a heavy French accent came to our door selling art. I had heard a few years ago to beware of door-to-door pedallers as it's a scam. But I had just mastered making my boyfriend's delicious salad dressing, and had a nice glass of wine so was in the mood to humour her.

I was quite surprised that most of the paintings were very beautiful and she was only trying to sell them for about $100 each. After falling in love with this one called 'Carnivale' I called the boyfriend over to inspect it. His family owned an art gallery in Canberra where his father sold a lot of his own work, usually for thousands, not just a measely hundred. So when the boyfriend was equally impressed and gave me his wallet to get whatever pleased me the most, I felt confident that I wasn't being scammed.

...And if I am, who cares?! It's genuine art, not a print, and it looks gorgeous in my opinion. That's all that matters right?