3 Rings at Shave's Restaurant

Getting to 6 months is pretty huge for a new couple. It means you're more than just dating and becoming more serious. Getting to 1 year means this is really serious or it's too serious, so either keep rowing or jump ship. Getting to 2 years means there is a serious possibility of a future together. That's my take so far.


On February 10th, Dave and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Four days later was Valentine's Day. What a week to celebrate love!


It's amazing. Two years ago, Dave and I were in Korea working at Chungdahm Academy in Seoul, Korea. At first, we were hardly friends. We eventually became managers, worked closely, became best friends and then started dating - all in 6 months! In the last two years, we have lived in South Korea and Australia. We have traveled to Canada, USA, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lao, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. We've moved apartments 5 times.We changed careers from teaching to PR/Marketing (me) and Market Research (him).  Throughout all these major life changes, we've stuck together persevering together. Many believe these major life changes account for the majority of breakups. Don't get me wrong, we've been down the path towards breaking up, but we've endured facing each challenge together and have come out 2 years later going strong as ever.


To celebrate this milestone, Dave took me to a surprise location. We met at Circular Quay home of cruise ships, ferries and the Sydney Opera House. Teasing for weeks about this day, I had no idea what Dave had planned. We walked towards Opera Bar at the base of the Opera House. Perhaps we were going to grab after work drinks and see a show. Walking upon the landmark, we stopped. Dave stood behind me and embraced me. At this moment, we had the view of Sydney Harbour, the Rocks, Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay, Luna Park, North Sydney and the Sydney Harbour Bridge against the backdrop of the sunset and cool evening breeze. What a picturesque scene!


"I wanted to take you here because this symbolises how far we've gotten. We made it here of all places - together."


From there we kept walking, but this time away from the Opera House. We walked onto Macquarie Street and stopped in front of Aria Restaurant - a world renowned restaurant owned by celebrity chef Matt Moran. I knew of this restaurant from watching Master Chef and hearing stories from my boss - this is her favourite restaurant to celebrate special occasions and we almost always recommend this place to our clients. Embarrassed by my flip-flops, I scurried to our table. This was a surprise after all! Sitting in candlelight, I took in the spectacular view. It was the same view we had seen earlier, but at a higher level with the city lights twinkling.


Eager to eat what this restaurant had in store, we ordered 3 courses. We received 5!

1. Zucchini basil soup shot with sourdough rolls (complimentary)
2. Crab - spanner crab meat with toasted quinoa, summer peas, garlic chips and foie gras ($38)
3. Rabbit - stuffed rabbit loin with zucchini flower, lemon, sautéed lobster and a sorrel velouté ($56)
4. Duck - roasted breast of duck with cherries, green beans, almonds, star anise and ginger sauce ($56)
5. Truffle oil potato mash ($15)
6. Tempered Manjari chocolate with salted peanuts, golden raisins and caramelised banana ice cream ($24)
7. Rosewater and Earl Grey Turkish Delight and Orange Macaroon petit fours (complimentary)

The meal was extraordinary. It was such a surprise to get the palette teaser and the petit fours at the beginning and the end compliments of the chef. An even better surprise was receiving our dessert with the words 'Happy Anniversary' written with chocolate on the plate.

The Rabbit Dish

Rose Water Petit Fours

The best surprise of the night was receiving Dave's gift before dessert. When the table was cleared I took off the the restroom. When I returned, Dave had a huge grin. He had a box from Pandora (like Tiffanys) on the table. When I unwrapped the white box, I found a long silver necklace with three rings. Dave stood up and put it around my neck. When he sat back down, he explained how he endeavored to get this necklace. He had asked for advice around his office. He and his colleague Peter went down one lunch break to Pandora in North Sydney. Of all of the collections, he chose the liquid silver collection's long string silver necklace with three rings. The rings placement was symbolic he said. The two outer rings were smaller and identical, but the third ring placed in the center was the larger of the three. He described how the two outer rings symbolised our two years together and how fantastic they were wrapping around our next year. The larger third ring in the center symbolised how future together - how it's going to be bigger, better and something to work towards. I nearly started crying with happiness.

Beautiful Silver Necklace with 3 Rings Symbolising Our Time Together

Spending nearly 3 hours at this restaurant and crushed by the bill, we left to go home. At home, I made Dave close his eyes in the bedroom as I laid his present in front of him. When he opened them, he was so excited to see a wrapped present. All week, I had hid the present in a gift bag with a towel laid on top making sure he never saw it. As he unwrapped it, I popped out of the bathroom in an identical present he was unwrapping; white velvet house robes. Throughout our relationship and travels, we have joked about getting fancy robes to wear around the house. Because Dave and I cherish nothing more than our comfortability with each other, there could be no better present.

Enjoying our New Velvet House Robes

Four days later, the love fest continued. Now we were in Valentine's day mode. We even made two batches of cupcakes to take to work so that everyone could feel the love. Our first Valentine's day was back in 2009, 4 days after we started dating. His dad and sister came to visit him in Korea at this time. On Valentine's Day we woke up nearly at noon from a heavy night out in Seoul. He embraced me and said, "I wish I had some flowers or chocolate to give you." He didn't. He rushed out to meet his Dad and sister and that was our first Valentine's day. This year he especially remembered that day two years ago.

24 Pink Valentine's Cupcakes

With no set expectations, I expected this day wouldn't be that special. Dave proved me wrong. At 10am, six long-stem roses were delivered to my office with chocolates in the shape of hearts and a note that expressed his regretfulness of the day he ran out of my apartment on Valentine's Day in 2009. It was especially sweet because Dave isn't one to give flowers. Even better, I was the first lucky girl at the Taurus office to get flowers that day.

The 6 Long Stem Roses + Chocolates + Sweet Note

After work, I called Dave at King's Cross station. He said he had dinner  reservations around our neighborhood. He told to me wait at the fountain near the police station. Ten minutes later, he walked up to me and placed my hand in the crook of his arm. Nagging him of the location of the restaurant, we approached our building and there on the glass read 'Shave's Restaurant' on a post-it with carefully written curly handwriting.

The Front Door Sign of Shave's Restaurant

The name 'Shave' comes from our good friends in Korea who saw our relationship blossom from the start. Much like 'Brangelina', we were dubbed 'Shave' for Shadiyah + Dave.

Heart shaped Welcome in Olives

When I entered 'Shave's Restaurant', I found our dining room table with two glasses, a bottle of Malbec (my favourite type of wine) and chili garlic and feta stuffed olives in the shape of a heart. What could be better than olives and wine?

Shave's Restaurant Pizza, Rigatoni and Passion Fruit Dessert

The rest of our fine four course meal consisted of a pizza bought from Woolworths, rigatoni with sun-dried tomatoes and capers and passion fruit with some of the cupcakes we had made for our colleagues. He had spent so much money on our anniversary dinner and present, that he had to keep our Valentine's Day simple. It was nice to have the dinner at Aria for our anniversary, but I can't think of a better and more comfortable way to spend Valentine's Day together. We are the type of couple who would rather spend time watching a movie on our couch than go out. Today, Dave brought the best of both worlds together at Shave's restaurant - a place more special in my heart than any other restaurant we could have gone to.

Valentine's Day Presents for Dave

The last part of our Valentine's Day was spent opening presents. He had gotten me the roses and created Shave's Restaurant. I was now feeling like an underachiever. I did however get him three gifts.

New Magnets of Us

First he opened magnets with photos of us from all over the world. We just moved into our new place and nothing on our fridge, so these magnets were perfect because not only do they help decorate our fridge, but they are a reminder of all the good times we've had travelling around Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Bliss at Sunset

South East Asia 2009-2010

The second present was a picture of me from our first island stop in Thailand when we traveled there in 2009. It was taken at the perfect time. It was our first day on Koh Phi Phi. We had just traveled from the U.S. and Canada, landed in Bangkok after a hell of a flight and took an overnight bus to Phuket, and finally took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, where The Beach was filmed. Exhausted, yet settled, we sat on a bench overlooking the beach at sunset. I laid on his lap and smiled up at him and he took my photo. I gave him this photo in a nice white frame to bring to work. Too embarrassed of how 'revealing' it is, he keeps it in his drawer and looks at it every morning when he reaches for his cereal hidden in his drawer.

Homemade Key Lime Pie

Dave's last present were the ingredients for his favourite dessert of all time; key lime pie. Australia is completely unaware of this delicious sour and sweet pie. Instead of hunting down the impossible, I decided to give him all the ingredients to make it himself since we love cooking so much. With no graham crackers in Australia, I substituted it with a box of digestive biscuits, cinnamon and sugar. I packed in 1 can of condense milk and 4 lemons since there are no key limes in Australia. All of these ingredients were packed into a new pie pan along with a hand juicer. The following Saturday, we stayed up till 2am making key lime pie and it was delicious. Dave of course ate 90% of the pie in 3 days. That's real love right there.

Scuba Divers are 'Under' Achievers

Today, I took part 1 of 4 towards the completion of my open-water certification. Thank goodness, this part is over! I had to sit through nearly 2 hours of the corniest video on the theory and fundamentals of scuba diving eg. equipment, buddy system, signals etc.


Living in Australia, I couldn't miss the chance of ticking off scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef off of my bucket list. In order to do this, I needed to get certified. I've heard experiencing the reef via snorkeling is pretty spectacular, but if I have the chance, why not go 30 meters under as opposed to surface level viewing? With this in mind, Dave and I found a group buying coupon from Our Deal for full open-water PADI certification (theory, pool and 4 dives) plus 4 pieces of equipment (snorkel, mask, boots, flippers) to take home for $170! We couldn't pass this up.


As we do with most of our coupons bought from these online coupon companies, we nearly forgot about it as it sat in our inbox lost amongst other haircuts, spa treatments and dinners for two around Sydney. We bought the coupon with some colleagues, so when they were getting closer to completion, we started to get our act together. Unfortunately, our laziness bit us back. We scheduled in a classroom session 2 months after we bought the coupon and our next step, the pool session, is now scheduled in June because every weekend is booked! Oh well. The start of good diving visibility will be in the Spring anyways - that's in September!


Walking in to the classroom portion held at the company headquarters, we found the 'You get what you pay for' cliche true. We entered into what looked like a garage with plastic lawn chairs scattered in the center. The wall-stained room was filled with surf boards and scuba equipment resembling anything short of organised. The receptionist/instructor/ beach bum hippie said they would start a little late and our books weren't in yet. Looking around, I pondered my trust in this company. Isn't this company responsible for my safety? "You get what you pay for" I whispered to Dave. 


Keeping an open mind, we sat and listened to the same receptionist give us an introduction to the program. It would consist of:

1. Theory on the introduction to scuba diving DVD (1.75 hrs) + manual
2. Pool training with completed manual and theory exam
3. Ocean training with 4 dives

Despite this guy's appearance, he seemed quite genuine. He said the deal was so cheap because this place was actually run by marine biologists who don't make much money out of this venture. They simply wanted to expose people to the wonder of the underworld and gain an appreciation for it. Always a sucker for good will, I smiled and totally forgot about how dingy the place was.

We watched the video screened on a blank wall go through 2 sections of before and during the pool session we would do next. I tried to stay awake by quizzing myself and Dave of what a BCD or SPG was; Buoyancy Control Device and Submersible Pressure Gauge. The DVD must have been made in the 80s/90s because its main character was a Weekend at Bernie's type guy who couldn't figure out flippers from a snorkel. The best parts were the flashes of 'Facts' in between scenes.

Fact: Scuba divers are 'Under' Achievers

Fact: Scuba divers have more fun than regular people

Now that I have completed the classroom bit, I can study the manual I've yet to receive for the 3 months until the pool session in June. Getting through this part is exciting though. I'm just that much closer to diving into the Great Barrier Reef for real. Moral of the story: don't be a slacker when you buy online coupons!

Border Security - the worst of Australian TV

Every evening at about 630pm I walk into my apartment and turn on the TV. Perhaps it’s because I work all day and never get to brain fart against the tube. Anyhow, I turn on the TV so I can catch up on the news of the day. During this time slot, shows like A Current Affair and Today Tonight berate 'newsworthy' topics like the price war between grocery giants Woolworths and Coles, how to find the best concealer or how 1 sausage is like eating 3 chocolate bars - exploring facts Australian's need to know. Riveting stuff. I usually have it on as background noise while I make dinner. I listen for anything newsworthy and really upcoming programming that I would consider watching. This week, I heard a preview for this week’s episode of Border Security. With my back turned, I heard this Mr. Moviefone-like voice alert the audience/nation on this week’s episode.

“An American has arrived in Sydney with luggage full of camera equipment, but he’s not here to take pictures.” 


As I heard this intro, I turned around and on the screen was an American man being detained at the security checkpoint at the airport with his head in his hands being interrogated by airport security. At that moment, my ears fumed at what I was hearing. I couldn’t believe that Australia allowed programming like this to air nationally. It was like the program was aimed at targeting outsiders to Australia as criminals, terrorists, national security threats etc. In this instance, what were the producers aiming at? This guy may have been a criminal, delinquent or pervert (as the episode explores), but does it mean every American is?  The message seemed clear - get the Australian public to recognise Americans as seedy people and showcase the supremacy of Australian government security.

Pay Careful Attention to the Intro

An Episode of Border Security Australia

The next morning, I brought it up with my PR team, including two Aussies, a Brit and my American self. Monique, an Aussie obsessed with the fashion industry and an avid reader of Sydney based fashion magazines, watched the premier of Park Street. The observational documentary style show features behind-the-scenes action of 4 prominent fashion magazines under the ACP Magazines house – Cosmpolitan, Cleo, Madison, Shop til you drop and Dolly. She said it was so good. It reminded her of the time she was an intern at Cosmo. Too bad I didn’t get to watch it because it was on Foxtel programming, similar to Cablevision in the States. I only have the luxury of watching free-to-air television. Sharon, the Brit constantly on top of media trends via Mumbrella, shared with us that only 800+ people watched Park Street. Despite the disappointing viewership, I applauded Monique’s choice of programming even though she was one of the 800+ watching the night before. While most of Australian primetime television is dominated by American syndication, I was proud of ACP Magazines and its producers for creating a genuine show giving the audience an insider’s look at the fashion magazine world. Unlike shows like The Hills or The City, this show is about meeting deadlines, magazine creation and teamwork.

However, I was still fuming about Border Security and its lack of creativity. How could the Seven Network, one of the big 4 national broadcasters feature this show especially during the coveted primetime slot when most people are watching? It was like the show wanted to perpetuate Australian ethnocentrism and that it was ok. The worst part is, in my expat eyes, is that it made Australia look uneducated.


Coming from America, the starter of the ‘remove your shoes’ policy, racial profiling and body scans, I cannot say that our border security is top notch, but we don’t televise it – according to my knowledge. Then again, I haven’t lived in the states for almost 3 years. I mentioned all these frustrations to my colleagues and they defended the program right away saying that the show wasn’t trying to be elitist and that Australian programming is often aimed to make fun of itself. In actuality, the program is trying to show the Australian public of how effective the Government is. Growing up, my only notion of Australian programming was Paul Hogan and the late Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. Agreeing that Australian programming commonly uses this format, I still can’t agree with Border Security, a show aimed at exposing the reality of national security, yet exploiting visitors to Australia. The content is full of suspense leaving the audience more suspicious of foreigners landing in Oz. How appropriate when at the moment, one of the most newsworthy topics is about Australia’s multiculturalism and its effects on visa policies spurring on One Nation racist attitudes against groups such as Muslims, Lebanese, Aboriginals etc. Ref ABC’s Q&A – Australia’s most watched programming on Monday nights featuring political debate with politicians and heads of interest groups. It’s also one of the world’s most tweeted programs! I came to Australia because I could with the Working Holiday Visa. Watching programming like Border Security makes me think I’m going to get jumped at the airport or that the government is going to kick me out simply because I’m not a white Australian.

On a lighter note, one of my favourite shows in Australia is the 7pm Project. A news show featuring stories of the day with comedic commentary – much aligned with Australia’s favourite programming format of making fun of itself. I guess if Australia’s more in tune with this show rather than the viewership of Border Security, I’ll be safe from any ethnic cleansing mobs.

Comedic Radio Announcers Hamish & Andy on the 7pm Project