Sweet, Thoughtful, Romantic

We really out did ourselves this year. After celebrating our big four year anniversary the way we did, it would seem that perhaps we should be more practical for a holiday happening only four days later. But that's not the way Dave and I do things. This year we both had big secret plans.

For the past few weeks I was struggling to come up with gift ideas. The best Valentines formula would be a combination of be something sweet, thoughtful and romantic.

For the sweet ingredient, I knew that I definitely wanted to get him some of our favourite chocolates from New Zealand. So two weeks before Valentines day, I ordered one box of chocolate and macadamia covered toffee bars called Macadamia Butter Toffee Crunch from Makana Confections. On Monday the 11th, it thankfully arrived at my workplace. But chocolate wasn't going to be enough because I knew Dave had something big planned...he always does!

The Best Chocolate in the World Has Safely Arrived

We recently got an iPad because Dave's computer from college finally crashed. I love browsing on the iPad while we're watching TV and one app I've been using a lot is Pinterest. I searched "Valentines gift for him" and got an endless list of ideas. The bacon roses caught my eye, but I knew that I wouldn't have time to prepare it because he's home more often than I am. I did fall in love with a DIY valentines bedroom idea.

So at this point I had the sweet and romantic components covered, but I wanted to surprise him during the day. On the night that I bought the compendium for our anniversary, I went into a specialty stationery store. The first card I picked out was perfect.

If you want to be

Happy for a short time, get drunk.

Happy for a long time, fall in love.

Happy forever, take up gardening.

The Chinese proverb gave me inspiration. The afternoon before Valentine's day, I visited different flower shops around Milsons Point and found two easy to care for plants for Dave's office desk. He loves plants and I know one day when were old, he's going to have wonderful garden for us. I grabbed an empty wooden box and asked the florist if she would sell me the plants with the box and add some moss and a ribbon. She was impressed with my creation and was happy to sell it me.

The "garden" was a metaphor for our 'garden' or family that we'll grow one day.

On Valentine's day mornings I told Dave that I needed to get to work 30 minutes early because I had a lot of work to do. When I got to work, I wrote in the card and walked the plant arrangement and card to North Sydney where he works. Luckily I could go on foot because it is only a 15 minute walk. I had contacted our friend Jutta who works with him to meet me outside of their building to do the hand-off. She had a big grin on her face because she had no idea what I was handing her until I approached her with my plant arrangement. "Just leave it on his desk like it's no big deal."

Dave Took an Instagram Pic of His New Plants & Card

We were so busy that day and finally were able to connect by phone at 2 pm. He loved my present and felt the same way about the card as I did. We met as friends spending a lot of fun nights together. Then, we fell in love. We can't predict the future, but we plan to grow a 'garden' (and a real garden) together someday. The ingredient of thoughtful was a success.

He told me to be ready at 5:30 pm. Dave was at my office door with 12 fully bloomed red roses. They were luscious and fragrant. I was so proud to have such a loving boyfriend. I hooked my arm around his and walked in pride with my large bouquet through the train station.

I expected a lot of women looking like me with their flowers, but that wasn't the case. There were a few men with single roses. When I bought the supplies for the romantic bedroom set up, the clerk told me she wasn't very busy this year. She said celebrating Valentine's Day was on the decline. Even if flowers aren't the choice gift this year, I hope Sydneysiders are celebrating somehow someway.

My Beautiful Red Roses

We were travelling the way we would to go home, but instead of hopping off at Kings Cross Station, we exited at Martin Place. Perhaps he was taking me to Jamie's Italian (as in Jamie Oliver!)? We kept walking past Martin Place and through the Botanical Gardens. Perhaps we were going to some Valentine's pop up restaurant in The Domain? We kept walking past the Botanical Gardens and headed to Woolloomooloo.

We started to veer into the line of restaurants at Cowper Wharf and I knew this would be our final destination. We sat down at Manta, a restaurant I had planned on taking him to for his 26th birthday, but never made it because it was raining.

Dave pre-booked our Valentine's dinner (having to pay a $100 deposit!) and it was so easy to walk to and see that our table was ready for us. Despite Sydney's lack of Valentine's Day hype, the restaurant had planned for an influx of customers looking for a romantic evening. There were roses at each table and a Valentine's Day menu. We opted to create our own menu starting with oysters.

Lord Nelson Beer & Fresh Oysters

Oysters From Different Parts of Australia?

Aren't Oysters an Aphrodisiac?

The oysters came fresh with slices of lemon, red wine vinegar with red onions and white vinegar with finely diced shallots. My favourite was taking the fresh oysters and squeezing lemon on top - simple and delicious.

Being a seafood restaurant, we opted for fish mains. I liked the sound of pan seared trout with king crab risotto, but when it came out, the risotto was made of barley, not Arborio rice. And the trout tasted like salmon. It was all delicious, but unexpected. I was envious of Dave's main, which he actually thought was my dish because his fish was white, but described as pink. Thank goodness we like to share bites of each other's dishes. One thing we could both enjoy to the fullest extent was the truffle oil potato chips with Parmesan.

King Trout With Crispy Skin, Pearl Barley& Alaskan King Crab Risotto, Green Olive, Grape Tomato & Mint Salad

Pink Snapper, Heirloom Tomatoes, Confit Pencil Fennel, Pantelleria Capers & Baby Basil

Manta 'Angel' Chips With Truffle Oil & Parmesan

We never leave a fancy restaurant without having some dessert. In my mind, I was hoping Dave would be too full because the New Zealand chocolate was waiting for us. 

Milk Chocolate Mousse, Honey Comb Crumble, Pineapple, Chocolate Soil & Raspberry Sorbet

But just as our dessert was set on our table, Dave laid a small box on the table. It was adorably wrapped with the only white ribbon he could find in our apartment and left over brown parcel wrapper. He even drew hearts in a tessellated pattern all over the box.

Such Beautiful Wrapping

What Could be Inside?

I hadn't expected another gift. The roses and this dinner was thoughtful and just enough for a holiday that fell so closely to our anniversary.

I opened it and saw SEIKO on the white box. A watch! I was quite surprised to know there was a box inside because he had given me a watch for my 25th birthday (my first birthday in Australia). I opened the box and there was a shiny gold watch looking back at me.

I have always wanted a gold watch and with trendy designs like Michael Kors' style, I thought I wanted a big blingy one. Dave knew better. He chose a watch that would look good today and for the years to come. I appreciated the gift even more when he told me how difficult it was to choose a watch. He first went to Myer and was met with a very grumpy and unhelpful sales woman. She had no knowledge of watches and ignored him. He had chosen a watch and after walking out, decided to return it. He went to a second specialty store in the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) and found great customer service and a even better watch than his first pick. The sales girl won him over when she explained that the watch was modeled after a Cartier style and had a more flat face, giving it a unique look and weight compared to regular watches.

My New Seiko Gold Watch

After dinner, we strolled home. As soon as we got home, I made him stay in the living room, while I prepared my surprise.

I bought balloons, gold ribbon and tape and was ready to re-create the Pinterest idea. I blew up six balloons for the six images I cut out and pasted onto black cardboard. That was the easy part. After tying the gold ribbon on, I then needed to get the balloons to stick on the ceiling with the tape. I jumped on the bed and reaching up towards the ceiling, I was still a foot away! I was reduced to jumping on the bed with scissors in hand to get the point of the scissors to push the taped ribbon on to the ceiling, which was uneven because it had a sprayed texture. This was all done with no fan on because I was afraid the balloons would pop. After 45 minutes, I was sweating and panting, but was finally done.

Romantic 'Pinterest' Valentine's Bedroom

The Pictures on the Bed

At the end of each balloon and ribbon, was an image depicting an important point in our relationship. In the last few months, I have been obsessed with Instagram. Because of their square style, they were perfect to print, cut out and paste onto a black cardboard. I took it one step further and pasted yellow cardboard on the back, so I could write a note about the image.

Because we enjoy a simple stroll together...

Because we can share our lives...

Because we love sleepies...

Because you are so thoughtful...

Because we love being close...

Because we can move and travel together...

Makana Chocolate

The final piece of the night was indulging in the delicious chocolate we had on our trip through New Zealand's South Island. We laid in bed with the pictures in hand reminiscing on all the great moments we've shared for the past four years. This has been a sweet, thoughtful and romantic Valentine's Day.