Romantic Things

Gender-neutral romantic things

May 02, 2022 Simon Davison and Suzanne Davison Season 1 Episode 4
Romantic Things
Gender-neutral romantic things
Show Notes Transcript

Simon and Suzanne discuss why all the romantic things in the Romantic Things app are gender-neutral, and in the review of romantic things for the episode, Simon reveals the romantic thing he just won't do!

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Suzanne:

In this episode, we discuss gender neutral , romantic things, and Simon shares the first romantic thing he's refusing to do

Simon:

Welcome to the romantic things podcast. I'm Simon Davison ,

Suzanne:

And I'm Suzanne Davison.

Simon:

Let's start with the app status. Uh , we're chasing down the bugs , uh , the Mo too , most probably , uh , problematic being an issue with the reminders being off by an hour. Um, and the updated subscription mechanism isn't working exactly as expected. Uh , we're frustratingly close, but development turnaround times have been long . So fingers crossed , uh , we'll have both issues addressed by the end of the next episode.

Suzanne:

Got it . So the app isn't available yet, but we'll be in the app store soon.

Simon:

Correct.

Suzanne:

So Simon, some of the romantic things that are in the app are gender neutral , right? So why don't you have just male and female romantic things.

Simon:

Okay . Let's try something as quickly as you can name all of the romantic things that men can do for women.

Suzanne:

<laugh> open a door ,

Simon:

Uh , but women can do that for men.

Suzanne:

Oh. That only women can do right. Or only men can do for women. Exactly.

Simon:

I mean, if we're talking gender specific, giving, giving flowers and chocolate, the classic yeah . Male giving to a woman gift of romance. Right, right. But what are the others I'm I've through actually looking I've, I'm inclined to say there are none. There are . Other than that one example, that's been marketed to hell by , uh , all of the people that are in the love business, realistically. Uh , there's no reason that any gender can't do the romantic gesture. Yeah . That's being done for ,

Suzanne:

For so that , so it's good that everything in the app is gender neutral .

Simon:

Um, I'd like to think so. Um, it makes , uh , well, for one thing, it makes my life a little bit easier. But aside from that, everybody's it , it's not so much about who you are being romantic with. It's the romantic gesture itself. That's the most important thing

Suzanne:

Agreed.

Simon:

Okay. With that said , let's move on to this episode, romantic things.

Suzanne:

Well, I have one more question. Like how many romantic things are in the app. Like

Simon:

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Um , we have, we have over 475 romantic things in the app. Okay. At the moment. And of those 475 , uh , plus about 90 or so of them are perfect things free and zero effort.

Suzanne:

So you could literally do a romantic thing every day and still not run out of things in the app.

Simon:

Yeah, absolutely. For , for a year. Absolutely. We actually want there to be some repetition cuz we think there are some romantic gestures that need to be done a little bit more often than others. So for example, going to B Bora , that's gonna be a once in a lifetime event kind of thing. We don't expect that to happen more than once if it does. Fantastic. Good for you. Yeah. Good for you for sure. Uh , but when it comes to things like , uh, as you said earlier, opening the door for somebody , uh , that's a nice romantic gesture , uh, that shouldn't be done once that should be done as often as possible. Right. So, so those kind of gestures or those romantic things will surface up a little bit more often just because we think they need to be done more often.

Suzanne:

Got it.

Simon:

Okay. So yeah. Okay. So for this episodes , uh, things we're gonna start off with one that was suggested to, and I came across it , uh , while looking for some romantic suggestions for the app and it's, it's called a progressive transportation date and it's similar to a , I don't know if you've ever heard of a progressive dinner date, where you start, where you have an appetizer in one restaurant, you have , uh , the main course in another and you have dessert in a third. Well , this is a slight riff on that. And the idea is you , uh , take a taxi to , uh , say the park at lunchtime, you then take a ride, share to the restaurant for dinner, and then you take a limo to a baseball game or a football game or whatever, some other, or some other event. Now that it's been surfaced to me as something that I should do or could potentially do. I'm deciding that I'm not gonna do this. <laugh> I don't, I don't see this as being romantic. I could see how some people would like the,

Suzanne:

Think it depends on how much you're gonna drink in each one of those areas. Well, I

Simon:

Think what it comes down to, I , I guess the amount of effort for romance in this case, and I don't think there's much romance happening here. I think it's more the spectacle of the event than it is about the partner and being romantic to them.

Suzanne:

Got it.

Simon:

Okay. That make sense. It does. Okay. So as a result, this one , uh , I I'm , I'm mixing, I didn't bring this one to your attention. I ,

Suzanne:

No , it came up and you're like, I'm not

Simon:

Gonna do it. I'm not doing that. I don't, I don't think that's,

Suzanne:

I mean, or you could save it for later, right? Like you can.

Simon:

Yeah. I mean, I , maybe one day we'll we'll need to get to two or three different locations and it'll be an excuse to have three different types of transportation. But , um, I don't want to go out of my way to set up that scenario just for the sake of doing

Suzanne:

It . Okay . So that seems like that's too much effort for you

Simon:

For , I I'm willing to do something to pay , but like that the , the right. Share the taxi and limousine for one day.

Suzanne:

Well, if you were in San Francisco, that would be easy to do, but where we're at and <laugh> that you wouldn't maybe need to do all of that or something.

Simon:

Yeah. Well, I, I , but that's the, the date is the three things. Okay . All together. And I'm not saying you're not worth it. I think you are worth it. <laugh> I just, I just don't think it's a particularly romantic thing to do. Some people might see the romance in it, but I don't. I, what do you, I mean, do you, does it sound romantic to you? Were you like, oh, that sounds Cinderella.

Suzanne:

You didn't mention a carriage or a pumpkin. Well,

Simon:

Li limousine that's about his close to carriage as

Suzanne:

We're getting , um, I just, I guess it would depend on what events you were doing in between each of those rides.

Simon:

Well, like I said , uh , park dinner game,

Suzanne:

But if it's a whole day out, that might be romantic. Okay. Still refusing to do it. Yeah .

Simon:

Tough. You're not getting it. <laugh>

Suzanne:

Still refusing to do it. Yeah . Okay.

Simon:

Okay. So let's go and move on to number two. Um, so number two is , uh , cast shadows artwork by Emily front . Um, this is, we have , uh , a few , uh , pieces of art, which we surface up in the app. And the , the idea is that couples decide whether or not they'd like to add this piece of art to their , to their collect. Um , in this case, for those that aren't familiar with the piece, it shows a man and a woman against a wall he's holding her hand and she's kind of not, not quite returning his gaze. Um , but there's a it's up lit from the bottom. And it , as a result, there's a , it casts long shadows. Hence the name of the , the title cast shadows. It's very striking photo, realistic piece, Suzanne and I talked about this , um, realistically we've just bought some, some artwork, so we're not really in the market for, for , for new pieces, but I like ,

Suzanne:

It's a cool piece. I mean, it's,

Simon:

I , I like to , but you didn't, it , it didn't cool out to you as much as it did to me. No,

Suzanne:

It didn't.

Simon:

No, I , so what was it about, what was it , what was it that you didn't like? I mean, was it because it a bit of a go

Suzanne:

More the look of on their faces? It just didn't seem, I don't know , like I'm looking for desire or what, but it didn't, I didn't seem to have that for me.

Simon:

Okay. All right . Fair enough. Well, let's move on to number three. Um, number three was a movie suggestion. Um, <laugh> and somehow Suzanne and I haven't Matt actually got around to watching this movie, but it's the silver linings playbook, which has been out for a long time now. And I have no idea what it is that, about that movie that I never got around to watching it or wanting to watch it, but

Suzanne:

Yeah , but we did just watch it , right ? Yeah , yeah , yeah. We just , we had , hadn't gotten it around to watching it. We haven't , but we have now,

Simon:

But we have now gotten around to watching it. It was good.

Suzanne:

It was really good.

Simon:

But , um , I , I don't know how much romance and love I saw it was a very contentious relationship. I mean, yeah , right. It wasn't, there were , there weren't many tender moments in that movie,

Suzanne:

Right? Yeah. But it was, well , it was a love story. It just, yeah .

Simon:

Pat , pat, Tiffany then to characters.

Suzanne:

Yeah. Kind of a , just a darker love story. Yeah. But I mean, you don't suggest watching what I would call a chick flick very often. So it was chick lick <laugh>

Simon:

Maybe it is . I don't know .

Suzanne:

Yeah. Well, I think any love sappy things are probably putting into the category of a chick lick .

Simon:

Oh , fair enough.

Suzanne:

But I mean, I , yeah, you don't actually propose watching those. We're usually watching Marvel. So it was a good change of pace to, to watch something a little more romantic.

Simon:

Yeah . There's always a good time to watch Spiderman. Right.

Suzanne:

<laugh> a good time to watch Spiderman. That's a love story in the hack too .

Simon:

Exactly. Right. Okay. So let's move on to number four. Um , which was a question we have these getting to know you better questions in the app. And , uh , this particular question is when they're down, what makes them feel better? This is a obviously zero effort. Yeah . Zero cost

Suzanne:

Conversation,

Simon:

Conversation piece. But it was a question I haven't actually gotten around to asking you, so yeah .

Suzanne:

Yeah. And , um , yeah, we discussed it, which is good because when you, when I get down, it, it does take a little bit to it out of it. I , um, I think that you were surprised by my answer, which was put on a really sad movie and just cry <laugh> it seems counter intuitive.

Simon:

Uh , but again, I've, I've, I've also heard of people. If , if they , if they get emotional, I've heard of people getting in their cars and just going for a cry in their cars . Mm-hmm <affirmative> so , uh , I , I guess watching a movie and cry , forcing a cry just seemed , seemed like the same sort of mechanism. Just a different riff on it, I guess.

Suzanne:

For sure.

Simon:

All right . So let's move on to the, the last question , uh , sorry for the question. The last , uh , thing that we covered, which was a task for me, which was to the towels into an exciting shape for Suzanne , um , and , uh , an exciting shape, an exciting shape <laugh>

Suzanne:

Exciting

Simon:

Shape, an exciting romantic shape as well. Cause there are , there are many shapes you can shape. As , as I learn , there are many shapes you can shape a towel into. Okay. But only two of them, I would a romantic or exciting

Suzanne:

<laugh> okay .

Simon:

And those are swans and roses.

Suzanne:

Oh yeah. And I got swans and I walked into the bathroom and the two swans were in the shower, kind of looking at each other, making a heart. And I actually just started laughing.

Simon:

<laugh> wasn't what I was going for.

Suzanne:

<laugh> but the effort was good. <laugh> and I just started laughing. Actually I will post a picture , um, with this podcast of my two swans

Simon:

That you should

Suzanne:

Do. Yeah . It must have put a lot of effort in to make those, I did those swans, which when I took my Swan down became like number seven from raised by wolves became a big snake thing. <laugh>

Simon:

Nice reference. Yeah. Uh , it it's actually surprisingly easy to make those things. Uh ,

Suzanne:

Well maybe that's why you see it in all those romantic, like places that ,

Simon:

Well now I've gotta , I'm gonna learn how to make the rose as well. Cause they just seem like nice skills to have. You could just go to a hotel and make the , the , the bat out . Look a little bit nicer for you when you come in. Huh ? Yeah.

Suzanne:

With me . So sweet .

Simon:

Yeah . Mm-hmm <affirmative> okay. Right . So how do we do in this episode ? Uh , what were you least impressed with?

Suzanne:

Well , uh , since I didn't get one, I'm gonna say that one <laugh> I didn't even know about that one.

Simon:

Yeah. And I guess you, it sounds like you might have actually wanted to be taxied ride , she and limo around

Suzanne:

It shows effort <laugh> is what I'm gonna say. It sounds like I got you hopped out on that effort. Um, and then I guess the picture, I mean, I, we have the kiss in our bedroom. Yeah . Yeah. And that is romantic. Like if that would've been the picture that you showed me, then I would've been like, oh yeah, that's cool. Yeah. No , but we've already got it. Yeah . We already got it. But yeah. So I'm sure there's others, but yeah, my , the swans was my favorite this week.

Simon:

This one's

Suzanne:

Time.

Simon:

Okay , good. I , I like , I like this ones too. Um, that was , uh ,

Suzanne:

It , it was definitely a surprise cuz I walked in and I'm like, oh my God, what is that? <laugh>

Simon:

Yeah. I , uh , when I heard the laughter I assumed that it was about this ones. Yeah ,

Suzanne:

Yeah , yeah . <laugh> for sure.

Simon:

Okay. Listeners, try some of the sub Jake's covered in this week's episode with your partner and let us know how things go at romantic things. App gmail.com.

Suzanne:

So that's romantic things, app gmail.com. Exactly.

Simon:

And don't forget to share if you enjoyed the show and we'll be back in the next episode

Suzanne:

And don't forget to be romantic.