Romantic Things
Romantic Things
The first 'Perfect Thing'
Simon gives an overview of the Romantic Things app before reviewing the romantic things that surfaced for this episode. Simon also introduces us to the first 'Perfect Thing' featured on the podcast.
Hello, welcome to the romantic things podcast. My name's Simon Davison, and this is my wife,
Suzanne Davison:Suzanne Davison.
Simon Davison:Let's start off with, uh, finding out how Suzanne enjoyed her ice cream sandwiches.
Suzanne Davison:Oh my God. They were so good. You had a really good pick from gold belly. I loved them. That was my Wednesday treat. Yay.
Simon Davison:Yeah. Uh, I must have made, I, I, I, I part took in the, uh, the ice cream sandwiches too. They're from Nightingale, uh, ice Creamery in, uh, what
Suzanne Davison:New York
Simon Davison:Somewhere. I believe it's in New York, but I'm not 100%, but there it's Nightingale is the, uh, is the, is the place, but there delicious, fantastic sandwiches. So, yeah, so that was great. Okay. So this episode, I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about the app, um, and what the experience is when you first start using the app to start off, we ask whether or not you are dating or you are married. And then from there we move into how often you'd like to receive your romantic thing. We default to three, every three days. I'm currently running it every day, just because I'm testing. But realistically, I think,
Suzanne Davison:Which is really good for me. Yeah,
Simon Davison:Exactly. Yeah. I think, I think realistically, every three or five days is probably good for a long term relationship. Don't wanna be overdoing it, but for us, we will be overdoing it for your benefits as we go through these romantic things. And then from there, um, we get into what time of day you'd like to receive your notification or your romantic thing. I have mine at nine 15 in the morning, so I get it nice and early. Um, and then I can decide with, or not, I want to schedule the reminder or start working on it straight away from there. We start the, uh, subscription. Um, there's a seven day trial after that we start billing automatically, and then you're dumped at a, uh, a welcome screen for, uh, the recent things page and the recent things. Each lists 10 of the last romantic things that you've received these appear, uh, and you can scroll through them. Um, each one of them you can click into and it opens up and shows you a little bit more information about that romantic thing. Um, so for example, if I look at my app today, I can open up, I have one for volunteering, and that has, uh, two values associated to it, effort and cost for this one. It is, uh, zero cost volunteering. Um, but three out of five for effort, you are given a couple of options. We describe exactly what the situation is. And then you're given a couple of prompts. One allows you to sign up using volunteer match, um, to match, uh, you exactly with the right kind of, uh, program. Um, and then a more general volunteering opportunities, Google search, which gives you a, a few more opportunities.
Suzanne Davison:Um, so every one of these gives you some suggestions on how to do the romantic thing.
Simon Davison:Yes, exactly. Yes. So you get the, uh, a basic what, what the romantic thing is, and then once you
Suzanne Davison:Guidance on
Simon Davison:And then exactly, then some guidance on it and then maybe some interactive content to, to work with it too. So that's basically how the app works with that said I've been using the app and I've been using it to romance my wife, Suzanne here. Um, so let's, um, let's start talking about, uh, those in particular, the first romantic thing that we're gonna talk about is surprise your partner in bed with breakfast in bed. And that is a, uh, a one out five cost and a two out of, uh, five effort, which I concur. There was a little bit of effort, a little bit it, a cost to get the, well, actually there was no cost on the goods. I, we had everything I needed in the house, so it didn't cost me anything, but it could cost you some breakfast items. And how did that one, how was that one?
Suzanne Davison:I got breakfast in bed last Sunday, and it was delightful and I got pancakes in orange juice and it was, it has been years since I've gotten breakfast in bed and it was very romantic. Thank you, baby.
Simon Davison:Could there have been a better breakfast? I mean, were the pancakes what you wanted or
Suzanne Davison:Maybe if you made'em in a heart shape, um, that would've been even more romantic, but the fact that you got up and made pancakes for breakfast in bed, um, beggars can't be choosers, I guess. Yeah.
Simon Davison:I, I'm not sure I could make a hi with pancake, but
Suzanne Davison:It's something to aspire to.
Simon Davison:Okay. I'll, I'll work on that. Okay, perfect. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So the next romantic thing, um, that we worked on, uh, was, uh, plan a double with a friend. Um, we, we went out with a couple of close friends, uh,
Suzanne Davison:Yeah. Aaron and
Simon Davison:Ray. Yeah, exactly.
Suzanne Davison:And I didn't plan that you did at all. So you made the reservation and, um, I didn't know. So that was kind of a treat.
Simon Davison:So my question is, is it a romantic gesture? I, I kind of, I felt I can see why people say that double dates are romantic. I didn't get the sense that it was a romantic event.
Suzanne Davison:Yeah, no, it's more like getting together, right? Yeah. I don't know if it was just great to see him, so it's not like, um, I was Rob, it's not like we're swingers or anything and that made it romantic. Um, yeah, I think, I don't know, double date may or may not be romantic. I think just going out might be or getting ready to go out or doing something like that.
Simon Davison:Or, or, or I could see maybe perhaps if it was newer couples yeah. Where they're going through the same early stages of a relationship that that might be a little bit more romantic,
Suzanne Davison:Like us old people who
Simon Davison:Have been doing it for a few years. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I,
Suzanne Davison:Yeah, that's true. Like if you're just new into a relationship and don't really know somebody going out on a double date probably eases the anxiety of it. It, and you're both maybe in the same stage. Yeah. I can totally see that
Simon Davison:And you get to see another couple's interaction as well. And you get to see if you, you can judge your own relationship against theirs and see if the behaviors make this make sense to you. At least when you're young and it's, it's early on in the relationship. Right. Yeah. I
Suzanne Davison:Agree.
Simon Davison:Sure. Yeah. Okay. Um, so let's see. The third one was stroll around a nearby lake, which is, uh, free from a cost perspective. And one for effort,
Suzanne Davison:It might be more than one for effort.
Simon Davison:Well, it is for me at the moment cause I've got a damaged leg.
Suzanne Davison:Yeah. Um, yeah. And so it was, and it was a beautiful day. And, but I think that the best thing about it was I'm usually the one asking you, do you wanna go for a walk and you ask me to go for the walk. So I think that was the nicest thing about that. And it was a beautiful setting and, you know, you can make that as romantic as you want, you can sit on the park bench and snuggle and you can, you know? Yeah. But yeah, so totally has potential and good potential to have be a romantic thing.
Simon Davison:Yeah. Yeah. Uh, this is a good one, but you've got to be close enough to a lake to be able to take advantage of it. We are really lucky we're we are right next to a lake, so we can, we can walk around a lake whenever we want to. There's no restriction there, but for other people accessing is gonna be a little bit harder.
Suzanne Davison:Yeah. Depends. Or, I mean, it could be just a park or, you know, just something where there's trees and just a romantic setting.
Simon Davison:No. No. Okay. Okay. So number four, um, is something that I have been doing for a long time now. Um, well over, uh, 16 years, um, number four is kiss your partner's hand every day. Um, it is free from a cost perspective, but it is one for effort. And that's about right. It is, it takes a little bit of effort. Every single day. I have been kissing Suzanne's hand since we started dating since sometime in 2003, I've been kissing your hand every single day.
Suzanne Davison:He made a promise to me that, uh, when we got married that he would kiss my hand every day and he has, and even when I go away for trips, he will bank kisses on the hand. So for me, it's such a romantic gesture because I know it's a promise to me. I don't know if I would say every day, but I think for me, you have to cuz you promise me.
Simon Davison:Yeah, no
Suzanne Davison:I, for sure. But for others, I think just randomly kissing someone's hand is probably RO more romantic for me. The romance is that you promised me and you have for over 16 years, kiss my hand. And he's just not that romantic you guys. So don't get all outside of, up in like,
Simon Davison:Yes, I'm really not. That's why I built the app. The, the, the app exists for a reason. I'm not good at this at all. Okay. So with that in mind, let's move on to the fifth romantic thing, um, which is leaving. And I love you note and hide it somewhere. Your partner will find it, which is free as we mention in before and no effort. So this is what I consider a perfect thing. Yeah. There's, there's essentially no reason not to do this thing because it's zero effort and zero cost.
Suzanne Davison:Yes. And I got one, it was great because I've had a hard week at work and he hit it in my pages of where I keep notes for work. And I just flipped the page. And there was a little note that said, I love you. And so I thought that was my treat for the week. And so that was very sweet. But then I found another one that said kisses in my underwear drawer. So, um, for me, this one is just a surprise. Even like when someone travels putting it in their suitcase or just unexpected places where you're gonna come across a tiny little note that just says, I love you definitely high up there on the list for me.
Simon Davison:So this one was a winner.
Suzanne Davison:This one is definitely
Simon Davison:Okay. Good to know. So, okay. So with those five in mind, if somebody was gonna bank on one particular thing in general, so from this week's episode, which was the most effective for you?
Suzanne Davison:I think the little, I love you note, I mean breakfast and bed, that's a, that's like a grand gesture to me. Right. Okay. But something just super small that is so easy to do. And nobody thinks about, I think that, that one's, you know, the one for me that I think is the top winner.
Simon Davison:Yeah. I, I gotta say, and from my perspective, it was one of the easiest to implement and easiest to think about as well. It was, it, it was easy to write you a nice out and, and it was fun to plant it somewhere that you would find it and I could try and imagine how you would feel receiving it. So it, it was a good positive experience doing it too. So
Suzanne Davison:Yeah. I just remember going, oh, I have a little note.
Simon Davison:Awesome. Okay. So before we go, um, we should give you an update on the app itself. So the app is, I would say, uh, about 90% complete there's about 10% to go. We've got some UI changes we need to, to fix. Um, we've got some problems with the subscription. Um, and just recently we uncovered a problem with daylight savings that we need to resolve, unfortunately. Yeah. Wonderful timing. My backend engineer is away for a week, so that's had to wait for a while as well. So, um, yeah, some, some extra delays that I wish I'd have to deal with, but the app is moving along. Um, I'm hoping that we'll be launching sometime in the next couple of months.
Suzanne Davison:So I, I kind of feel like all of the romantic things have been on me. Do I need the app? Like, am I should, well, like I should do something for you. Yeah.
Simon Davison:So I, so it it's. Um, and I guess I should tell you this, now that you're, you're a part of this. It's been my intention that for a while, I will continue doing what I'm doing, where I will try to romance you. But, um, at some point in the future, um, the roles are gonna have to reverse and, um, you are gonna have to starting me. Um, so you'll need an app to help you with that.
Suzanne Davison:I will need an app to help me with this because I'm busy during the week. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think that's, what's gonna be key is you don't have to think about it. It's just gonna arrive there for you. You decide if you wanna do it, you put it on your calendar and your romance is planned.
Simon Davison:Exactly.
Suzanne Davison:That's awesome.
Simon Davison:Okay. So that's the end of the romantic things podcast. Um, if you've got any questions, send them away. Uh, we'd love to hear from you
Suzanne Davison:And don't forget your romantic things.
