Romantic Things

Romantic Role Models

Simon Davison and Suzanne Davison Season 1 Episode 9

In this episode, Simon covers some of the romantic role models from our past, and we pick our vacation for 2023!

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Suzanne:

In this episode, we discuss some of history's most romantic role models. And we start an interactive book for couples, the adventure challenge couples edition.

Simon:

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

Suzanne:

and I'm Suzanne Davison.

Simon:

All right, let's start off with, uh, the app status. Uh, again, we are

Suzanne:

Live,

Simon:

We are live in the apple app store,

Suzanne:

Uh, us apple app store. That

Simon:

Is correct. The, the us apple app store. We could be downloaded from, uh, if you do a search for romantic things, uh, with a top result, uh, I think we've got a, a tremendous five star rating, but that could be all of our own ratings.<laugh><laugh>

Suzanne:

So yeah, if you've downloaded it and you like it, please rate us because we like to move up our status in the app store.

Simon:

Absolutely. But yeah, uh, things are going well. We've, we've got a number of downloads, um, a number of users using the site. I've got some data coming in to the back end, so, uh, everything's looking good.

Suzanne:

Yeah. And I would say that I have to give, uh, Simon some kudos here because B romantic is more difficult than I thought it would be. And it's very helpful to have these little reminders to actually think about it. So, uh, if you have downloaded the app, mine was on the second page, so I had to move it to the homepage. So I get that little number one, uh, so that I know when I knew romantic thing happens. Um, but yeah, babe, you've really tried because thank you. It's, it's hard. And I will have to say, uh, for anybody who's listened to our podcast, one of my romantic things was whisper sweet nothings in Simon's ear. And if you remember how that went for me, I was creeped out and guess what? He was creeped out<laugh>. So if anyone out there can figure out how to whisper a sweet nothing. Yeah. Uh, in their ear without creeping their partner out. Can you let us know cuz we can't seem to do it.

Simon:

Yeah. This is, this is turning into an interesting subject for me. I'm I I'm genuinely curious to know if people can actually whisper sweet nothing successfully for their partner

Suzanne:

And not creep them out.

Simon:

<laugh> cause right now the Davidson family, uh, uh, no for no on both attempts. So, um, yeah, not good. I I'd love to know if other people were successful in any way with that.

Suzanne:

Exactly. Yeah. Well, and if you are using the app and you have any feedback for, uh, we would love to mention it on our next podcast as well.

Simon:

Yeah. You can send that to romantic things, app gmail.com and uh we'll yeah. We're definitely included in the next episode. Okay. Well, let's get on with, uh, the subject for this episode, which is, uh, romantic role models. And, um, I was thinking about this a while back and I was having a hard time coming up with any current examples of extreme romantic gestures from lovers in the current

Suzanne:

Atmosphere,

Simon:

Current celebrate current celebrity status. The only couple that seem to be genuinely in love and have a good, strong relationship, uh, with a lot of fun. And ed seem to be, uh, Blake lively and Ryan Reynolds.

Suzanne:

Ooh, Ryan Reynolds, my favorite.

Simon:

Um, but

Suzanne:

Go Deadpool.

Simon:

Yeah. But other than those two, I can't think of any other couple, which are

Suzanne:

In modern time.

Simon:

Right. Which are, which have that kind of relationship. But if anybody does know, this could just be my exposure to that environment. Um, I don't particularly follow celebrity gossip, but if you can let me know of any other examples of, of couples, um, that are showing and making gestures of love. I would, I would genuinely be curious to know. So, um, please send those to me as well.

Suzanne:

I, I don't know if this is gestures of love or longevity, but I do have in my family, my mom and dad just celebrated their 65th mm-hmm<affirmative> and two of my older sisters, I think are over 45 years of marriage. So some or something's happening. So to do with something right.

Simon:

That's pretty successful.

Suzanne:

Yeah.

Simon:

So in the past we've talked about Nene as a historic figure. Um, that is, I impressed using his romance. I dunno if you recall that he built the,

Suzanne:

The gardens and the

Simon:

Exactly exactly for his wife so that she wouldn't feel homesick, but there's also Anthony and clear Patra in a Royal love triangle. Anthony Ford clear Pat's ex-husband Octavian in the battle of act Atium despite being significantly outmatched, Anthony still managed to have the last laugh though. Anthony took his own life, not giving him activity in the satisfaction,

Suzanne:

Cuz that actually killing him exactly the love triangle

Simon:

Thing. Yeah. So that that's how, how bitter he was. He would rather kill himself than give the other guy the satisfaction. So

Suzanne:

Is that a sign of true love I

Simon:

Guess? Um, no, but what was, was after her devastating departure, clear Patrick ordered and asked to be concealed in a basket of figs and bought to her room where she poisoned herself.

Suzanne:

Oh, so kind of like Romeo and Julia,

Simon:

She couldn't, she couldn't live without it. She

Suzanne:

Couldn't live without that's a

Simon:

That's good. But another, uh, role model that faced adversity, um, more so than, I mean, people talk about Megan and Harry from the British Royal family experiencing a lot of scandal and, and drama, but, uh, it was absolutely nothing compared to the early, uh, 19 hundreds in, in the UK when king Edward, the eighth fell in love with a, an American socialite called, uh, Wallace Simpson. And she was married at the time as well. So it, it, it couldn't have scandalized more if they tried, she was already married and

Suzanne:

It was well already married, a British Monarch and

Simon:

Exactly interested in an American of all things as well. So yeah, there was not surprisingly opposed by the government and the, the press as well. Um, so Edward eventually abdicated from the

Suzanne:

Throne's giving up everything, isn't it,

Simon:

He gave up a significant position of power for, for his lover. They buried, uh,

Suzanne:

You gotta have true love to do something like that or romance or something that keeps them together once you be

Simon:

Together. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's quite the commitment. Yeah, for sure. I, I can't think of anybody sacrificing quite so much for their relationship as, as that, that I can't

Suzanne:

Probably why they're on the list. Yeah.

Simon:

That's why they're on the list. You got it. Um, and speaking of couples, which are impressive, we have John and Abigail Adams. They, their love was so profound. Many I've

Suzanne:

Gone way back with this one, huh?

Simon:

Yeah, absolutely.<laugh> um, but they'll love over 54 years. Guess how many letters of love they sent over 54 years to each

Suzanne:

Other? I have no idea.

Simon:

1,160 letters of love to each other.

Suzanne:

Wow. That's a good pen pal. Yeah,

Simon:

There. Yeah. Their, their love is for everyone to read. You can,

Suzanne:

Oh you, is there a book of their love letters?

Simon:

There is indeed.

Suzanne:

Oh, awesome.

Simon:

Yeah. Uh, another president, uh, that can be seen as a romantic role model is a president called William Kinley that I wasn't familiar with. Kinley had a wife called Ida

Suzanne:

William McKinley. McKinley. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I heard Kindley<laugh> what president is that? You're not from the us. Yeah.

Simon:

McKinley

Suzanne:

William McKinley. Okay. Got it.

Simon:

Uh, his wife following the death of their two daughters. Uh, his wife Ida began having epileptic seizures. Um, and she started to avoid high society and, uh, for the majority of her days, she was kind of hidden away. Um, but when McKinley took office, um, he was anxious not to make Ida feel left out. So instead, um, of following tradition, he had his wife sit right next to him during state dinners. Yeah. Which was not the dumb thing at all. And it caused quite the stir, but uh, he wanted to make sure that if she had a seizure, he himself,

Suzanne:

He was there

Simon:

For could take care of her.

Suzanne:

Aw. That's very sweet. Yeah, absolutely. And so he broke kind of normal protocols to have her sit next to him. Yeah. Oh, that's okay. That's really cool.

Simon:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Unfortunately he was shot<laugh> oh,

Suzanne:

Geez. Well,

Simon:

Uh, yes in 1901. Uh, he got shot,

Suzanne:

I guess I should probably know that.

Simon:

Yeah. One of the

Suzanne:

Few history. Yeah.

Simon:

One of the few presidents that actually got shot.

Suzanne:

Sorry guys.

Simon:

Yeah.

Suzanne:

<laugh> again,

Simon:

American Simon

Suzanne:

Probably. Yeah. American education. Simon probably still knows more about the us after becoming assistant than I do.

Simon:

Uh, I, I dunno about that. I only got six out of 10 right on my credit.

Suzanne:

Well, they only let you do six, so you could have got 10 out of 10

Simon:

<laugh> anyway. Uh, another couple that people might be more familiar with is, uh, Johnny Cash and June Carter

Suzanne:

Walk the line. Yeah,

Simon:

Exactly. Johnny Cash met June backstage at a show. Both were unfortunately married at the time, but cash was smitten with June and pursued her over the years. June was a strong supporter of Johnny assisting him in his battle with his struggles, uh, with alcohol and drugs. Um, but would eventually leave their partners. And in 1968 cash proposed to June live on stage,

Suzanne:

Ah,

Simon:

Following that they married for 45 years, Johnny and June died within months of each other.

Suzanne:

Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah. I mean probably one of the first public proposals, you know, on, on, uh, stage,

Simon:

Certainly by, I would imagine a famous couple. I don't, there was certainly no kind of famous people marrying like that at

Suzanne:

That time. Yeah. Well, and then to, to die within three months of each other, I mean, you just couldn't live without the other. I don't know who went first, but I can understand that for sure. Yeah,

Simon:

Exactly. Exactly. So, okay. So let's get onto the romantic gestures that I was working on this for this episode. Yeah.

Suzanne:

And again, kudos to Simon for<laugh> keeping this going and doing all these romantic gestures because I think I've done. I said, I love you in the morning. Yeah. That one with breakfast and bed came up and I just dismissed that, but it is good to be able to put'em on my calendar because when I'm busy and they come up and then I can put'em on my calendar for a later date uh that's that's solid. And that helped that's helpful.

Simon:

Or remember, I get these every day and I only give you five and there's two weeks between each episode. So there's at least 17, you know, there's like 14 or so that don't get the coverage that, uh, that you'd like. Got

Suzanne:

It.

Simon:

So, okay. So I, I, I throw

Suzanne:

Away. Yeah. And I would, I would, yeah. Get your timing so understand when you wanna be reminded because yeah, I think probably seven days is a little too long or 10 days is a little too long. Like maybe every three cuz then you just consistently get reminded to do something.

Simon:

Yeah. It, it, it needs to be on a semi-regular basis. So that you're, it's, it's at least somewhat in, in, in your mind to do something.

Suzanne:

Yeah. Because then you just, yeah. Daily acts of romance.

Simon:

Exactly. It's daily, small romantic gestures. Uh, the, the big, the big deal, you know, that's, that's gonna make the long, uh, the biggest impact, uh, over the length of the relationship. So the first was something that, uh, we did a while back, but uh, we're gonna talk about it here and it's create a photo mosaic using your photos. Now we have, we provide a link for a service called mosaically mosa.com and they ask you to provide a large, uh, an image that serves as the big picture. And then after that you'll then you'd then supply the source material for the images that will go into making up.

Suzanne:

Yeah. So like you get one big picture of something. Maybe it's a scene from a place that you went on vacation with or something like that. And then all of your other photos that you've ever taken, that your whole library of photos then makes up this bigger one.

Simon:

Yeah. So I did this with a picture of Susan and I together and I used only photos from, uh, Suzanne and I, uh, only photos that include pictures of Suzanne and I, uh, together in it. So it was just, uh, pictures of us. I, I thought it was a romantic image. I think this is a nice one. Cuz you can blow it up and you can hang it somewhere. I, it it's

Suzanne:

Well, and it's like maybe it's you go on a long trip or something. You take a ton, a ton of pictures and then you take a picture of you and then all the pictures from that trip become the mosaic or something like that. There's lots of things to do, but it's kind of cool. Um, because as you step farther away, it just looks like a picture of you or the place or whatever. And then as you get closer, you can see all the tiny little pictures that are in it.

Simon:

Exactly. Yeah. And that's what I like about actually printing these ones out and printing them out at a large scale, you can actually break out the magnifying glass and actually get in and see each of the individual pictures. Yep. Uh, I I'm a bit of a nerd, so I don't like that kind of thing. And the second one, I dunno. Do you wanna talk about this cuz I kind of gave you this as a gift to you.

Suzanne:

Yeah. So Simon got me, this book called the adventure challenge couple's edition. And last week we were like, okay, let's do something from the book. And I think one of the first things that it says is once you scratch it off, you have to do it. So it's all these pages and you take the little coin that that's given to you and you scratch it off. And then that's the activity that you you're supposed to do. So the first thing we did is scratch it off and guess what the first thing was that Simon said, I don't wanna do this<laugh>

Simon:

Well,

Suzanne:

But it ended up being, you know, really good. So it was, uh, go to the website of five love languages. Yeah. And take the test and then look at your partner's results and then try to do, ask them a couple questions as to why, how to do that. So like Simon's was more quality time. Yeah. And then, uh, like affirmations, like, you know, Hey, you look really nice today. Those types of things. Yeah. So I asked him and, and he said, if you could put away your words with friends and actually pay attention to me after you get done working, that would be great. So I did try to do that a couple of times and like, you know, at least have a conversation with him before I picked up my decompression words with friends game after working all day.

Simon:

Uh, yeah. I thought that was, I thought it was good. I, I, I could see that being good. Fun for couples.

Suzanne:

Yeah. I think there's going to be lots of things in there that, you know, if you have a hard time thinking about things to do and wanting to do stuff together, this would give you a ton of ideas. Yeah. And it does say, you know, like, um, if you need to do it during the day at night, if it's free, what you, you know, what you need to bring. So there's um, different types of things you can do and different, you know, timeframes that you can do.'em yeah. I think it'll be good. I think it's a good book for, you know, people to check out. I think you got it on Amazon.

Simon:

Uh, yeah. Uh, got it on Amazon, but they, uh, I think there's also the adventure challenge, uh, website itself, where you can download directly from those guys. Um, and they have, uh, the single edition, the adventure challenge, which is a bunch of, uh, challenges for people to do. Then they have this couple's edition that's

Suzanne:

Specifically. Oh, say there's a singles edition. Exactly. And a couple's issue. Yeah, exactly. So you don't have to be in a couple to get this book.

Simon:

Exactly, exactly.

Suzanne:

And spend some time on yourself, romance yourself, right?

Simon:

Yeah, exactly. The third thing I got for this episode was a vacation suggestion and it was to watch a sunset at Santa Reini Greece. And I've been meaning to go to Greece for a long time.

Suzanne:

Yeah. It's been on our kind of our bucket list. Yeah.

Simon:

We decided that next year we are going to, I, I used the remind me option on the romantic things app and I've scheduled something for next year and next year we're gonna make plans to go and, uh, tour at at least a few islands. I, I would wanna do just Santa let's. Let's do a few, but yeah,

Suzanne:

For sure. I'm excited. That'll be

Simon:

Fun. Yeah. Greece, Greece is fun. Uh, the birthplace of democracy, actually the, the nice thing with the, the romantic thing, um, is there's the V R B O link to properties.

Suzanne:

Oh yeah. In

Simon:

There. So in the actual, in the actual thing itself, so when you click that, it gives you a list of properties directly on the Santorini island. So you can directly book, uh, a spot, which is nice. But then for number four, we have, uh, a charity suggestion from the app. And this suggestion is to throw a birthday party for a disadvantaged child. The birthday party project is a nonprofit, which is dedicated to giving disadvantaged children, the birthday parties that their parents can't afford. Or they have no parents to throw birthday parties for them,

Suzanne:

What grade to is for them, but a great charity. Yeah. And we gave to it this

Simon:

Week. Yeah. And that, that we, we gave to, to those guys and we, we gave enough so that the kid could have a birthday party in

Suzanne:

President and donated in our name. I'm just kidding.<laugh>

Simon:

Yeah. Um, it, it, it's, it's a nice, easy gifting process. Um, there are a couple of nice prepackaged options you can pick from kind of thing,$10 donations all the way up to$500 or more. And then for number five, another thing I used to remind me button for was, uh, a date September 14th, which is called photo day. And for those that don't

Suzanne:

Know photo day,

Simon:

Photo day.

Suzanne:

Yeah. Okay.

Simon:

So in Korea, they celebrate relationships throughout the year. Usually on the 14th of the month, September the 14th is photo day. And this is where couples all take, uh, updated head shots of each other together. For some, it's a simple case of using their phones. Others actually go to their local fo photo booth and, and get them done.

Suzanne:

Is this a selfie or is this an like an official headshot?

Simon:

No, like a headshot. Oh, okay. Yeah. So yeah, you look good. What you'd use on your photo. Okay. On your social media and

Suzanne:

Okay. So like a couple's

Simon:

Maybe send out to photo shoot, send out the family. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Um, but it's, uh, head shots, as I understand it, I've used the, remind me button on the romantic thing.

Suzanne:

So we're you

Simon:

So late photos later this year,

Suzanne:

14th

Simon:

We'll be taking photos.

Suzanne:

Okay. That seems like a plan.

Simon:

So those are the romantic gestures for this, uh, episode. What was, uh, your favorite of those romantic gestures?

Suzanne:

I would have to say the book, um, because I liked, I liked actually understanding the five love languages, which I've never taken that test before. I mean, it's free, right? Yeah. Love languages or five love languages, five love languages.com. And it was great to understand what you needed in order to, you know, feel supported.

Simon:

Uh, okay. And what was the miss, uh, or, or not as impressive or romantic from your perspective? Well,

Suzanne:

Maybe because we haven't done it yet, it's going to, uh, Greece<laugh> no, it, it will be so good, but just the, an anticipation of going to Greece. I don't know if there is a bad one, but

Simon:

Okay. So I think people should give, uh, some of those options and try themselves, especially the photo mosaic option. Uh, I think that's good. Fun to do it. It's free to get the images, uh, built and then I think you have to pay to print them out or whatever format you wanna print them on.

Suzanne:

Oh, okay. So you can do it and see if you like it. Yeah. And then print it. Yeah. Okay. Exactly.

Simon:

As always, we're interested in getting your feedback. So if you've got any thoughts, uh, comments, send them to romantic things app@gmail.com and we'll add them into the next episode.

Suzanne:

And if you haven't already, and you might be interested in or downloading the app, uh it's on the us app store, romantic things, um, and download you get a week as a trial and then a year charge of only 5 99,

Simon:

A a year of romance for everyone for just 5 99<laugh> it's a bargain. Okay. Everybody. Thanks for listening.

Suzanne:

And don't forget to be romantic.

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