Happy Valentine’s Day, readers! Looking for a last-minute idea for a Valentine’s Day surprise, or trying to find other ways to add romance to your life? Allure’s tech team share their most romantic experiences.
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Danny Allen, Publisher
As you might suspect, working on Lifehacker, Gizmodo and Kotaku is to live an always-plugged in existence. However, Lifehacker emphasises the importance of work / life balance. To that end, I booked a weekend away for my wife and I at Sparadise, a Japanese bathhouse on the far side of the Blue Mountains. (No need to avert your eyes: it’s of the swimmers on, enjoy the view, relax and book a traditional massage variety.) Anyway, the whole point was to be out of phone reception range. A weekend with no Internet or phone calls — just time to focus on the most important lady in my life.
OK, OK…I may have snuck up the hill to check my email on one occasion, but hey, I returned with steaks to barbeque on the deck of our private cabin at Eagle View Escape which is also on Lake Lyell, outside Lithgow. A valentines treat that I’m glad to have saved for; but also a reminder for me to try and keep the phone off the table during meals and focus on my best mate: Rachel.
Angus Kidman, Lifehacker Editor
Wow, this is mildly tragic. I have never done anything remotely romantic on Valentine’s Day. Clearly, I need to do something about this. (Scribbles note in Bucketlist.txt in Dropbox.)
Luke Hopewell, Gizmodo Editor
The most romantic Valentine’s Day I had was when I organised a scavenger hunt around the Central Coast of New South Wales (where we used to live) for my then-girlfriend, now-wife. Clues were left around places that meant certain things to us in our relationship, and eventually the clues led back to where we had our first date. We went to a local lookout for a picnic but ended up sitting in the car the whole time due to rain. It was still a fun Valentine’s Day though!
Chris Jager, Lifehacker Journalist
When my wife Jill and I first started dating, she gave me a handmade player’s guide to the PlayStation video game Resident Evil. But what made it doubly romantic was the playable characters’ names — Chris (Redfield) and Jill (Valentine)!
Mark Serrels, Kotaku Editor
Well, I’m pretty rubbish at being romantic, but roughly a year after my wife and I got together I made a little CD for valentine’s day. Instead of making some god awful mix tape featuring Lionel Richie and Three Times A Lady I decided to do something completely off the wall…
So I used some rudimentary music editing skills to make an Audio book. The concept of the Audio book was this: it was me, as an 80 year old man, retelling the story of how I met my wife to our grandchildren in the future. It was a complete piss-take. Despite the fact I’m super-Scottish I did it in the voice of a really old English lord (think the drunk old man from The Fast Show) and I mixed it with some hilariously bad classical music. The thing had about 10 chapters and went on forever.
I had forgotten all about this but, on a recent getaway for our wedding anniversary six years later my wife randomly put the CD Audio book on as we drove to a little cottage we had rented for the weekend. She had kept it all this time! We sat and listened to it for 30 minutes absolutely pissing ourselves and cringing at the same time. I hope the CD lasts long enough for us to force our newborn kid (now six weeks old!) to listen to it when he’s old enough!
Elly Hart, Night Editor
My most romantic experience involves beautiful flowers that aren’t roses, sharing a meal that isn’t dinner, and being surprised with something that isn’t weird or scary. I’m still waiting for this to happen.
Think you can top our most romantic Valentine’s Day? Share your soppy memories in the comments section below.
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