Wednesday 14 Feb 2024 | Valentine’s Day Dinner

Going back to last year for our first Valentine’s Day Dinner. It was our first, so of course I had to plan well in advanced. I had booked a restaurant for Valentine’s Day dinner (in December). It was at the Rocks at a place all The Pony Dining. Two weeks before Valentine’s Day, I got an email from them saying that they look forward to having us there and that there will be a set menu for the night. I wasn’t aware there would be a set menu. I tried looking at other places but of course they were all booked out already. I was a bit annoyed that they didn’t mention this a lot earlier as I didn’t know what they would have on the menu and whether or not Kelly would enjoy it.

Valentine’s Day happen to land on a Wednesday and I was working at North Parramatta at the time. After finishing work, I quickly rushed to Kelly’s on the northern beaches. I parked in a public carpark across the road from her place where it had a playground. I got out of the car with flowers and headed in. I don’t usually carry flowers of course so I felt a bit out of my element. After a few photos of Kelly with her flowers we headed off to the city. There was heaps of traffic just getting on to the Harbor Bridge. We knew we were going to be late. Kelly rang them and let them know and they understood but said we will just have a limited time to eat as it was meant to be a 2 hour sitting.

It was a bit cloudy and there was a chance it could rain, but I didn’t bring the umbrella when we went to the restaurant. We got there and we were seated a bit near the entrance. At times it would rain a little and the wind would carry the rain inside and I could feel it. We were served drinks on arrival but we got mocktails instead of actual cocktails. They served the entree’s but none were vegetarian so I ended up eating them all. I don’t quite remember the mains but I believe it was ok. Just like dessert, I don’t remember it but I think it was good. After dinner we headed back to the car and because I didn’t bring the umbrella, it started raining and we got a little bit wet. But it all makes for a good story in the end, especially for our first Valentine’s Day together.

Friday 14 Feb 2025 | Valentine’s Day Dinner | I Gladiatori Osteria Romana

After learning the lessons from last year, I ordered sun flowers on the 12th Feb to be delivered on the 13th Feb. On the florists’ website, they were only selling roses on the 14th Feb and the cost was almost double to the sun flowers that I was ordering.

The sun flowers story: Early on when we were dating, I was still living in Newcastle at the time and I managed to convince Kelly to come up for the weekend. One of the days she was up, I took her to a sun flower farm. It was pretty cool to see all the sun flowers. We didn’t pick any or buy any, but we found one where it looked like it was smiling and thought it was pretty cute.

So this year instead of roses I wanted to get her sun flowers. When they got delivered, I was surprised, they were so big and the stems were long. She has a vase from when I gave her flowers previously but there was no way the sun flowers would fit in them. I suggested possibly cutting the stems so that they can fit in the vase, but she has a bucket and she was happy to put them and leave them in there.

That day, I was in the office in the city and she had to go on site to Hornsby. I was expecting to beat her home but when I arrived she was already there which was good as she had booked dinner for 1900 and there wasn’t a need to rush. I was worried that if we book a place on the 14th Feb, we would be stuck with a set menu again and I didn’t want that and neither did Kelly. So Kelly booked a place locally for the 14th and I booked a fancy place in the city on the 15th.

It was 1830 and it was time to go. I had no clue as to where we were going. Kelly said to just drive to freshwater and to park where I normally park near the shops. So I parked the car and she was leading the way. The only restaurants I knew in Freshwater were the Mexcian one’s. One we have been to but not the other. That was my first guest. But I was wrong. We walked towards where a lot of people were and that’s where we were having dinner, at the I Gladiatori Osteria Romana. I haven’t heard of this place before and was surprised considering it was Italian and just close by. It was pretty crazy though. Loud and packed. It was lucky Kelly did make a booking. We were seated inside. There was a set menu given to us but that was a choice and we were able to order anything from the full menu. They didn’t seem to have many pasta dishes though and as for the pizza, there were some ingredients on there that neither of us understood. Kelly ended up getting the mushroom pizza and I got the prawn pizza. It was a square shape instead of the round shape. But it was pretty good and very filling. So filling we didn’t even have dessert and there was a gelato place just next door. It was nice to just have a short drive though considering we both had busy days at work that day.

Saturday 15 Feb | Freshwater Pools | Jounieh - Walsh Bay

It was a nice day today. Not too hot. Kelly had recently started doing laps at Freshwater pools, so we decided to head there in the morning. She was doing laps, I didn’t have goggles so I was just doing a mix of breast stroke and running in the water. It did take me back to when I was in Richmond and over the summer days where we could do our own PT, I would laps in the pool. We didn’t stay too long as we wanted to relax a bit before our dinner in the city.

As it was nearing departure time, we took some photos with the sun flowers. Then we headed off. I realised I may have allocated more time for the drive than needed. But then again, driving into the city you just never know what you’ll encounter. My considerations included traffic, being able to get the parking station without getting lost, the distance of walk from the parking station to the restaurant and the time it could take since Kelly was wearing heels and we would have to walk a little bit slower than usual. In the end though when we parked and go to the street level, we still had almost 20min to spare. So we went for a slow walk around the water. We got to the end of the wharf which had views of Blues Point (North Sydney). We wanted to get a photo together so we were looking around to ask someone to take it.

There was an older couple there taking photos. So I offered to take their photos. After they offered to take ours so it worked out well. We chatted a little bit after that and they were from Castle Hill. One of their daughters organised a dinner for another of their daughter’s 40th birthday and it was a surprise so they were hiding at the edge of the wharf to not be spotted. They were very nice. Then we slowly headed to the restaurant. We were seated at the front near the water, which was both good and bad. The good was of course the views. However the sun was still high up and was directly in my eyes.

After perusing through the menu, we decided on getting one entree and each of us would get a large plate. If we were still hungry we could either get dessert or some bread afterwards. Kelly ordered the vine leaves for entree. They were nice. She said that we have had it before at a Turkish restaurant but I don’t remember. For the large plates, Kelly got falafel and I got the shwarma. Mine came with pita bread which made the meal very filling. It was very tasty though. The food came out pretty quick too. During the dinner I ordered two beers (non alcoholic) and the waiter would bring a chilled glass and the bottle. He’d place the glass on the table and pour the beer, but he’d pour the beer straight and not on an angle creating a big head. This was the only downside, a very small thing but, I would’ve been happy to pour it myself. Not long after we finished our mains and they had cleared the table, they brought out the dessert menu. There weren’t too many food options, most were drinks. We decided on the Chocolate Parfait. But we tried to buy some time as we were still a bit full from the mains.

Eventually we ordered. It came and it was pretty rich and sweet. But there was vanilla ice cream which when combined with the parfait, it evened out and was very nice. We were also given two heart chocolates from the restaurant too which was nice. Overall we were happy with everything, great food, good service and very quick to bring it all out too. We headed home afterwards with the sun starting to set so it made for a scenic drive home.