A new baby needn’t be the death knell to dating. This winter, bring the outside in, with Marie-Claire Chappet’s guide to dates so good you won’t need to leave the house
The movie-night date
Old-school and marvellously simple: just pop in a DVD, warm up some popcorn, snuggle under a duvet and pray that you don’t fall asleep during the opening credits. For the maximum experience, invest in a widescreen TV that packs a cinematic punch. The Sony Bravia LED 4K, Ultra HD 3D Smart TV (£1,199.00) even comes with 3D glasses and is ideally accompanied by the Sony Bluetooth Sound Bar (£109.95) for optimum sound that (hopefully) won’t wake baby (johnlewis.com).
Ultimate relaxation
Why use extra energy going to a spa to relax when you can indulge in the ultimate relaxation in your own home? Home Spa London offers couples’ massages from £55 (homespalondon.co.uk) with treatments bespoke to your needs and brought straight to your door. The Home Spa caters for all the little luxuries: with manicures, pedicures, body wraps, facials and male grooming all offered in the wonderful comfort of your own environment (the-home-spa.co.uk). You’ll be floating on air all the way home – which thankfully isn’t actually that far at all.
Get active
If you were gym buddies before baby’s arrival, a joint workout can be a brilliantly simple date idea. With services direct to your house and online streaming of gym classes, you needn’t even renew your gym membership. The Yoga Team (yoga-team.co.uk) can visit your home and create bespoke classes for both of you and Baby London favourite Lomax gym offers home personal training (lomaxpt.com).
Or if you have your own gym equipment (lucky things) you could choose to sign up to GymCube (gymcube.com) – a service that live-streams gym classes from dance through to spinning. It’s all the fun of the gym with no sweaty, communal changing rooms and pesky lockers. And why not finish up by ordering in from Plenish Cleanse detox juices (plenishcleanse.com) as a guilt-free treat?
Rekindle the romance
Bring the magic of traditional romance to your very own dining room, without the need to stray from the baby monitor. The Home Gourmet (thehomegourmet.co.uk) provides luxury, bespoke catering for that very special dinner date for two and they even do the washing up. Or why not treat yourselves to an indoor picnic with a deliciously extravagant hamper? Fortnum and Mason’s Grosvenor Hamper £100 (fortnumandmason.com) is a gluttonous melee of nuts, olives, Marc de Champagne Truffles and wine, perfect for a lazy evening at home, and serious foodies will love Harvey Nichol’s Kitchen Essentials Hamper £200 – complete with stuffed olives, chargrilled aubergines and even a truffle risotto kit (harveynichols.com). Candles and illicit smooching optional.
Think outside the box
Remember those quirky, inventive, active dates you were so proud of in your early dating days? Why not reignite the enthusiasm by bringing these fun ideas into your home? If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a mixologist then Hire the Barman may be just the ticket – cocktail masterclasses taught by top specialists with a delightful competitive element so that you and your partner can vie for boozy supremacy in your own kitchen (hirethebarman.co.uk). And for those budding chefs? Couples with a sweet tooth hankering for some gluttony at home will be delighted to learn of the School of Food’s Chocolate and Truffle Making Class, £140 for two people (cookeryschool.com).
[xyz-ihs snippet=”Article-Share”]
