Valentines Day

The celebration of St Valentine's day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

So now every year on Febuary 14th intimate couples are coerced by commercialism and the media to buy gifts and cards for each other, to express love, appreciation and commitment.  Yet most couples could do this at anytime during the year.  The whole Valentine hullabalooo is a huge commercial con to get us to part with our money.

As an avid people watcher I was today fascinated to watch both men and women pawing through hundreds of cards to find  "just the right one". I even watched a teenage girl burst into tears because the shop had run out of the card she wanted to buy for her boyfriend. The supermarket was full of last minuiteValentine buyers scrabbling for cards and gifts. Men armed with everything from cards to cookbooks hovering nervously in the queue for the checkouts. Women in the aisles discussing their plans for cooking meals, or going out with their beloved to share the evening with twenty-five other couples looking for an intimate space in a crowded restaurant.

OK yes I'm a cynic it's true. I'm cynical when mass media, commercialism and social pressure, conspire to tell me how I should feel about a certain person on a certain day!   But I'm also a hopeless romantic :)


For Gary Today and Everyday
I love you every minute of every day,
Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing not an hour passes without me thinking of you.
Sharing my life with you is one of my greatest pleasures.
You are my best friend, my lover and my rock.
You are my lighthouse in a stormy sea.
I love you for your loyalty to me and to everyone that matters to you,
and for the way you always encourage and believe in me.
I love you because you are as much of a dreamer as me.
and for your courage and strength in the face of adversity.
In fact I love you for every detail that makes you the man you are,
and you are more than I ever wished for.
I love you xxx