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Today is St Valentine’s Day, or as I prefer to think of it, yet another profit-making scheme for the retail trade. If you have to wait till 14th February every year to tell someone you love them, or to hear that you are loved, then I really don’t know what to say.
Okay maybe some people need the little help to declare their love for the first time – but to then make any card anonymous as tradition states kind of defeats the purpose and of course there are those, especially on leap years like this year, who use the date to pop the question, but if they wouldn’t have popped it anyway then I think my advice would be to consider very carefully before you agree to marry them!
Roses, especially the red kind, shoot up in price at this time of the year. Bakers festoon their shelves with the same cakes that they had out at Hallowe’en and Christmas only this time they have heart decorations. They will be back come Mothering Sunday never fear, with flowers on them, and at Easter they will bear little chicks and chocolate eggs. Supermarket take up isles not only with prospective gifts for the person who will think they are unloved without such a purchase, but also the ideal meal to ensure your loved one loves you back, some even double the price of the usual meal deals – 0h that will be an extra tenner for the box of 9 chocolates that aren’t usually included! Then if you decide to take your loved one out to your favorite restaurant you will pretty soon discover that they will present you with a reduced menu, which you can almost guarantee wont include the one dish that makes it your favorite restaurant to make room for steak with valentine sauce or some such nonsense.
Now I have nothing against romance, Hubby can vouch for that, but I do think that it shouldn’t need to either cost the earth or be held hostage to a certain day. So today by all means tell the one you love you love them, buy them a card and give them a gift, but please if you really love them make sure you let them know that all through the year. And please if you are still paying off Christmas, and there will be those who are, then don’t get yourself into more debt just because the shops are making you feel guilty, if the person you love loves you back they wont want to see you get into a financial mess.
Never mind the commercial spin that has been put on this martyr’s feast day I think St Valentine will be spinning in his grave at the way his name has been hijacked.
Now I will get off my soap box.
