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Just as some relief from the Christmas Hangover comes in the form of the January Paycheck those in loving (or otherwise) relationships have to deal with the next commercial spend fest that is Valentines Day.
When I was married I was grateful for this annual reminder that I loved someone, because it was increasingly slipping my mind as time went on.
Saint Valentine , for whom we have to thank for this reminder, was put in prison for performing marriages for soldiers which was a big no no at the time . Whilst in prison he is said to have healed the sick daughter of the jailer looking after him. Before his execution he wrote her a letter and signed off with the now infamous “Your Valentine”.
I wonder if what really happened was that he was caught by the jailer giving his daughter a good ‘healing’ and was executed as a result? We will never know.
Years later Chaucer referenced Valentine in a poem (probably looking for something to rhyme with ‘moan and whine’) and a romantic habit, fuelled by marketeers, was born. Florists, confectioners, jewellers and restaurants truly experience LOVE at this time of year.
I love wandering the streets and gazing in the restaurants at this time of year. Thousands of bemused and bored looking couples sat in packed restaurants that make battery chicken farms look like avian penthouses. Munching on food from the overpriced “Valentine Day menu” trying desperately to think of romantic things to say to each other and avoiding eye contact for fear of giving away that they would rather be watching football or Coronation Street.
NOT THE SINGLETONS THOUGH 🙂
Valentines Day is for singles a time of great tidings for two reasons
1: You get to avoid the pain and cost associated with trying to book a table, order flowers, chocolate etc
2: You are gifted with a unique evening where you can assume that anyone out and about on their own, or with friends, is likely to be single so you can ask them out for a drink or a coffee
As for me I will be participating, with my girlfriend, in the ritual I so horribly scorned above.
Happy Valentines Day and remember its just a day; you can be happy whatever your situation.
Born to a working class family in Essex, Dave endured a boringly happy childhood. His educational potential was largely squandered by his desire to spend his days pissing about. As a result his clerical career started at sixteen with the civil service and then the NHS. He sustained a lifestyle that saw him just about earning enough to keep himself in beer and fags until his ‘career’ hit a seam of good luck.
He applied for a job, two grades bigger than his current role, and was successful. This was due in no small part to the urgent need for someone and the lack of any other applicants. This break put him into a profession from which his career advanced at reasonable speed. More importantly it allowed him to move into the private sector.
Never confident with women he failed to ask out pretty much every woman he fancied and ended up with an impressive catalogue of female friends, until he finally plucked up the courage to ask his, soon to be fiancé, out. The relationship was to last five years. They never married (there was some confusion between the parties about what being engaged meant in relation to marriage timescales).
His life became one of happy mediocrity with a well paid job and an attractive but underappreciated fiancé. Excitement was provided by a brief flirtation with motorbikes. Then he confronted mortality. At age 28 his mother died and, whilst on the surface he coped well with the grieving process, his life turned 360 degrees.
His coping strategy was to take a job with lots of international travel (his fiancé abandoned him shortly after) and to engage in every adrenalin sport known to man. This wild ride lasted three years before he met, fell in love with, and within a year, married his wife.
He took to marriage like a snake takes to rollers skates. His attempts to surrender to domestic routine, over adventure and unpredictability, were largely unsuccessful and led to an expanding waistline, a penchant for Austin Reed clothes and finally, eight years in, his wife leaving.
Adapting to single life pretty well, all things considered, he embarked on a journey of understanding, and then indulging, his mid life crisis. Snowboarding, sailing, flash cars and clothes, dating any woman that showed even the remotest spark of interest and partying hard (well as hard as his social circle and limited looks allowed).
His career was the one area where success continued to seem assured, so inevitably three years after his divorce he went to work dismantling that. He engineered redundancy from a six figure salary + bonus + benefits and headed into the world with no idea what to do next.
After six months of having fun he trained, and set out as a self employed Business Coach, a role he has stayed with, to date. Through coaching he began to access new ideas and ways of looking at the world and finally finds himself content, happy and living life the way its meant to be lived…in the moment.
Throughout his life only three things have been constant…the support of his family and closest friends, his love of nature and Gary Numan.