Valentine Schmalentine?

Why oh why I give in to this every year, is sort of becoming revealed.

I love romance, that is for sure, But the most wonderful romance comes from spontaneity, some ingenious and thoughtful occurence from one human to the other in their life.

It's not a new suggestion that Valentine's Day is some over hyped, over rated, commercial crap. You need only look at the stores in your High Street, oh from the January Sales onwards, to know that this magical love fest is coming to a heart near you, where the wordy, Shakespearian cards and the "as long as it's red or pink, we'll pitch as Valentine's" gifts are running amok.

And really, its these gifts that we are all zealously snapping up, in a bid to profess our love to someone, grateful that this card or this gift really takes out the effort on our part and it's a case of "i feel like that bear reads on his jumper - wuv you". It may therefore, suprise you, that my boyfriend bought me a teddy bear with the embroidered words of "I really really really love you" on and I loved it! The feeling I felt was not one of indignance, I really believed that what he saw on the teddy bear represented what he wanted to say, because he says those words quite a lot in person. And you know, it was more thoughtful than a bunch or flowers of a box of chocolates, as this is a keep sake, something for me to treasure and look back on, where an empty vase or a bin bag full of chocolate wrappers once could have been.
And gifts are not a necessity and I half toyed with the idea of not getting one, but then incidentally I found a present I knew he would like and it coincided with the next present giving event which conveniently became Valentine's Day.

I also decided to cook a nice meal. Completely from scratch. It went very well. I made heart shaped parma ham and feta cheese tartlets, followed by pan fried chicken with a mushroom and tarragon sauce, accompanied by a potato rosti and green beans. For dessert was a rich vanilla and vodka panacotta. Each dish was very successful for me, which absolutely made me beam with pride. We toasted what? with champagne and just had a very enjoyable evening, with the added effort of dressing up a bit and being a bit nicer to each other.

I know some say Valentines is really for girls, but this time I think I made a lot of effort, which was appreciated and which I enjoyed giving. I am more for giving a present than receiving one, but if I receive a present and that person has really considered what I would like, then I WILL treasure that gift forever.

But if you look at the effect Valentine's Day has on you - does it MAKE you feel more in love or does it merely urge you to consider all the niceties of love and romance? Because I know on Valentines Day I was feeling the love, because "It's Valentines Day" and so, shouldn't i? I don't think this is a bad thing; if that one day can make you focus on love for a day, then what harm does it do, so long as you don't just focus on it one day.

On the other hand, what about the day before and the day after. I know the day after, I slept in late, my boyfriend went to work for the day, in the evening we grabbed a take away and then he slept all evening while I read my book. So was Valentine's Day merely delaying this evening of separatedness or did we just feel that comfortable that we did not feel the need to spend another night of forcedness. Our evening which although it was spent separately, to a degree, did not dampen any feelings we have for one another, we are comfortable enough to not be in each others pockets all day everyday.

I think Valentine's Day should be taken for what it is; a day to remember how you love someone, a day to think about them long enough to get them a token gift and that is it.