Skip to main content

The Single's Survival Guide To Valentine's Day

Hi everyone.


Is it just me or does Valentine's Day get more OTT every year? Once upon a time it was just cards, roses and the occasional fluffy pink "teddy" (in every sense of the word) but now it's personalised star maps, digital radios, spa days, scratch off posters, heart shaped egg boards and hand-casting moulding kits. Check those last three out on Amazon if you don't believe me!

Of course if you are single at this time of the Great Love In, whether by choice or necessity, it can feel even worse than Christmas. At least then you can probably find the odd relative or friend (odd often being the word) to help get you through the day and make you feel less of a Social Pariah. And unlike Christmas, there is the ignominy of the postman knowing that you have only received some double glazing junk mail rather than a card that is too big to fit through the letter box.

As it happens, I try to treat Valentine's Day in exactly the same way as I do Christmas Day which is basically to ignore it and actually VD (Freudian slip?) is a lot easier to manage. For a start, you can listen to the radio or watch telly without knowing that it's Valentine's Day at all. Try doing that on Christmas Day when you can't find a space in the ether that is not taken up with a Pan Pipes version of Last Christmas, the Uncut Version of Santa Claus The Movie or cute kids talking about playing the Christmas version of Minecraft on their PlayStation. (I might have got my tech muddled up there. I'm a bit Old School when it comes to these things.)

I don't eat anything special at Christmas so I certainly don't feel the need to eat anything special on Valentine's Day and although I may feel like I'm the object of scorn for not consuming vast quantities of frozen pigs in blankets, no one gives a hoot if my table is not laden with chocolate-dipped strawberries, red velvet cookies and seared duck with ginger mash. (Check out the recipes here if you really want to!)


But most of all, I don't have to worry about keeping anyone else happy. The pressure from all these Special Days seems to me to be exacerbated by trying to deal with Other People or in the case of Valentine's Day, Other Person. It's no wonder that so many relationships seem to run into trouble around this time of year. "I don't need this pressure on" as someone once sang. At least Easter (or even National Sticker Day) doesn't seem to clobber the divorce rate anything like as much.

Of course, I do realise that I'm beginning to sound like a TOSS (titter ye not) aka Tired Old Sad Spinster. Who is to say that if I finally found "lurve", I wouldn't be knee-deep in chocolate-dipped strawberries while cooking up seared duck on my heart-shaped egg board and listening to Unchained Melody (I told you I was Old School) on my new digital radio? 

But until then I will continue to convince myself that February 14th is just the day that falls between February 13th and February 15th and look forward to Boxing Day!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No Show

Sorry that there is no new post this week. I am a "no show" due to the wheels coming off my trolley on Tuesday when I tried some glandular therapy treatment for my ongoing hypoadrenalism and ended up passed out on the hall floor. At the moment, my brain feels like it is full of cotton-wool and writing anything deep and meaningful (or even anything shallow and nonsensical) seems quite difficult. Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible so please do not adjust your settings.
4 comments
Read more

Portfolio Career

I have been telling everyone recently that I now have a "portfolio career". Most people don't know what I mean by this (someone even said they'd have to "Google" it!) but it's really just a fancy way of saying that you have fingers in several different pies. I have been a "professional" writer since 1995 although I have always been a writer of some sort, ever since I was at school. During this time, I have stuck pretty religiously to writing and only occasionally had flights of fancy about getting a "proper" job. (And I still do. Only this time last week, I found myself offering to manage a jazz band!!) However, for various reasons, I've recently been seriously exploring other freelancing options that I can do alongside writing and have now decided to "rebrand" myself as a writer, a crafter and a musician. I also plan to carry on working on community newsletters and do something in the spiritual healing/growth area a...
4 comments
Read more

Rant Against Writers' Groups

When I opened my copy of the Autumn issue of The New Writer earlier today ( http://www.thenewwriter.com/ ) I was rather surprised to see how many times my name appeared. It was nine times if anyone other than me is interested, even beating the great Simon Whaley (Hi Simon!) who was only mentioned seven times, although I'm happy to accept a re-count if he insists on one. On a more serious note, the reason for this unusual proliferation was because a while back, I had a piece published in the open "rant" slot of TNW explaining why, in my opinion, professional writers shouldn't belong to writers' groups. I admit I had my Polly Toynbee hat on at the time and was trying to be a bit controversial but nevertheless, I stand by everything I said in that piece. Much to my surprise, someone agreed with me. Someone also strongly disagreed with me, saying I had been"extremely patronising" and expressing great relief that I wasn't a member of their writers...
4 comments
Read more