Actually I don’t even like roses

I’m taking Posh Totty up on her challenge to share this banner at the top of my blog until Valentines Day. Yeah, yeah, I know, there’s less than 24hours to go, but I only saw it yesterday.

Anyway, hope you have a lovely Valentines tomorrow whatever you are doing. I’m not the biggest fan of February 14th it has to be said, and not because I’m a bitter, relatively recently dumped singleton. Nope, that’s not it at all. It doesn't particularly bother me - well, except for last year when I was still smarting from the unpleasantness of the break up with Gobshite. Shudder!!!! I actually quite like the sentiment behind it; everyone likes to be made to feel special, however it’s the rampant commercialism I detest and of course in USA they do the rampant commercialism bigger and better than anyone. Okay that’s a sweeping generalisation, I’ve only experienced Valentines in the 2 countries, the UK and the US, but it’s a generalisation I suspect is true. I’m sorry America, I love you, but you and I both know that you have a tendency to go a little over the top when it comes to “The Holidays.”

My memory may well be faulty but I don’t recall Valentines Day being such a huge deal in the UK. Brits, am I wrong? I suspect things may well have changed as diamond retailers, florists and restaurateurs realise what a money spinner it is, but as far as I recall Valentines was less about couples and more about anonymously sending a love note to someone you fancy from afar.

That’s a charming custom don’t you think, to make someone’s day by letting them know they have a secret admirer?

Unfortunately I feel these days that this charming, sweet and low key custom has been taken around the back of the bike sheds by the likes of Hallmark and been given a severe beating, at least in the US. To me there's nothing romantic about sitting side by side by side with other couples and selecting mediocre, over priced food from a pink hued menu, as Miles and I did last year at the Klee Brasserie. Its production line romance, doing what’s expected – going out for dinner and sending her roses - instead of acting on how you feel.

Have I become horribly cynical in my old age?

I’m going to stop moaning on like an ol’ curmudgeon and instead relate to you the story of the most fun Valentines Day I ever had. Don’t worry; this story is not heading in an icky, of the ‘too much information’, kind of direction. No, my best Valentines Day occurred when I was working at a small ad agency in London and the overlords decided to hold an impromptu wooing competition. The first prize being a weekend for two in Paris and a second prize of dinner at some fancy pants restaurant in London, I don’t recall which. Perhaps Titanic which I remember being very in at the time – they did a delicious chilled pea and mint soup – but pretty much went the way of the ship a few years later.

The way it worked was that we all picked names out of one of two hats, women had to pick a guy's name and men had to pick a female name. I remember Miles being quite disgruntled about this and chuntering on and on and on about it being an infringement of his rights as a gay man, not to be able to choose a guy to charm.

Eye-roll!!

Honestly he does get all hot and bothered about this sort of stuff at times and I can understand there are times when it’s important to stand up for your rights, but in a wooing competition? It’s not as if it’s REAL, besides Miles and I both know he’d absolutely compromise his integrity for the sake of a trip to Paris - I jest Miles, I jest. Love you lots. Besides, it wasn't as if you had to take your woo-ee with you to Paris if you won the trip.

Lucky ol’ me got the office sexpot, so it wasn’t exactly a stretch. I spent the afternoon writing saucy poetry and surreptitiously inter-officing him chocolatey treats. (I wonder if you'd get into trouble with HR for that in the US? Probably, they have lots of rules on office fun here.) You had to be anonymous about it y'see, which was tricky as we worked in an open plan office with a big glass atrium running through the centre, so you could pretty much see what was going on. I don’t recall if it was one of the rules that you couldn't be found out, but I remember us going to great lengths to avoid discovery.

Ahh halcyon days, it was great fun, although as you can imagine we didn't get a lot of work done that afternoon, but it had a great impact on office moral.

Actually I do hold February 14th close to my heart for reasons other than Valentines Day, since it’s also the anniversary of the day I was offered a job in New York. Eight years ago I remember Miles getting a call from a former colleague who’d moved to New York the year before. It wasn’t a surprise that he called, they were friends outside of work, but it was a surprise when, after speaking to him for a few minutes, Miles turned to me and said ‘he wants to speak to you’, the rest as they say is history.

Oh and it's true about the roses, I much prefer tulips.