Is there a curse of Valentines?

I guess I shouldn’t have criticised Valentines day. This weekend was meant to be our romantic weekend, a celebration of the anniversary of our first kiss. But by Friday we knew it wasn’t meant to be…

I had arranged with my Mum and sister to take Alice, our nearly three toddler, for the weekend. We had planned a nice meal, a movie, stay up late and sleep in on Sunday. But things really went wrong on the previous Monday when Alice seem to have some nasty cold. By Tuesday we had to take her early out of the creche because of her quite high temperature. Wednesday, Sophie, my wife, took the day off work to stay with her. By Thursday Alice was bad again and so was Sophie and by Friday we had gone to the doctor and Sophie is now on a ten day course of antibiotics. Alice was fine (you know the rule with toddlers, bring her to the doctor and they’re fine)!

I was fine too. But by Saturday, as I drove Alice over to Grannies, I could feel a warmth in my chest and I had cold and it was getting worse. Lemsips, paracetamols, strepsils, nothing could stop it. It is the most frustrating thing to feel yourself getting sick, while being fine, and try everything but you can’t stop it. By Saturday night I was over 40 degrees Celsius. Fuck.

This was atop of the multitude of “disasters” in work during the week that we both struggled with. Sophie, despite my worries, still plans to go into her work tomorrow…

But do you know? Screw Saint Valentine. This weekend, while not romantic, was more about our love than a meal and a cinema. It was about us, our relationship, our marriage. It was about the practical things that keep people together. It was taking care of each other, because we wanted to take care of each other. Curled up on the sofa, laughing at the end of “Little Miss Sunshine”, forgetting about the milk in the microwave when Sophie went to make me a hot chocolate, putting on a bath so Sophie can relax a little…. it’s was about all the little things we do for each other. Because we love each other.

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