Seriously, Valentines day?

ast night, coming back from my Tuesday night course, I dropped into the 24-hours Tesco on the way home to pick up a few bits and bobs.

There was a few guys wandering around with a single red rose in their hands and at the check-out there was a guy with the all the traditional cheesy v-day gifts: a single rose, rose in vase, two different heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and one small fluffy toy.

Come on, v-day must be a joke? I don’t believe it’s romantic when it’s done out of duty. The guys do the “traditional” thing of getting the “traditional” gifts: roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and small fluffy toys. I get the feeling they do it because it’s expected that they do, not because they necessarily want to (expected by whom though?).

When I try to do something romantic, it’s hopefully a genuine surprise or we both want to do it. I nearly go as far as to say that v-day is anti-romantic. It is the definition of love created by media and marketing, who’s sole purpose is to encourage us to buy roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and small fluffy toys.

Not that I’m inherently romantic myself. I’m not. I’m a 30 year old geek which is certainly not the formula for an Irish Casanova. I have to plan to be romantic, which sounds self-defeating. Which it is, however the important thing is, is that what you do appears to be spontaneous and is genuine. Because if it’s a genuine token of love, what it is, is less important than what it means. On a lesser note, I believe love can be more easily found in the small things you do every day without thinking; the consideration and care you show for each other. If you can’t find it there, then a small fluffy toy won’t do much.

Personally, myself and my wife generally ignore v-day. February 21st, one week later than v-day, is a much more important day. It’s the day I proposed. To celebrate that is to celebrate our love.

So all that above is why I also bought two boxes of Lindor chocolate (my wife’s favourite), but not the ones in a heart-shaped box in Tesco last night. She wasn’t expecting it when I gave it to her last night.

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