Love is in the Air

(sing) LetÆs talk about love, baby
LetÆs talk about you and me
LetÆs talk about all the good things and the bad things
That may be
LetÆs talk about love
LetÆs talk about love (stop singing)

Okay, so I may have changed the words a little but as itÆs almost St. ValentineÆs day I donÆt want to mention the word s.e.x. ItÆs the other four letter word weÆre interested in today - love, baby. You might think that ValentineÆs day is a right rip off. A chance for Mr. Hallmark to rake in extra moolah and that itÆs just another commercial racket. And youÆd be right, of course. But it makes no difference, it still comes around, one day out of 365 and tickles you under the chin with a chocolate covered teddy bear. Red roses, ribbons, flowers, teddy bears, chocolates. Pink and rosy, red and cheeky. ValentineÆs day is here again.

Personally, I like it. Nay. In the spirit of the event, IÆm claiming that I love it. I guess IÆm just an old romantic fool at heart but I really make a fuss of my Valentine. IÆll send him flowers and chocolates. IÆll present him with a handmade card covered in glitter and crepe paper with a slushy poem inside. IÆll wine and dine him on the evening, and this year, I have theatre tickets as a Valentine surprise. Yes, I really lurve ValentineÆs day. Does anyone else

Perhaps it really is as naff as some people claim it to be. I remember that my teenage years were filled with Valentine angst every February 14th, hoping and waiting that someone, anyone, would send me just one card. Usually I got lucky and there it would be, sitting on the doormat waiting for me to open it. I knew IÆd fall in love immediately with whoever had sent me the card but this caused a lot of confusion for me as I was growing up, as none of the cards ever had a signature inside them. I almost always had a crush going on at least one of the boys at school and assumed it must have been my latest love interest who had sent me the card, but he always seemed so modest about admitting it. Whatever the truth was, receiving a Valentine card gave me inspired confidence to start up conversations with these spotty youths and I did, usually, get a date out of it. In the end. After a lot of perseverance. And bribing them with a peek at my brother'Æs football cards

It was only in the last couple of years that my mother admitted sheÆd been sending me the blank cards year after year because she couldnÆt bear to see me so upset when I didnÆt receive a card! Have you ever felt that your life had been squashed down to nothing? Well, I tell you, when she told me this, I was distraught. My teenage years had been a lie, after all. It made me wonder how many cards which my friends received had in fact been sent by over anxious mothers instead of the hormone crazed yobbos with names like Dazzo and Spike that we thought had sent them.

I hope that whatever you do this ValentineÆs day and whoever you do it with, that St. Valentine will look down upon you kindly and that CupidÆs arrow aims straight, hits you in the right place and doesnÆt hurt too much. And if you should receive an anonymous Valentine card and youÆre wondering who itÆs from, well, you may just want to ask your mother first.

Glenda Young is also the authoress of the weekly Coronation Street Update on the net, and can be contacted at:

glenda@londonmall.co.uk

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