I’ve planned my London visist for the next couple of months and I’ll be there from the 16th to 18th March and then from the 7th to 10th April.

If anyone happens to be in Antwerp, I’ll be there too, very soon!

Well I should wish everyone a happy one, but am not a big fan, myself. The only Valentine’s Day I remember really enjoying was a good many years ago now, when I had just started living with someone and we were still in the first flush of what we mistakenly thought (as it turned out) to be true love.  I received a little gold heart that I wore for some years until I lost it in the sand of a glorious  beach in a little patch of paradise in Costa Rica which provided the backdrop to a very passionate affair with a local artist.  I remember it only because said artist bore some resemblance to he of the gold heart (with whom I had a very messy and unpleasant break up) and I took it as a sign to move on with my life.

Other memorable February 14ths include the year my significant other ended our long standing relationship on Feb 12th; the year I spent it in bed with a friend’s husband (yes the guilty pleasure did add to the occasion and no, she never found out); the year I got an anonymous card which I assumed to have been sent by a friend as a bit of a joke until a sense of unease and a bit of detective work revealed the sender to be  the boyfriend of one of my relatives.

I do wonder if anyone actually enjoys it? No-one of my acquaintance does. It just seems fraught with unfulfilled expectations, intensified by the unrelenting hype of the media and those with a financial stake in pressurising us into celebrating.

So, I hope your day is a good one and if you have to be stuck in a restaurant paying silly money for an overpriced valentine’s menu with lots of other miserable couples, or you’re on your own reminiscing about a lost love, or you got a card from someone you really can’t abide, just remember you really are not alone!