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I am starting to get a bit confused by all the depression surrounding 14th February. Without sounding like a hypocrite, as yes I will be enjoying a dinner out with my boyfriend tonight, I feel like my lonnnnnng years in Singledom have given me enough experience to speak with authority on this subject. In fact, one of my all time favourite Valentine’s Days to date was an evening in university, when three of my best girls happened to have been irate with their partners and so we all piled into my bestie’s dorm room and spent the evening gorging on chocolate and Colin Firth movies. Perfect.
So where am I going with this, I hear you ask? Well, in a world where psychoanalysts are constantly telling us that a Positive Mental Attitude is paramount to happiness, I begin to believe that the solution to the Valentine's Day Blues is incredibly simple: make yourself look forward to it. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not some sort of feminist tirade and if a cute guy asks you out for a fancy shmancy meal of course you say “yes, please, what time?” But if you happen to be between boyfriends then turn this contentious date into a date with yourself! And it’s not just the singles. Surely there are any number of civilian WAGS whose other halves are doctors/firemen/military who must settle for a brief Valentine Skype chat?
So here comes February 14th and the house is empty. Firstly, light that posh candle which you have never found an excuse to burn and put it in a prominent spot in your home (relaxing ambience, check!) Then treat yourself to your favourite dinner, the one that nobody else understands and so you never have a chance to make it (mine is scrambled egg and chips); then pick up the book you have been meaning to read for months and/or watch a guilty pleasure chick-flick that you really should be way too old/jaded/sober for and indulge. What about that bottle of champagne/prosecco/strange-looking-Caribbean-type liqueur that has been gathering dust under the stairs? Give it a go! I’m a sucker for a bubble bath, so I would definitely need to schedule in one of those. And before you know it it’s midnight and you and your inner Goddess are back in sync while all the other girlfriends of the world are having to stroke their partner’s egos just because they stepped up to the plate on the right day (when reeeeally they should be showering us with flowers and slap-up meals for the other 364 days of the year too.)
As always, these are just guidelines and not just for singles and absentee girlfriends. We all know that the shops and restaurants double their price tags on this one day in mid February, so why not give your boyfriend permission to do Valentine’s Day another night? Or two… All in all, I think it is perhaps too easy to succumb to the negativity which seems to be snow-balling year by year. But in reality, as with most things, Valentine’s Day is in the eye of the beholder. So enjoy!
