We made it through January! Congratulations to all who
have survived tax bills, sobriety and the flu! As the calendar turns into
February we look towards the festivities that it holds – namely St. Valentine’s
Day. Those pesky red envelopes have been
in shops since New Year’s Day; for some it’s a romantic day to break up the
grey monotony of February for others it is hell on earth.
When I was a ‘single lady’ (cue Beyonce strut and hand
flick) I admit to finding Valentine’s Day a toughie, even now as someone’s ‘
missus’ there is still a minefield of expectation to navigate. The validation gained from receiving a red
envelope stems from Primary School. Mine
installed a special post box for under-age romancers (I presume it was the same
one they used for Christmas but the school secretary yanked off the cotton wool
snow!) The popular kids were inundated
with deliveries whilst us portly boffins waited expectantly......
Not much changed as I matured; on both occasions that I was
in Les Miserables in London, I happened to be single. Note to self – dying every
day and wet-wiping fake mud onto oneself mustn’t be attractive girlfriend
material. One Valentine’s Day my pitying and coupled-up dressing room pals
decided to send me an anonymous card at stage door, only to shatter my dreams
of a ‘stage door Johnny’ romancer by admitting it was them before Act One had finished!
The next time I reached an all-time low, even for me. Our
Jean Valjean at the time was overwhelmed with love hearts and gifts from his
own stage-door Johnny admirers, he didn’t need them all and so I accepted a
pity donation of a dozen red roses. I
sat puffed up with pride on the train home, parading around with the pity
bouquet and happy to let other less-loved commuters make up romantic tales of
my life. Pathetic!
There are better ways of dealing with being single on this overhyped
day. There is no point in getting angry
about commercialism exploiting societies need for love. Don’t rant at couples through
the window of your local chain restaurant; they are the ones eating mediocre
steak for £30 a head. It is just a day
and love takes many forms. A mate buying
you a coffee when you’ve been rinsed by HMRC is an act of Valentine’s
love. A grandparent tucking a sneaky
fiver into your fist, despite you being over 30 years old, shows they care. My
nephew dancing about because he is so excited to see me fills me with more
fuzzy feelings than a fifty quid bouquet.
Another act of love is sharing your talents to entertain
others; so use this February 14th wisely whether you are single or attached
and head to The Alleycat on Denmark Street in London to see the wonderful Katie Brennan perform Still Single: Song of the Single Girl. There may be ‘a million
love songs’ according to Mr Gary Barlow but how many songs are there for a
single girl? Where better to spend the evening than in a bar with loads of talented,
positive people who may even have worse dating tales than Carrie Bradshaw?
Check out this link for tickets
and whatever your Facebook relationship status, I wish you a
lovely February 14th full of Valentine’s love, in whichever form
it may take for you.
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