The great thing about meeting up with, we’ll call him, ‘Drake’ was getting a male perspective on things and I was able to give him a woman’s point of view. Also Drake is a few years older than me, so had more stories and more fiascos to tell of. We would inevitably end up howling with laughter at each other’s recent dating stories and it became a bit of a competition.

Before we met up we’d chat on the phone, plan when we were meeting (it was always the same wine bar) and then give each other an indicator of how bad/good the latest gossip was. The scale we used for this wasto work outhow many drinks we would need to get through the story. These were our rather loose guidlines.

Plenty of time passed, as did lots of awful dates, and eventually Drake found someone who he decided he really liked. She liked him and nothing awful or funny had happened. Even though I missed his hilarious stories, I was really pleased for him. Our chatty-teas ended up being more about where his new relationship was going and it was going really well. They were going on romantic weekend breaks and family meals etc, all indicators that this was all going swimmingly for our Drake.

Soooo…you can imagine my surprise when I received a “CODE RED” call from him.

I arrived early so that I could have the wine ready and waiting for the story. It was just days after Valentine’s Day and this didn’t bode well. I’d guessed it wasn’t going to be funny either…he’d sounded glum on the phone. I couldn’t begin to imagine what had rocked their somewhat steady boat.

When Drake confessed the problem to me I was truly gobsmacked.

Gobsmacked at how pathetic he was being and at what a big deal he was making over such a tiny thing and here it is:
His girlfriend had bought him a book for Valentine’s Day – that’s it. I was waiting for him to drop the bomb. “A book”, I repeated waiting for something obvious to occur to me. But there was no bomb. He likes reading and it was by an author that he likes. However, he was not at all happy – in fact he was well and truly miffed.

“Don’t be so vile…lovely thought…I think it’s nice…I would LOVE a book as a Valentine’s gift…” I was saying and then the penny dropped. The girlfriend could have bought him a gold Rolex watch and it wouldn’t have mattered. They weren’t right together and he knew it. They split up not long after this.

The point of the story is that on Valentine’s Day it is truly not about what you receive or what you give. It’snot even about where you are. The only thing that matters is WHO you’re spending it with. If you’re with the wrong person, then everything is wrong.

So, if you are single on Valentine’s Day this year, why not celebrate the fact that you’re not spending it with Mr or Miss Wrong? Get together with your single friends and laugh about dating disasters. Start making plans together to make the most of those lovely long summer evenings that will upon us in a few months. Make a toast to being happy and having good friends.

You might be pleased to know that Drake is now all loved-up in a happy relationship and is even setting up a nest with his perfect little ‘Duck’. I know that Duck could buy him a book this Sunday and he would adore it. Ahhhhhh

I wish there had been online dating back in the day.
We all must have done this at some point, whether it’s for Valentine’s Day or just because we’re so loved up we want to share our musical tastes with our new found lover.
Now there are a couple of ways you can go about this, you can choose the standard classic love songs which everyone knows or you can go for something more obscure. I went for the latter.
Here is my collection which I put on a C60 cassette tape – remember those?

Side 1
This Is Not a Love Song, Pil
Love Is the Answer, Utopia
Laser Love, After the Fire

Flaming Desire, Bill Nelson
Get Your Love, Roger Daltrey
Automatic Lover, Dee D Jackson
A Lover Spurned, Marc Almond

Side Two
Bizarre Love Triangle, New Order
I Believe Love’s A Prima Donna, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel

Love Action (I Believe In), the Human League
I Need a Lover, John Cougar
Love Is Like Oxygen, the Sweet
Misplaced Love, Rupert Hine

Well I don’t think they were too impressed with my choice of songs to say the least and the relationship ended soon after.
Now you’ve seen my songs from many years ago, what are you favorite five love songs? I would be interested to hear what makes your heart skip a beat.

For her 40th birthday in 1972 Richard Burton bought Elizabeth Taylor a large heart-shaped diamond known as the Taj Mahal “I would have liked to buy her the Taj-Mahal,” Burton remarked, “but it would cost too much to transport.”

But for me, the price of romance rarely equates to the value.

When I was a schoolgirl at the Convent in Stockport, one of my classmates finished with her boyfriend on February 13th (that girl had a lot to learn about dating). On Valentine’s Day as we each bragged about the number of Valentine’s cards we’d received and some of us produced one or two that had been, ahem…home produced, we looked out of the window to see fresh graffiti painted all over the Junior School wall where it was impossible for our class to miss.
‘Farewell is a lonely sound’ it read.
It was the singularly most romantic thing my classmates and I had ever seen. The girlfriend rose to Goddess-like standing in our eyes and there wasn’t a single girl in that school that wouldn’t have gladly comforted the ‘ex’.
Alas, the gesture failed to win back the heart of his fair lady and as far as I can remember, the nuns reported him to the police and he was fined.
But, as you can see, it has remained etched indelibly in my memory.

7 or 8 years ago on my way to work, I was putting petrol in the car just around the corner from the office in Middlewich and as I came back from paying, a complete stranger rushed up to me, thrust a bouquet of flowers into my hand and told me they were just because I was beautiful. Clearly this man had seen far too many adverts for cheap perfume or he may have been on drugs, I’m not sure. But suffice to say, you could have tied a piece of string to my wrist as if I was a balloon.
Shortly afterwards, as I saw him scouring the car park, presumably for my car, I had one hand on the phone ready to call the police and report a stalker. How fickle is that?!

But the romantic gesture that will forever hold pole position in my heart was when I told a guy I worked with that I liked Rudyard Kipling’s poem about Gunga Din but that I couldn’t find it anywhere. The following week he gave me a copy of Kipling’s Barrack Room Ballads, then he sat cross-legged on a table in the staff canteen and recited the entire poem to me.
This year is our 20th wedding anniversary.

What’s the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to you?