“If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular ?”

It seems that my local Sainsbury’s has no sooner cleared away the surplus Christmas and New Year’s goodies and booze, than they have trotted half of it back out again for bloody Valentine’s Day repackaged in pink and red and covered in hearts and chubby infants armed with bows and arrows.

I seem to remember that it was once called Saint Valentine’s Day, but I suppose that the ‘Saint’ got dropped in the same way that Jesus has disappeared under a mountain of chocolate eggs at Easter.

As I recall, it used to be the custom that you sent an anonymous card to the person who you fancied in the hope that they would guess who it was from and respond accordingly. A charming and innocent piece of nonsense that cost almost nothing.

Now it would appear that you have to demonstrate your love with all sorts of expensive gifts, magnums of Champagne, armfuls of flowers, huge boxes of chocolates and even cards with the greeting … ”From our dog to your dog on Valentine’s Day”… (note .. St. Valentine is the patron saint of greeting card manufacturers). 

As with the way we now celebrate Mother’s Day (coming soon) , Halloween and other special occasions in this country, I assume that modern Valentine’s day started life in the USA and like so many unwanted aspects of American life, somehow found it’s way ‘across the pond’, where it has become another festival more about making money than anything else. 

Right! … So that’s my grumpy old git rant for today. I’m now off to give my wife a big kiss, to tell her how much I love her … and to …

…    kick a little cupid up his big fat arse !