Fergal Sharkey

I'm adopting my annual stance of not celebrating Valentines Day, but thought that I'd share my reasoning.

I buy flowers for my wonderful wifethroughout the year for no reason at all, other than she likes flowers. I make regular cups of tea, dinner, and rarely a day passes without me remembering to tell her I love her. We even had an anniversary where we go out to celebrate our first date, not some generic event the world feels required to participate in. Now we celebrate the anniversary of our wedding in a similar fashion.

Why on earth would I buy into a commercial event specifically designed to part an individual from their shiny coins? There's no place in my corner of the world for elevendy six foot high teddy bears that growl "WUFCHOO" when you punch them in the stomach, nor sickly candy that says "I think you're great, but here ... eat this rubbish and put four pounds on to celebrate our love".

A card with a kitten on the front hugging a comedy oversized heart does not make for a wonderful relationship. Don't celebrate some humdrum day with fifty million other people, dreamt up by a pale-skinned lonely souless wizard in the Hallmark ideas department ... gift wrap it, insert it where the light can't reach and wrap a bow around it. Why not save your hard earned coin, wait until your own anniversary (you remember when that is, right?), buy a decent bottle of wine and cook her dinner instead.