Happy Valentines Year

Hello everyone! 

My friend Polly started a blog (she's such a copycat - get your own thing!) I jest. I'm actually really glad she's joined the hallowed ranks of the bloggers because she lives far far away these days so I like seeing pictures of cakes she's baked and Ben Howard quotes and generally what she's been up to, lovely. Her last blog was about Valentines day and it got me thinking about how I feel about Valentines day being that a) I have a boyfriend but b) we're not all that couple-y and c) I like giving presents but d) I hate consumerism's death grip on us all but e) I don't want my friends to feel lonely and sad. It's a very complicated situation going on upstairs but let's see if we can work this out, shall we?

Also, I'm aware I'm a week late for a V-day blog, and today I should post about pancakes but I'm dairy intolerant so I'm ignoring pancake day. I don't much like them anyway, hang their deeper significance! 


So, Valentines. I don't know about the rest of you but I've never been such a fan. When you're at school you hope to get a secret admirerer (but I was a nerd in high school so that was never gonna happen) and my mum has always given me a valentine anyway so I've never been bothered. But I think I have beef with Valentines day and I shall tell you for why. It seems to cause more arguments than it cures, starts more stress than it soothes, and makes people feel more lonely than loved. 


Think it over, it's one day a year, one day in which you MUST show the person you love that you love them, in the perfect way, or your proverbial balls are in a vice. If you're single it's the one day where everyone has license to rub their love in your face (bingo?) and so you need a date, a card, anything to give evidential proof that you're not alone, which you're not meant to require any other day of the year. It's the pressure of romance and attention, and my biggest beef, if you've not picked up on the repetitions, is that it's only ONE DAY. 


Mine and Jake's anniversary is on febuary 1st, right after my birthday which comes right after Christmas which follows Jake's birthday. By Valentines day, we're done. We've exhausted our original cute ideas, our bank balances are dry, but 2 weeks later we have to do it all over again because the world tells us to. It's one day, seemingly picked at random, and surely we should be sharing the love all through the year. My friend Hannah was telling me yesterday that she's taken to writing lovely quotes on tea bags and posting them to people who love tea and need a pick-me-up. Does she do that because it's Valentines? No. She just cares because she cares.

But I did kinda have the best valentines ever this year and it wasn't because Jake did anything for me specifically, it's because Jake, Polly and I had THIRD WHEEL VALENTINES DAY!!! It was AWESOME. I'd had a really stressful week, and had to go straight from uni to the train station and jump on a 3 hour train home and when I got there, Jake was waiting for me in the car, and he and Polly had spent the day at my house cooking me dinner. They made beer butt chicken (Jamie Oliver Recipe :P) Polly made a tiered cake, we drank wine, wonderful. 


So, in fairness, we did that because it was Valentines day. And I'm not shirking a great excuse to show people you love them, but we should spread the love all year round, not just on one day. And it definitely shouldn't just be a couples thing because, left to our own devices, Jake and I probably wouldn't have ended up doing anything and if we had, there would have been all this pressure and expectation, and instead we had a great night with someone who LOVES valentines, and it was super fun. 


So I hope you enjoyed your day of love, friends, but remember (in a very christmas-carol-esque fashion) to keep the true meaning of valentines day in your hearts, and keep it all the year. Spread the love :)