Today’s post comes to you about the recent February 14th shenanigans which everyone of course with their loved or hated ones, depending on the situation, embarked on a magical time of eating, drinking and whatever else the imagination would take them.

Probably sex, let’s be fair.

In recent years, the tired old tradition seems to have taken on something of a new lease of life as illustrated rather remarkably while wandering around Hammersmith the night before.

Though rather than the traditional queue of men who clearly forgot this wonderful excuse for the card and florist companies to make large amounts of cash as a result of aforementioned men trying to avoid an argument, both men and women this time were looking for the usual gifts of overpriced roses, a card with twelve different ways to say love and chocolates filled with left over creme egg remains that Kraft just couldn’t get rid of any other way.

Just think of the other amounts of messing around you are meant to do, and you are left wondering why this shift in the terrible trend has surfaced, and even now a few days after it’s all over with for another year is somewhat of a mystery.

At the moment, perhaps it’s hard to understand as it’s well known that I’ve never been one for indulging too much into this whole tragic affair, something which has been remarked on Ooh Sometimes a number of times. This may have been given that in recent years, the most that would happen, if that instead of running around panicking that the right gift to reflect my feelings for someone who captured my heart, a trip to the supermarket was had where I would plan a magical night for myself.

Generally I would purchase some jelly, some ready meals of questionable taste (which as we all know is the cornerstone of a balanced diet), and some bananas for my bizarre habit of eating breakfast, to perform the now tried and tested ritual of eating while trying to walk to work with a smartphone buried into the other hand.

But nevertheless it was hard to not escape the fact that there seemed to be far more effort being put into the occasion. Moving on, I am not worried that I don’t have flowers and all that. Why would I bother?

Buy this to prove you love them one day maybe! Buy now!

I suppose to an extent, it’s also the additional social pressure.

The pressure is there to show that you do in fact care about the one you do various things which are hidden with a CENSORED black message box because it’s not family viewing. It even starts with a fair harmless activity of having Interflora send something to your partner’s workplace where they can feel slightly better about their day, but this in turn creates a feeling of jealousy among others who in turn, wonder why they haven’t had the same treatment.

When passing in office conversation, you often will encounter the chat between colleagues remarking on where they are taking their naughty scamps for the blasted event. “Oh yes, I’m taking her to meet the Queen, and afterwards going around London hunting for swan.” Typically of course the most romantic gesture appears to be grabbing the other’s passport and taking them to the airport to fly off somewhere unexpected, where new magical memories are made.

Who actually cares, but also how are you actually paying for this? Since 2008 at the height of the economic crash, disposable income has been decreasing, and the credit card bills remain high with the Money Charity reporting that the total outstanding personal debt stood at £1.432 trillion at the end of November 2013. So….wouldn’t this also be something to cut back on, as that cash has to be paid back at some point?

Though, actually that whole debate can extend into what society expects of you, that you are meant to find someone, do naughty and pop out a billion babies in time for tea, which then the cycle then repeats itself over and over with events like this being a shining beacon of “This is what you are meant to do.”

That’s why the single people resent it so much, they aren’t fitting into the norm and feel low as a result. In fact, society is built a lot of the time on couples in any case, and much like the Christmas commitment, where you are to ensure that you run around spending cash to please others, this is yet another horrible tradition in the same vein, but a hell of a lot worse, as you don’t even get the day off to celebrate.

However, the central idea about Valentine’s day is basically a time to reflect on the one in your life that makes a difference, and spend some quality time with them and maybe that should really be what it’s all about.

That no matter what you’re doing, if you’re spending the time with the person or people you care about, then who should care if you’re not skydiving onto a moving car before being showed with diamonds? It doesn’t even have to be a lover, maybe just some friends or family who were there in the bad times as well as the good? Granted you would still say, why not show them every day how you care and so would it have to only be on that day, February 14th?

And you would be right.

Anyone who knows you, I suspect that they truly would know you care and love them via your actions otherwise and therefore they wouldn’t care about this silly cash-in of a day anyway. If they did and the expectation was always present that you had to do something regardless, where would the joy be? Where would the fun be?