London calling - My unfunny Valentine
As his first important Valentine's Day gets closer, Joe Fountain gets into a bit of a panic.
One good way to make these dreadful and never-ending winter months seem less so - I find - is to have target "dates" to look forward to. Once Christmas and New Year are done and dusted, there's my birthday (even if it's not always celebrated, it still happens), which I try to follow by a couple of strategically placed exciting events which somehow bring the end of the month just that little bit closer. This year, for example, there was a good friend's birthday party - which was the cause of my worst hangover in years (funny how your body gets used to not drinking after some time, and how it reacts when you do eventually have a drink!!) and the Marc Quinn exhibition at the White Cube, which I loved. Oh, and of course pay day, which is always welcome.
Having spent most of my life as a singleton with no particular interest in romance meant that Valentine's Day was never really a significant day for me. February, even though it is the shortest of all the months, went by uninterrupted - even more so since I moved back here since there are no Carnival or public holidays to break its monotony. This year - I'm just finding out - the pressure is on.
"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" asked the girl who I share an office with, who comes in smelling of roses and has been with her boyfriend since they were teenagers. The question came as a bit of a shock, and my inability to come up with a valid answer was a bit embarrassing. "Ehrm, I got tickets to go see Pina Bausch at Sadlers Wells on the 13th," I explained, trying to wrangle myself out of the moment by going on about how long I've been waiting to see this (it's true, this is the first time since I first heard about her in the 1980s that I've managed to get tickets) and how excited I am about it, but it didn't cut it. Clearly I need to put a bit more effort into it.
Thus, all of this week has been spent wrecking my brain thinking of a way to make this Valentine's Day - the first one in my life that I will actually be spending with a partner (does that sound a bit sad?) - a bit special. So far, all I've been able to come up with is dinner at Les Trois Garcons, which - as I found out when I called to make a booking - is not the most original idea, since it's been fully booked for ages. I've tried a couple more fancy restaurants but all are proving quite difficult. To be completely honest, I'm quite relieved, because I really don't fancy the idea of sitting in a restaurant full of couples!
So it looks like this weekend is going to be spent on the quest for the perfect Valentine's gift, which is going to turn into a nightmare I know. But it will pass, and then it will only be a few days before it's time to pack bags and whiz off to our little holiday on Gozo ... coming to think of it, could Valentine's Day come a bit late this year?
Having spent most of my life as a singleton with no particular interest in romance meant that Valentine's Day was never really a significant day for me. February, even though it is the shortest of all the months, went by uninterrupted - even more so since I moved back here since there are no Carnival or public holidays to break its monotony. This year - I'm just finding out - the pressure is on.
"What are you doing for Valentine's Day?" asked the girl who I share an office with, who comes in smelling of roses and has been with her boyfriend since they were teenagers. The question came as a bit of a shock, and my inability to come up with a valid answer was a bit embarrassing. "Ehrm, I got tickets to go see Pina Bausch at Sadlers Wells on the 13th," I explained, trying to wrangle myself out of the moment by going on about how long I've been waiting to see this (it's true, this is the first time since I first heard about her in the 1980s that I've managed to get tickets) and how excited I am about it, but it didn't cut it. Clearly I need to put a bit more effort into it.
Thus, all of this week has been spent wrecking my brain thinking of a way to make this Valentine's Day - the first one in my life that I will actually be spending with a partner (does that sound a bit sad?) - a bit special. So far, all I've been able to come up with is dinner at Les Trois Garcons, which - as I found out when I called to make a booking - is not the most original idea, since it's been fully booked for ages. I've tried a couple more fancy restaurants but all are proving quite difficult. To be completely honest, I'm quite relieved, because I really don't fancy the idea of sitting in a restaurant full of couples!
So it looks like this weekend is going to be spent on the quest for the perfect Valentine's gift, which is going to turn into a nightmare I know. But it will pass, and then it will only be a few days before it's time to pack bags and whiz off to our little holiday on Gozo ... coming to think of it, could Valentine's Day come a bit late this year?