Perhaps it's the cold, it can make people romantic; but I'm thinking: Mmm... wouldn't the world be a better place if we were falling in love all the time?

Remember how much more amiable French President Nicolas Sarkozy was when he was in the throes of falling in love with Carla Bruni? Why, he barely did anything at the office - and I think doing nothing is the best thing an ego-inflated politician can ever do.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if it was led by politicians who were falling in love all the time with other people rather than themselves?

Your man on the topic would be Robert Louis Stevenson (of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde fame). "The simple act of falling in love is as beneficial as it is astonishing", he wrote more than 100 years ago, in a beautiful essay, the title of which I'm borrowing.

This essay is only 12 pages long, but falling in love has never been more charmingly and agelessly described: "Falling in love is one illogical adventure, the one thing of which we are tempted to think as supernatural in our trite and reasonable world". But why so?

Well, falling in love breaks the routine of life like no other thing. First there is the part where you so fancy the pants off someone that all you wish is to "remain in the same world with so precious a fellow creature", as Stevenson puts it. What fun this time is: full of bashful smiles and stolen glances and bringing up all sorts of excuses to share your space.

It is also a time of playfulness. Your normal chatty self becomes tight-lipped with happy shyness. Uttering the simplest sentences becomes a dilemma: when you settle for what you're going to say and open your mouth, out comes a bleat. Or a squeak. Because you've gone so long without talking that your voice forgot what it should sound like.

It can get worse: as you're chatting, you can get a spit bubble. Or the opposite, your lips are so dry that your upper lip gets stuck to your gums. Now that's a tricky one. You can't keep on bantering away like a toothy rabbit. How do you get it unstuck? Use your finger? Twitch your mouth? Best to suddenly throw your pencil on the floor. And do your best not to bang your head as you're coming up.

When you do actually manage a conversation, all your wit flies out of the window, as does all your sense of argument, because facts blur with just one look into the lad's eyes.

But none of this really matters, because if the guy likes you as much as you do, chances are he'll find it all endearing, and similarly, he'll be going through his own fluttering happy agonies. If he doesn't like you, you can prance about in your underwear because, put simply, he won't notice.

This first stage is truly only reserved for the so-called 'slow movers'. How I envy those girls who barge in: those who scan a room, confidently point towards the man in the centre and then proceed to elbow everyone out of their way. These people pass go and move straight into the second stage of falling in love: the early dating days.

This is the time when you are constantly giggling; when all he says is either terribly funny or incredibly clever; when you think his hearty laugh is surely the best sound in the world; when you wish that you could press the world's pause button each time you give each other the 'the look'.

Pink Martini have a song, Sunday Table, which goes: "He looks at her, she looks at him, for a moment there is stillness in the world turning, the world turning... round." What great fun! And you cynics out there: Stop it! Why pooh-pooh the enjoyment of something so dreamy and merry? Isn't it enough that it all ends way too soon?

In Stevenson's words: "The ideal story is that of two people who go into love step for step, with a fluttered consciousness, like a pair of children venturing together into a dark room".

But, of course, that doesn't happen because, lamentably, somewhere along the way, the 'falling' in 'falling in love' comes to an end. Sometimes it grows into a long-term loveable companionship; at other times it is squashed or fizzles out. Till the moment comes when it sparks off again with someone else, or even with the same person.

So ladies, this morning, with a giggle, pin your man to the wall and give him a kiss, you know, just as the Good Lord intended. Gentlemen, please reciprocate with humour and passion. And fall in love again. Enjoy.

krischetcuti@gmail.com