NEWS
I ran over a cat last week.
It was already dead (a 4×4 had beaten me to it by the looks of it) but I still felt bad.
In less tragic news, I’ve been busy contributing pieces to various magazines and blogs as well as remembering to give myself enough time to write my own stuff. Last month I picked up a gig contributing to We Love Dates and became a contributing blogger for the Huffington Post. My rants went down well with the editorial team.
As for this month (this week in fact) I’m about to start a trial as a contributor for Sci-Fi Bloggers. If you’ve ever met me then you probably know I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi fan. I’m also in negotiations to contribute to other things which I’m quietly excited about but I don’t want to say anything in case it all goes tits up. Watch this space.
WEEKLY RANT – Valentine’s Day
For the last few weeks I’ve had several friends asking me if I was going to do anything nice for my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. I said no. A few days before February 14th they continued to ask if I was sure I shouldn’t be planning something romantic for my girlfriend. I said no. The worried expressions started and they asked me if I was sure I was sure? I said yes I was sure and no, I wasn’t planning on doing anything for Valentine’s Day. I got some sympathetic looks and a few people breathing sharply through their teeth at me.
Roses are crap, Violets are worse, I’m not buying any, Now give me back my purse!
I didn’t do anything special for my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day for one simple reason: my girlfriend is special. Valentine’s Day is not.
I hate Valentine’s Day
Actually I loathe Valentine’s Day. It is heinous. It is the purest example of Capitalism at its very worst. I’m not having a pop at Capitalism today. I’m just saying that there are times when Capitalism brings out the very worst in human nature. Valentine’s Day is not romantic. It’s not a wonderful way to tell someone how much you love them. It is not sweet. It is not sensitive. Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to try and make single people feel miserable and couples feel pressurised. How is that a good day?
At least with Christmas and Easter you get a public holiday. Valentine’s Day might be better loved if everyone got a day off. We don’t, but you still get millions of couples buying flowers, and booking tables at expensive restaurants in the hope of showing the person they ‘love’ that they ‘really care about them!’
“Look darling. I bought you a bunch of red roses even though I know you’re allergic and hate them, but it’s Valentine’s Day and I love you.”
“Look honey, I booked us a table at this really pretentious restaurant where the starters consist of two leaves and a twig. They charge £15 per leaf so you know it’s a classy place. Aren’t I the best boyfriend/husband/idiot in the world?”
Why not buy those flowers on any other day of the year? Why not book a nice non-pretentious restaurant where £15 will get you more than a leaf? Why wait for Valentine’s Day?
What I did on Valentine’s Day
I spent the best part of the day catching up with a friend and watching South Park. I then went home and had a curry with my girlfriend and we watched movies together. It was brilliant.
Stupid Cupid
When I was a teenager Valentine’s Day was an embarrassment at school. It was another way for the ‘popular kids’ to show how popular they were by trying to make everyone else feel crap. By the time I turned 16 I realised what all the other clever kids had realised – Valentine’s Day was a croc of shit.
This Year
Nevertheless when my friends kept asking me if ‘I was sure I was sure I shouldn’t do something for my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day?’ I got a little worried. Maybe she did want me to do something? Maybe she did actually want me to make a romantic gesture and buy her a big bouquet or take her out to a fancy posh restaurant where you’re never sure which fork to use for which course? So I checked. I already knew the answer, because we’d already discussed Valentine’s Day at length one evening when we were first going out. But I checked anyway.
Her response was both insightful and practical.
“It’s shit. I’d much rather a boyfriend did something nice for me on any other day because he wanted to. Like you. “
Fuck you Hallmark.
ADVICE
1. If you want to make someone feel special, ignore things like Valentine’s Day and just do something nice for someone because you like them and it’s nice to be nice.
2. If you’re writing – try and write what you want to write, and go from there. I learnt that myself recently.
3. Don’t panic when you run over an animal that’s already dead.
