The Valentines Day choc and flower fest.

The Valentines Day choc and flower fest.

Gentlemen. We all know what today is. Our girlfriends and wives have repeatedly reminded us, poking us in the ribs, nudging us in the back over and over again. The men of the world have woken up today and found that yes, it is indeed Valentines Day, that yearly tribute to romance, passion, intimacy, candles and restaurants. It is a time for men and women around the world to express their innermost feelings, a mutual appreciation of each other over several glasses of wine and smile lingeringly over a Chateau Marks and Spencer.

Since time immemorial, Valentines Day has been with us, a day when boy meets girl, man meets woman and true love blossoms with a thousand rose petals. Here in London we find ourselves paying effusive thanks to Eros in Piccadilly Circus who, for as long as anyone can remember, has represented the true meaning of love and affection. Somehow a year without Valentines Day isn't quite the same and besides we all need to feel wanted. But every year it's the same; the same chocolates and the same flowers. They probably sound like tiresome cliches but hey why not?

Every year thousands and millions of tourists descend on this deeply imposing statue and gaze admiringly at Eros while a hundred flickering images and  colours provide London with its most spectacular backdrop. Yes folks, Eros is the one statue we have to be excessively grateful for on this day of days. How many couples have sat next to Eros and declared an undying devotion to each other in the most public way? They stare into each other's eyes, she looks into your eyes and thinks of Pride and Prejudice and all he can think of is the welfare of Manchester United or the luge in the Winter Olympics.

Seriously though Valentines Day does it to us every year without fail. Every 14th February we fall for the same hype. You rush out of work or perhaps you do it before work. Yes, we'll all converge on the nearest card shop or florists, rummage through hundreds of Valentines Day cards with slushy, marshmallow words and fall hook, line and sinker for those evocative messages that mean that two hearts should be entwined and love is, quite definitely, in the air.

Then the happy couple will sit down in that softly lit restaurant, pick up the menus, giggle light hearteningly, ask a few brief questions about their day and then discuss the meaning of those several hundred romantic novels penned by that quintessential romantic Barbara Cartland before quoting from the book of Keats. This is the perfect setting for holding hands, endless flirtation, teasingly coquettish behaviour and sealing that endless connection, that wonderful chemistry, that common ground, the unbreakable bond, the rich rapport that can never ever be torn asunder.

For Valentines Day is the day we walk along dark, tree-lined avenues, the distant lights of the West End winking and blinking, as a violinist sidles up to you and plays the theme from Love Story or Dr Zhivago. Then,  you tenderly hold hands, look up at the night sky with its necklace of stars and begin to think about those symbolic chocolates, those pretty flowers and last but not least the champagne. Then the couple will stop again, sigh once again and then, depending on how the evening has turned out, will look across the river and once again chuckle affectionately at each other's lovey dovey jokes because this is what today is all about.

Ever since the beginning of time man has sought the approval of women and vice versa. Their eyes have invariably met across a crowded bar, the physical attraction has been obvious and a small flame of love will be sparked in a matter of minutes. But there is something about Valentines Day which has now become slightly inexplicable. Of course true love should always be fundamentally celebrated because we should all know that somebody cares about us. We should always think very fondly of our nearest and dearest but there are unanswered questions. It may be time to get to the heart of the matter.

My lovely wife has always maintained that you shouldn't need one day of the year to acknowledge each other's existence. Maybe we've taken this one too far. In a sense, my wife is absolutely right. Every man should buy flowers and chocolates at any other time of the year. Men should never need any prompting. It should be an instinctive gesture without any nagging or a simple reminder. And yet it's unavoidable.

Every year the West End becomes a veritable floral demonstration, a riot of colour with yellow and red roses, attractively wrapped tulips or chrysanthemums and overwhelming ornateness. But this shouldn't be necessary as my wife has repeatedly pointed out to me. Why is that men have to buy flowers for their loved one on the 14th February when they know they can buy them on any day of the year?

Why do men feel obliged to buy those mouth wateringly expensive boxes of chocolates from Thorntons when quite clearly there is no necessity for such fulsome outpourings of love. She'll tell you that the box of Celebrations from Christmas has yet to be completed and he'll just wince with frustration because he can never get it right. So it is that the happy couple settle down in a candle lit eaterie and whisper sweet nothings.

Then the besotted boy and girl congratulate each other on their impeccable fashion sense, listen to John Paul Young's 'Love is in the Air' for the thousandth time and then engage lips for that passionate kiss. A thousand bells will ring and a tinkling piano from a five star West End hotel will drift delightfully across Piccadilly Circus. Valentines Day will be given another endorsement from both the men and the world and the women of the world. And they'll be serenaded by a Nat King Cole classic, treated to a couple of seductive bars from Minnie Ripperton's 'Loving You' and the evening will end with the warmest of sentiments.

And all the while, the arrow of Eros, will point at the said young couple as hearts beating and emotions at their tenderest, they clasp hands again and tell them that this is that unique moment when nothing can stop them from falling head over heels over the love. But then they'll realise that the late night bus has already gone and they may have to make alternative arrangements for the rest of the night. But then they'll simply laugh at each other in the way they've always done and just be glad that another Valentines Day has given them carte blanche to say that they do love each other for ever more. Oh cue the music. What a day.

In case you've forgotten there are the national newspaper Valentines Day messages, those silly and soppy one liners that have been with us eternally. You may have already scanned the innumerable columns of the Times, the Daily Telegraph or the Mirror for your perennial endearments and those wittily lyrical poems and verses decorated with endless red hearts. It is the way Valentines Day goes about its business and always will. In every message Honey Bunny will love Cuddly Buddy and will Twinkle Toes declare Choccie Rocky as their life time partner. It all sounds ridiculously nonsensical and yet we do this because we always regard love as the permanent union of two like minded souls.

Of course though the Valentines Day card industry will make gleeful capital today and over the years the imaginative plays on words somehow do the trick every year. There are cards which come in a whole variety of sizes and  you mustn't forget those bunny rabbits with red bows, the hundreds of souvenirs, mugs with red hearts emblazoned right across them, T-shirts with more red hearts and everything you could possibly think of that may well relate to Valentines Day.

So there you are folks. Another Valentines Day has almost passed into history and it's time to leave that love lorn couple to flirt brazenly with each other, clink glasses once again over the remnants of a well made plate of pasta and then clasp each other's fingers because that's what it says on the tin today.

Of course love makes the world go around, of course there should be more of it and everybody should try to extend the hand of goodwill whatever the occasion. It may sound like a gross over simplification but love is perhaps the simplest of feelings and some may think of as the ultimate cure, the antidote to all universal problems, a way of reconciling us, of smoothing out the difficulties and disagreements and showing the caring side of humanity. It's probably the right time for a weepy movie so settle down with a giant tub of popcorn and handkerchief by the ready. How we love Valentines Day.