Valentines Day.

 Valentines Day. 

Was it Aphrodite or Eros who once said that if you get down to Sainsbury's or Tesco early enough or your local florist, you'll find a beautiful bouquet of roses for Valentines Day? They might have also suggested that you consider buying a purple box of Milk Tray chocolates or something expensive and pretty like a Thornton's selection of the finest chocolates. And just to complete the evening, both Aphrodite and Eros might have recommended an intimate, candle lit restaurant just for two. They'll tell you that you simply can't go wrong with that lovely Italian eaterie in the high street where the food is of the highest standard. 

So what is about Valentines Day that sends a vast majority of men into an apoplectic panic on this day of all days? Every time February 14th dawns, the entire male adult population begin to look as if they've just seen a ghost or that they just won't have enough time to raid their local florists and card shops for a Valentines Day gift. The excuses are so plentiful that you wonder why they bother but they do and never fail in their mission to bring unalloyed joy into homes where gratitude becomes the over-riding emotion. 

 Of course, they've been on their feet all day or just labouring in the office, hoping against hope that their darling girlfriend or wife will be thrilled to receive their loveliest of largesse. Then they discover that they've been doing the same thing for as long as they can remember and have come to the conclusion that men are either incurable romantics or silly sentimental types who have spent far too much money. It is the one day of the year when declarations of eternal love are poured out from men unconditionally and the compliment is reciprocated by women. 

My lovely wife Bev tells me that you shouldn't need one day in the year to express your undying love and affection for your partner whether they be a long term boyfriend or girlfriend you've known since the high school prom. Or maybe it was that memorable moment in the park next to the oak tree where love hearts are carved indelibly on the bark or that face in the crowd at a lively bar where the music seems to drown out your most heartfelt sentiments. 

But never mind because true love will always flourish regardless of the background distractions. Men and women have always known how to go down on knee and propose both marriage, adoration and worship of the ground each other walks on. They will spend every conceivable hour, day and month in their company, just floating on fluffy white clouds of happiness and kissing one another shamelessly in front of anybody who knows them. 

Our parents, it should be said, set the most exemplary template over 50 or 60 years ago when both would sit in discreet corners of Wimpy bars drinking oceans of strawberry milk shake and holding hands over a double cheeseburger and chips. Then mum would slip a precious couple of shillings into the juke box and suddenly Bill Hayley and the Comets or Eddie Cochran would rock around the clock. Then dad, in his cool teddy boy outfit, would sweep mum off her feet and escort her with great chivalry to the local cinema where Humphrey Bogart would whisper sweet nothings into Lauren Bacall's ears. 

And then mum and dad would proceed very properly and excitedly to the village dance hall for a joyous night of jive, perhaps the twist if they were sufficiently athletic and yet more soft drinks. It would be a night of sweet conviviality, the male and female joined inseparably at the hip and just delighted to be in the same room as each other. Now the end of the evening would invariably usher in the ultimate of romantic waltzes or slow ballads. Boy would look into girl's fluttering eyelashes and they would stare at each other longingly and admiringly, smiling, smitten, besotted and wrapped in an embrace that may never be broken. 

They say that love makes the world go around and today that outpouring of true love and endless devotion will find its outlet in emotional bouts of hugging by the lights of the River Thames. Roses will be red and violets will be blue and thousands of both local and national newspapers will once again dedicate columns of messages that range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The centre spread of today's Times will no doubt dedicate itself exclusively to spreading the gospel of love. 

And so we find ourselves back at the souvenir shop where man or woman will be immersed in the act of rummaging through Valentines Day's cards. Racks of cards with saccharine sweet red hearts will be displayed in all their glory and splendour. And then there are the soppy, frothy and frivolous words designed to make us all laugh. Meanwhile, somewhere else in the shop, a group of lovestruck 20 somethings will be giggling openly at bunny rabbits or teddy bears yearning to be bought. 

But there are those cynical enough to believe that Valentines Day is just a cheap exercise in shoddy commercialism, rampant greed and a convenient moment to just turn on the charm. We may look upon the whole exercise with a good deal of scepticism since universal love and peace may be qualities the world has always needed in abundance. Once again we can but hope that both Ukraine and Russia and Israel and her Arab neighbours will find common ground and much needed reconciliation sooner rather than later. 

So come on everybody. It's time to open up that massive bottle of champagne or that mouth watering bottle of red and wine, to once again feast your eyes on the glorious Sleepless in Seattle and watch Tom Hanks searching the length and breadth of the United States of America for the woman of his starry eyed dreams. It's Valentines Day folks so let humanity open up its warmest hearts and just confirm that love is a global language without any barriers or boundaries. May this always be the way for ever.