Day 1.035: My ____ Valentine

Funny? The whole Valentine's Day experience - undiluted by a huge snow storm as it was last year - was quite something. How this became the second biggest card-sending day of the year is clear once you realise that five and six year-olds start by send cards to all their classmates.

Two out of three of my US colleagues who were at work today sneaked out for lunch with their 'honeys' (as someone on the TV keeps saying). OK they didn't sneak. The third is single and unattached. The UK contingent were largely unmoved - one admitted to a dinner-date with his wife and another celebrated buying a hideous reddy-pink coloured sticky-bun in the cafe. As for me, I managed to leave a small gift unnoticed when I left the house this morning. Good enough - and more than was expected of me it would seem.

Icy? It certainly was while we were waiting for the school bus. After a while we gave up and Exile #3 tagged-along with Exile #4 and me for the car-ride to school. The bus arrived 30 minutes late - by then we would have felt like these trees I think.

Bloody? Well maybe not, but how about this for a way of giving your loved-one a pound of chocolate. Something for next year perhaps.