It’s the age old dilemma.
What to get your true love for Valentine’s Day?
Do you opt for the usual but fairly safe holy trinity of flowers, chocolates, fizz? Or something more practical that you’re sure they would appreciate?
Tales abound of the fateful decisions people have made.
The girl who found a heart shaped potato in December and kept it hidden in the fridge to present to her beloved on February 14 – only to see it turn black within seconds, gooey mush oozing from every pore. Not really the metaphor she was looking for.
Or how about the chap berated at Christmas because he hadn’t picked up on hints from his partner that she really, really liked the aroma of the essential oils on sale in their local earth store. Come New Year when she spoke of how she really, really needed to get into shape he realised this must be another of those hints he usually missed.
On Valentine’s Day she awoke to a beautifully wrapped, though somewhat unromantic, set of dumbbells and six month supply of protein shakes. She promptly let her partner know, in no uncertain terms, that this time she had not been dropping a hint.
As Shakespeare put it, the course of true love never did run smooth
When it comes to a present for your beloved the original Valentine sets a pretty high standard. Sentenced to death and imprisoned in Rome 1800 years ago, he is said to have miraculously given the gift of sight to Julia, his jailer’s blind daughter. On the night before he was executed he left her a note signed “your Valentine”
By Victorian times Valentine’s Day had become an established event in the UK calendar with an estimated 60,000 cards sent in 1835. However, this figure quickly rose with the establishment of the national postal service and within just five years 400,000 cards were being exchanged annually.
Now nearly £2billion a year is spent on Valentines Day in the UK with half the population estimated to send cards and gifts.
Shakespeare, who seems to be an expert on such matters, asserted that music be the food of love but this misses the fact that a few tunes on the lute won’t curb your hunger and it’s hard to be romantic when your tummy is rumbling.
So, this Valentines, why not show how much you care by dimming the lights and preparing a meal for your loved one.
The beauty of the SK range is that there is something to suit all taste buds – whether that’s Chinese food, curried nibbles or a Mediterranean inspired platter and remember, as a wise person once said, the way to the heart is through the stomach.
