Love Hurts

So what did you do on Valentine’s Day? Please share your stories – we’d love to know if you were spoiled with chocolates, roses, a romantic dinner or a surprise gift of something you’ve always wanted.

And if you weren’t, join the club! The two days I hate most are New Year’s Eve, when everyone else is always going to the most dazzling party and either I’m going to the one all my smart friends rejected, or I’m sitting at home with a half bottle of champagne and a dogged determination never to drink it on my own again.

And Valentine’s Day is right up there with the disappointments. This year, no flowers, no cards, no dinner invitation. He even had the cheek to tell me he doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day…. That just might be his last mistake. Or it might not. Actually, I did get a note—not a card: nothing to put on my dressing table—from an old flame, saying how sad he was not to be the current one. As he’s now married, that was a bit rich….

But let me tell you some of the awful things that happened to my friends. Let’s call her Susie. Her boyfriend told her he was bringing round a romantic dinner so she stopped of to buy some really sexy lingerie on her way home. She’d heard that oysters were the food of love so she bought a dozen of those and went home early to make sure her flat was spotless, the lights low and the table set with candles and scarlet flowers. Before she went for her scented shower, she thought she’d just try one of the oysters—and didn’t think much of it.

Half an hour later, she was sicker than she could remember. Obviously the shellfish was off and it decimated her. She had to ring and explain that honestly and truly she simply couldn’t see her new man like this… and he didn’t believe her…

My hairdresser told me the story of a client’s husband who had asked if she would come and do his wife’s hair on Valentine Sunday. Thinking of her daughter’s school fees, she agreed. When he collected her from the bus stop he warned her that things were a bit tense at home because his wife thought he’d forgotten Valentine’s Day. When they arrived, she screamed at them both, accusing her husband of bringing his fancy woman to their home on the Day of Love.

So ladies, it’s not just us who have bad hair days!