It's that time of year again, folks. Chocolates, red roses and couples smothering each other with kisses, hugs and "other" things :-)

 I shall spend today alone, but remember my fantastic day yesterday. My best friend, Vicky, and I had a lovely afternoon in the town centre. Her boyfriend could not spend time with her on Sunday, and I'm still as single as a  mad monk :-) so we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day in the South American way, "Dia del Amor y la Amistad" [ A day for love and friendship]

We watched the brand new sugar-sweet cinematic offering from Hollywood : Valentine's Day. Wow! How original! :-D Do they pay millions of dollars to script-writers for thinking of the most unoriginal film titles and storyline? Mmm, what a waste! Anyway, the cinema was full of couples curled up in each other's arms, but there were a few rows at the front full of, well, singletons. Lonely men and women, who did not have anyone to watch the film with, but who, foolishly, or not, wanted to enjoy at least the idea of love, albeit onscreen watching unbelievably good-looking actors and actresses getting loved-up. As with Xmas, this celebration is forced upon us, whether we like it or not, whether it's in our culture, or not [I know that your day of love is May 1st] and there is a lot of pressure to show publically that you love your partner, which means everyone buys cutesy red balloons, various heart-shaped items, etc. 

 After the film, both of us had a warm uplifting feeling. Commercial and cliched, sure, but in today's ever busy world, who makes the time to do something special for their partner, or friend(s)? Even though it was fake and it was only a film, for 2 hrs we could escape from the disappointment of reality, but it did inspire us. 

As we walked back into the city centre, we stopped in a cafe and enjoyed a well-needed hot cup of chocolate and a piece of rich dark chocolate cake. There's no reason to feel miserable and sad if you cannot enjoy Valentine's Day in the same way as everyone else. Celebrate it as a day for friends :-)) You Czechs are lucky that you have the possibility to celebrate on Feb 14th, but also May 1st ;-)) 

What about those people who have secret Valentines? Someone they secretly admire, or love depending how strongly they feel, who has no idea about how they feel. I feel sorry for them, but I understand them, too. Unrequieted love is the most painful kind of love. 

Don't be too sad today. If you cannot tell your secret valentine how you feel, you should still enjoy today and think about them. 

It would be nice to finish this blog entry with some quotation from Shakespeare, or some romantic song, but I want to use my own words.

We only have one life, so if you love someone, find the strength inside your soul to tell them.  Maybe they won't reciprocate those feelings, but at least you won't torture yourself thinking you'd like to tell them, but you could not find a way. Once love is out there, fate will take care of the rest ;-))