Jonola14

VALENTINE’S DAY

And so yesterday was Valentine’s Day - the day of romance that seems to have lost its appeal due to over-commercialisation. Nevertheless, three weeks ago I booked something and had to endure endless ‘what are we doing on Valentine’s day’ questions and attempts to trick information out of me.

I grew wise to the mind-games and managed to keep it all a secret, to the irritation and frustration of Debs. Many-a-time I threw in false information to confuse her, asking her if she ate fish was a good one. Her mother was convinced I was taking her to a Spurs match which tickled me. Next year…..

The day started with the presentation of my card - home made. I’d had some free time the previous day so I thought I’d make a big effort and create a card for her. At the top of the page were the words Happy Valentine’s Day and underneath that a photo of Debs and me together. Below the photo were the words “You really don’t know…..”, inviting her to open the card and reveal a soppy line of love. Expecting to read something like “how you make me feel” or “how much I love you”, Debs was a little taken aback when inside it read “…..how lucky you are”!

Anyway, still not divulging the destination of our trip into London, I had an enormous amount of fun putting her off the scent as we got nearer. My favourite example has to be when the train slowed to a halt at the first station, I leapt to my feet and told Debs to get up, then as we walked towards the doors to exit the train, I remarked “oh, it’s not this one” and sat down again. This happened several times and on every occasion I giggled like a schoolgirl.

Eventually we got off the train at Waterloo. I thought by now she would have guessed what we were going to do, but it would seem that she didn’t. Only when we turned the corner to reveal the 135 metre high London Eye did she twig.

We picked up the tickets, fast-tracked to the front of the queue and took our amusingly-named ‘flight’ at 4pm. Although it wasn’t a clear day, we could see a lot of London and it was quite a romantic setting. After convincing Debs that the cameras at the foot of our descent were speed cameras and not for souvenir purposes, we left the London Eye and I suggested we walk by the river a while.

Little did she know that within five minutes we would ‘happen’ to be boarding a Thames cruiser for a champagne trip on the water. Dusk fell and London’s lights illuminated. We drank champagne and listened to our guide tell us the history of London’s river banks and both thoroughly enjoyed it.