I ♥ Me - The Valentine's Edition

I'm very much a Bah Humbug sort of person when it comes to Valentine's Day. Maybe it's the combination of being an old married cynic for too long, or maybe it's the trauma of splitting up with a boyfriend on Valentine's Day when he chose A Question of Sport over a night with me, who knows. Either way, I'm generally to be found muttering about how I hate the commercial nature of it, and how if you need someone to tell you to be romantic, you're on a downward spiral...

(Case in point - Mr B and I popped into the supermarket on Saturday to pick up some bits and pieces. As we walked past the rows of red roses, he asked: "Want me to buy you some flowers?" My retort: "Nah, I would much rather you bought me some spontaneously" To which he replied: "But that was spontaneous! You can't get more spontaneous than that!!" See what the poor man has to put up with?)

Anyway, I am prepared to make an exception to my anti-Valentine's Day stance for the lovely Notes and her I ♥ Me Linky. Let's face it, I was hardly going to turn down this week's challenge was I - namely some fantasy shopping! Notes has challenged us to do:


"Window shopping on the internet. What would you buy yourself for Valentine’s Day. Spend as much as you like, buy what you want."

Well, she didn't have to tell me twice...

I thought I would start with some "traditional" Valentine's gifts, for despite what I may say, you can't go wrong with flowers and champagne:

Not red roses - too clichéd - but something more individual, a little bit different, and from a good florists!

So, as I am warming up to this idea, we'll stick with the tried and tested - a set of diamond studs. The biggest and best diamonds that money can buy, of course! Much as I would love a pair in real life, I do have too much of a habit of losing earrings to ever realistically warrant buying a pair...

Next, bags and shoes - I've mentioned before my obsession with the Mulberry Alexa. I'm afraid until I get this bag all other bags are ruined for me:

Let's throw in a pair of heels for good measure - something fun, something hideously expensive - just love these metallic snakeskin Gucci beauties:

..and finally, as I do like my homewares, and my home could do with some loving too - some beautiful new lighting so I can see my new purchases!

Heal's

See, I'm a simple woman really...

Compatibility Dot Com

Miki, via Flickr

The husband and I were sat watching telly last night when an advert for one of those online dating websites came on. Spurred on by the promises of true love and real compatibility, Mr B looked at me and said;

 "I wonder if we would have come up as compatible if we had joined one of those dating websites?"
"What would you have put as your interests?", I wondered.
He had a think, and replied: "Skiing, Cars, Hockey, Slouching in front of the TV".
"Well, on that last one I guess we would have been ok..." I pondered; "...but I guess it's probably a bit more complicated than that these days. They probably use sophisticated algorithms based on multiple choice questions like whether you like animals...or stuff..."

As you can tell by the conversation, I've never had to use a dating website (ah, the delights of meeting your partner in the days when all it took was a drunken snog in a bar), but it did get me wondering on two counts; firstly, what sort of questions do get asked on dating websites to determine if you are compatible with someone (I was unable to ascertain this without registering on them, which seemed a little excessive even in the interests of research) and secondly, what compatibility is all about anyway.

It's fair to say that I had little or no interest in either skiing or hockey when I first met Mr B. He has since reluctantly dragged me onto the ski slopes (the things you do for love, eh?), and gave up playing hockey a long time ago. To be fair, he probably didn't share my love of women's shoes or yoga either. However, there's more to compatibility than the same hobbies - it's about a shared outlook on life, an ability to make each other laugh, and shared experiences. Physical attraction can never be of any harm either I suppose!

I guess at the end of the day a dating website (or newspaper ad, or any other form of matchmaking) is only a way of bringing people together - what people then do with that is up to them. Maybe it is just the modern equivalent of kissing a few frogs before finding a prince...