Valentine's Day observed (from afar)

It's hard not to notice Saint Valentine's day, when television, newspapers, shops all seem convinced that it lasts for at least a week. However...

The day itself falls this year at the start od school half-term, so samarcand marked the occasion by sending his wife and child off to visit her mother, and invited himself over to dinner last night.

As it happens, in this household the significant date is not the fourteenth, but the thirteenth, which is an anniversary for us (it was Friday 13th, in fact. We have no problem with this...). We could have said, "No, we are planning a romantic dinner à deux, how about [an alternative date]..." But we weren't, we had no plans, and if I was going to make an effort to cook something special, it would be a pleasure to have someone else to share it.

Which is how we found ourselves in M & S yesterday morning, looking through all their carefully composed suggested menus for a romantic dinner for three.

Quite apart from the amusement value of this, we had a very agreeable evening: we don't see samarcand nearly as often as we'd like, and durham_rambler enjoyed the chat and playing records after so much that he stayed awake all evening.