Status: Very busy

“Can you come see me now?”

“I’m not free today,” I answered.

“How about this evening?”

“Err.. cannot. I’m not free whole day today.”

“Tomorrow 10am.”

“How about 11?”

“Ok.”

“Can I confirm with you in 2 hrs?”

“No. I’m very busy. Confirm 11. I have a lot of appointments to see other people.”

This was my conversation with a headhunter who called me. He thought he was the only one VERY busy.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I believe it was started to show appreciation for loved ones. But it has changed into something of a competition, business and so un-true love. Is it the Valentine’s Day fault? Nah, it’s the humans.

How we celebrate or disregard Valentine’s Day depends on our relationship status, geography, culture, environment and if you believe in new age stuff - past lives.

The Retreiver Weekly - Valentine’s Day around the world

I think of it as a day to love self. Ideally, everyday = Valentine’s Day.

To an online friend, love self’s anagram is self love. Short cut: SL.

“What is SL?” I was so innocent and blur (only at that moment), I asked him.

“Using your right hand…”

“Huh..?”

…

“Oh.”

When I was in college, most of my best friends were still single and available. In fact, we prided ourselves on being single. Sometimes, we lifted our chin up and smirked to people who wanted to introduce guys to us, “But not available.” Hah. I had been sarcastic from 15 yo till.. a few years back.

We had The Singles Club inofficially because this gang was all single. We promised to play mahjong and cards when we became lou ku po with too much free time on our hands - add that wrinkled hands.

Different chocolate strawberries - singles 1 side, couples the wrong other side

We flaunted our single status then. We were independent, we could do anything we wanted without reporting to boyfriends. We could flirt with any guys we liked. Come Valentine’s Day, we’d spend the night together and had singles party. We stuck our tongues out at coupled friends. We wondered why they stayed in unhappy relationships.

This time, everyone would be spending the night with their own partner. They would celebrate their love, dance, chiding “Singles don’t know what they are missing!”

The President now is in steady relationship with a guy from another race and religion. The accountant is still in on-off relationship with a guy. The err.. wild girl, I forgot her position, is now an extremely soft spoken girl - in front of the boyfriend, of course.

Choc strawberries getting married

They make goo goo eyes at each other over wine, expensive dinner or home cooked food, teddy bears, roses..

Choc strawberries and rose petals - which chocolate would you choose?

Speaking of flowers. Real or plastic? I remember at wild girl’s birthday party, we were undecided between real or plastic flowers.

She exclaimed, “I love tulips!”

“Really?” I asked her. “Tulips are reallly expensive.”

“Yeah… I’m worth it ma.”

So for her birthday, my friend and I found tulips.

“Do you think we should get her real ones?” I asked my friend.

“Err.. real ones ah.. looks nice,” she was as undecided as I was.

“But if we buy real ones, they’ll wilt,” I said. Then I spotted fake tulips! “Fake tulips look nice too! They look like the real ones and they won’t die! It can last forever in her house.”

We were so proud that we found the fake tulips tucked at the obscure corner. There were cute organza butterflies stick too - we got several of these to add to the fake flowers.

We thought she would be impressed with the flowers, arrangement, shiny pieces of paper, the fresh smell (it had tulip fragrance too but then I wouldn’t know if it really was tulip smell), the clear drops of water on the petals, oooh, the cute colourful butterflies.

She flashed her straight teeth and smiled brightly, holding the bouquet of flowers like Miss Universe.

“You like it?! It’s looks so real hor? It’s fake!” I blurted out, couldn’t wait to share the great find.

Her whole face changed. She put the flowers aside on the floor and suddenly brightened up again, “What’s next?!”

I felt bad then. Just because our flowers were fake, it didn’t mean our friendship was fake.

A few months later, as we were walking by a hotel, she suddenly squeezed my arm, “That’s my favourite flower!” She pointed to the white flowers nearby.

“I thought you loved tulip?” I squinted at the flowers.

“Yeah, this one!! This!!!” She practically jumped up and down.

“This is water lily. Not tulip.”

I think our plastic tulip present had been buried in the garbage disposal area not long after that.

As for Valentine’s Day, I’ll head to the cinema and immerse myself with deep movies. I’d have chocolate bath too, pls.

Choc strawberries & deck cards

Love is a gamble. Maybe I’ll sit next to a hunk - a breathing, human being, heterosexual, aged 18-40, healthy and happy guy in the dark cinema. ;)

Now, Happy Love Self Day! XOXO

P.S. The delicious strawberries coated with chocolate pictures are taken from emails fwded to me. If you know the origin/owner, please let me know.