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Valentines Day. Due to the fact that I have just been broken up with, it is with immense effort that I try not to be cynical. It’s just really hard though. Its such a money making scheme. And if it’s not simply a profitable marketing tool, it’s a day for people to try and compete with other couples. It’s a day where friends try and out do each other and where the entire hype around the ludicrous idea actually sucks any real meaning or pure love out of the equation.

Ok, maybe I am being too cynical. Maybe there are couples out there that really celebrate their love for each other. Maybe Valentines Day really does save some marriages on the rocks or bumpy relationships. Maybe florists really do buy their roses at R15 each, in which case would explain why they sell them at R30 to bleeding romantics.

There I go again.

And so because of the media controlled society we live in, I too almost got sucked into the claws of Valentines Day. I actually went through my cell phone to see if I could scrounge up some random guy for dinner and a movie, just so I wouldn’t feel alone and useless. I got to a certain name though and I imagined a night out with him, and it snapped me out of my disillusioned rut. It made me quickly realize that Valentines is just another day, just another Monday...

But of course, it didn’t really make me feel much better. So I have since stopped calling up old friends, and have decided to lose myself in a day of psychedelic fantasies and ridiculously romantic daydreams. I have decided to step into the blissful world of make believe and am going to spend the day with Robbie Williams.

Thanks to my kind and thoughtful brother in the UK, Christmas saw me receiving possibly the best gift known to woman, the Robbie Williams Knebworth DVD. And although in my brain I know the likelihood of me even walking on the same ground he has, is slim to none, in my heart I know that one day we will get married and live a full and beautiful life together. And you know what, I will be the first to admit, it’ll be this absolutely far fetched fantasy that will get me through Valentines day without succumbing to the couch with an old copy of Sleepless in Seattle and a tub of ice cream and a box of tissues.

Call me loony, call me insecure, but I would far rather have a strong, sexy and irresistible man singing me sweet tunes than being alone. I would far rather lose myself in his music than sit across a table to an old boyfriend and make idle chitchat simply so that I slot into the fake image that society has created. And I would far rather cry with Robbie when his emotions implode on the stage than on the shoulder of a friend because I am lonely and single.

And it’s not about losing my mind or being irrational, it’s about allowing someone like Robbie Williams and his music to empower me. It’s about getting through the day and being proud and enlightened to be single and independent at the end of it. It’s about singing “No Regrets” on the top of my lungs and meaning it. It’s about dreaming and hoping, because after all, where would you get if you didn’t do those two things. And if you still think I am making no sense and should be sitting in a straight jacket, then you need to evaluate your Valentines plans.

Are you going out to the fanciest restaurant to impress your girlfriend, or your friends? Do you need to wait an entire year before giving the person you love a bunch of flowers or a card saying that you love them? And are you really spending the evening with the person of your dreams or just with a person for the pure reason of not being alone. Think about that, and then look at my plans again and then they don’t seem so ridiculous. I may be spending a day in a make believe fantasy, but at least I’m doing what I want to do and simply becoming another product and victim of Valentines Day.

So if you are independent and happy of your situation, then do as I do. Laugh at the world and all people in relationships wasting money and energy of such a fake marketing ploy. Avoid the ice cream section at Pick n Pay and if you hire a video, get a comedy, not a romance. And finally, do something with your day that you want to do, whether it’s spending it with Robbie Williams or dancing yourself stupid at a club. Be yourself, love yourself and be happy.

Happy Valentines Day girls.