Valentines

Well m'dears, I've survived Valentine's day without committing a postal massacre, which must be an achievement of sorts. I really hate that day, mainly because I realise how many poor sowls suffer. Philip's researched the festival from a 2020 viewpoint. My best valentine was received at age 11 (probably from a girl), and the worst a hideous pink padded, padlocked monstrosity at 16. I think that's when I foreswore such idiotic rituals, and these days nothin' is probably better that sumfin'. Valentine is a stupid Hallmark celebration for generating income, and if you're loved you receive in non-material terms throughout the year, and not just symbolically on one day.

R kindly invited me for dinner and a movie last night, but I called off. Job-hunting leaves me quite flat, so I wouldn't have been any fun anyway even though we might've distracted each other from valentine ague. We would've gone to see Grizzly Man and joked conspiratorally at how dumb and extreme men can be. Though I don't deserve it, she's kindly taking me to see Goldfrapp perform tomorrow night.

My half-term cinematic activities have been somewhat stymied by changes in plans, with their Dad now taking them for 2 of the 6 days and me wrestling with a fulltime job in claiming due state benefits for unemployment. I'll spare the details, since they're not pretty. So no Walk the Line yet therefore. Plus sonny boy (age 13 going on 3) thinks he's too old to go to movies with the likes of me, now that he can get into '15' ratings with his zombie posse of lurking, monosyllabic, behoodied pals.

Meanwhile, for my and Sau's benefit, I bought the last Cat Power, sounding remarkably like the previous ones, dandy but contemplative. But I also bought for Dodo and Nini (who adore him) Pete Burns's "You Spin Me Round". When it rises from no 5 to no 1 in the pop charts next week, I can be held personally responsible. I'm delighted to make a personal contribution to his cosmetic surgery costs, as long as he agrees to leave his tongue (the most beautiful part of him) alone.