A sweet breakfast treat via Crosstown Doughnuts from the lovely Christina McMc for Galentine’s Day!

I’ve never celebrated Valentine’s Day, and it’s never been a ‘special’ or ‘significant’ day in my diary. When I was single I never felt bitter about it, when I was younger and in relationships I often made plans with girlfriends instead, and even now that I’m in a long-term committed relationship it’s still not a day I make a big deal of. (Though last year Jeff and I went out for cocktails and I drank a few too many martinis – I can still feel the hangover a year on. Ouch!)

All in all, I’ve always felt pretty ambivalent on the subject of Valentine’s Day. (Though yesterday my colleague Christina showed up with Galentine’s treats for breakfast, pictured above, and I had significantly positive feelings about that!) And yet, here I am writing my thoughts about Valentine’s Day for you, because this is the first year I’ve kind of sort of celebrated properly… 

Neither Jeff nor I are overly romantic, so we decided to treat today as ‘just a lovely Saturday’.

First we headed over to Broadway Market in East London for a late lunch of street food (sausages and free range hog roast – yum!), followed by gin & tonic infused chocolate truffles and hot drinks (soya latte for me, hot ginger beer for him) all while standing up in a lightly misting rain outside of a shop undergoing a refurb. Once we were filled up we walked ’round the rest of the stalls, I bought myself a bouquet of tulips to put in the vase we bought after our wedding, and then we sampled marshmallows in a key lime pie flavour and almond-coconut spread. (Both of which were so tasty we bought some to bring home!)

On the way back home we stopped by Waitrose for a ready meal treat and saw they had a Valentine’s Day special of bubbly, starter, main, side, dessert and chocolates for £20. Of course we opted for it, and here I am blogging during our fruit dessert while watching Take Me Out on ITV +1. (Starters and mains happened during repeats of Big Bang Theory, which you probably would have guessed if you follow me over on Twitter.)

So, at the end of it, today really was a lovely Saturday – that could have happened on any Saturday and it still would have been lovely. In fact, I think we should do this again next week, but maybe with a different market and fingers crossed for sunshine!

Have my thoughts about Valentine’s Day changed? Not in the slightest, though I do appreciate that it’s encouraged Jeff and me to break our usual Saturday routine of sleeping in, doing laundry, heading to yoga for me/gym for him and then pints with friends. It was nice to put the effort in and have a simple day out together.

Now, time to open another bottle and see who’s going on a date to the Isle of Fernando’s…