An antidote to the clichés of Valentine's Day gifts
Valentine's Day will soon be upon us. Shortly, everything will only be available in red, heart-shaped containers, especially chocolates! Why red, why heart-shaped and who’s ever seen a heart shaped that way anyway? I haven’t! Don’t go to the net to try and find an answer to that one by the way, there are too many counter-arguments!
We are supposed to give gifts to the ones we love. The question I have to that one is “why don’t we do that throughout the year?” “Why Valentines Day?” Again, the net doesn’t offer much help there; it’s either, a Christian martyr, a Bishop, a saint – take ya pick! ‘The Romans’, ‘a priest named Valentine’, ‘a Church sanctioned holiday after Christmas’ seems to carry some weight! I still think it’s a sales ploy by the card manufacturers (Bah, humbug!).
Either way, we all know that to forget it and not send that special someone in your life something red and heart-shaped is a serious no-no! A card is the bare minimum, flowers? Flowers are a tricky one. Everyone knows that the price of red roses rockets in between New Year and Valentine's day. The suppliers say it’s something to do with supply and demand. Now, if you do spend £5 a rose for a 24-rose spray (red of course) you can get into trouble for spending too much on flowers! (it’s a hard life being a bloke!), a single red rose, is that stylish, or plain stingy?
We then move on to the meal and champagne approach. To book a meal out or not? What if Valentines Day falls mid-week and you both have to get up the next day for work? So you book a table but do you get a bottle of ‘Bubbly’ to go with it? By the time you add in child-minders and a taxi home because you both had some of the champagne - it gets expensive!
The whole Valentine's Day thing is complicated! What does a woman buy her man? Just how many ties does a man need? Is 20 pairs of “wacky, zany” socks too many? Why do we buy such nonsense for each other anyway? As a bloke if you go for the whole package, ie roses, a meal out with champagne and a taxi home to meet the babysitter by 10pm you talking £200, or more! That’s a lot of dosh! And why should a gift be all out-lay for one, and all enjoyment for the other? It’s complicated isn’t it!
Who’s idea was it to have Valentine's Day in February – it’s snowing for heaven’s sake! Why does any gift worth its salt have to be a shiny red in colour and the shape of what someone decided to call a heart? Can’t gifts be a little more fun than that? Is there a bye-law which says that all gifts must include red roses? NO! Here at Outside Adventure Consultants Ltd we like to think we care about you, our public. The thought of you out there in “Wanting an Event Land” struggling with the whole Valentine's Day thing brings a tear to our eyes. So, with this in mind we have formulated a solution!
Buy each other a gift! A gift which you can both enjoy, at a time which suits you both. At a time when snow isn’t falling, at a time when everything “Valentine's related” hasn’t quadrupled in price, and a gift which doesn’t have to be red and heart shaped!
“What could you mean Andy?” I hear you ask! Get yourselves some Outside Adventure Consultants Ltd Gift vouchers of course! Outside Adventure Consultants gift vouchers can be used against the huge range of activities we lay on, at a selection of stunning locations!
I have a question for you,
“Sir some more ‘wacky, zany socks’ or some vouchers for some off-road driving?”,
“Madam, a red rose, or a photographic safari around some stunning previously inaccessible private land?”
“Sir, a huge bill for a meal and champagne all rushed because you said you’d be back for the baby-sitter, or some clay-pigeon shooting?”
“Madam, a red, heart-shaped box of chocolates (a brand which you don’t like but he doesn’t know that) or some fly fishing, shooting, horse riding, 4x4 driver training...”
You get the idea! If all that couldn’t sway you to a decision, I am prepared to offer you 5 for the price of 4! That’s 5 vouchers for half the price of; “roses, a meal out with champagne and a taxi home to meet the babysitter by 10pm… etc etc”
No more ‘wacky, zany’ socks, please!
