Call me what you will...

But I love Valentine's Day. Sorry Kate, sorry Lindsay, but I think Rachel's hit the nail on the head here.
I worked in a restaurant for six years. During this time, every year, Valentine's Day was the busiest day of the year.
It was the one day when we crammed the restaurant full of tables of two in preparation for a massive night.
But do you know what? I didn't mind working on Valentine's Day. I didn't mind the fact that I had to squeeze past the tiny gaps between the tables and run around like a goose because that on night a year was a little different from all the others.

(I can hear the spewing sounds already, but here goes...)

This one night a year, the atmosphere was different because I was surrounded by the filthy, dirty four-letter word - love.

I was surrounded by couples for whom the most important thing in the world at that point in time was the person sitting opposite them.

Sure, there are always going to be upsets and things not going according to plan but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men.

Kate, Lindsay, you can all rail against the consumerism of Valentine's Day as much as you like. But in doing so, and boycotting the day, that's when materialism and consumerism win.

Valentine's Day is a personal thing - those couples who choose to stay at home and watch science-fiction or play RPG-style video games may find that just as romantic as sitting on the 33rd floor of C Restaurant in Perth and gazing out over the city lights.