THE LOVE BOAT

Celebrating St Valentine’s with Helen Tidy/s creations

Who said romance is dead? No one on our boat, that’s for sure. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Andy and I have always celebrated Valentine’s Day. In fact, it has often been more celebrated than our wedding anniversary. I put this down to our early long-distance courtship when Andy lived in the wilds of Lincolnshire and I inhabited a corner of south-east London, in the days of snail mail and phone boxes.

That and the fact our wedding anniversary happens in a month packed with other family events and celebrations. So being onboard Wand’ring Bark simply added a variation to my plans.

We have always, at the very least, exchanged cards. Indeed, one year, a few days before Valentine’s, I came across a funny penguin card Andy had bought, as yet unwritten. Unfortunately, it was identical to the card I had bought. Cunningly, I decided to put mine aside for a year, and buy another to present him with. Imagine my surprise then, when come the day, I did not open the expected penguin card? Rather, I opened an entirely different one. Was this a replay of the necklace/CD issue in the film Love Actually? Was the penguin one in the grasp of someone else?

A few tense moments ensued until I realised he was looking at me in the same bewildered way that I was looking at him. “I thought you’d bought me a card with penguins on?” I ventured. “Hold on,” he replied, “I thought you had bought me a card with penguins on?” Turned out, we had both found each other’s cards, both decided to buy replacements, and both put them away for another year! We then had several years playing Valentine’s Chicken, waiting to see who would produce the penguin card before both picking the same year to hand them over. Consequently, it was about time we did something about the whole card exchange and as a result I decided to have a crack at card making.