Poor Lil' Charlie Brown

"Love never loved me

Love left me out in the cold

Love never loved me

Love gave up on me after all"

– Geri Halliwell, Love Never Loved Me

It will probably come as no surprise to you that I have never had a Valentine. Not once. When I was younger, I was THAT little boy. You know, the one whose mother was concerned that he wouldn’t get a Valentine? So she would slip one into his suitcase or lunchbox, or even find a way to get it into the mailbox at school. And every year he would come back with the biggest smile on his face. Not because he received a Valentine – but because he didn’t miss a single one of his classmates when sending out his Valentines. Yes, that was me.

Of course all little boys have to grow up at some point. And as they do, they realise that Valentine’s Day isn’t all about sending cards to their friends. No, Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year that just about everybody goes out of their way to show that someone special in their life just how much they care about them. It’s not about receiving a card from a friend – it’s about getting to share a special day with the person you love. The person who loves you too.

Nothing makes me happier than to see people find happiness. Heaven knows we need as many happy couples out there as we can get. But Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year that makes it really hard to be happy for everybody else when you’re still left terminally single.

I sometimes wonder whether Charles Schulz knew that he was actually basing the character of Charlie Brown on me when he started his Peanuts comic strip 60 odd years ago? A lovable loser, possessed of endless determination and hope, but ultimately dominated by his insecurities and a "permanent case of bad luck," and often taken advantage of by his peers. Like ol’ Chuck, I seem to be a shining example of an “un-success story” – failing in almost everything I do.

Come Monday I will no doubt find myself marching up to my mailbox, just like poor lil' Charlie Brown, only to find it completely empty like so many Valentine’s Days before - serving as a reminder yet again that love has never loved me.