Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
With Valentine's Day only three days away, I can't help but notice the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the run up to a day that's normally got every person you bump into asking: "What are you doing for Valentine's day?"
Very Few restaurants seem to be doing a special Valentine's meal, no one I know seems to have anything planned and even many of the shops seem to be ignoring the fact that Valentine's day is a way of making large amounts of money on over-priced heart shaped tat - yes even in a recession few men would dare go home empty handed.
With my own Valentine out of the country I have a ready made excuse, but for many out there it just simply seems that romance has left the building so here's a couple of love tales to help rekindle the flames and inspire even the most jaded among us to plan some last minute romance for that special someone:
Love is in the air
Michael Young, from Manchester, England fell in love with a girl he met on a Flybe flight from Belfast to Newcastle. They were sat next to each other and hit it off instantly but at the end of the flight he was too shy to ask for her number.
After parting company, it seems he pined over her so much that he ended up contacting the airline to beg staff to get in touch with her and ask her to call him. So touched were they about his predicament that they agreed and a short while later, Juliet Lever contacted Michael and they agreed to meet up for dinner. A whirlwind romance ensued and they were married soon after.
Juliet, who now lives with Michael in Manchester, said: "Every girl dreams of a fairytale romance and you couldn't get better than this."
Love train
A 21-year-old New York website developer caught sight of the girl of his dreams in Union Square subway station. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a girl in dark blue tights and light blue shorts with a flower in the back of her hair.
They both got on the same train but, just as he was getting up the courage to go over and talk to her, the train stopped at Bowling Green station and she disappeared into the crowd.
He thought about going after her but decided there was a fine line between love and stalking so instead, after much thought, decided to create a new website (nygirlofmydreams.com) that spread virally and declared: 'I saw the girl of my dreams on the subway tonight' and included a drawing of her and himself with a request for everyone who saw it to pass it on. After thousands of leads he managed to whittle it down to a colleague of the girl, an Ausltralian magazine intern called Camille.
They met up and were barraged by media attention which made it difficult for them to find out how they really felt about each other but when the fuss settled down, love blossomed.
