Being grumpy is a total way of life. Being forced to worship at the altar of commercialism is one way guaranteed to set a grump of into full flow and nothing more is guaranteed to make a grumpy person grumpier than February 14th.

Buy a bunch of flowers on the days following Valentines Day, £5; buy same flowers on Feb 13/14th, £15. It’s not the money that bothers me; it’s the blatant opportunistic robbery.

Me being a normal kinda bloke will, like every other man who fears being the next bloke being reported on in the paper, with links referring to that Bobbit fella, will succumb to this moral blackmail/larceny.

But really, even the grumpiest bloke in the village, me, doesn't need a special day to tell 'The Missus' that she does a great job of ironing my vests, which she has turned grey or even that I am reasonably fond of her, at times. I just don’t like the shops being full of cute fluffy teddies I need to buy to say this, or that I have to buy a rose for £10 so that I don’t live in a world of silence for a week. Hmmm, mind you……

Ah well, soon be Easter.