What is love?

February 14th. A date which haunts and a date which brings back lots of memories - good, bad and ugly!

Remember the first boy or girl you set eyes on when you were at school? Remember the first letters you wrote to declare your feelings... remember your first time you held hands and felt a sense of excitement coursing through your veins, the first time you went out and spent ages doing your hair and smelling lovely. remember?

The world seems a thousand times more beautiful when you have someone to think about and someone who fancies you... Everything else seems to simply melt away. Life suddenly becomes an adventure and every gesture seems to denote some meaning.

Why do these feelings erode with growing up and having to live life in the real world? I say they never go away when you know where to look...

Recapture those moments. Make a date, get your hair done, put on your favourite dress and ask for... an armful of flowers! Not forgetting the chocolates and champagne.

Have a great night out and stare at the stars, but most of all, don't forget to hold hands.

Long live love!

Love is all around you...

Have you seen the latest remake of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte? The trailer is just so moving and touching that it brought tears to my eyes. The young Jane Eyre and her punishing routines in the orphange and the most captivating friendship of a girl simply send chills down my spine.

I remember my first days at school when there was no one I knew... and suddenly these sympathetic eyes caught my sight and from then I knew she was going to be my friend. The same happened when I went to secondary school, college and university where I was constantly searching for someone to be my friend... It was as if I had to be part of two people and this longing has stayed with me all my life.

I guess we all need friends and we usually find them, naturally and by chance. I am talking about bosom friends who stay with you from the day you meet them, through thick and thin. One does not need many bosom buddies but definitely one who will listen and be there regardless and especially when you are in the wrong!

The Chinese have a saying, 'The true friend brings coal in the coldest of winters'.