Valentine’s Day was yesterday in New Zealand, and I was going to post these then, but I was having a Bad Day so it didn’t get done.
I was having a Bad Day before I even remembered it was Valentine’s Day, but that made it worse of course. I’m quite sure many more people have a Bad Day on 14 February than a good one. I’m equally sure that for many Valentine’s Day is the cause of it.
If you’re lucky enough to be in a good relationship, the existence of Valentine’s Day changes nothing. For the rest of us, it’s not much fun.
The most exciting thing in my day yesterday was a text from my GP telling me my next cervical smear is due. Really? You couldn’t have waited another day to tell me? (To be fair, she’s actually an excellent doctor.)
I think they call them PAP smears in the US. Their sensibilities are too delicate for the word “cervix”.
Public Toilets, Otorohanga, New Zealand
I suppose it’s a bit like they’re too delicate for the word “toilet”. They have to say “bathroom”. They come to New Zealand for a visit and wonder why we look at them strangely when they ask for the bathroom.
Any USians reading this – now you know. That’s what the look is for. We’re not embarrassed you asked, it’s the word you used. It’s a toilet, or whare paku. Whare paku is Māori – literally shit house. No doubt there! Eminently sensible.
I always wondered what USians asked for when they were looking for an actual bathroom? Is there some sort of verbal inflection so they can tell the difference that the rest of us don’t know about?
Anyway, on to the real reason for this post. Readers of Why Evolution is True will have already seen most of these, but there really is an extra, so keep going.
Simon’s Cat: Looking for Love
The first video is a compilation of a few of the adventures of Simon’s Cat. I’ll always remember the moment when **Spoiler Alert** Simon’s Cat’s lady love ate the butterfly.
Simon’s Cat: Dinner Date
‘Dinner Date’ is new this year. This time Simon’s Cat seems to have given up on looking for love himself and is instead interfering in Simon’s preparations for the evening.
Simon’s Cat: Guide to Love
This is another new one, about the love between a cat and its staff. It’s lovely! And it’s in colour!
Perhaps my Valentine’s Day would have gone better if I had a cat. Or two.
Or perhaps I need one of these.
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Thanks Heather. Those “tunes” are delightful. They helped me out while I’m recovering from some nasty infirmities. They always lift the spirits. I hope you feel better soon. And, I like the idea of getting a cat.
Cheers Rick. I hope you likewise are better soon. 🙂
“I always wondered what USians asked for when they were looking for an actual bathroom?”
A difference between NZ and the US is that in NZ toilets are often in a separate room from the bath, whereas in the States, they are almost always together. You may find a separate toilet on a floor that has no bath, but you will almost never find a bath without a toilet. So the same phrase is used whether looking for the toilet or the bath.
You forgot that we also call them “restrooms”.
Ha ha 🙂
We use that one too sometimes. The word I mean. 🙂
“Restroom” is to my mind the ultimate misleading euphemism. The last place I’d go to for a rest is the bog!
I’ve been married to my wife Patti for 15 years and have known her as a partner for 25 years. We have never celebrated/acknowledged V-day as a meaning of celebrating our love. We’ve never exchanged cards, had a fancy dinner, and I’ve never bought flowers. I know some women (I have an ex-girlfriend for proof) that freak out if Valentine’s Day isn’t perfectly executed. We consider all holidays as capitalist institutions designed solely to make money. Because of family, we do celebrate Christmas, but that’s about it. I know this is cynical, but we’ve thought this way since our early 20’s…I wasn’t nearly as cynical back then. I guess we don’t feel questioning ‘holidays’ was/is a cynical view. In the US, the uber-capitalist system wants to make as much money as possible on any and all holidays…whether religious, secular, or familial. It’s pretty ridiculous nowadays. Does NZ start marketing holidays 2 months before the date? It’s standard here…we start gearing up for Christmas merch before Halloween is done (10/31).
Today, I listened to a restaurant mogul, Bobby Flay, say that in his restaurants, Valentine’s Day elicited the most tears. Basically, women who are let down because they were brought to a high-end restaurant for their first time while dating said person, and the question wasn’t asked. It’s a lame excuse for a celebrated day.
It’s a forced holiday…but aren’t they all?
We’ve been marketing Christmas earlier and earlier it seems.
When I was a kid we didn’t do Halloween and VD wasn’t a big thing. It seems the influence of the US is making those into a big thing now, though not as much as the US.
I remember getting a special card from a boyfriend when I was 19, and a rose from the next one at 20 and dinner at 21, but they weren’t big dramas. I can’t remember what I did, if anything. I’ve never expected anything for VD since, though I would have been disappointed if I had. I think the expectation is a wrong attitude, and that sort of thing shouldn’t depend on a date but on the relationship.
Having said that, I like my birthday to be remembered, though I don’t expect expensive gifts or a big production, or anything like that.
Where I come from, VD would be considered a somewhat inappropriate abbreviation for Valentine’s Day 😉
Yeah. It meant something different when I was younger as well. 🙂
Young people seem never to have heard of it and only know the term STD, which to me is an abbreviation for standard.
Did you know that the Pap Smear was named by its inventor, George Papanicolaou, after spending over twenty years studying cervical smears (many of them provided by his long-suffering wife). I learned this from the marvellous book, The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which I’ve just finished. I can strongly recommend it, particularly if you have known someone with cancer (and who hasn’t).
No I didn’t know that. Interesting. I assumed it was an acronym or abbreviation.