Better early than never

This time last year Amy and I postponed Valentine's Day. We were going to have a make-up night later in the month in Christchurch. I made reservations at what I think is one of the best restaurants in town - Rotherhams of Riccarton. Then we were going to play a little blackjack at the casino before going to a few watering spots around town.

Amy flew into Christchurch, where I'd been working for a couple of days, at noon. It was February 22. At 12:51 the earthquake hit and everything normal went out the window.

While Amy and I were not hurt, it was a hell of a day.

This year we decided to do Valentine's Day early. Actually, we didn't really decide. We happened to find ourselves in downtown Wellington, a place I haven't been able to get Amy for a year because of all the tall buildings. So we just thought, "Well, while we're here ..."

We had been at an event with some University of Georgia students. Amy loved it (one of the students asked her if she was a graduate student; one of them had reminded me that she hadn't been born when I was at Georgia).

So we "hit the town." We went to a nice restaurant (not Rotherhams nice) and ordered some surf and turf.

"You know you have to cook that yourself?" the waitress told me.

"What?" I said eloquently.

"It's our thing."

"Well, when I take my wife out for dinner, I like to have someone else cook," I said. "It's our thing."

The waitress looked at us as if we were the dullest old people she'd ever seen. Their stone self-cooking plates were apparently an important part of her life.

"OK, then. I'll see if we have someone who can cook that for you."

When the food came, it was good - though we wanted to tell the waitress we could have done better ourselves.

Then it was time for a bit of a flutter on the poker machines. We won quite a bit of money. (When I told an American female co-worker that Amy'd had 'got lucky on the pokies,' she said 'Eww, too much information.') Well, Amy won quite a bit of money. I only won enough in two dollar coins to weigh my trousers down in a most modern manner.

In the end we had a lovely evening, giggling and people-watching and reminding ourselves why we like each other so much.

There were flowers and cards on Valentine's Day, too. We've decided not to pass up special days anymore. You never know what's around the corner. So Happy Valentine's Day, Amy. Whenever that is.