I'm not usually a fan of this overly commercialised excuse for an "occasion". That being said, this year has been a good one so I'm feeling slightly more ingratiated to it!
Firstly, for the first time ever, (this being our fourth 14th February ensemble) the Malteaser and acknowledged the day's existence and tried to be nice to each other. I baked him a chocolate cake and he took me out for a drink at "Café Romantic" last night. We must be getting soft in our old age!
Having gone a bit overboard on the eve (cake and beer being our absolute limit in terms of romanticism), today we had nothing special planned. We giggle to ourselves in French about the teenage couples in the park with their little red "te iubesc mult" bags or their bunches of flowers. We openly mocked the enormous cushions being sold in Carrefour.
Little did we know we were about to get our come-uppance!
Whilst in one of the aisles looking for dusters (yeah I know, romantic!) there's a load tannoy announcement. I realise that the reason it is so loud is because the guy with the microphone is right next to us. Before we have time to react, we've been cornered and the Malteaser is well and truly put on the spot as the whole supermarket is waiting for his answer. Having not understood the question, he does the only thing he can, and replies "Je suis français", accompanied by the customary Gallic shrug. A lesser microphone-brandishing PR pundit would have been dissuaded, but this bloke was keen.
Pushy supermarket announcer: "You speak English?"
Malteaser: "A little"
Pushy supermarket announcer: "Do you want to tell her how much you love her this day?
Malteaser (now a perfect shade of beetroot): "So much!"
Pushy supermarket announcer: "Aaah! Ok, now we take the photo and here are your presents"
Who knew that all I had to do was to resort to public humiliation to get an (begrudging) declaration of love from him?! I'm not sure where the photos are going to end up but the Malteaser and I are not the most photogenic couple in the world so they may already have been destroyed. These are our presents though! 
When we got back to our street, out landlord and his friends were standing outside talking. We stayed talking to them for a while, as they explained the various "career choices" of some people in the street. "His future is in jail!" we were told as a group of guys from further up the street strolled past, curiously brandishing dead fir trees which they deposited on a neighbour's roof. We didn't understand absolutely everything!
Afterwards we were invited in for some fantastic home cooked Romanian food. Sarmale cu mămăligă washed down with țuică and wine. Delicios!
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