I hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day however you spent it. I have spent many of them as a single man over the years making me quite an inexperienced boyfriend when it comes to this event. However I did manage to get a card and flowers delivered, so maybe I am a tiny bit smoother than I give myself credit for. Sadly I did not manage to see Lynda on the day itself but I did have something up my sleeve to mark the occasion the night after that I will tell you about a bit later.

Personally I have always really viewed Valentines’ just as a chance to appreciate the people around you and in your life. Mind you that like telling your other half that they are special should of course happen all the time really not just on one day a year, although in many ways that would be a lot easier. I think my point is while it is marketed as a couple’s thing everyone can still share in the love and appreciate the feel good factor of it.

That said I was looking at some of the things that I have done on previous Valentine Day’s they include going to watch Spurs, taking the Neighbours tour in Melbourne, doing a final radio show at a station that I was at for five years and going to see The Only Fools and Horses musical alone. Therefore looking back it seems like I have always spent the day with someone incredibly special to me, myself. Which I think if you recall the song is exactly what George Benson and Whitney Houston suggested is the greatest love of all!

Since I was diagnosed as Coeliac and then put on a Gluten Free diet around a year ago now, Lynda has been brilliant at not only cooking me amazing meals that fit my dietary requirements but finding some restaurants that are totally Gluten Free. When we go to these places it means that I do not have to ask a million questions and I can order everything on the menu. Plus I do not have to be concerned about cross contamination. She found a new one called Niche just down the road from Angel Tube Station that we visited a couple of weeks ago.

One of the reasons we went to eat there was that we were already in London for something else, which I will explain shortly. Anyway we had booked at table for five when it opened. The Staff were nice and friendly, they happily sat us at our table when we arrived a tiny bit early. The set-up of the place is great, it has a lovely feel to it and they have these plastic dividers between the tables that give the illusion of a bit more privacy when you are eating.

The menu was excellent with lots of different options many of which were things rarely available to me in a lot of restaurants. They were very quick to sort out some drinks and take our order. For starters I had the mushroom rarebit dish with cheese, garlic and caramelised onions while Lynda had their version of southern fried chicken. Both were excellent but for an opener they were generous portions so we were pretty full before we even had our mains.

It sounds quite surprising but very few food places offer gluten free burgers therefore I had not had one for ages so as soon as I saw it on this menu I knew I just had to have it. It was amazing and came with some good fries with all the trimmings and a side of onion rings. The other thing I really liked about the place was the soundtrack, it was mostly eighties music and it was making my already lovely food even more enjoyable. We will definitely being going back there again at some point I need to work my way through the rest of the menu.

The reason that we were in London that evening, was because we were both going to see Tottenham play Brighton in the F.A. Cup. Due to the fact the game was on television the kick off was at the unusual time of 8pm on a Saturday night, as that really ate into the middle of the weekend. A couple of weeks before I said to Lynda that if I could get the seat next to my normal season ticket seat, would she like to come to the game with me? She said yes, I am not totally sure if that was because she thought I probably would not be able to get the ticket I needed to or not but I did so she accepted the offer.

Just before we set off for the game my contact at the club who I got the second seat from emailed me to offer us a free upgrade to the Premium Seating area. As that included two of my favourite words free and upgrade I accepted. After our meal at Niche we headed for the underground and made our way to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It is a journey I have done countless times but it was nice to have someone new to do it with as we approached the ground from the High Road.

We got inside, found the bar area and roughly where our seats were then had a glass of wine each before kick off. The seats were on level three and padded which is a slight step up from where I normally sit. Lynda is not a football fan at all and would never really watch it on the TV but she did thankfully and happily enjoy watching the game live. We actually played the best we had played for a while before or since as we went on to win the game quite convincingly progressing through to the next round.

Since that game we have lost our last two home games. I am now starting to think that she might be a lucky mascot and I might need to take her with me to every game. That might take quite a bit of negotiating though. After the match we went back into the bar and had another drink before getting the train home. It was a fun night and I always enjoy showing new people the stadium plus any trip there is always better when we win and play well.

I mentioned Lynda and I did not see each other on Valentine’s Day part of the reason for that was that I had organised a surprise for her the night after. Before Lockdown one I had tickets to go and see the as it was then fairly new musical Hamilton. That performance was of course lost to Covid so I got my money back and hoped that I would get the chance to see it one day. The other thing I did not say about that booking was it was to see it from a box. I have always wanted to see a show from there.

Anyway at the end of last year the opportunity this time to get hold of two tickets for the royal box at Hamilton came up and I managed to secure them for the 15th February. I did not tell Lynda where we were going or what we were doing. I knew it was a musical that she also wanted to watch. I made her meet me somewhere in London and then took her to the theatre. Obviously when we got to the theatre she realised what we were seeing but I still had one more surprise up my sleeve, our seats!

We went in and collected our pre ordered drinks. I then led her to our seats after having to ask how to get there, her face was a picture she was surprised but delighted. I think if you are going to be in any box at a theatre you have to make it the Royal Box. The show itself was brilliant. I can see why it has won so many awards and why when it opened in London it was so hard to get tickets for it. We had a brilliant night and I was really pleased that I actually managed to keep it a secret for the three months since I had booked it. I will be honest I had nearly given it away accidentally several times.

Last weekend we stayed in and Lynda managed to convince me to watch a film mainly due to the fact it was sport related and had Will Smith in it. We saw King Richard which is the story of how Venus and Serena Williams became tennis superstars. Before they were even born their Dad who the film is really about had written a 78 page plan to create the two greatest female tennis players of all time. He of course somehow managed to achieve his goal.

It is a decent film and kept my attention throughout which is not as easy as it sounds. It has a bit of everything humour, drama and a few slight twists. It focuses on their early years and finishes at the point where Venus the oldest sister makes her big debut on the circuit. It features some great performances and some great retro clothing. Would you believe to tie it in with the start of this update Richard Williams’ birthday is on the 14th February, it was a good film and I am actually glad I watched it!

I did as I always try to watch the Brits the other week. It was not as rock and roll as it used to be, part of that I think is due to the size of the arena it is now held in. The O2 is so big and so difficult to get to and from it makes getting too drunk and out of hand too difficult. I thought Mo Gilligan did a great job hosting what is a very tough gig. The two best live performances in my opinion were Adele and Ed Sheeran. They both rightly got awards. The only other thing really of note was the lovely Ann-Marie doing a Madonna and falling over on the stairs.

I am off to York next weekend, I have been twice before and I always enjoy it there, I will tell you what it was like and what I got up to next time we speak.

A quick reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.