(Valentine's Day is the 14th but we have decided having a meal that day is a bad idea. After we found ourselves eating in a typing pool layout next to a drunken couple).

On the day itself we exchanged cards and bath bombs. I'm glad bath bombs have been invented, they make ideal gifts being both decorative and consumable so you can give them repeatedly. I gave Virginia some from Heavenly Bubbles, she gave me some in a splendid plastic transparent mug with a straw.

We had our meal at the Phoenix Chinese restaurant in Histon, opting as we so often do for Set Meal C. The staff were short-handed, two waitresses were off sick, and I felt for them as they had to rush around with a nearly full restaurant. The Phoenix has great oak beams from when it was a pub, and we sat in the corner we often sit in. For me it's an experience as much as it is eating. They kindly gave Virginia one of the roses left over from their Valentine's Day stock.

Say it with flowers

Exchange of cards and bath bombs

Virginia at our corner table

Hot and sour soup and chicken and sweetcorn soup

Hors d'oeuvres

Crispy fried duck

Sizzling prawns and other dishes