My Valentine is gone.

I have just lost my current girlfriend and maybe that's for the best. I feel like I want to talk about her.

I've been going to a number of online dating sites, most of them are asking for a fee usually.

I was recently told that Russia has the most beautiful women on the planet, so I decided to try a Russian Bride dating website called Russianbrides.com and I have to say that they are indeed beautiful.  However, the website in question had a pricing structure that screamed extortion to me. You couldn't even open letters without having to pay money? "What the..." was my first reaction. Nowadays this website in question seems more interested in Ukrainian women then from Russia, not sure how much Russia's influence has on Ukraine, or Slovakia, or the countries of Easter Europe but I digress.

Eventually I went to a website called Russian Cupids.com. One day they gave me a 48 hours free trial. I took it, then sent greetings to multiple women hoping for a quick response and I did. I got a woman called Evelyn Nyarko. She said that she wanted to make it a permanent relationship, like genuine wife and husband. On the first day we definitely felt like we could see eye to eye, we talked a lot about what we enjoyed and what we like to do. Unfortunately on day 2 there came a problem that ultimately strained the relationship to the point where it was probably permanently destroyed on last Friday: Long stroy short, she wanted to come to England to meet me, fair enough, but she insisted I send money to her to "Pay" for her plane ticket. She said that the best way to do so was Western Union Transfer. Ultimately I did send her money, only to come to a conclusion on that night that I just gave money to a fraudster. I managed to get the money back the next morning (thank goodness I suppose). There are some things I think you have to learn from personal experience regardless of how many websites, tv shows etc. tell you about online dating frauds, usually the first thing they tell you is to never hand out money to someone you don't know on a personal level. I don't know about you but less then a week is definatly disconcerting.

Throughout the last 10 or so days before Friday she insisted that she wasn't a fraudster, I wanted to believe her, she gave me pictures of herself (one of which was apparenlty the picture of a porn star called Briana Lee), she spoke to me, her parents then spoke to me, she skyped me and showed me her face, however I simply didn't send her anything, even my parents did not want me to do so and neither did my sister suggesting that if she loved me she should pay for it herself. Also my parents believed that even if she did buy a plane ticket to England and flew here she would be sent back immediately because she didn't have a Visa, something that takes 3 weeks at the least to complete, and costs £85+. Interestingly, she insisted that through her embassy in Ghana, Africa she could get her immigration issues sorted in 3 days, something I couldn't find any ring of truth in. Ultimately she declared our relationship over on Friday. I have cried about this and I'm ready to try again. Finding a woman that will fulfill me will no doubt be hard.

Evelyn wasn't the first woman I talked to that got me in serious trouble. There was another called Meg Smith (or at least that was her profile name). Throughout my text conversations with her, all she talked about was sex. Whenever I started a conversation with her she would often ask if I have an erection. She eventually got me in trouble with my Mother's swimwear (I'll spare the details). She then claimed to be truly sorry for it, but later on she wanted me to seduce some of my female co-workers in my workplace. Eventually I was told to block her once and for all, and I never heard from her again.

If there is one thing I'm finding frustratingly hard in my opinion is the issue of accents. I hope I don't sound racist for this, I don't think there is anything wrong with an accent, but I worry about it being strong and thick and I just can't understand what they are saying even if they have perfect English. There was a comedy film I once watched called Hot Fuzz, in one scene the protaganist Nicolas Angel and his partner Danny Butterworth bring with them a fellow officer to go to a farm to sort out a quarrel with a farmer who has such a thick accent that Angel needed to speak to both to understand what the farmer said even though he was speaking English. I feel like that's my problem with accented individuals that use words in a way that seem different to what I'm used to hearing or have an accent that I find hard to hear correctly.

Its Valentines Day Today

Today is Valentine's Day

The origins of Valantine's Day date prior to Jesus' Birth with the Pagan ritual known as Lupercalia which replaced a ritual called Februa which is where we get the Month February from. Lupercalia  seems to be in honor of the Pagan God Lupercus, the God of Shepards. The ritual seems to be made in honor of Lupa the she wolf who found Romulus and Remus who were left at the Tiber River in Italy and raised them until the Shephard Faustulus found them and raised them in place of Lupa.

The ritual goes like this: between 13-15th February the Pagans would sacrifice two male goats and a dog. They would then annoint two patrician Luperci with the blood of the animals and these two were expected to smile and laugh. Afterwards women would cue to be whipped by these two who would dress themselves with the skins of the goats they sacrificed, with the hope that this would boast their fertility and help with their child birth pains.

In 5th Century AD The Roman Catholic Church decided to create Valentine's Day to Christianise the Pagan celebration. There was more then one Saint Valentine, one of them was known to make underground marriages which was outlawed by Emperor Claudia II outlawed marriages to soldiers believing that Single soldiers would perform better in war then married ones.

It was Valentine's Day that saved the card industry and helps restaurents boost business. Needless to say this celebration has been heavily commercialised. Since today was Sunday the holiday was recognised and celebrated in my Church.

Of course because of the Pagan roots of Valentine's Day I'm obviously worried about getting involved with this holiday.

Have I got a valentine? I kind off do. There are multiple problems with her that I plan to discuss another time.