2_3_DiscoverBenelux_Issue14_January2015_Scan Magazine 1 26/01/2015 19:19 Page 59

Discover Benelux |  Culture |  Columns

Be my valentine TEXT & PHOTO: ANOUK KALMES

Some celebrations are just worldwide phenomena and Valentine’s Day is highly celebrated in Luxembourg as well. What does it mean? Couples are expected to give presents to each other, have a romantic dinner or go on a trip. It takes two to tango, but what if you are dancing solo, without  a  husband,  wife,  boyfriend,  girlfriend, partner, ex?  You probably either love or dread this day. If it’s the latter, I propose three options.  One – don’t do anything and ignore all the hype around 14 February. Just pretend that it does not exist and resign yourself to the fact that you are going to spend the evening by yourself without  candlelight  dinner,  red  roses  or  fireworks. Love  is  for  fools  anyway  and  you  don’t  need anyone and no one needs you. You tell yourself ‘this  too  shall  pass’  and  wait  for  15  February when shops are removing heart-shaped choco-

lates from their shelves and replacing them with Easter eggs.  Two – find a last minute date. Ask your friends if they know a lonely heart out there who might also be looking for someone. Maybe the matchmaking works out and you get to wear that sexy red dress (women) or the silky boxers (men) after all? In my opinion, the quickest way to get ‘lucky’ nowadays is to use Tinder. Just press the like  button  on  every  photo  that  pops  up.  You may  not  necessarily  find  your  dream  date  but you will find one. Guaranteed.

devouring an entire box of Ladurée macarons or Leonidas chocolates that I would have bought for myself as a V Day gift. Don’t expect to be rescued from loneliness by your one and only dream  lover;  think  about  who  you  can  reach out to on such a day. Life and love need to be shared, so do it with people that you care about. Read more about Anouk’s life and travels on her lifestyle blog www.luxessed.com

Three  –  you  propose  to  your  single  friends  to have dinner together. That way, you not only get to spend time with people you like, you also do them a favour by offering an alternative to the two lesser appealing options above.  And that’s what I’ve done. I am going to have a Valentine’s Day dinner with friends instead of sitting at home

Thoughts on perspective TEXT & IMAGE: SILVIA DE VRIES

grocery  store,  to  the neighbourhood café or into the city centre. The latter being a walk that always has an element of  surprise.  No  matter how  ordinary  the  day might have been up to that point.

An ordinary day for me starts with breakfast, which is followed by work. An ordinary day  usually  also  includes  a  walk:  to  the

When  walking  the streets  of  Amsterdam, you encounter many interesting  people,  I've talked  about  that  before,  what  also  meets the  eye  is  the  array  of buildings  –  old  and  new  –  that  line  the canals  and  cobblestone  streets.  Looking up at them will reveal traces of history that

always  leave  me  wondering  who  walked these streets before me. Who were they? What did they do for a living? Where were they  going?  Who  built  all  these  buildings and houses? Who designed the beautiful canal  houses  with  their  decorative  gable tops and why?  Looking up at the sky and the things that are aligned along it can show a whole new world and reveal a lot of interesting questions. When you look at things or people or life from a different angle, a different light may shine upon it. It can make you ponder questions that you never thought of before and  might  make  an  ordinary  day  a  little less ordinary, if only for a few moments. After all, no day can be truly ordinary if you look at things from a different perspective every now and then.

Issue 14 |  February 2015 |  59