So, Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and ‘love is in the air’ (singing optional).

If you don’t have a date for Valentine’s Day, let me help you: it’s February the 14th.

Seriously though, why not search for a date online? You might meet Peg. It gets worse.

There’s an old joke about a young bride who asks her husband on their wedding night: “Will you still love me when I’m old and grey and fat and wrinkled and half blind and deaf?”

He replies: “Love you?! I’ll even write to you!”

Naturally, love when one is young and inexperienced is different from how it is after a few years of marriage, when she might ask what kind of jacket you would like for your birthday and you choose a bullet-proof one.

And she fantasises about you doing the dishes.

I have a friend who complains that his wife is always borrowing his T-shirts…“but she gets upset when I ask to wear one of her dresses.”

“My wife said I ruined her birthday. I have no idea how I could have done that – I didn’t even know it was her birthday.”

The point of this silliness is: it’s humour that oils the machinery of relationships. It always deepens connections between people, and it is a vital element in lasting love.

Show me a home without laughter, and I’ll show you a loveless relationship.

Ancient Greek philosophers identified many types or, more properly, many expressions of love.

This ranged from passion, to friendship and affection, to family or group love, and extended all the way to self-love, patriotism and even obsession.

One of the ‘love types’ was ludus, which is a playful, light-hearted, teasing kind of love.

As long as you laugh with each other, and not at each other.

It’s a complex emotion, but here’s some free advice for single women looking for a soulmate: marry an archaeologist – the older you get, the more interesting he will find you.

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