So, as everyone adjusts to having some money in their bank account now that it’s payday, the next money making scheme for marketeers is ‘Valentine’s Day’ the day when we’re all allowed to indulge in our romantic/sexual fantasies – depending on your gender your view on the whole sex is romance argument dictates which one you’re allowed to indulge in.

So, does anyone really remember what St Valentine’s Day is all about or are we all just cynics who refer to it as ‘just another Hallmark day’? A lot of ‘Brits’ smugly proclaim that Hallmark and Americans are to blame for the crass commercialisation of Valentine’s Day but the British were exchanging Valentine notes back in the 1600′s but it didn’t catch on in the USA until the early 1700′s, but I guess they made up for those 100 years pretty quick! You’ll learn more interesting nuggets of information like that over on History.com’s mini-site The History of St Valentine’s Day

So, what will you be doing this year on 14 February? My friend, Amy, is flying back home to Australia for her friend’s wedding, I hope she gets to sit next to a hunk because that’s a long way to go sitting next to Quasimodo on the ‘most romantic day of the year’ *cough cough*

This year I thought I’d pretend to be at one with the smug couple bastards that seem to take pride on flaunting their coupledom on the 14 February every year by getting some of the best dishes created by imaginative chefs but it also happens to be the one damn day of the year when no restaurant will give a booking for a table for one!! Not when there is the old cash cow of St Valentine to be milked by ensuring you’ll sell 2 of everything on the menu… I would need a serious attack of the munchies to attempt that!

Anyway, I am putting out to tender bids to accompany me on Wednesday 14 February 2007 to the Mango Room in Camden, a Caribbean Restaurant. Funnily enough I was going to go there with Amy back in December but we never caught up in the end click here for the Valentine’s Day menu

No romance required, you don’t even have to be single, just as long as you’re free on that evening and feel like spending it with a stranger like me (well, not like me, the real me!) The cost of the evening’s food and drinks will be split 50-50 but please don’t nominate yourself if you only intend having one drink and no dessert because you’re on a diet

If you’re interested, email me with a few words about yourself and your phone number so I can call you, if you’re not prepared to talk on the phone, what chance do we have over a dinner table?

OK, let madness reign!!

If you are one of those readers who have visited mr omneo at his home or perhaps have managed to obtain one of his limited edition (there are only 5 in existence!) calendars, then you will be familiar with the work of London based artist William Willett.

If the name seems unfamiliar now, once you’ve seen his work it will hopefully stay lodged somewhere in your memory cells until you decide you want to buy an original piece of art and then you’ll know instinctively to visit www.willett-art.co.uk

The site is in design mode at the moment and will be launching soon, so why not bookmark it now and be ready for the launch.

So, we’re 9 days into 2007 and still I hear people say, “Happy new year!” it’s no longer new, so shut the fuck up, it’s clearly a breach of the trade descriptions act, it’s 9 days old and has been used by several billion people…that’s not new in my book!

So, anyway, 2 weeks in and how is Mr Omneo doing? Well, actually, not as bad as might be expected. I got my arse in gear and re-joined the gym even allowed Tamara, the rather cute South African who works there, to sign me up to have a fitness plan drawn up. This involved 2 sessions with Chris, the trainer who made working out make sense, as he not only explained how the weights affected the various muscles I also got a quick verbal dummies guide to how the body works. I discovered that Chris studied politics at university… smart guy putting that student gym to good use

So anyway, back to the gym, now i have a proper plan to work to, that should help motivate me! Next week I’m popping up to Scotland to visit my Gran and then in February off to Brno for a few days.

I had a thought today, “Where is Mr Omneo going?” I pondered, “Actually, who is he?” at this point my head hurt so i had a smoke and pondered some more and came up with this. Mr Omneo is a unique, fictional being based on the writers past, present and possible future. Mr Omneo is a mixture of the here and now with a healthy dose of who the writers wants to be. Not some new wave mumbo jumbo, or perhaps it is, but this is Mr Omneo’s theory… if he lives the life of who he aspires to be then that persona will rub off into the writers real life… ahhh fuckit, lets see what happens!

I don’t know if I have a ‘lucky’ number as such, to get around the issue I adopted 17 as my lucky number after I put £10 on number 17 at the roulette table and got about £300 back…wasn’t that lucky as I then proceeded to lose it all back to the house but I had fun and that’s what counts!

Anyway, what is all this about? I decided that the first 17 people who sign up to Mr Omneo’s Selfless Mind Forum will get a free lifetime upgrade to the member with Benefits package. Why not start the new year in a new forum with some new people?

Did I mention that Members with Benefits also become members of the forums blogging community and can create a blog for everyone on the web to see and just as easily you can turn your thoughts private, allowing you to get it all out but still keeping it to yourself.

The other day I was thinking about something, don’t ask me what as I forgot promptly after I thought about whatever it was I can’t remember thinking about… anyway, one of the things I do remember was having an imaginary conversation with my son and explaining to him that he shouldn’t make the same mistake that I made and grow up to be for too insecure; to the extent that it’s only when I hit my thirties that I started to unravel what makes me me and the truth is, if you don’t jump on for the ride you get left out of a lot of good times, a lot of shit times too but either way you have two choices… do it and possibly enjoy yourself or don’t do it and definitely don’t enjoy it… There is always gonna be shit around, it’s the depth you have to worry about

It makes you wonder why so many people have trouble choosing tho, I speak from experience. Today i was thinking it was more like, no matter how you look at it, the glass may either be half full or half empty. It’s seldom referred to as full or empty always half full or half empty… truth of the matter is that regardless of how we see it, when it’s empty…it’s empty! So just eke out as much fun as possible between now and then…

Anyway, in my imaginary conversation my son was about 4 months old and far too busy sucking on the rubber teat of the bottle containing milk that I was holding to be paying any attention to my ramblings :p

Just now however, I was sitting in the kitchen having lunch when a song came on, Melt your heart by Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins. There was a line near the end,

“When you’re sleeping with someone who doesn’t get you, You’re gonna hate yourself in the morning.”

It was strange hearing it being spoken out loud, it was like someone revealing the answer to a long pondered question, so obvious yet so impossible to figure out. Suddenly I could describe exactly what was in my head…Jenny had taken my thoughts and put them into words! then I realised of course that I am not alone, that was the nicest feeling of all.

Here’s the track seek out the Watson Twins if they tour near you, they are worth seeing live, I saw them when they toured with Jenny…great stuff!