valentines – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Fri, 15 Feb 2019 23:55:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg valentines – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 Belated Valentine’s meal with my @vnemma! Love you lots xxx ????❤???? #valentines https://shepline.com/2019/02/15/belated-valentines-meal-with-my-vnemma-love-you-lots-xxx-%f0%9f%98%8d%e2%9d%a4%f0%9f%92%95valentines/ https://shepline.com/2019/02/15/belated-valentines-meal-with-my-vnemma-love-you-lots-xxx-%f0%9f%98%8d%e2%9d%a4%f0%9f%92%95valentines/#respond Fri, 15 Feb 2019 23:17:35 +0000 http://shepline.com/2019/02/15/belated-valentines-meal-with-my-vnemma-love-you-lots-xxx-%f0%9f%98%8d%e2%9d%a4%f0%9f%92%95valentines/ Belated Valentine's meal with my @vnemma! Love you lots xxx ????❤???? #valentines

Belated Valentine’s meal with my @vnemma! Love you lots xxx ????❤????
#valentines

]]> https://shepline.com/2019/02/15/belated-valentines-meal-with-my-vnemma-love-you-lots-xxx-%f0%9f%98%8d%e2%9d%a4%f0%9f%92%95valentines/feed/ 0 A love/hate relationship with St Valentine https://shepline.com/2016/02/14/a-lovehate-relationship-with-st-valentine/ https://shepline.com/2016/02/14/a-lovehate-relationship-with-st-valentine/#respond Sun, 14 Feb 2016 19:47:18 +0000 http://shepline.com/?p=9382 I’ve never received the quintestential anonymous Valentine’s Day card. Indeed I’ve only ever received two cards that have not have been from wife – and they were from my fiancé before she was my wife. Growing up, and beyond into adulthood, I liked the idea of Valentine’s Day but also feared it.

When I was little I think I (wrongly) assumed that every everyone got Valentines but me, but in all honesty I don’t think I would have known what to do if one had been sent to me. You see, not that I knew it then, but I have Aspergers, and for people on the autism spectrum the world of dating can be a minefield.

  • How do you even meet someone on your wavelength in a world that can be socially confusing?
  • How do you flirt if you are uncomfortable making eye contact?
  • How do you prevent yourself from only talking about stuff you’re interested in?

I think this video, shared today by the National Autistic Society, by 19 year-old Gerard Stone probably explains it all far better than I ever could…

I never set out to conciously write romance and love into my books, just as I never conciously set about writing characters with Aspergers. Completely unimportant to the story, but Ben in The End Of All Worlds is almost certainly on the spectrum. In my second novel, Mr Tumnal, Louis Tumnal definitely is. In his character you see both a character at odds with the world (not just because of any bewitchment by the Fairy Queen), and saved in more ways than one by the love of a girl he meets and with whom he somehow forms a relationship.

Today I wrote a love poem for Kathryn Summers from Louis Tumnal. Louis Tumnal couldn’t have said this directly, of if he did, his voice would have been a gibbering, inarticulate mess. But from his pen, in the first year after meeting, he could articulate exactly his feelings.

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It could also be a love poem from a few years ago from Me to my wife, Emma. Love you Emma. xxx

]]> https://shepline.com/2016/02/14/a-lovehate-relationship-with-st-valentine/feed/ 0 Return of the aubergines https://shepline.com/2009/02/14/return-of-the-aubergines/ https://shepline.com/2009/02/14/return-of-the-aubergines/#respond Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:12:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/return-of-the-aubergines/ Regular readers of these pages may remember the endless saga of frying 4 aubergines in recent weeks. The thing is, I like aubergines, so when it came to cooking our Valentine’s dinner I was quite relieved that aubergine and mozzarella bake that I chose uses grilled aubergines rather than fried.

As for the day, Emma actually went lingerie shopping with Katie, for the wedding, but this gave me a chance to get the next concert band concert poster done – something which I’ve had on my to do list for sometime. I also had a good think, and talk to my friend Tina, about how best to set up my attack on the freelance web design market. I think there is an opening there for a budget WYSIWYG package of design for what I will dub ‘the hairdresser’ market.

]]> https://shepline.com/2009/02/14/return-of-the-aubergines/feed/ 0 St Valentine’s Day https://shepline.com/2008/02/14/st-valentines-day/ https://shepline.com/2008/02/14/st-valentines-day/#respond Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:14:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/st-valentines-day/ As I begin my sixth year of writing here, it seems that I should start on this day with something a bit different. Today I sent and received my first valentine card. 🙂

I left work promptly to get home and start cooking a special meal for Emma (skiving off band in the process). I was going to cook a three course meal but in the end decided that the timings were just too complicated in the time available, so skipped out of cooking my polenta and mushrooms recipe. I made a rather delicious potato and asparagus tart from my Jamie Oliver, and we finished off with a Gu chocolate desert (well, you’ve got to have chocolate on Valentine’s day). Then Emma and I exchanged presents and enjoyed a nice evening together.

Emma’s just left now to go home in order to get to bed to get to work tomorrow. I never really like it when we have to part, but tonight has been particularly bad. Maybe soon, we won’t have to say these goodbyes?

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