A sucker for romance - perhaps! Valentine's has a special place for me and Deb. It was the day I used to 'pop the question' and as my wife will attest my planning went a little awry.

At the time I was working as a chef in an inner-city Perth cafe. I hadn't bothered to make any reservations for dinner anywhere until the day before - big mistake. Our cafe didn't open for dinner so I had forgotten how busy most restaurants became on the most romantic night of the year but after a few hundred phone calls I was gently reminded that perhaps I could have started this process a tad earlier.

Fortunately, as I was running out of names in the Yellow Pages, I struck paydirt. One restaurant in the heart of Subiaco, perhaps Perth's version of England's Soho, had places available. Maybe I should have questioned this peculiarity then but I was just excited to have somewhere to take my future wife-to-be. A tip for beginners: Never book into a restaurant that has seats available a day away from Valentine's - it can never be good. And it wasn't.

I'll leave it there but needless to say preparation was a rapid learning curve for me.

So this year I plan to be on the ball. I'm tossing up between the eternal dozen red roses, maybe a red rose bush for the garden, a love swing or even lingerie and chocolates. No. Those two never go together do they?