HARDLY ROMANTIC ...... OR IS IT?

  What would you say if I were to call you ..... 

• Little cabbage
• Little pumpkin
• Egg with eyes
• Lump of sugar
• Fruit of my heart
• My flea
• Gazelle
• Little elephant    
• Diving fish swooping geese
• Little dove

No, not impressed?

How about if I was to put it this way .......

• Ma puce meaning My Flea. It has been suggested that it originates from the times when grooming each other for fleas was the norm and considered quite an intimate and pleasant process.
• Chuchuzinho. Quite romantic until you learn its Brazilian/Portuguese for Little Pumpkin. Chuchu being the word for ...... squash, zinho meaning little.
• Tamago gata no kao. Apparently its not uncommon for women in Japan to be lovingly called Tamago gata no kao(Eggs with eyes). A great compliment as it refers to the oval/egg shaped face that is thought to be so attractive.
• And sticking with the orient, how about Chen yu luo yan, the Chinese for Diving fish swooping geese? Originating from the folklore stories that are Xi Shi, a woman so beautiful that on seeing her face the fish in the pond were so dazzled that they forgot to swim and Wang Zhaojun, a woman, just as attractive as Xi, it is said on seeing her beauty the geese would forget to flap their wings.
• Terron de azucar.  Spanish for lump of sugar/sugar cube. Sugar, reflecting sweetness, being a term of endearment in many parts of the world.
• Buah hatiku. Though primarily used to express ones love for ones children, Buah hatiku (Fruit of my heart) is also used by the people of Indonesia as a romantic gesture.
• Ghazal. As anyone who is familiar with Arabic poetry will know hunters can die of love sickness after a single glance from a Ghazal (gazelle) and thus the term Laki uyounul ghazal (You have the eyes of a gazelle) is used by many a man to express his love to his beau.
• And just as the gazelle is so beloved to Arabic poetry, Buah hatiku used as a term of endearment to the children of Indonesia, so little elephant (Chang noi) is used by the folk of Thailand but be warned if used between adults it has a very different meaning in that I'm informed it is slang for the penis.
• And, last but not least, we have the Russian Little dove - the masculine being Golubchik,  the feminine, Golubushka. 

And lest we forget, how about these literary terms of endearment no longer in common usage ......

• "My faire bryd, my swete cynamome" (My fair bride, my sweet cinnamon) - The Miller's Tale, Chaucer, 1300's 
•  "My fine Flitter-mouse, My Bird o’ the night" (My fine flittermouse, my bird of the night) - Alchemist, Ben Johnson, 1610
•  "My hwny soppis, my sweit possodie" (literally refers to a piece of bread soaked in honey, today's equivalent would be sugar pie/honey bun) - William Dunbar, 1513.

Hardly romantic and yet they have to be slightly better than these .....

..... Make-Out Practice Pillows which, said to be ideal for both lonely hearts and inexperienced kissers in need of practice, must surely be the most creepy Valentines Day present ever. Unless you know otherwise.


And finally onto the other love of my life ..... No, not chocolate ..... Books.

Did you know February 14th is also International Book Giving Day? (Read more HERE)

And as such ......

Your mission, should you accept it, is to give a book to a friend, someone you know or a complete stranger – and hopefully you'll receive or find one too!

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