I remember when I was about ten my grandfather bought me a lovely small digital watch for my birthday. It was a tissot. Back then a digital watch was the thing to have. Digital was a relatively new concept. He bought it for me in a posh shopping centre in Switzerland during our summer holidays. I was made up.

I remember being quite obsessed by the watch, gazing at it for several days, when I discovered a little bubble, a teeny weeny tiny bubble, a barely perceptible bubble, on the glass covering the face. I ran my finger over the bubble, clearly a flaw in the glass, and then scratched lightly at it with my nail and realised that it wasn’t a flaw but a millimetre thin plastic sheet covering the glass, protecting it. I picked at the edges of the face to try and lift the edge of the plastic and gradually my nail got under a little piece and I was able to peel it off the face of the watch leaving a shiny, perfect glass surface beneath.

Ever since I have loved the discovery of plastic coatings on appliances, – mobile phone faces, TVs and the like. Last year when we renovated our house, there were ample surfaces covered in sheets of thin protective plastic to be unpeeled – radiators, oven doors, mirrored wardrobes, printer display panels, the stainless steel that finished the edging on our bathroom tiles, fridge doors. I was in plastic peel heaven. Only a few weeks ago (over a year since we moved back in), my husband discovered an edge of mirrored glass that had a narrow piece of plastic still covering it. He removed it. I was gutted that he had discovered it before me.

I was in the football club a few nights ago with some of the lads, waiting to go to a meeting. I didn’t pay my last phone bill so I’m not able to make outgoing calls and, coincidentally, there was a fault in the club house phone system (the two problems entirely unconnected, I assure you) so I had to borrow one of the lad’s phones to make a call. He handed the phone to me and there it was, the plastic covering still in place on the display. I held the phone for a moment and considered the temptation before me, the call that I needed to make completely forgotten. “Eh, you see this”, I addressed him pointing to the plastic lifting from the edge of the phone display. “Can I?” “No, that’s protecting the glass”, he responded. I explained my obsession. “If you ever want to give me a present, the best one you could give me would be something covered in a thin filament of plastic that I can peel off”, I said. To which another of the lads said “and no doubt wrapped in bubble-wrap so you could burst the bubbles”. It was a good point.

So, what is it about popping and picking and removing protective layers from things. I’m not sure whether it’s about the removal of imperfection and the revelation of a clean, shiny, new surface beneath, whether I like to see things clearly and don’t like masks or screens that obscure things or whether it’s the protection issue that I can’t deal with. I certainly don’t like secrecy, I like to see things as they are but, let’s face it, I’ve never been too strong on protection either.

With Valentine’s Day looming…no, that is not fair! I will start again.

With Valentine’s Day approaching fast, the radio has been booming out the message of love all week. Love is in the air, love me do, lovelovelove! One particular sound byte that tickled my interest was that scientists have confirmed the hypotheses that opposites attract in a biological arena. Now I know this is not news but how could this be? Surely romantic love is about similarities, sharing,  compatibility and plain sailing off into the sunset!

Well apparently not, the scientific world has it that nature gave us pheromones which Wikipedia says ‘ is any chemical that triggers a natural response in another member of the same species.’

And as the sound byte explained, the law of nature suggests that if one member of the species has one set of pheromones or chemicals in their body then they will instinctively pick a mate that has a different set of hormones, therefore ensuring that their off spring will have the strongest set of pheromones to go forward into the world. Simple really, ying and yang and all that.

For instance if housework was not my strong point, then my pheromones would send me in the direction of a Mr Mack who loved housework or at least house work was his thing and thereafter number one son would have a healthy mix of both and head forth into the world strong. This is pure conjecture on my part of course.

 So where does that leave modern equality, sharing the chores, sharing the child rearing, sharing the financial responsibility, sharing the decisions, sharing the caring? Clearly out the window!

 So this week at the Love Lab, the current exhibition in the Science Gallery in Dublin, the science of desire is being explored. I may attend if only to sniff out the lab rat, no, the love lab rat or even the love rat who is helping the scientists with their enquiries, the attraction of opposites. Huh!

White Rabbits! White Rabbits! White Rabbits! I remember on the eve of the first of every month doing white rabbits when I was a teenager. Crossing my slippers and saying white rabbits three times in the morning were supposed to bring good luck. Wikipedia says that it was a common superstition but I’m not so sure about that. I have a sense that it may have been common with teenage girls wishing for some good luck in the romance department maybe? Anyway, I hope I remember tomorrow morning to do it. Some good luck would be useful about now.

 I can hardly believe that it is Spring already. It doesn’t feel like spring, why it was just Christmas a few weeks ago. I feel as if I wrote off any progress I had made since Christmas in a couple of hours last night. It must have been the wine! It must have been the wine! It must have been the wine!

PS Please read this piece as if it was two weeks ago as I had intended posting it on the first of February , which really only highlights how my body clock is still out of synch. Is it Valentine’s day already? Is it Valentine’s day already? Is it Valentine’s day already?