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Mission - enjoy Valentine's Day alone

We like to set out reporters a challenge. This week, as red cards, flowers, drinks and desserts flooded the shops for Valentine's Day, we sent Rachel Broady to see if she could enjoy the celebration for couples alone.

VALENTINE'S Day is, we're told, the most romantic day of the year.

The shops are full of red cards adorned with fluffy bits, no doubt playing You're Gorgeous in a tinny tone.

Then there are the silky knickers, the teddies carrying hearts declaring I Love You and the overpriced chocolates in ribbon-covered boxes.

Not to mention the expensive bouquets, the restaurants advertising for romance-hungry couples and the poor men wandering around shops under enough pressure to buy the right gift that their heads might just explode.

It's supposed to be enough to make any single person feel lonely but it's nothing more than a glorified ad campaign aimed at taking your cash.

Think about it. No matter how happy you are being single, you're bombarded with pictures, adverts, posters, articles, programmes, all telling you you're not really happy. Not deep, deep down - because you don't have a partner.

And if you do have a partner then you won't be happy unless the wee thing is schlepping around the Arndale in search of the perfect gift that will make handing it over seem just like a perfect moment from a perfume ad.

We're all under too much pressure to conform. Even the programmes supposedly intended to show the sassy side of women, be it Sex and the City or Bridget Jones, show them all ending up with a man at the end. Even outspoken single characters in soaps end up with someone in tow. And don't get me started on Madonna!

Really, truly, not all of us want a significant other in our lives - or to force the significant other to fret so much about buying the right silky knickers/boxers that the veins in their head start to throb.

And incurable romanticism just isn't an option for some women - or men. There are plenty of single parents in Metroland who will have a busy enough day looking after the ones they love without having to indulge someone else. There are others who will be working or will be so exhausted from working that staring at the telly will be all the energy they can muster.

You think she doth protest too much? Well, to prove a point, I headed to the Lowry Hotel for my own five-star Valentine's Day celebration without a man in sight (apart from the incredibly helpful staff, that is).

I dropped my bags off in the luxury room - staring longingly at the enormous bed knowing I wouldn't be lying awake later, annoyed by someone snoring.

I donned a fluffy white robe and made my way to the spa for a relaxing 75-minute hand massage. Had there been any "why haven't I got a man on Valentine's Day?" doubts they would've left my body in an instant. The spa at the Lowry is serene and a place for self-indulgence. It's where you forget about the demands of the day - not take him with you.

And a long hot soak in a bath at the Lowry is also a experience to be enjoyed alone. The Bath Butler menu offers so many delights, and why would you want someone else sharing the heavenly ginger bubble bath?

Besides, if you order the six chocolate dipped strawberries, exotic fruit plate, twelve luxury chocolates and ten savoury canapés, by the time you've lined them all up on the side of the bath there won't be room for anyone else.

I know many women struggle to eat alone in restaurants but I say give it a go girls. And don't take a book.

I've dined alone in cafés and restaurants across the world - and found the experience all the more enjoyable when overhearing bickering couples.

The Lowry was a bickering couple-free zone, admittedly, but there is still a certain satisfaction into tucking into a meal alone.

I went on to enjoy a delicious dessert and specially-made rose petal martini cocktail created for Valentine's Day called Passion Bloom - and I drank with a sense of liberation.

Men may complain when we steal a chip from their plates but, had there been a man anywhere near my bread and butter pudding, made by pastry chef David Fages, I wouldn't have been responsible for my actions.

Relaxed, well fed and a bit tipsy I headed to my room to stretch out in luxury and watch telly on my enormous bed in one of the hotel's six Riverside Suites (£650 for the night). The end of the evening may have been the same had I stayed home - but it was more luxury than I could ever manage on my sofa and I felt like I had treated myself.

As I left the next day I felt like a movie star. The concierge walked me to my car and I said: "I feel like Brad Pitt". He jokingly replied: "I can get him for you if you like," but I was happy to say no.

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