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You can tell it’s time to find other ways to spend 2007 Valentine’s Day when:

• You make her guess your Valentine gift, and she guesses it correctly.
• You take her to a romantic dinner at your ‘secret place’ and there are no seats available.
• After giving her a Valentine card, the exact same greeting is forwarded to you. By email and text, both.

Tiresome, typical Valentine’s gift ideas and activities. They’re that part of February 14, the Hallmark Holiday, where you dread to discover, for once: You are not alone on Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day off the beaten path: Unique, out-of-the-ordinary gifts and things:

Valentine classics, with a catch. Think different all you want but it’s still more romantic to send flowers for Valentine’s than, say, a desk lamp. The trick is to add a twist, your own spin, to timeless Valentine gift ideas.

Pick roses of a color other than red, or mix hues. Send flowers with something other than chocolates or a stuffed bear – muffins, a football, champagne, the sky’s the limit. These never go out of style: flowers from a girl to a boy, or sent long-distance. An online flower shop is always great to send flowers to the Philippines.

The best romantic dinner ‘secret place’ isn’t any restaurant but your own home. Cook something special yourself, and after dinner, watch a Valentine movie. Surprise a Filipina girl with home-grown, old romantic movies.

Personalized Valentine gifts. Monogrammed jewelry become priceless heirlooms. In auctions, we observe that personalized possessions – signed, engraved, photographed – become more valuable over time.

These need not be expensive. Lingerie or boxers are far sexier with initials. Other than names, use words with private significance. Have them printed on hoodies, sewn on jeans, etched on crystal, crafted onto pottery.

Expound on the idea of a self-made Valentine card: mix CDs, a set of romantic novels, a Valentine scrapbook or painting. It should come naturally; Filipino men and Filipina women have a knack for creativity and crafts.

Valentine’s, Pinoy-style. Philippine culture is replete with romance and sentimentality. No young Filipina girl has lived to experience a ‘harana’, the Filipino serenade, or the traditional courting, ‘pag-akyat ng ligaw’, in which a suitor courts her household (parents, family) in order to win her heart.

In lieu of a Valentine’s Day wedding or engagement, arrange a Valentine ‘pamamanhikan’ – in which a man and his parents pay a formal visit to the household of a Filipina woman to ask her parents for her hand in marriage.

For your romantic Valentine dinner, have Filipino cuisine: with recipe ingredients like the hot and spicy ‘siling labuyo’ (bird’s eye chili), rich and dark ‘tsokolate’ (chocolate), or lush and creamy ‘gata ng niyog’ (coconut milk).

Valentine’s on a budget. Who better than practical and resourceful Filipinos to celebrate a fun if pocket-friendly V-Day? With Philippine travel sights and sceneries alone, you will never run out of ideas.

Dress up and have a tour of churches, museums and art galleries, or heritage and historical sites – ones with free entrance, of course. Keep tabs of where you might fancy a Valentine wedding ceremony or reception someday.

Rather than a Valentine gift basket, prepare a picnic basket of local favorites – Pinoy chocolates, jams and jellies, breads from the neighborhood bakery, instant coffee – or find a hotdog or barbecue stand. Bring these to a park, the bayside or beachfront, or somewhere scenic from where to watch the picturesque Philippine sunset.