Men are wonderful but there’s an awful lot of fun to be had without them, so if you are single this Valentine’s we suggest you spoil yourself rotten with a few of these ideas.

Book A Pampering Session Luxurious treatments are the ultimate feel-good fix, so get the girls together and book a spa day this Saturday. Alternatively, buy some gorgeous products and invite a few friends around for a DIY pamper day and a good old catch-up.

Add Some Glamour If you’re feeling in need of a glamour injection, book an appointment at the hairdressers for a new cut and colour – you could even throw in a manicure too! Top this off with a spot of retail therapy and lunch with friends and you have yourself a beautiful Saturday!

Go Dancing! It’s great fun, good exercise and a fabulous place to meet plenty of new people, so organise a few friends to go dancing this weekend! Look in your local paper to find out what’s on near you and choose from salsa, jive, line dancing or ball room.

Hold A Cocktail Party Hold a cocktail party on Saturday night and ask all your guests to invite their friends and friends-of-friends too. A house full of new people will keep you on your toes and you never know, Cupid might just fire his bow at you!

Quench Those Latent Ambitions If there’s something that you’ve always wanted to do, make it a reality this weekend. It might be a fine dining cookery day, an evening course on garden design, a pottery class or a reflexology session – but whatever it is, make it happen this weekend!

Make Someone’s Day If you don’t fancy going out or holding a party, make someone else’s Valentine’s instead. You could offer to babysit for friends or take your grandchildren out for a day they’ll always remember!

As much as we love the fairer sex there are some things that only us men can appreciate so if you’re single this weekend, we suggest you revel in your masculinity and do all the things you wouldn’t be able to do on a whim if you had a woman in your life!

Take The Drive of Your Life Feel like Jeremy Clarkson or better still the Stig on a driving experience day. You can feel the power of a supercar, off-road it in a 4×4, rip around in a rally car or opt for a tank driving day if that’s your thing! Book yours at Driving Experiences who have a 10% Valentine’s discount too.

Go Fishing If the peace and serenity of a fishing trip floats your boat, get your bait and tackle at the ready! You can enjoy the tranquility alone or make a weekend of it with friends and head to Scotland for some trout or salmon fishing.

Aim & Fire! He shoots; he scores! Test your reactions and hone your reflexes on a clay pigeon shoot. An instructor will show you exactly what to do before you go out in a group. Invite friends or take your Grandson for some quality bonding time! You can book it at Virgin Experience Days for £60 per person.

A Hole In One! Gather your golfing friends and head to a course you haven’t been to before. You can have a friendly wager on who will make the par and spend a few hours enjoying the club house afterwards!

Quench Those Latent Ambitions If there’s something that you’ve always wanted to do, make it a reality this weekend. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to do flying lessons, a wine-tasting course, a pottery workshop or scuba diving – but whatever it is, make it happen this weekend!

Have A Pint Or Two There aren’t any real ale festivals on this weekend, but there’s several taking place next Saturday in Luton, Fleetwood, Rotherham and Liverpool. Organise your friends, book tickets at CAMRA and then get some practice in at your local pub!

Get better matches on DatingAgency.com with our clever match-making tool

We’re using a clever new match-making tool on DatingAgency.com called Recommended Members which will transform your experience of dating completely!

Recommended Members is our clever new match making tool that gives you a personalised list of matches based on the profiles you visit, who you wink at and who you add to your favourites.

The more you use the site the better your matches become, because we learn your ‘type’ and will suggest others just like them.  Dating has never been easier or as personalised as this.

Recommended Members means you’ll:

- Spend Less Time Searching: Use the new ‘See More Members Like’ link on the profile pages to view others similar to the person you just looked at.

- Get Better Matches: Look out for two-way matches among your Recommended Members. These people will see you among their recommendations too.

- Widen Your Net: Recommended Members includes people outside your area that you might not have noticed otherwise, so you widen your net!

So login to DatingAgency.com and see who has been recommended to you – there might even be several two-way matches waiting for you! You’ll find your Recommended Members in the search menu and also on your member homepage when you login.

Between 7pm and 9pm on Tuesday 12th January, all members of DatingAgency.com will be able to send and receive private messages for free!

So if there’s someone you really want to get in touch with or messages in your inbox that you’re dying to read, login to DatingAgency.com tomorrow evening.  There’ll be thousands  more members online, so be prepared for a chocka-block inbox and the opportunity to get in touch with hundreds of new people!

Stephen Poliakoff on the set of Glorious 39

It’s a truly British film with a stellar cast of actors which uses the weeks preceding the outbreak of World War 2 as the backdrop for this psychological thriller.

The summer of 1939 had been golden and dominated by some of the greatest parties the aristocracy had ever held – yet it turned into an autumn where the survival of democracy was hanging by a thread.  Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was at the forefront of the movement to appease Hitler, whilst a small group of forward-thinking politicians led by Winston Churchill advocated the need to go to war and face the Nazi threat head-on.

Set against this political intrigue, the formidable and aristocratic Keyes family are determined to preserve their traditional English way of life in the midst of this uncertainty, fearing it will be lost forever if war breaks out.  Their adopted eldest child Anne is a budding young actress and in love with a Foreign Office official but her seemingly perfect, carefree life begins to dramatically unravel when she stumbles across secret recordings hidden in the out-buildings of the family home.  Whilst trying to uncover their origins, a tangled web of dark secrets begins to unfurl, along with a growing sense of menace and betrayal.

Romola Garai as Anne Keyes

This is Poliakoff’s return to film after a decade of writing and directing dramas for BBC television, including Gideon’s Daughter and The Lost Prince.  A Jew born in London to a Russian father and English mother, he has written about the war and Holocaust before – but this is the first time he has examined this critical period when Britain was on the brink of making a deal with Hitler and staying out of the war altogether.

“Reading the diarists from the period I realised what a close run thing it was that I’m here at all, and indeed any Jew in Britain is here altogether,” he says.

“There’s a view that Chamberlain was this mild mannered chap who didn’t have it in him to be Prime Minister, but actually that’s far from the case.  He was an incredibly dictatorial figure who could not be contradicted and who had his own network of spies. I’ve obviously heightened things in the script and I’ve made it clear that it’s not Chamberlain who was having people bumped off – but nevertheless, it’s true that the appeasers were bugging people’s conversations, including Churchill’s.”

Bill Nighly as Alexander Keyes in Glorious 39

“At that time Churchill was thought of as an adventurer by the Tory party and even when he became Prime Minister, members of his party wrote that it was a complete disaster that  this ‘half breed American’ was leader,” Poliakoff says.

“Ultimately I wanted to create a powerful story that would resonate with a modern audience, but which was firmly based on historical fact.  So many elements of Glorious 39 are true – the spying, the fact the secret service was used by the government to quell all opposition to its policy of appeasement, the sense of panic as war is declared which led to people having their pets put down, and how passionate feelings were unleashed even amongst the least politically minded about whether Britain should face up to Hitler at all.”

Glorious 39 is in cinemas now.

The predatory term 'cougar' is used to describe women who date men younger than themselves

Where do you stand in the cougar debate?   Is a woman dating a man younger than her a new phenomenon, or is the media blowing it all out of proportion?

The tabloids and broadsheets have been awash with reports on ‘cougars’ – women who date men younger than themselves.  It all started when a Parship survey revealed that 35% of women in their 40s, 50s and 60s would date a man at least five years younger – when five years ago the figure was just 8%.

Of course the papers have been citing all the usual celeb examples including 46-year-old Demi Moore who wed 31-year-old Ashton Kutcher in 2005; 76-year-old Joan Collins who is married to 44 year old Percy Gibson; 51 year old Madonna who is dating twenty-two year old model Jesus Luz, and 42 year old artist Sam Taylor-Wood who is engaged to nineteen-year-old Aaron Johnson.

But is the media blowing this all out of proportion?  The five years mentioned is not an enormous age difference – and nothing like the age gap Madonna or Joan Collins are currently sporting – and they have been dating younger men for decades!   What’s more, women generally outlive men by an average of four years so some sort of age gap like this actually makes sense.

Perhaps part of the media rip roar is that according to the survey, these cougars are actively seeking younger men for long-term relationships rather than a Mrs Robinson type of affair, with four out of ten of them saying they are looking for a lifelong partner, whilst 44% saying they would like steady romance.  The new Courtney Cox sitcom that premiered in September in the US called Cougar Town adds fuel to fire for the predatory term ‘cougar’, and today there are reports that Demi Moore who was dubbed the original ‘cougar’ by the media has jokingly tried to rebrand it to puma via her Twitter page!

So what do you think?  Is there anything extraordinary about a woman dating a man five years her junior?  How about a man fifteen years her junior?  Haven’t there always been men with penchant for older women – and haven’t men been marrying women ten or twenty years younger than them for centuries, if not millennia?   And at the end of the day, is age irrelevant when you fall in love?

Let us know what you think on cougar debate by sharing your views in the comment box below.

Wendy, 54 from Devon

Meet Wendy, 54 from Devon on DatingAgency.com

She’s an independent, young at heart lady who enjoys living life. She is looking to expand her social circle now her son has left home, has a dislike of shopping and has taken up golf which she is thoroughly enjoying.

She says; “I’m not a great one for my own company so I’d like to share my spare time with someone, whether its leisure time or chores, as long as it’s quality time.  I’d like to meet someone who is comfortable to be with, easy going and reliable. I’d also like someone who wants to do all those things they’ve always wanted to do, but for some reason have never got round to – because I have to do those things too!”

If you have a zest for life and an easy-going, reliable personality, get in touch with Wendy!   Login and read the rest of Wendy’s profile.

Chris, 50 from Cambridgeshire

Meet Chris from Cambridgeshire

He’s easy going, down to earth and feels fortunate that he’s been lucky enough to do a bit of travelling. He’s looking for a tactile lady who is a good friend and has a good sense of humour.

Chris says; “I would like to meet someone I could really talk to, someone who can listen but who isn’t afraid to offer their own opinion – even if it is controversial! I’d also like someone who is a bit adventurous, and who doesn’t think a perfect holiday is 2 weeks on an awful crowded beach in Spain, because there is far too much life to be lived for that.”

If you’re adventurous, happy expressing your opinion and love to travel, get in touch with Chris.  Login and send him a message!

Paul McCartney plays at London's O2 in December

Paul McCartney plays London’s O2 Arena on December 22^nd and tickets go on sale at 9am this Monday, October 26^th!

Paul McCartney has announced his first European tour since 2004, taking place at seven arenas across the continent and ending with his first ever public performance at the O2 Arena.  Of course you would have to be dating a very special someone to take them to this, but it would certainly be a date they’d never forget!

The Good Evening Europe Tour will be visiting Hamburg, Berlin, Arnhem, Paris, Cologne and Dublin, with the final date at London’s O2 Arena on December 22^nd.

“This is my chance to bring our current show home to where it all began, and I’m very much looking forward to ending the year on a high,” says Paul.

And what a year 2009 has been for the ex-Beatle.  He was nominated for two award at the Grammys and performed I Saw Her Standing There with Dave Grohl.   In April he played in New York at the David Lynch Foundation’s benefit concert with Ringo Starr joining him on stage for a special finale.  He made his first US festival appearance headlining the Coachella Festival; and performed at the opening of The New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas – a gig which sold out in seven seconds and set a new sales record with tickets selling at a rate of 600 a second!

So, you’ll need to be at the ready at 9am on Monday 26th October if you would like tickets to this London gig!   Tickets cost £55 – £125 and are available from the www.theo2.co.uk website or by calling 0844 856 0202.  You can also buy them from www.ticketmaster.co.uk, but make sure you register with the site first for priority access if you are buying online.  You can also try the 24hr Credit Card Hotline on 0871 230 1103.

If you don’t have any luck buying tickets, you can re-live Macca’s magic with Good Evening New York City – a multi-disc CD/DVD featuring performances recorded at New York’s Citi Field from his Summer Live ‘09 tour (sleeve pictured above) which is out on November 23rd and available for pre-order from Amazon for £15.98.

Breathe new life into those old negatives with this digital film scanner

Digital Film Scanner, £89.99
Those boxes of old negatives can see the light of day once more with this nifty little gizmo from the gadgetshop.com.  It scans original negatives and turns them into high resolution digital images using a powerful LED backlight.  The scanner will automatically convert them into your choice of digital format and it even comes with software that lets you to edit, crop and resize the images.   Now you can see how many embarrassing photos of your children you can digitize before they (and their partners) come over at Christmas!

Find out what your pet gets up to when you aren't there!

Pet Eye View Camera, £39.99
You’ll never have to wonder what your pets get up to when you’re not there with this pet view camera from iwantoneofthose.com.  Just fix it to your pet’s collar and set the device to capture photos every five, ten or fifteen minutes.  It will even go into sleep mode inbetween shots!  You can then plug the device straight into your PC to see exactly what mischief your pet has been  getting up to whilst you’re out.

Convert your old vinyl and cassettes collection into MP3 files with this nifty gadget

U Record Music Convertor, £49.99
Dust off the old vinyl, dig out those cassettes and convert your old favourites into MP3 files with the U Record Music Convertor from iwantoneofthose.com.  Just plug the box into your computer, hook up your tape deck or record player, and you’re away!  The accompanying software makes it very easy to use and even lets you iron out sound imprefections.

Grow fantastic herbs all year round with this amazing AeroGrow kitchen garden

AeroGarden With Herb Seeds £119.00
You don’t need to have green fingers to grow fantastic herbs all throughthe winter with this amazing gadget from iwantoneofthose.com.  All you need to do is add the seeds and the AeroGarden will control how much light to give them, and will even tell you how much water and nutrients you need to ply them with!  The plants grow three times the speed of plants in earth – amazing!

You'll never have to run out of power again with this wind powered charger!

Mini Kin Wind Powered Charger, £29.99
You’ll never be without power again with this wind powered charger from the gadgetshop.com.  The light, portable, universal power unit stores wind energy or conventional power from a computer or laptop into its built in rechargeable lithium polymer battery.   You can then use it to power up your flat phone, camera or MP3 player.  The manufacturers say that 60 minutes of charging will give you 100-150 minutes of talk time and you can even fit the wind tubine onto a vehicle so you’ll never be short of wind!

A BBC researcher would like to hear about your experiences of dating

The BBC would like to speak to DatingAgency.com members about their experiences of dating for a documentary they are making about finding love in the 21st century.

A BBC researcher has been in touch about a documentary they’re making about dating, to see if any DatingAgency.com members would be willing to help with their background research by sharing their dating experiences.

This new film will explore the universal experiences of looking for love; how people find their partners, what’s different about modern dating; what do people look for; plus the thrills, excitement and challenges of finding love.

To do this they would like to try and talk to as many people as possible for the background research so they can build a picture of dating in the world we live in and the importance of finding love.

The researcher works with filmmaker Sue Bourne, who is known for making very thoughtful and poignant films about subjects that are close to her heart.  Her recent credits include Mum & Me (C4) which is a film about her mother who has Alzheimer’s disease, and My Street (C4), about the residents of her street.

At this stage they are not looking for people to appear in the film, they just want to hear your thoughts and experiences.  Questions they would like to ask are things like; what are the benefits of using dating websites; what are your experiences of dating; and is how we meet and fall in love changing in 21st Century Britain?

If you would like to be a help, get in touch by emailing theteam@datingagency.com.