As I’m trying to be a bit more adventurous in 2010, I could follow up this piece of Valentine website advice.

‘Women are used to receiving sexy underwear and lingerie, but this year flip the script and present him with sexy unmentionables.’ My husband is very slightly conservative in the undies department, wearing very sensible cotton boxer shorts.

I’m to blame as I’m the one who bought them. For all I know, he may not even like them. He may be itching to slip into something less comfortable, more risque. He might be desperate to wow me with silky thongs and satin pouches.

But somehow I doubt it. British men aren’t renowned for flaunting their underwear. And when they do, it’s not a pretty sight.

Take vests. Visit any country in southern Europe and you’ll see men sporting vests as outerwear, looking tanned and hunky.

Here in the UK it’s more Rab C Nesbitt, with grubby vests showing under shirts or jackets – usually on men aged over 60. We haven’t really moved on since the 1950s, when men were commonly seen on seafronts in their string vests, hankies folded on heads. Even younger men look palid and unappetising when they appear in summer wearing what always appear to be ill-fitting vests.

It is a widely known fact, backed up by research, that in the underwear department British men go for comfort rather than sex appeal. Those adverts showing David Beckham posing in tight Armanis got far more attention from women, in the same way as female lingerie ads attract men.

We women should be relieved. Men baulk at having to buy lingerie for us, but if the boot was on the other foot, would we fare any better? Imagine having to choose a G-string for a man. You’d have to go for extra-large to avoid crushing his ego.

Men stick to what they know. I can’t see my husband swapping baggy boxers for thongs. There was a long enough transition period when I met him and persuaded him to ditch the Y-fronts with coloured piping.

So saucy undies are out the question – then what do I get him for Valentine’s Day? The same as I got him last year, and the year before that – nothing.

In all the years we’ve been together I don’t think we’ve every succumbed to the temptation to buy each other anything red, heart-shaped, cuddly or bearing any sort of romantic message. Which rules out just about every gift on the market.

Or maybe there is something. He’s always complaining of being cold. I’m sure he’d love a pair of Damart long johns.