But even in the timeless tradition of Valentine’s Day, the times they are a-changing.

These days, Cupid is no longer obliged to reach into his quiver and aim his weapon of choice at starry-eyed couples whose destinies will forever be intertwined.

After all, why send an arrow, when you can send an SMS?

For proof of Cupid’s new matchmaking strategy in action, look no further than Frikkie Jacobs and Irene Malherbe, engaged to be married only a year after they first gave each other a ring.

Well, not quite a ring...

More like a BEEP.

Thanks to Flirtnet, a mobile phone dating service run by MyBeat Interactive, one of IT billionaire Mark Shuttleworth’s energetic young start-up companies, Frikkie and Irene found true love after a series of SMS conversations led to a tentative get-together at Johannesburg International Airport.

Frikkie, a retired (auditor) and former Springbok boxer from Kempton Park, knew he had found his soulmate as soon as he laid eyes on Irene, a gentle-hearted widow from the small town of (Patensie) in the Eastern Cape.

Now the couple have set the date – March 19, 2005 – for their wedding in Pretoria, with invitations going out by (you guessed it) Short Message Service.

“We are very much in love,” says Frikkie. “This is the best thing that could have happened to us. And to think it all started with a `Please call me’ message on my phone!”

Like the more than 100,000 other members of Flirtnet across the country, Frikkie submitted his concise profile (“Single pensioner from Kempton Park, 60 years old, who loves animals and outdoor life”) and awaited responses via the swift and convenient medium that has come to set the pace for interpersonal communication in the 21st Century.

On the other side of the network, Irene liked what she read. The couple SMSed each other for a while, confining their courtship to text messages of no more than 160 characters at a time.

Then they decided to meet face to face, at a neutral venue where love, like a jet-plane, was in the air. And that’s when things really started taking off.

“It was love at first sight,” says Irene. “After only a week, we decided to get married. We carried on courting on the cell-phone in-between visiting each other.”

For Flirtnet director and co-founder Rodney Kuhn, this is a love story with a simple message for us all: “Sometimes,” he says, “fate and destiny need a little push...and nothing pushes buttons faster than a message sent by SMS. We’re delighted that Frikkie and Irene are getting married to each other, and we hope it’ll be the first of many successful relationships brought about by a technology that knows no boundaries.”

And as for that chubby little cherub who set the whole thing off? Well, like everyone else in our fast-paced age, Cupid is now contactable by cell. Just SMS the word FLIRT to 34356, and watch him work his magic in this season of love…and beyond.

*For more information, visit www.flirtnet.co.za, or contact Rodney Kuhn on 083 456-7224.