SEVEN NIGHTS WITH SEVEN MEN...

That got your attention, didn't it!

Let me explain.

Two months ago a male friend invited me to go to the north of Scotland and share a house. Cheap as chips, love Scotland. I signed up!

Then it transpired that I'd have to share the house with 7 men. Was I phased, distressed? Not really. I wanted to go to Scotland! However my female friends and beloved frowned and predicted disaster. What would I do with seven men?

I'll tell you what I did! It was absolute bliss. Nobody asked me for an entire week HOW I WAS or indeed WHY I was doing anything. If I said no to anything the answer would generally be OK!

I went in and out, long walks on my own, lovely meals together in the evenings. I felt free and so incredibly relaxed.

I got to thinking about men and women (as you do) and their difficulties. This is what I came up with. Simplistic for sure (but then I'd think that....I am a woman and I like to complicate and analyse things) but interesting (I hope).


When I said that I did not understand the verbal instructions about the central heating, John instead of settling down for a long mull on what the instructions might or might not have been, got up and went to ask again! What a disappointment. I was really looking forward to spending a couple of hours speculating...and freezing in the process. Then I could have complained bitterly about the cold!

Lesson one : Men generally do not like to complicate things. If they do not understand something they tend to say so. Women love to complicate things just for the fun of it and will discuss endlessly what it was that somebody meant without even thinking of asking for clarification.

When I said to Rob, no I don't want to go for a walk with you. He said O OK. I was speechless, I had prepared this long rambling explanation about the why and he had just walked away from me. I felt cheated and abandoned, hurt and upset...actually I did not, what I felt was relieved because I did not have to go for a walk with anyone!

Lesson two : Men do not need to ask why and accept your answer as face value. Which drives women mad because they love the word WHY and its many ramifications. Also very often Women's answers are not straightforward and do require a why because what they really want is a bit of a chat or a way to complicate things which is what makes life so interesting!

When Alan said Lets sort this mess out looking at the sitting room, six men got up from wherever they were and stated sorting it all out. It had been a tip and in a few minutes all was spick and span. There had been no complaining about the mess, no sighing, no feeling put upon, no discussion about how and who would do what (and of course the why of everything).

Lesson three: Men are strangely organised in a completely disorganised way. Women are obsessed about order and need things to be done at a certain time in a particular order. Men tend to get on with things when they need doing. Women do things because they should or they think they should.

When Peter said could he have a lift to the station because he had to go back to Edinburgh, there was family trouble, David said I'll take you mate. Peter suggested 6.30am and David laughted. No, mate, make it more like 7.30. Peter said OK. Nobody asked how and why. I was itching to get the back story to this. I wanted to know how Peter felt and offer a lovely hug. David took Peter to the station. A while later Peter texted to say he'd arrived safely. Period. Aarrrrgglll.

Lesson four: Men talk about feelings in a completely different way to women. They don't chat about feelings, they tend to deal with them quietly. They do however know how to ask for help but the help required is often of a practical nature and they do not want to "talk about it". Women  need to share their feelings so that they can work out what those are and like to deal with them in company. They expect men to be part of the company. Men find the whole thing boring and irritating. Women then feel unloved and ignored.

and finally Lesson Five: spend a week with blokes and you might become one of them! But not quite. You'll be relieved to know that as soon as I got home the first question my lovely partner asked was "How are you feeling?"....man or woman?

Tis all for now.

With love

Baya