Empty vessels

TH always says I am anti-social because I don't like talking to strangers. And I think he likes the sound of his own voice waaaaay too much. He can never tell an anecdote without meandering to explain every single point ("A bear walks into a bar, and this was a grizzly bear spelt with a z not an s...").

Now I can see it is not his fault. He's just being a guy:

COMMUNICATION-GENDER/DIFFERENCES

By Madeleine Cowley

Women communicate better than men and actually talk less, researchers said on Friday.

Men speak more words than women in a day, but have a weaker command of language in social situations, use the same words repeatedly and pay unconvincing compliments, British researchers said after studying how men and women communicate.

Manchester University researchers found that when conversation centred on serious issues such as current affairs men and women used similar language, but they differed widely when it came to chit-chat in social situations.

The women in the research commissioned by British female-friendly insurance firm Sheilas' Wheels had superior communication skills and used a wider variety of words in social situations, while men struggled with their command of language.

"It is men who are more likely to talk for the sake of talking when engaged in social chit-chat by recycling their words with ritualistic and redundant language that doesn't contain new information," Manchester University researcher Geoffrey Beattie said.

The team of researchers carried recording devices over a one week period in order to transcribe 50 conversations, which were split between men and women in serious and social conversations.

Each conversation was given to five volunteers who read five different versions with every fifth word removed and were asked to guess the missing word.

Men used a few simple words in social situations and the limited variety of their vocabulary became even more marked when it came to paying compliments, researchers said.

The study showed compliments from men were 90 percent predictable - frequently making use of words "you", "really" and "nice" - while women had more detail in their compliments, making them less predictable and more genuine-sounding.

The Manchester University team helped dispel the myth of women as chatterboxes and discovered it's men who have the tendency to blather on by analysing supporting research into male and female communication.

Only two out of 56 separate studies analysing the difference in communication between men and women concluded that women use more words per day than men - while 24 concluded that men use more.

Reuters

Whew, what a long break

I just happened to have some time free so decided to click on the old Hits&Mrs link. It's been such a long time since I blogged that I forgot my password and had to try a few different combinations.

Last you heard of Tubby Hubby (TH) he was recovering from gallbladder surgery. Well, I'm glad to report he's fine and still eating as much fatty stuff as ever.

It's been an eventful break. TH lost his job, I got a full-time one, we have since moved from our flat in Mid-Levels to Mui Wo in Hong Kong. Lots happening.

I don't know if I'll have time to update this as regularly as before. The full-time job takes up a lot of time plus I have an overgrown baby (yup, TH) who is always looking to me for assurance now that he has no work performance appraisals to let him know how he's doing.

In fact, I don't even know if anyone is reading this blog anymore. But for those who do, here's a nice little new post just for you.

TH goes in for surgery

Tubby Hubby (TH) woke me up a week ago. "Got terrible tummy ache, can't sleep," he said. "Well, what can I do? Just let me go back to sleep. I've got to go to work tomorrow," I replied grumpily.

When I woke up, he was still awake, face creased in agony. Knowing how much a baby he is when it comes to pain, I just told him to go see a doctor.

"Men have such a low threshold for pain," I complained to my colleague later.

At 3pm, I suddenly get a text from TH: "Got to go in for surgery immediately. Gall bladder severely inflamed."

Emergency operation. And his first ever. He might die... Aargh! I dropped everything and rushed straight to the hospital.

TH was looking remarkably cheerful for someone who was both in pain and being prepped for surgery.

"You're looking quite happy," I remarked when my pulse stopped racing.

"Yeah well, it's nice to feel vindicated," he replies. "Bet you feel really bad now."

Couple talk

Conversation in the Ong-Wood household:

Me: You know what they say about couples completing each others'...

Tubby Hubby: Sentences?

Me: Yeah. Isn't it weird that we also complete each other's...

TH: Songs?

Me: I mean, I sing de de dede...

TH: Everybody dance now!

Happy Valentine's Day... not

Tubby Hubby (TH) and I have a non-aggression pact for Valentine's Day – no flowers, no expensive dinner, no contributing to the already-fat coffers of romance merchants.

"You're so unromantic. How can you not celebrate the day of love?" my starry-eyed colleagues asked me yesterday.

Very easily. It doesn't cost anything, money-wise, to fall in love so why should you have to pay to declare it?

Anyway, as TH says, every day is Valentine's Day for us. Now tell us we're not romantic...

Water ways

"The more I know you, the stranger you get," Tubby Hubby (TH) tells me.

Case in point: He and I were trekking along the Hong Kong trail. The guidebook promised us "half a dozen steep, rocky streams" but, because this is the dry season, all we saw were trickles.

I soon became obsessed with finding my holy grail - a proper stream , possibly a waterfall.

Then I thought I heard it...

Me (excitedly): "Listen, isn't that the sound of water trickling?"

TH didn't even bother to stop. "Nope, that's the sound of your water bottle sloshing."

And he was right. Sigh, I hate it when he knows me better than I know myself.

Why do women have cold hands and feet?

"Brrr," Tubby Hubby (TH) said, edging away from me.

"But I haven't even put my feet on yours yet," I protested.

"I can feel the cold emanating from them even before you lay them on mine," he retorted.

Now that the cold weather's here, I've found a great use for a husband – as a hand-and-foot warmer. Problem is, TH is not too happy with that role.

"Why do women have such cold hands and feet?" he wants to know. His mum used to do the same thing with his dad.

He's done a poll of his colleagues and they all say the same thing – their wives have absolutely freezing tootsies.

Ever since the last frozen-foot incident, I've been banned from warming mine on his. So it's either the cat or...

"Aargh, what happened to your feet?" TH almost fell off the bed the other day. "They look like duck feet."

Aha, I've taken to wearing bed socks in bed. They're warm and toasty but there is one problem: They look exactly like baby booties, which makes my whole Punjabi-outfit bed assemble look really unsexy now.

To save his own feet, TH has allowed me to wear them, with one caveat: "Don't you ever call me Daddy!"