Comments on: Are Santa’s Reindeer girls or boys?

By: Buy viahra online.

Buy viahra online. — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:43:01 +0000

Buy viahra online….

Buy viahra online….

By: zogmama

zogmama — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:47:53 +0000

@gwallan: Please re-read my post. I do “get it.” I acknowledged that it sometimes pays to be a girl. In that instance, I felt that the waiter took pity on me BECAUSE I’m a woman. (Or perhaps the guilt of stealing my guidebook had sunk in).

As a man, lost in a foreign country, I wouldn’t approach a lone woman to ask directions - that could be construed as menacing - that’s just common sense. I would think, however, that it would be just as easy for a man to consult the guidebook, try to pronounce the local word, and approach an official to purchase a ticket. THAT’S what my husband refused to attempt.

You’ll have to find something else to accuse me of “not getting,” gwallan. I’m sure you’ll be able to do it.

Happy New Year, everyone!

By: Female

Female — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 06:50:34 +0000

gwallan, from my own experience of being a woman who has been approached by male strangers, I would say that yes, there is a degree of suscipion, but that is simply normal. It has nothing to do with feminism or sexism. My generation grew up with Neighbourhood Watch and Stranger Danger and there are plenty of crazies around, so to be suscipious of strangers (male or female) before you can better ascertain their intentions, is normal. Let me reverse this and pose you a question, when you have been approached by women you don’t know, is your first thought, “how can help these lovely damsels?” or is it, “what does she want?”.

Z, I think perhaps it’s easier to meet people O/S because that is one of your primary intentions for travelling in the first place. You are therefore open to new experiences and open to meeting new people.

By: gwallan

gwallan — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 03:49:14 +0000

Noticeably it’s the women discussing how easy it is to get help and, further, instructing men about it. Unfortunately ladies, most men don’t have these positive experiences when they do seek help in this way. A man, particularly if he’s on his own, will often be viewed with suspicion.
In this I can genuinely say you simply don’t get it.

By: zogmama

zogmama — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:55:03 +0000

We fought in Florence, as I recall. I didn’t even know anything was simmering until he flew into a snit and said, “if I have to eat bread and tomatoes one more time I’m going to scream” and off he flounced and I didn’t see him for a couple of hours. A couple of hours in Florence without the quintessential ugly American? Could be worse.

I did, however, manage to lose the combination to the locker that held all our luggage at the train station in Bologna - I’d tucked it into my guidebook, which was pinched by a waiter at a cafe. When my husband retraced our steps and asked, he’d no idea where it was … when I went back, crying, he felt so guilty that he miraculously found the papers, though not the guidebook. Sometimes it pays to be a girl.

My only question is why a waiter in Bologna would want my copy of “Italy for Dummies.”

By: Female

Female — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:21:50 +0000

Venice, so beautiful, but I don’t have the best memories of it (but at least the square wasn’t flooded). My travelling companion and I had a big fight there; we got harrassed by ravers to attend a ‘ouse party as it was some big festival or something; I got fined on a boat because I didn’t buy a ticket and miraculously starting speaking Italian in a pathetic attempt to get out of paying the on the spot fine ($22 Euro, ouch, poor Aussie dollar). I took a day trip to Lido, walked across it in the rain to see the beach and Adriatic sea on the other side and it was ugly. I missed Australia.

By: zogmama

zogmama — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:54:05 +0000

Men miss out a lot because they usually won’t ask for directions. Though my children didn’t accompany us to Italy, they still imitate ME imitating their DAD refusing to even TRY to speak Italian, but rather just shouting “ticket” louder and louder, then giving up and storming off to point at gelato, while I went up and apologetically mispronounced “bigletti” or whatever the word is for ticket to get us back to Venice from Murano.

I swear, had he been left to his own devices, he would have swum back to the hotel in that bilious green water. Would have served him right, too.

By: Female

Female — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:18:50 +0000

In reality, Iâ€™ve met the nicest people when I was quite thoroughly (though never hopelessly) lost.

I agree, I’ve been adopted many times when thoroughly directionless (most often in France!) and had complete strangers spend their day with me giving me a free sightseeing tour (some who couldn’t even speak more than 5 words in English, while I bumbled along mispronouncing French sayings). What is it about travelling that allows you to meet the nicest people?

By: zogmama

zogmama — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:39:15 +0000

In reality, I’ve met the nicest people when I was quite thoroughly (though never hopelessly) lost. Last year I had a stick-to-the-dash compass in my Christmas stocking, and this year my younger son whispered solemnly that “Daddy says he’s sorry Santa couldn’t afford a GPS for your car.”

Scurrilous, indeed. That’s a new one.

By: wolfe

wolfe — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:58:43 +0000

In the spirit of Christmas, I shall not respond to that scurrilous attack on male direction-finding.

A virtual hug to Z (who is quite right about real reindeer. Since they mostly grow up in Finland, I think socialism makes them weak and puny.)

Best,
-wolfe