A rare catch

Today I had lunch with a good girlfriend who was bemoaning the lack of nice, sensitive men in Hong Kong. This is a tale I have heard many times and, at risk of offending my male friends and loyal readers, in many respects I have to agree. This is not something exclusive to HK, but the usual men are from mars argument. It rings even more true when one has children and realises how little exposure boys growing up, or even older, get to the bits and bobs associated with babies and children. One memorable event was the reaction of a close (male) friend who visited me in hospital and looked at his feet the whole time I fed Eve.

On my way back to the office after my lunch I ran into a relatively new acquaintance, G. To all intents and purposes, G is a red blooded male. New in HK, goes out a lot, very easy on the eye, is a rower who has rowed at international level, works in finance. I don't think we've ever met away from the rowing course so we briefly chatted about the weekend. There was a rowing pub crawl on Saturday, which I didn't go to, and it turned out neither did he. By way of explanation I said it wasn't really my thing anymore. He agreed, so I felt the need to clarify and say that it used to be but I can't drink much anymore. He looked knowingly and asked "is that because you are still breastfeeding?".

I nearly fell over. I can't think of a single other man, alive, dead, married, unmarried, gay or straight who would have had the sensitivity, knowledge and interest to have asked that. It was so utterly lovely.

I've told a couple of girlfriends about this and they want to meet such a rare catch. Boys - listen and learn.