10 December 2008

Life with Suzie - Man-speak Part 2

A while ago I wrote about the secret language of men, "man-speak". For the unenlightened it is the ability of a man to hold a conversation with monosyllables, grunts and other non-vebal forms of communication, which most men understand perfectly well, but which inevetably drive a woman mad.

My Suzie is a warm, friendly and gregarious person, who has never been able to grasp the fundamentals of "man-speak".

On our last trip to the Addo Elephant National Park we stayed overnight and rose early to look for the lions. We drove to the place where they were last spotted, but as luck would have it we saw everything but lions.

Then along came a ray of light - a game viewing vehicle. Suzie was quick to flag it down and very cheerfully said, "Good morning, have you by any chance spotted any lions."

The young man looked at her, pushed out his lower lip and then shook his head, once to the right and once to the left and unceremoniously drove off.

"How rude," she said, "I can see why he became a game ranger and chose to work with animals."

I laughed. "Man-speak," I said, "he has just told you that he has not seen any lions, despite having got up early and driven all over the park looking for them. He is also very disappointed that he has let his clients down."

"Yeah, right," she responded.


We carried on and about an hour and a half later, we saw the same vehicle coming towards us. This time the young man gave us a lopsided grin and a half-hearted wave.

Before Suzie could say anything, I said, "There you go, the two of you are now friends."

"How is that possible," she asked.

"He obviously enjoyed his last conversation with you," I said.

15 comments:

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

I just can't understand how Suzie could not understand the man. He did communicate very clearly with her. How difficult can it be understanding a head turning right and left. The face must have said a thousand words. Oh well, it must be a man thing.

Firefly the Travel Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Killer B said...

Truer words were never written (I'd respond in our own language, but man-speak doesn't take to being written down, suffice it to say that my arms are crossed and am nodding in agreement.)

Your photos are beautiful and I really enjoy your blog. Belated Congrats on being Blog of Note! Very well deserved!

La_ChEmIsTa said...

Indeed your messages depicts reality. Nice pictures & supporting words.

Keep it up!

Katney said...

Gotta love a warthog!

Barry said...

Nods his head.

To the right.

*** said...

One of my beliefs are - "You cannot, not communicate" Believe it or not I am a woman. Suzi is perhaps just a visual prime person. (My way of standing up for us woman folk)

Suzi-k said...

hehe, who knows, next time we visit I might even get to hear his voice! Hope he is a bit more communicative with the people he shows around the park, I suspect I am not the only one who finds manspeak hard to fathom! Oh and by the way, well done on the blogs of note, well deserved, I'm proud of you!

Merisi said...

*giggle*
Men are from Mars,
they say.
Liars!
They are out there speaking in tongues, er, lips!

Love love your interpretation.
You should write "The Book"! :-)

natalie said...

very interesting! what kind of work do you do there? are you the game warden?
natalie

Payno Mindtome said...

Yes, man-speak is great. Sometimes the less said the better.

JuWieZy VoGueZ said...

wow! so beautiful..unlike my country

Katie said...

That was funny. I liked it. That could be in a movie. Just some silly side to a romantic comedy. Hillarious.

tinkplus_1 said...

I really enjoy all of your pictures...I have always dreamed of visiting africa..one day I suppose(:

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