Do men and women shop differently?

I noticed an image on Facebook the other day that compares how men vs. women shop.

According to the image, when a man needs something from the Gap, he heads straight over there, makes his purchase and returns home. It takes him all of 6 minutes and $33.

When a woman needs something from the Gap, she traipses all over the mall, it takes her 3 hours and 26 minutes and she spends $876.

In case you’re wondering who made this comparison … a man, there’s no doubt about it. A man who doesn’t know anything about shopping I might add.

Have you ever been to the Gap? If you have, you’ll know that the Gap isn’t exactly cheap and finding men’s pants at $33 is highly unlikely.

As for the whole trip taking 6 minutes … I can only laugh at that. Again, have you been to a mall lately? There are hundreds of people who walk at a snail pace, they stop on a dime, and those with prams seem to make it their business to be in your way as much as possible. If a man can get to the Gap in 6 minutes … he must be able to fly.

If it takes a woman 3,5 hours to get to the Gap, you can bet on it that she shops for more than her husband’s pants. Chances are he’ll need shirts and ties, sweaters if it’s winter, golf shirts if it’s summer, shower gel, razor blades, aftershave, and who know what else.

If there’s a social gathering on her agenda, she’ll shop for a suitable outfit for herself, along with accessories and makeup. Being a smart woman, she won’t buy at the first store she enters. She’ll have a look around, try on different outfits, then go to two or three other stores and compare prices.

As a caring mother, she’ll pick something up for the kids too. After all, if dad gets new pants and other things, and she gets a new outfit and accessories, it’s only fair that the kids get something too.

While shopping, she’ll probably remember a few household items. Milk, bread, juice, bathroom items, laundry detergent, cat/dog food, etc.

After 3,5 hours of shopping, her feet are burning, her legs feel like lead, her back is breaking, and her throat is parched. She no longer walks, but staggers, laden with bags and bags of shopping.

Back home her husband shows her the imagine of a male and a female’s ways of shopping … 6 minutes vs. 3,5 hours. Absentminded she glances at the image and asks …

“Did you get the wine for the party, the steaks for the barbeque, and the screws to fix the bench?”

No, he didn’t get any of that. He went shopping for his pants and forgot about all the rest.

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www.connymanero.weebly.com

Friday is cat day - week two

It's Friday and with it the second installment of Friday is Cat Day. Today's images are themed ... Thank God it Friday or TGIF. They kitties are relaxing after a hard week of sleeping, snoozing, napping and catching the occasional fly or moth.

                                                      Is that a fly I see? Do I have to get up to catch it? Pfft, let it fly.

                                                    If you want to dust this table, you'll have to go through me first.

                                                                                              Ssssssssst.

                                                                                  At last, I can put my feet up.

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted.

Visiting Australia

One of the perks of having friends all over the world is, should I ever decide to travel, I won’t need hotel accommodation.

Just the other day, I received a message from a friend in Melbourne, Australia. She told me that, should I ever want to come for a visit, she has a spare bedroom in her house.

The first thing I did was Google Melbourne. I admit, I don’t know much about Australia. I know the Opera House in Sidney and the outback where one can go for a walkabout, but other than that, the land down under is pretty much a mystery to me.

The second thing I did was look up flights from Toronto to Melbourne and, well, the chances of me going to Australia are slim to none. Toronto to Los Angeles – 5 hours, Los Angeles to Melbourne – 15 hours … can you imagine, being cooped up in a plane for 20 hours!

And then there’s another little problem with Australia … apparently it is home to some of the biggest spiders.

Some of you may know that I spent fifteen years in Africa, which also houses some large spiders, but in all my time there I never saw one. Correction, I did see some large spiders, but they were dead ones, framed behind glass.

According to my friend, in Australia they are very much alive. In fact, she keeps a can of fast kill insect spray (also lethal for spiders) in every room of her house.

That’s all I needed to hear. The chance of encountering a spider in any room at any given time; the chance of such a creep walking over my bed at night; or worse, a spider taking a stroll along the ceiling and losing its footing … no, thank you.

It’s a shame really because I wouldn’t mind seeing Australia. In particular the many kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears, parrots and all the places I read about in books.

Speaking of which … in the latest book I read, it took the main character three months to get from England to New Zealand. Compared to that, what I am moaning about having to fly 20 hours from Toronto to Australia.

Get to know me and my work at:

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Why do so many writers give up

I recently found out that writers who want to be published need more than a finished manuscript. They need a cover letter, a pitch and a synopsis of their story.

When I approached a group of writers to evaluate my pitch for a manuscript, it turned out that what I had compiled was too long to be a pitch, too short to be a synopsis and not informative enough to be a query letter.

Of these three, a query letter is perhaps the most important. After all, most literary agents ask for a query letter, or a query letter and part of the manuscript. Very seldom do they ask for a pitch or a synopsis.

I do wonder though how important a well written query letter is. I mean, what did the query letter to “Fifty Shades of Grey” looked like …

Dear agent,

I’ve written a book about sex, sex and more sex. No ordinary sex, but kinky sex. Interested to see the manuscript?

The query letter might have had bad grammar and a few typos, but which agent would turn down a manuscript like that?

Was the book any good? The general consensus is that it’s a bad, and not just bad, laughable. One reader was convinced a 16-year-old had written this. Yet this manuscript was picked up by a publisher, sold a few million copies and was turned into a movie.

Let’s look at the most accurate review …

Thanks to my ever-useful Kindle search function, I have discovered that Ana says "Jeez" 81 times and "oh my" 72 times. She "blushes" or "flushes" 125 times, including 13 that are "scarlet," 6 that are "crimson," and one that is "stars and stripes red." (I can't even imagine.) Ana "peeks up" at Christian 13 times, and there are 9 references to Christian's "hooded eyes," 7 to his "long index finger," and 25 to how "hot" he is (including four recurrences of the epic declarative sentence "He's so freaking hot."). Christian's "mouth presses into a hard line" 10 times. Characters "murmur" 199 times, "mutter" 49 times, and "whisper" 195 times (doesn't anyone just talk?), "clamber" on/in/out of things 21 times, and "smirk" 34 times. Christian and Ana also "gasp" 46 times and experience 18 "breath hitches," suggesting a need for prompt intervention by paramedics. Finally, in a remarkable bit of symmetry, our hero and heroine exchange 124 "grins" and 124 "frowns"... which, by the way, seems an awful lot of frowning for a woman who experiences "intense," "body-shattering," "delicious," "violent," "all-consuming," "turbulent," "agonizing" and "exhausting" orgasms on just about every page.
One reviewer wondered how many talented authors’ work was turned down in favor of this trash. Is it any wonder that so many writers give up?

www.connymanero.weebly.com

How to find a job

Good news for the unemployed or those looking to change jobs. “How to find a job” by Alex Watson explains step by step how to succeed.

There’s tips on how to write the perfect resume, how to compile an attention-grabbing cover letter, and how to prepare for an interview.

"How to find a job" is available on Amazon. Can you afford not to get it?

Some of the topics are:

How to write a cover letter that gets attention 

How to write a resume when you’ve been fired 

How to interview successfully 

Worst things to say or do at the interview  

How to spot a work at home scam  

The best jobs for teenagers

How students can make some extra money 

The elements of a successful blog 

Ways to make money in your spare time 

Introducing ... Friday is cat day

Various websites have introduced a cat day. I’ve decided to do the same. From now on, Friday will be my cat day. Since today is Friday, let’s get started.

See the cutest cat pictures at: http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/introducing-friday-is-cat-day

Do ostriches like potato salad

The other day I came across an article entitled “10 Surprising Facts About Earths Biggest Birds”. 
(http://tinyurl.com/q7yhre2). The article was referring to ostriches and while interesting, the article didn’t mention that ostriches are immensely fond of chicken, tomatoes and potato salad. Are you doubting me? Don’t, I have personal experience on the subject. Here’s what happened …

Continue reading at:

http://connymanero.weebly.com/blog/do-ostriches-like-potato-salad