Deadlines and fire hazards

I fear that my efforts to slow the on set of Christmas have been a huge failure. In my absence my housemates managed to make the already lurid living room even more seasonal. More tinsel, more glitter, more Slade and now I live in a giant glittering, fire hazard. Bah! Humbug.

While all this horrible festivity was going on, I was cementing a friendship. I think it's much harder for guys to make friends with each other than ladies. When two girls meet they can always find something to talk about. Every girl in the world seems to know at least 3 scandalous things about every other female out there. So when two random girls meet they ascertain who they have in common and the conversation flows. Another thing about women is that they don't actually have to like one another to spend time together. Just mention that guy from twilight, or Cheryl Cole and their off like a rocket. Sometimes females even seem to root out a woman they don't like simply to forage for dirt. On returning from one of these undercover operations, said female is armed with yet more gossip and so the cycle continues.

Before you say anything. I understand that was a bit of a generalization. Not all women gossip but I didn't mean for it to sound negative. Quite the opposite in fact. It is quite a skill to chat away happily for hours without fear of awkwardness.

With men it's a different story. We make friends through forced encounters, school, work, living together, shared hobbies, that sort of thing. You can't just meet a guy you had a laugh with one time and ask him to go for a drink. That's just gay. As a man you must stumble into friendships through mutual hobbies and toleration of each other. For example; In uni I made friends with a guy called Snow because we both hated this other guy, Dave. Our shared hobby was hating Dave and we hung out with each other because it was better than spending time with Dave. That is how men make friends. I find any other all male friend making process cripplingly awkward.

With that in mind...

I met this guy through a friend and yesterday he invited me to come and hang out. He is a really decent guy and the invite was clearly a big step in the friend making process. This would be the first time we hung out, just the two of us. Awkward, but this was clearly make or break and not going would of been a definite snub. For a woman, NO PROBLEM. chat chat chat. However, man bonding is delicate and must be nurtured. Anyway it went fine. Alcohol made it pretty sweet and now I think I have a new buddy, but making friends is much harder than it sounds.