As I mentioned recently, this week is back to school week. I’ve been seeing lots of greetings between old friends on the train as kids get together after a summer apart. This has highlighted a significant difference between the sexes.
The girls employ the “squeal-hug” technique: they see each other, they squeal at each other, and they run into a warm embrace which lasts several seconds. They then talk at high speed about everything that happened to them over the summer.
The boys on the other hand use the “grunt-slap-bump” technique: they grunt at each other in a manly way, they perform some variety of hand slap, optionally involving extra twiddly bits if they’re trying to look really cool, then they bump opposing shoulders, as if they are trying to hug but miss.
These are the things I notice while travelling to work.