If you’re a man like me, or just an ordinary Trini man, you’re probably an avid lover of football (really, who isn’t?). That most likely means that there are two main things on your mind on a Sunday, lunch and SWEAT! Both are very important components of a great end to the weekend, and start to the week.

The latter is an integral part of the average Trini man’s lifestyle. Odds are, if you yourself don’t play football, a good friend does, and the option is readily available. A sweat is in no way limited to a Sunday afternoon activity. It’s easy to locate one for every day of the week… well, except maybe for Friday, which is reserved for beers and liming. However, the Sunday tradition seems to be the richest.

It’s something a lot of women don’t understand, but are forced to accept. I mean, if your boyfriend at least watches football, your weekend time is cut way short. Mornings are lost to the English Premier League, and afternoons to Spain’s La Liga and the Italian Serie A. If he plays, you lose an additional two hours on Sunday afternoon… Don’t worry he’ll check you after.

While talking to a coworker about my weekend plans, which included the usual football on Sunday, she asked me, “What is it with fellers and football?” I couldn’t really come up with an answer for her. It just feels so naturally ingrained that it’s hard to explain. It’s like asking me why my hair is black. Was just born that way I guess… Her question about our ‘obsession’ as the ladies might call it, triggered some curiosity of my own, and in return I asked, “What do women do for fun?”

She had no answer. Having recently broken up with her boyfriend, she found single-life boring and admitted that she didn’t know how single people did it; clubbing is no longer her glass of mauby; though not the dependant type, she has always had a boyfriend to keep her busy, and was quite content with that alone.

This seems to be a reality for lots of women. Many consider spending time with their significant others to be their extracurricular activity, which could include a wide range of things. There is always the girl that you start seeing less with the group when she gets a boyfriend, but this is not always the case.

To be more specific, my interest lies in the collective “women” and not the individual woman. I have read articles about the differences in bonding activities between genders, and the broad consensus is that males do things together, while females talk to each other. It’s one of those things that are difficult to fully understand about the opposite sex.

I know that some girls believe that “drinks with the boys” is some mundane, meaningless activity, which only involves “sh*t-talking”. Sometimes it is, but I can say, speaking for myself and my crew, that most times it isn’t. On any given day when we lime, conversation topics will vary from girls to football to social affairs to politics to philosophy to history to infinity, adding our twists of humour (easily misinterpreted for sh*t) along the way. We guys do indeed talk to each other, but do females do things together? And if so, what?

I know a couple of female crews that lime on not-so-frequent occasions, also usually over drinks, even if coffee. My empirical research also lists shopping and exercising as other optional group activities, but these gatherings remain in the minority. More times than not, women seem to do things by themselves, possibly lending truth to the theory that where there are two or more women, there is drama…

I’ll save that discussion for another time, and end on this note: If birds of a feather really do flock together, then maybe we should find another colloquial name for the ladies.