It’s that time of the year when the pitiless wind cuts and keens through the empty reaches of gloomy streets, when the snaking neon red reflections of car taillights dance on the soul-black surface of rain-lashed roads and when, if you are brave or mad enough to venture out into the cold and the gloom, the steely chill slices through your flesh to the very marrow of your bones. Yes! Winter is upon us once again with its companion soundtrack of sniffs and snivels, coughs and sneezes. And, as every woman knows, it is ”man flu” season again.

Some claim man flu is a term coined by hard-hearted wives and girlfriends, who refuse to acknowledge the genuine suffering of their menfolk. He coughs. He snivels and sneezes. He looks to her for tea and sympathy and, what does he get? He cops derision and scorn. He gets a box of tissues, the remote shoved in his hands and instructions on how to open a sachet of Lemsip without assistance from the State Emergency Service, and that’s about it.

Read more at The Canberra Times 13 Jun 2012: Winter Winds Bring Out One Thing: Man Flu