Last week, the doctor stuck a needle in my right wrist in a vain (vein...?) attempt to draw blood.
The next day a bruise erupted. I used my hand to lever myself onto the hospital bed-trolley and it hurt like buggery. It continued to hurt when I put any pressure on it, but over the weekend the bruise subsided and the pain went.
This morning I attended a meeting, regarding the bastard building site five paces from my front window. You know how it is with these things; introductions and hand-shakes all round.
One of the characters, who wasn't even in the meeting, bone-crushed my hand. Under normal circumstances it would have been unbearably painful. It is never right for someone to bone-crush someone else's hand; particularly not so for a man to do so to a woman (and no, that isn't sexist). I happen to have small hands, but they're not freakishly small, and are of at least average strength for a woman.
My bruise has recurred and the pain is manifesting itself in a raised vein from knuckle to base of thumb.
I don't really understand why men do that. Or perhaps I do, it's a form of bullying and intimidation, probably arising from a weak character. I know games are played around meetings, but I would think that the most effective game to play is to give the impression of being a nice, polite, normal human being, and then be tough in the meeting, rather than acting all tough, which usually doesn't intimidate the other person - certainly not me, anyway - but makes them more determined not to be soft-soaped and fobbed off with warm empty words.
Or maybe it's just that no one has never drawn it to their attention and they genuinely don't know. I must admit, I have never turned round to any miscreant and said "Oy mate, lessen up on the handshake, wontcha." There again, my squeal of pain, instinctive shaking of hand to relieve pain and my daggered glare might have been a hint...
