Men are goal-oriented shoppers. They’re on a mission, and they shop to win or to complete a goal while women are more likely to shop around and look for deals, according to research from Nielsen NeuroFocus.

Hot Danish typed four words into Google-image search, ‘Black & white photographs’.
‘Is this your approach to finding artwork for our bedroom?’ I suppressed a laugh.

HD believes black-and-white is calming (he’s not a morning person); I believe black-and-white suits profiles best and I don’t want to wake up looking at pictures of people. So I did some research (exhibitions I’ve been to, galleries I like, artists/gallery owners I’ve interviewed) and forwarded some alternative profiles from ingenious graphic artist Noma Bar, a dreamy photo from Edith Maybin [Michael Hoppen Gallery], a couple of glam images from Patrick Lichfield and Terry O’Neil [The Little Black Gallery] and some pics from our past holidays – it would be lovely if we could find something really personal…

Most of us can agree that men would rather be drinking mulled wine or anything but shopping during the madness of the holiday season. But one man in China took the stress of being dragged round the shops by his girlfriend to another level (seven storeys to be exact), which was recently reported in the Daily Mail.

HD has yet to respond to any of the artwork images I forwarded him. In fact, he’s moved onto browsing online for cars. ‘Wasn’t he looking for cars when I visited last year?’ Kate said. Perhaps men aren’t as compulsive shoppers as Nielsen’s survey suggests. Or perhaps the pressure of achieving the end goal can lead to procrastination at best…