Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 July 2008 22:05:11
What do you get for the man who doesn't have a great deal, but tends to have already bought anything he particularly wants already?
Five weeks today, I will finally be leaving my twenties behind forever. I'm loking forward to many jokes about pension books, zimmer frames and Stannah stairlifts from my younger friends, secure in the knowledge that in the next few years, vengeance shall be mine. But there's a problem.
It's traditional in our office that, when someone has a "big" birthday, there's a whip-round and, in the case of colleagues who are particularly good friends with the birthday boy or girl, a few individual presents. Yesterday my team manager suddenly asked me if I had any ideas what I would like, as (and I quote) "people will ask, and no one really knows what you're into".
Perhaps that's because I'm not entirely sure what I'm into either. I love music and films, but I tend to have already bought CDs or DVDs that I really want already, and while there's nothing wrong with a gift voucher, it's not the most exciting present to open. I like football but I'm not obsessed with it, and don't support any particular team. I'm not a huge fashion follower, and my favourite thing in all the world - hanging out with my friends - is very difficult to turn into a gift in this context. So what can I ask for?
Well, I kind of like quirky presents, something a little out of the ordinary, and maybe a bit daft and childish - for further reference, please see the pogo stick Tina and Spike got me for Christmas, or the set of stick-on comedy moustaches from some friends two birthdays ago. That said, I'm not yet sure I can bring myself to tell my manager, "for my thirtieth birthday, to show how grown up I am, I'd like a space hopper please".
On a similar note, I'm getting my hair cut tomrrow, and no doubt when they ask me what I want them to do, I'll give my usual reply - "erm, not sure really..." - and just hope I don't come out looking like Billy Ray Cyrus.
Whatever you do, just don't ask me to make a decision. Because I might get it wrong.