Mr. Me's birthday is in a few weeks. He's turning 36 and is completely in denial. The ever encroaching 40th birthday seems to be putting him into Safe mode. At the moment we're calling it 'that day in August' so as not to hurt the poor man's fragile self esteem. We woudln't want a reboot, would we?
I'm so over buying cheap plastic crap for people on special days. Last year we spent the afternoon at the antiques fair and European market for Christmas. It was a far more satisfying experience knowing that the things we'd purchased may go to pay inflated structural salaries but at least went direct to the pockets of the merchants. The added bonus of our outing was a lovely minted lamb sandwich. I don't know the last time I got one of those in the Virgin megastore. Mr. Me and I agreed to do the same with each other. I received a nice watch and Mr. Me got a pair of ivory cufflinks. Before the animal protection people get all up in arms, they are antiques. The elephants would have been dead by now anyway.
I was on EBay on Monday looking around for some more kind of special things to get him for 'that day' and discovered these auctions. The listing is of numerous artifacts and paintings that a mining museum in Wales no longer wants. So, you get something relatively unique and the museum raises funds for an extension or better equipment. Sounds pretty good right?
EBay is also offering further charity auctions. This is where charity shops can post nicer second hand gear for the lovely Internet public to purchase. I'm not entirely sure that some of the charities have a handle on it. I've just seen a used DKNY blouse for about 7 pounds. On one hand it's great, you get to donate to charity and pick up relatively modestly priced clothes. On the other hand, charities actually putting up the value of their donations seems a little cynical.
Well priced or poorly priced, the point still stands that you can pick up far more interesting and better gifts for people if you go outside of the mainstream. I love my watch far more than I loved the boxed set of Futurama I bought for myself. An ancient ring or lovely antique can show far more sense of personalization than something raved about in sleek magazines. Sometimes, rougher is better.
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1 comments:
I never realised there was such a big age gap between you two. But then men never grow up so its hard to tell how old they are sometimes. :o)
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