A friend had her 30th birthday yesterday. She didn’t want things as presents which I can understand given her life situation. I didn’t want to just hand her over a £20 note; that seems cold to me. I compromised.
The first present was a £20 note. I hit it inside a Russian doll. Five Russian dolls actually. The dolls were 50p from the car boot sale. That’s cheaper than a card. There was a moment of “What’s this?” and “Why would you give me this?” as my friend unwrapped them .Chortle!
The second present was even cooler. There a lots of “the year you were born” gifts out there. You can get a newspaper from the year of your birth. I got my friend a 1982 Mates annual. If you aren’t au fait with the concept of the annual, it’s a book published for the end of the year and branded with a publication title. I have a collection of Mandy annuals, each with lots of comics strips featuring my favourite character. The year on the front is the year following the year of publication. I had forgotten this when I was browsing: I picked up the annual and thought “This was perfect if it was a year older.” Then the ice started to fall off a long-distant memory and I recalled how each Christmas you would get the annual marked for the coming year. The Mates annual was perfect! It had all the features you would expect to find in a magazine from 1981. My friend loved it, and her friends thought it was very cool.
