I suppose it depends on the recipient’s expectations.
As I get older I often want nothing for birthdays/Christmas presents, primarily as I tend to buy what I want if/when I can afford it. Equally I’d rather have something I want which is practical if not sentimental or romantic simply as I’ll use it. I gave up buying Mrs AC lingerie as I could never get it right! Equally she rarely buys me clothes either unless it’s a classic design I’ve bought for a decade or more which she knows I’ll fit/wear, but that becomes harder as the fashion industry caters for the lanky skinny youth.
I took a pair of Rohan trousers back, as the front pockets don’t hold an iPhone without it sticking out the top. More annoyingly I have a pair of the exact same trousers from them from a couple of years back, and the pockets are 3 inches deeper
Induction hob and a cheap whistling kettle. 14 years on and we’re on the same kettle though, I admit, we did get a cheap electric (a tenner from Boyes) for the plasterer to use when he was left on site. Said electric kettle is now in the loft for when we next get a tradey in.
It was a joke present. We had moved in to our first house that year and hadn’t much money so a well used second hand wash mc with loud bearings shaking across the floor was all we had. The Mrs wanted something big and shiny for Christmas. I put two and two together and made 5. I ‘hid’ the wash mc by having it delivered to the next door neighbour and Christmas wrapped it in their garage. They invited us round on Christmas morning and the rest is history. The young Mrs Bruss mk1 took it in good spirit, but then I had already gifted her something more traditional.
SWMBO made it VERY clear, 20 years ago, that it was VERY positive no to anything with a mains plug. It’s her b’day today but this year she said she wanted a particular room infuser and it has a mains plug so that’s what she’s got. Not sure where she’s going to plug it in though…
Update… the infuser (diffuser?) seems to be going down okay
A good friend of mine wanted an electric drill from her husband some years back for her birthday. He was worried that it was a wind-up and that he would likely experience what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an electric drill if he did gift this item, but in the end, he did. All I can say is if Facebook was a thing back then, she would have filled it with photos of her drill and all the holes she had made with it, as it was we had an enthralling evening in the pub, listening to her singing the bloody drills praises.
Bought my rega 3 in 1986. Just had it serviced having not used it for over a decade. Working perfectly. A definite advantage to things being built to last !
Looking at the ‘show us your woodworking projects’ thread, if the old muso could not be serviced, there’s plenty on the forum capable of upgrading it to the Wood Edition
Some years ago we bought a semi-detached house that needed renovating. The neighbours (who had renovated their side a few years previously, blessed with the previous owner of our house having been deaf) were very intolerant of noise through the party wall. In the end we realised we just had to ignore them and get on with the work, but keeping all noise strictly to 9-5 weekdays. So at weekends I’d do things not likely to create or transmit noise, and weekday eves I’d mark holes to drill or plaster to chase out etc, and my wife, who at that time worked evenings, would do the drilling and chasing during the day next day, becoming quite masterful. She learnt to ignore the next door neighbour coming round and banging on our windows and doors. Many years later, when we had a party and invited the neighbours, next door came, and apologised
Wow that’s much the same story as us. Last house was detached. Current is a mid-terrace. It’s needed (and there’s still work left to do) new floors/plastering/sockets/lights/overboarding/bathroom/skirting/&c. We were very concious of the neighbours so we stuck to 10am 'til c. 4pm and only 3 or 4 days a week. However we still, TWICE, had the neighbour around moaning about the noise. I said what can we do? and the reply was ‘all I hear is this tapping tapping all the time’. tbf this was the daughter of the neighbour who was using mums house to work from home. In the end, if we had anything super noisy we used to wait for these neighbours to go out and walk the dog. Then it was all guns blazing with hammer drills &c.
I’m currently planning sorting the kitchen out which means kitchen out, floor levelled, and then put back and changing some of the units. Then new worktops and sink. Not a super noisy job but there will be some hammer drill work
Interesting impassioned support of right to repair from the real technical innovator behind Apple, Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs was the commercial and marketing innovator - and it years passed it was that previous liberal right to repair attitude that supported the creation of Apple Computers - its interesting once those who get rich and successful want to pull away the carpet for anyone else - citing “its very dangerous” appalling hypocrisy.
Actually its got my blood boiling and I have literally suspended my order on my new iMac because if it.
I recently added some more RAM to our aging iMac to squeeze a bit more life from it. I used cheap non-Apple RAM, only needed a screwdriver and it was installed in 5 minutes. With the more recent iMacs this is impossible. With the new M1 version I’m guessing that there are also no user serviceable components.
ONCE… our company purchased a mac as a test bench. Not sure of the model but I know it wasn’t cheap! In order to get the case apart to add RAM the ‘approved’ method was to use wall paper scrapers to prize the case apart!
Interesting will investigate. I did read a review of the new imac in which the reviewer felt that in making it thinner Apple had made too many compromises.
I have just this week had to ditch a pc BenQ hi res display screen because the failure of a cheap electronic component. The problem is not replacing the component per se but having to physically break the surround to get inside. Similarly an otherwise perfectly good Dell unit was ditched a few years ago. No one wants to repair them and the cost of sending them if somewhere existed, plus the repair time makes the replacement cheaper.
