SWMBO Anniversary/Christmas/Birthday Present(s)

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Well, it’s that time of year again. Our Wedding Anniversary (49 years this year) on 20th December, Christmas, and her birthday on 9th January. All the shock comes within a 3 week period!

It’s always been a problem what to get her.
I’ve been through the various options over the years :

Jewellery - usually bought as matching ring/earrings/necklace given one piece at a time for each event.
She put a stop to that, saying that she rarely wears them, so they just sit in a box (must get them appraised for insurance purpose)

LPs, CDs, DVDs (used to be VHS tapes) - but she often never played them and they tended to finish up in charity shops.

Books - she doesn’t really read them, so a waste of money. She has requested gardening books in the past, but they sit on the bookshelves unread.

Clothes (making sure I kept the receipts). She almost always returned them and got something else, and has asked that I don’t get her any more.

For the last few years she has liked to get yet another garden ornament, which she she insists on picking for herself at one of the local garden centres - but that is probably not an option this year with the Covid restrictions.

I usually solve the Anniversary problem by flowers - must remember to book a delivery (by phone) with our local village florist.

She has no interest in electronic apparatus and such.

I did take her on a Northern Lights cruise a couple of years ago (never saw the lights - always cloudy). I hated it, but then I can put up with a cruise for a few days if I have to, but again, probably not an option this year.

I’d buy her a new chair, but she probably wouldn’t let me plug it in (I’ll get my coat now … :crazy_face:)

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I’d suggest booking her, ideally with a female friend, to go and spend a day, or two, at a spa, with all the pampering imaginable. Unfortunately COVID may prevent.

So how about simply pampering her yourself, making her feel very special? Yes, order flowers - but you put them into vases. If you don’t normally do so, do all the cooking for the day (If you can’t cook, spend the next month studying. If still really, truly impossible, hire a professional chef to cook either in your kitchen or deliver a gourmet meal - but with you acting as the servant/waiter of the day.

Play whatever movies are her love, even if you hate them, and/or if weather OK go for a walk together - you of course opening gates etc, offering your hand and bowing as she goes through.

But above all, just make her feel special.

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I agree with @Innocent_Bystander a day spa is a great option (if possible at the moment that is). Mrs Pete, my daughters and granddaughters all seem to be keen on Pandora jewellery at present. Mrs Pete just had 60th and got both.

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A weekend away where there is a great restaurant and a day spa, dinner, wine and a pamper package or two.

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Sorry, was just having a generic moan. She doesn’t want me to leave the house at the moment as she is due to have a knee replacement on Monday and is concerned that I might infect her with ‘the Lurgi’ (Goon show reference), so I’m on house arrest … She always suffers from nausea/vomiting after GAs, When she had her other knee done a few years ago, I suggested she have a spinal, but the anaesthetist (a former colleague) tried and failed to accomplish it. He said it was so difficult he would have asked me to come and do it, which was a service I used to provide for my colleagues, but as I’m retired/related, it wouldn’t do! She just says she’s not going to let anyone else have a go this time.

My original plans were to take her away for a long weekend break, or even another cruise (cringe) should she want to go, but Covid put paid to that. I think she would really like to go to Malta to see her elder brother’s grave (he died a week ago), but again … lockdown.

The flower bit I already do.

I cook more than she does since I retired, and I’m the one who makes the ‘naughty’ cakes and does batch cooking for the freezer. If she’ll let me out on ‘parole’ I could gather the necessary ingredients and make her favourite national dish : braggioli (she’s Maltese, and they are Maltese Beef Olives). The main thing would be to get to a butcher and get some large thinly sliced pieces of topside or rump steak for that. Or possible Timpana or Pastizzi.

The walks already happen on most days, weather permitting.

Just had a thought … she likes ornaments. Think I’ll go hunting online for some quality small bronze thingy (she already has a Burton Cooper which I bought her 10 years ago)

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She’s vetoed extra jewellery several times, so I’m not going down that route.

Before anyone suggests perfumes/cosmetics - she doesn’t use perfumes and uses minimal amounts of the other stuff.

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Hmmm, nice ornaments, eh? Maybe not a black box, but perhaps you persuade her that something like a Chord DAC is an ornament, or for something truly grand there are some speakers that look as if they could be sculptures, a matching pair of which could make the room look rather special…

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Don’t think I’d get away with it. Anyway, the hifi lives in my man-cave (study) these days. I did persuade her a year ago to get a soundbar for her TV in the living room (I’m only allowed in there under sufferance!). Initially I got her a Muso, but we had problems setting it up - for some reason the TV (the old, now defunct Panasonic Plasma wouldn’t talk to it via optical (no spare HDMI sockets on TV, and IIRC none of the existing ones were HDMI ARC). Got a refund from Peter and co (thanks!!) and bought her a Sonos soundbar. She’s happy with that, now that I’ve integrated into her Harmony Elite remote. Personally I think it tends to have one note bass and sounds ‘boomy’. I did add its app to her iPhone6, but she’s never taken advantage of streaming any music to it from our NAS.

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I generally offering her a day spa. Because not sure to please her with nice clothes that she may not like.
Or a nice perfume sometimes too, with some original form.

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SWMBO has just been up to ask me what song was playing on my system, then said it was a pity that she couldn’t listen to it downstairs.

I reminded her that I have told her that she can stream via her Sonos Soundbar, and she’s now decided that she wants to do that. However, she says I’ll have to set it up when she’s not watching the TV in living room! I’ve told her I’ll do the setup when she’s in having her new knee.

… mmm … :roll_eyes:

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Muso Qb 2??

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I agree with the personal touch and making her special but if she’s into (garden) ornaments how about (inside) Lladro?

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It would have to fit on the shelf on the stand under the TV, So not the QB2. As I said, I will set up the Sonos for streaming (need to read the manual to remind myself how!). I may do it tomorrow morning if I’m up before my ‘boss’ surfaces, but it will probably have to wait until I deliver her to the hospital on Monday.

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Every woman deserves a Fraim, just make sure the colour suits the decor.

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Don’t think she would agree. :innocent:

Incidentally, I use Simrak not Fraim. Alas Fraim wouldn’t fit (lack of space) in my study, and Simrak did make a custom level so that I could add my Arcam AVR850 to the right hand stack. (that unitigain input on the 552 is VERY useful)

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And you got away with that???!!

Respect! :laughing:

But seriously, in our family, Spa Days always go down well. SWMBO usually goes with one of the daughters.

I have Xmas, Valentine’s day, Birthday & anniversary in the space of two and a half months, so I appreciate the dilemma.

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Everyone seems to be bringing out a new book.
Must be from lockdown.
Instead of buying one. Get a package that involves helping SWMBO write her own life story and getting it published.

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…including her views on you, and your relationship/marriage? Be careful what you wish for!

A Spa Day might be safer…:laughing:

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A stay in Malta, the Corinthia Palace in Attard (not the Gin Palace on the north) -or the Phoenicia

Really good hotels . The Corinthia Palace has a Spa pool - very nice after the surgery