My Favourite Little Things
Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2004 3:00 p.m.
These days, when your birthday draws near, it's not surprising for your friends, family or significant others to be stumped while trying to choose the right gift for you. It's not their fault. I'm sure you've had that problem too sometimes when you're the one who's doing the giving. Our lives have become so complex, it seems, that it takes a lot more to please us gift-wise, unlike the innocent days of our childhood, when a teddy bear or a bag of marbles would have done the trick. The toys or presents we want now cost more, and there's such a mind-boggling array to choose from that people have to either
(a) think very hard before deciding that something is probably what you would like, or
(b) ask you to tell them exactly what they should get for you.
And the thing is, I don't always know what I want either. Sometimes I can't help you and I can only manage a "Uh, anything is fine, really."
Yeah, I'm crap. The thing is I have stopped seeing birthdays as an opportunity to receive presents. And my days, like those of many working adults, are filled up with so many duties, responsibilities, deadlines and paperwork that I don't usually have much time to think about the birthday except in a general sense, like, oh a dinner would be nice. You value time spent with people you care about more than presents.
But I have to admit that on days when your mind can roam a bit, I have sometimes thought about the simple pleasures, the things that make me happy even though they cost little or nothing. I'm not going to launch into one of those "beauty is in the intangible things" spiels. I'm talking about tangibles, little tangibles that make my day. Let me give you a list, in random order:
1. seashells
2. pencils (2B)
3. the black-ink Pilot G-2 0.7 pen
4. a pencil case, large enough for my writing instruments, pencil sharpener, correction fluid and ruler
5. blank books
6. dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts
7. coffee mugs
8. annoyingly cute but irresistible and immaculately packaged Japanese snacks, like the Meiji Chocolate Panda biscuit. (These are small biscuit balls with a chocolate centre and panda pictures printed on them. I kid you not).
9. mug of hot chocolate
10. mug of cappucchino (sp? too lazy to check)
11. lilies, white or pink
12. a freshly-baked baguette
13. a red-ink pen (guess my job)
14. Washington Red Delicious apples
15. hand-made cards
16. incense sticks (sandalwood)
17. vanilla-scented candles
18. cranberry juice
19. baked potato
20. pancakes
I must confess that I was struggling a bit after I passed No. 12. I was distracted by other goings-on in the staff room. Also I ran low on ideas. I notice that the things that make me happy seem to centre around food and paper-based objects. So ideally I should be a full-time writer, working on paper and munching on chocolate, apples and baguette during breaks to get my creative juices flowing. I would also be a rather corpulent writer, I must add.
I'm still happy I went through the exercise. This way if people ask me what I would like for my birthday and I can't think of anything off the top of my head I can refer them to this page and they can pick something off the list. I know some of you might go, "Yeah, right, sure you'll be happy if I give you a pen." If it's THE Pilot G-2 0.7, in black, you bet I would.
Older entries
Ramadan - 08 October 2006
Where I Have Been - 03 October 2006
Baby Talk - 10 August 2006
6 Weeks of Separation - 16 July 2006
Unacceptable Rudeness - 21 June 2006