New boots (again)

If there's one thing I'm not a fan of - although, to be truthful, there are very many - it's people using birthdays, Valentine's Day, Christmas etc as a kind of voucher system. For example, let's say your partner mentioned some perfume or aftershave that they would like you to give them as a gift. Would you be OK with that? And if you would, why is that? Are you thinking "Phew! Now I can give them something they'd really like?" Or "Phew! Now I don't have to give that any thought, I just have to find the money? And why is perfume slash aftershave so damn expensive, anyway?"

I love the buzz of giving someone something that they're genuinely surprised by. (In a good way: I wouldn't give someone a tarantula, for example.) (Well, not unless they were an arachnophile and even then I'd probably give them a book about spiders.) Sometimes it's a matter of listening to people mentioning things they'd like or, as I did at Christmas, watching someone in a shop, dwelling on something they can't really justify buying for themselves but moving away and then returning to it again.

This approach does make for a more stressful run up to Christmas for a start, particularly if you're looking to buy something for someone you don't see often enough (like a Goddaughter...) But, ultimately, I'd much rather than than this kind of transactional approach that makes me feel more like I'm running an errand for someone. All of this is why I get mildly irritated when someone asks me what I'd like for my birthday. And also why I'm a little averse to giving people money or vouchers, although I think teenagers can be an exception to this.

Anyway, the reason I'm saying all this is that Charlie mentioned to one of her sisters that she'd like me to buy her some DMs for her birthday. And, of course, my grumpy, knee-jerk reaction to this was to immediately decide that if there was one thing I definitely *wasn't* going to get her, it was DMs! But then I really struggled to find something she would like and was getting a bit panicky, when I got an email from Dr Marten, marketing some rather lovely boots. So, on this occasion, I succumbed.

And - again, on this one occasion - I'm glad I did as Charlie was delighted by them when I gave them to her, today. (Her actual birthday was Sunday. I ordered the boots on Thursday but it transpires that 'next day delivery' was more of an aspiration than a commitment.)

*The company, not the doc himself. At least I don't think it was him.