I challenge you to think of a present for my extremely tricky husband

[Cinnamonandcoal]

It's his 40th. I find him almost impossible to buy for. Please help if you can! He is lovely and deserves something great.

But...
He doesn't drink alcohol
Or tea, or coffee
He's not into watching or playing sports
Not art, I'm an artist and we have many paintings of the kids by me
He's not into fancy clothes, he wears jeans and t-shirts and doesn't react well to people trying to upgrade his look (as he sees it!)
He has a car and a bike but isn't into fancy car stuff or bikes stuff. He's not really into status symbols of any type.
I've done photobooks before
Considered a weekend away but a spa hotel or similar would be more for me than for him.

He is into:
Gaming, sci fi, LARP, board games
Camping
Tools and gadgets
History, particularly historical clothing, weaponry and stuff
Cooking and food
Books, audiobooks and podcasts
Possibly something garden related, but our garden is absolutely tiny.

Budget flexible, we share accounts so while I can afford something expensive it's more about it being the right thing than an extravagant thing.

Garden tool bag

Raynesys Garden Tool Bag, Gardening Tote Bag with Pockets & Long Adjustable Shoulder Strap, Heavy-Duty Garden Tool Storage Home Organizer Gardening Tool Kit Holder, Dark Green amzn.eu/d/4NPgtxY

A book of aerial photos of the UK (or any other country he is fond of).

Tank driving experience day.

Wild cooking weekend. Forage for your own food and cook it in the great outdoors. (preferably not in a tinder-dry heatwave though!).

A selection of new boardgames and a glamping weekend.

I bought the game Strong Point recently and really liked it.

Ticket for a LarpCon? en-gb.facebook.com/larpcon/

You can do Bear Grylls survival / foraging type weekend courses

Iwatch for my hard to buy for iwatch, I knew he wasn't keen to start with, and wouldn't buy himself one, but loves it now, he said it's the best pressie he's had for years

If he's into weaponary and cooking, combine these and either get a forge your own knife experience or buy a really good Japanese kitchen knife

Parachute jump? Balloon ride? Escape room experience?

He may appreciate a Swiss army knife.

Firepit
Meat class at the Ginger Pig
Chameleon board game (so, so good)
Anything from www.labourandwait.co.uk/

A kit for knife and tool sharpening, and a lesson (if you can find one). Then he can sharpen the kitchen knives, his woodworking tools, the garden tools etc etc. Its a real skill/craft if you have an interest in it

Fossils? Last birthday i bought DH a fossil of a fish from the Eocene period (so circa 40 millions years ago) You can get them online from fossil shops on the Isle of Wight; Lyme Regis etc.

Set of nice knives. I got DP a set of Sabatier knives for his 40th last year and had the largest one engraved with 'Happy 40th birthday DPname xxx'. He's very tricky to buy for too and he loved them - still does!

This is a great idea. I've bought things from fossilslondon.com/ in the past- they have some amazing stuff.

DNA kit

www.ancestry.co.uk/dna/

How about a telescope with smartphone attachment? Then go on an astronomy camping weekend somewhere - there's some Dark Sky Parks in the UK, for example.

You can observe through your telescope and take photos of the Moon, for example.

This www.aldi.co.uk/gardenline-kamado-ceramic-egg-bbq/p/710081596330401
we got one 3 years ago and my husband loves it. Not just for burgers and bbq stuff. It does pizzas, roasts as well. This book is brilliant and goes into the science of Kamados.

There's Samurai style kitchen knives.

Gaming chair, decent headset.

Forgot the link to the book 🙄www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Coals-Users-Mastering-Kamado/dp/1617691585/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=1e01afe7-d1df-423e-8e10-e593bfc8b8e1

Indoor skydiving, where you go in a wind tunnel thing and get to experience skydiving without jumping out of plane?

This would be a good t shirt for him

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1268002741/indoorsy-tshirt-embroidered-slogan-shirt?clickkey=9505024f13c56249cbdf2be2075a6146040ec9eb%3A1268002741&clickksum=6e6f1083&ref=shophomeerecs_8

Don’t get him any kind of course or day out, men hate that. There are even comedy sketches about women who buy men an ‘experience’ like hawking 🤣

Anyway.

Re cooking-camping:

• outdoor wok


• pizza oven (prob too expensive)


• set of great knives eg Victorix


• camping stove


• Bbq stuff


• inflatable bed


• comfy camping chair


• hammock


• go through his bookshelf, work out which authors he likes, then look up if they’ve done anything more recent that he may not have noticed


• film memorabilia if eg he’s very into star wars

Cookery day? I've done a fish & seafood day and game cooking for DH

How about a dice tower and a nice dice set? There's lots of good ones on Etsy.