Most random but ultimately brilliant present you've ever been given...

[Limth]

When I started my business many years ago, a 'friend' bought me a Rolodex as a bit of a bitchy present. As a 'fuck you', I started using it. Then I actually fell in love with it. And then I gave her it a name. And now I use it all the bloody time now. The 'friend' has long since disappeared from my life but Ms. Rowan lives on as my trusty side-kick.

In my 20s, I was moving out of a house to the other side of the country. I had stuff to go to the tip, stuff to go to the second-hand furniture shop, stuff for the charity shop, bags of tatty clothes for rag recycling. I was completely overwhelmed with it and struggling because I didn't have a car. For my birthday, my friend hired me a 'Man With Van' for a half-day. The sense of relief at having that help was better than any spa break I've ever had.

What random presents have you had that've ultimately proved to be brilliant?

I once (as an adult) bought my mum a ‘special mum’ type mug for Mother’s Day. It was a bit of a joke gift, I can’t actually remember where it started but we had a running thing about mugs with slogans - she had a weird horror of them!

As it happened it was just THE perfect mug for drinking out of, a lovely fine china but the perfect size for a decent cuppa and just the right weight and basically just right. She ended up using it every morning. After she died I kept it and I still use it 13 years later - I don’t really like my tea out of anything else. It’s slightly chipped on one side now which stresses my husband out but I don’t really mind, just drink out of the other side.

Also, one year as a stocking filler my husband got me one of those apple slicer/ corer things and I love it. Very handy now we have a toddler who gets through a lot of apples, but I also tend to use it whenever I have one too.

Love the idea of a perfectly sized brush for straws! Hope you never lose it!

What an original gift! I’m having a flashback to the taxidermy squirrel library we saw in an antiques warehouse about 10 years ago. Whoever made the books and furniture did a great job. The squirrel outfits were beautiful late Victorian style. It was so good we half joked we’d give it house room if we had space. Sadly it was too large - small dining table sized.

I need this blanket! Who makes it?

I had to Google this. They look amazing!

A foot long, hot water bottle.
I was expecting our first child during the winter of 2013 and my SO brought it home with him after work one night.
Best, present, ever!!!

@NoTouch and @Galatine . I'm 67. I have used a computer since 1984. I use my computer and smartphone all the time. But I also store contacts and information and passwords on my rolodex.... because it's solid, I wrote the information, and it's analog... it would need to be stolen to be useful, and even then it might be confusing... because the master passwords are only in my head. My DH despairs!

Ds1 bought me a set of nail clippers a few Christmases ago, one large one small pair in a metal box (I would frequently moan at him for borrowing mine and failing to return them!) I use them all the time.. not just on my nails, but I’m a keen crocheter and the mini ones work perfectly as a yarn snipper when out and about.
My ex was pretty terrible at gifts, but the digital scales he bought me outlasted the marriage by nearly a decade, and were only recently replaced. (I love baking and genuinely like receiving kitchen related gifts.)
I also wear daily for well over half the year the fluffy spa style dressing gown my mum bought me for my 40th.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea

Mine went the same way, I was so annoyed.

My mother, who was bedridden at the time, managed to acquire a secondhand cement mixer for us to use on the building work we were doing at the time! The most useful if space consuming gift we’ve ever had!!

😂😂 Need to see a photo of this!

I once bought a grown adult a Lego Chewbacca torch keyring for a joke and they dutifully kept it on their car keys for years, one dark night their car broke down in the middle of a forest with no phone signal and all they had to guide them back to civilisation was the Lego chewbacca keying torch, they told me afterwards that they were very glad to have it at the time!

There's a pic upthread

I love those tattooed figurines. If anyone else is looking at them please don't buy the little fawn. I love it but can't buy it until I'm paid in a fortnight!

A mug with a "Let that Sh*t go" message and a monk meditating!

I once saw some taxidermy at the local antiques market & still regret not buying it. It was two mongoose (?plural) warily eyeing up a rearing cobra & getting ready to attack. It would add just the right disquieting touch to any lounge.😂🐍

12 days of Christmas socks. 12 pairs of Xmas patterned socks . Ridiculously enjoyable to wear during the festive season .

Page 10 for mouse smoking a fag & enjoying a glass of wine.

Another one on page 11...

When I moved away from home in the early 1990s, my dad tracked down and bought me a set of the same soup bowls my parents owned (1970s garage promotions). Eating Heinz tomato soup out of them helped with the homesickness. I still use them - never found better shaped/ sized bowls.

In those days, Dad had to trawl through car boot sales and charity shops to find them. I've just done a reverse image search and found some in 2 minutes.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225772332209?hash=item34911464b1:g:IdMAAOSwdd1lAtZE

My best friend was skint one Xmas and bought me a boots 3 for 2 gift set ( she was really embarrassed at the time as all she had was the boots points and no money, I told her to save the points instead) but she insisted and bought me one of their food gifts which was a pasta set! It had a bag of dry pasta, some pesto and a pasta bowl, 25 years later that bowl is the most used item in my home and I treasure it.

She had just come out of a DV situation ( the month before) and was starting up again alone and I would be devastated if anything happened to that bowl!

@ifIwerenotanandroid two people had these in my life, my ex, a Johnny Depp look-a-like and a female university professor of mine, who had a number of taxidermies in her house. It definitely adds a certain je ne sais quoi….

@Ineedwinenow What a kind friend and you’re right to treasure it, gestures like that are the true spirit of Christmas. Reminds me of that Christmas story ‘The Gift of the Magi’, someone giving up the one thing they have.

How is she now, I hope safely housed and thriving?

Nothing springs to mind but I’m off to find out what a Rolodex is 🤔

Yes she is 😍 she now has a beautiful family and her own business, he on the other hand has done the same to various other women ( small town so we know everyone) and is alone!