The Right Gift

Presents don't really mean much to me. I don't want to sound mawkish, but - it was the realization that I have a great many people in my life who really love me, and who I really love. -Gabriel Byrne

I love presents (if I'm the one getting it), but I hate presents picking. It is an art that not many can accomplish. (apart from Oprah Winfrey...not many others love the art of giving other people presents). It is an art form, because in order to buy the right gift, you have to know the person personality, the necessity of the gift, the environment and how not to stretch your budget limit. How do you know the things you give is what the person want or love? Does the person have the stuff you bought? Will he or she likes it? Hate it?....yadaaa...yadaa...yadaaa.

I ussually give chocolate, because you seldom can go wrong with it. It's nice, it's sweet and it's trigger you happy senses. Once you sink your teeth into that piece of chocolate, you are transported to this creamy and happy state of being because scientifically chocolate contains a few active ingredient including Tryptophan and Phenylethylamin.

Tryptophan triggers the brain to produce more serotonin (it is a neurotransmitter that help you have positive moods...you know like excitement like a happy kid in candy store). Combine that with Phenylethylamine (another neurotransmitter) it left you feeling giddy, excited, full of apprehension and a bit of ecstacy after consuming that bar of chocolate. It's the perfect gift.

Unfortunately you can't really give your friends who just gotten married, a bar of chocolate. A wedding need something more elasting (although sometimes the marriage did not). For me wedding is the hardest occasion to get a present. Sometimes I wish our wedding have a gift list, (like the American). That way if a person wanted to buy something, all he or she has to do is go the shop and pick a gift that somebody else haven't pick to buy yet. So at the end the couple will have a set of gifts the really need so they don't end up owning four rice cooker and three toaster. (which is not bad if you consider yourself owning a lifetime supply of rice cooker and toaster).

Anyway since we don't have any wish list...I go back to what we always do, walk into an electrical store and start looking for the nicest thing to buy (I think we can cross rice cooker of the list...I'm sure somebody else will get it for them)

This year alone mom and dad have bought 3 rice cooker as a wedding gift. I'm beginning to think that they have some kind of special agreement with the electrical store for rice cooker supply...hmmm

I'm not materialistic. I believe in presents from the heart, like a drawing that a child does. -Victoria Beckham