Last Updated: 20th January 2010

You've reached this page because..

  1. you'd like to buy me a gift of some sorts (for which I thank you in advance), and..
  2. you've only got a few days to get the gift and you haven't got a clue what to get ! (which I wholeheartedly appreciate is a frustrating and stressful situation to be in).

Well Relax.
Take a few deep breaths.
Sit crossed legged if that helps.
Let go of your pain.
Inner peace will follow in a few words time.

On this page you'll find various gift ideas. Some expensive. Some less so. All of them extremely welcome. And most of them purchasable (if that's a word) in just a few clicks.. you don't even need to leave your chair.

Let's talk about that for a moment. Is it ok to purchase something via the internet ? Doesn't this somehow cheapen the whole gift buying experience, and therefore the gift ? Isn't gift buying supposed to be about thinking of a gift, trudging down to the town centre, finding somewhere to park, visiting half a dozen shops to find one that has the item in stock and ultimately returning home four hours later ? Answer: possibly. But will it make a difference to me when I open the gift ? Probably not.

So moving on.. in no particular order.. the gift list..

keeper for a day!? Wow!I'm quite fond of Colchester Zoo. Of all the zoos I've visited in recent years (with the possible exception of Howlett's in Kent), Colchester Zoo is my favorite. And unlike London Zoo, they genuinely seem to care for the animals they house.

One of the things they offer visitors is the opportunity to be a keeper for a day (actually, I think it's half a day, but who cares). This doesn't appeal to everyone but I'd LOVE it! Right now this item is on my bucket list - so if someone doesn't buy this for me it's only a matter of time before I buy it for myself.

From memory (I'm offline as I type this) I think you get to pick which group of animals you get to spend your keeper for the day experience with. The primates would be my choice. Click here or the logo to the right to visit the colchester zoo website.

audibleClick here to visit Audible.co.uk and purchase gift certificates

It's happened. I'm finally turning into my mother. I have discovered the audio book.

It started with CDs, then I experimented with iTunes, and now I've discovered "Audible" who are quite simply the Amazon of audio books. If audible don't have a book in "audio" then it just doesn't exist. And whereas once the unabridged audio version of a book cost a small fortune, now they're pretty darn the same price as the actual print book.

In the last few months I've probably listened to almost a dozen audio books on the way to and from various locations. Where once I saw my morning and evening commute as a waste of my life, now it's a pleasure. I've even been known to enjoy sitting in traffic jams because it means I can "continue listening to my book".

I have an Audible subscription that allows me to purchase a book a month - however, currently it will take me a year or two to purchase every book on my wishlist.

Some of those books are...

Now, there are two ways you can help me get through this list quicker. One way would be to purchase the book for me. To do this click one of the titles above, and then on the page that appears (under the picture of the book jacket) click the button "purchase for a friend". A cheaper and perhaps better way would be to purchase me a gift certificate - this would allow me to "purchase extra credits" (at the moment I get one credit a month, and each credit costs around £7.. if you've look at the price of the books above you'll see it's far cheaper to buy books via credits rather than buying the book itself)

So, if you'd like to commemorate my birthday by giving me some audio entertainment, gift certificates, or even a book of your choice, from audible, would be most welcome.

Click here to purchase stuff from my wish list at Amazon !

Updated, prioritised, & comments added where appropriate!

By clicking here you'll be accessing my personal Amazon wish list

I've found that a lot of people don't like my Amazon Wish List. There's some resistance. The biggest problem that most people have with my gift list is that it doesn't contain anything that they like! For reasons that I've never really understood, gifts somehow say more about the person giving the gift than the intended recipient. For this reason I've tried very hard to select a whole load of things - at the time of writing it isn't just books, or dvds, or gadgets (although I'll admit there are a fair number of those things on it). But assuming for a moment that there isn't anything on the list that YOU like, consider this for a moment - it's list of things you can buy at amazon that I'd really like. I don't put things on this list I might like - I only add things I really want. I even prioritise the items so that you can see how much I like them!! Basically, whatever you buy from this list will go down well :-)

The second problem that people seem to have with the list is that it's all too easy. Find an item, click buy now, and wait for it to turn up. Where's the pain, the agony, the suffering - there isn't any. For this reason I'm going to insist on the following - if you decide to purchase anything from amazon you must do 50 press-ups first. Do these over several days if you have to but before you click that buy now button, fifty press ups. Propar press ups.

The last problem people have with this list is that they worry that someone else will purchase the same item. This is indeed a possibility - but only, ONLY, if you go slightly mad and try and buy any of the items from outside the list. If you buy them from within the list then your purchased item is removed to everyone but me! How cool is that!? (Answer: very cool)

Finally; Amazon.co.uk is my favorite UK department store. Of all the department stores I can think of it's the most helpful, the easiest to get to, has the best selection of goods and is usually cheaper than it's competitors. But unlike other super stores, Amazon actually helps keep small businesses alive by allowing them to sell their good through the Amazon store. Stop agonising. Make life easy on yourself and click here

Click here to purchase iTunes Gift Certificates

Nothing on my Amazon gift list took your fancy then ? That's ok. Let me encourage you instead to buy me something from iTunes.

Everyone's familiar with what an ipod is. Over the past few years I've bought a number of them - and presently I have three in active service - including an ipod touch which is like an iphone without the phone bit. I really enjoy using my ipods and not a day goes by when I don't listen to my ipod, or use it, for at least an hour or two. Honestly.

iTunes is a piece of software that allows you to get stuff onto an ipod, and buying me an iTunes voucher will allow me to purchase music, audio books, or applications.

Yes, iTunes also do audio books, and whilst their library isn't as extensive, or as good value, as Audible (above), they occasionally carry a book that Audible doesn't have. The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand is one such book. This is one of many books that Kate wanted me to read. It's downstairs sitting on the bookshelf even as we speak and it'll probably stay there, unread, especially now that I know I can listen to someone read it for me just as soon as a kind & generous benefactor visits iTunes (hint: click the book jacket), finds the book, and presses the link marked "Gift This Audio Book". Mind you, it is £15 so you might be more inclined to get an iTunes Gift Certificate towards the cost.

Although buying me an iTunes voucher might feel like a real cop-out, it isn't. It really isn't. I will be absolutely delighted. I get an enormous amount of pleasure browsing iTunes, buying the odd track here and there, it's all part of the fun. Each music track costs just 79p. So, your gift will be like buying me a whole wad of guilt free pleasure time.

Fudge Kitchen don't make fudge, they make taste-bud heaven in small fudge like shapes.
It's honestly the most amazing stuff I've ever tasted.
Mum and Dad bought me some last year and it was heaven in a box.

Click here to visit fudge kitchen

If you're reading this page thinking, "who the hell is this person", and "how presumptuous to put his gift list online" then I think we can safely assume you got here by accident and this isn't the page you were looking for.

Clicking here will take you off to a place where you can restart your surf of the information super highway. Alternatively, if you'd like to know more about the recipient of the gifts on this page and the webmaster of this site, click here.