Boys toys

Autumn is not a good time for the FDMTG bank account as it contains three crucial birthdays for which the perfect present must be purchased. The second two celebrations, son one and two, both in October are relatively easy to shop for. I follow a simple recipe of driving to the nearest Toys for Us (as son two has rechristened it), pick the biggest trolley they have and load it up with as much branded plastic crap as it will hold. It doesn't matter what's inside the monster packaging as long as it's emblazoned with Ben 10, Harry Potter, Transformers (or Scransformers as son two has rechristened them) or Power Rangers.

It hardly matters anyway as within hours of being unwrapped it will be dismembered into tiny parts, scattered around the house and forgotten until some point in the distant future when they start screaming at me that it's their favourite toy ever and why didn't I keep track of its one billion separate parts so they can play with it NOW! Or until one parent or other finds its sharpest component deeply embedded in their bare foot.

The first birthday is the real test though, as it's my husband. If I were to win big on the lottery he would be as easy to buy for as his sons as he is equally happy with shiny new toys, only his don't cost £19.99. Remove the decimal point and you are getting warmer, but even then it would be hard to please him as the only kit that would really make him smile costs in multiple thousands and even if I had that kind of money to burn as a mere girly I'd be sure to buy the wrong model anyway.

A ribbon wrapped Ferrari, the latest, greatest Mac computer, a state of the art home cinema system and an all expenses trip to a Grand Prix, these would be presents he'd be thrilled to unwrap. But anything within my price bracket leaves him cold. So what to buy the man with expensive tastes and a poverty stricken wife?

Any suggestions happily received, but if inspiration does strike I will have to keep it to myself until Friday as he has been know to peruse the pages of this blog from time to time and I don't want to spoil the surprise.