Nephew's Birthday...

Its my nephew Mathew's birthday on Saturday. He will be 6 (Bless his Cotton socks!) and I am actually looking forward to seeing him run around with his friends and family that day, having water fights, getting over excited and high on the E numbers for lunch and generally being the centre of attention for the day as the adults sit around getting gently toasted in the (hopefully) sun.

What I am not looking forward to is the presents. Most of you reading this know about my hatred of gift giving. Long before I started to learn about the anthropological need in society to exchange inalienable items as they help to form bonds and structure relationships, I hated the apparent falsity of the xmas day morning. It can be nice to receive gifts, and I have always held that a gift given with heart is great in itself, even if it may be something completely out of taste. This said, Mathew will no doubt be getting a mountain of gifts for his birthday with PS2s and DVDs a plenty. I am left with the nasty task of finding something that I feel would be appropriate, whilst being fun and not something that will mean he will spend more time in front of the TV.

Anyway, that said I have had a small team of people helping me find the perfect gift that still sits within my modest (student) budget. There were some interesting suggestions, and I did come across some articles that I liked such as a badge maker and bubble machine... both of which I hope will make him giggle in the adorable way that he does when he is just showing pure delight in life, the way only children and the enlightened few can. Whilst searching through the pages of London's biggest toy store (maybe not biggest but probably most famous) Hamleys, I came across this small item which comes in at a modest £24 THOUSAND POUNDS!

Sorry Mathew... I don't think it will fit in the garden...