I don't often write so frequently as I rarely have much to say... Odd being as I ramble on endlessly at the slightest provocation, but I digress, onwards.

I'm always troubled at christmas time and when birthdays are coming up... Not that I often remember birthdays though, my memory is about as useful as... One of those things that are made of wire mesh, with the holes in them... Sieve, that's it.

Pardon the awful joke, but honestly, my memory is such that I forget my own birthday, nevermind that of other peoples.

But gifts are something I always have trouble with, yes, it's easy to find something a person would like if you know them at all well... too easy, far, far too easy.

Finding something with a little novelty value, as well as being something they'd like, now that's a little harder.  One of my friends had a birthday/halloween party recently, her birthday is on the 31st of october, so these things go hand in hand, often fancy dress, often large numbers of people, often much alchohol.

All in all, a rather good time.

But yes, this person is similar to me in some ways, very removed in others, and I was rather torn as to what to get them, yes, I could have got any number of obvious presents that would be appreciated, but I wanted something a little more bizarre, a little more... Unexpected.

I tend to make a habit of it.

So, there I was wandering around the relatively nearby shopping centre looking for odd little trinkets, or similarly odd, but not inexpensive sizeable pieces of junk, that in the context of a birthday gift for this person, would be met with grins, laughs, and overall enjoyment, something to really bring some surprise and entertainment, and after several hours of searching, I was empty handed.

Nothing.

Nothing!

An amount of shops closing on, if not already in, the triple digits, and NOTHING leapt out as the present I wanted, typical though it is, if you've ever searched for something with novelty as well as value you probably know how this feels.

So, I continued my search from a different angle based on a conversation I'd had with this person a few times in the past, and after a short trip around the shops pertaining to this idea, had what I wanted...

It's a fancy dress party?  Well, I'll wear a fancy dress.

Doesn't sound like much, but as it happened, me in a leather minidress turned out to be a damn fine present, and the rest of the night was somewhat of a blur, though I remember cradling a bottle of absinthe for a time...  The conversation was one I'd had with her regarding a halloween party three years ago with another friend, in which I also went in drag, and according to him, his mother, and everyone else in attendance, the scariest thing about my costume wasn't that I was a bearded man in a dress, but that it suited me.

Go figure.