Some pretty cool present ideas here!
Personally, I'm not too fussed about getting a gift - best present is getting all my pals together for the weekend after all the lockdowns etc.
Though my parents were asking about a gift.
So far my thoughts have extended to:
A bushcraft course (a guy I did the Skelf bike park does them and they look great)
A pair of William Lennon boots
A night in a hotel in Hebden Bridge my girlfriend and I liked when we went before.
Have also thought some kind of fancy/expensive tool I would have for the rest of my life, but can't think what it would be!
Mrs Davesport bought me a KTM Duke & some sticky tyres. Best handling bike I ever owned. Bit slow but cornering & stopping were up there. Thanks for reminding me this was almost 20 years ago :o)
Revisit your roots.
Laser quest and Megabowl combo at The Stacks, Dundee.
Deep-sea world.
Hire the inflatables at Cupar sports centre.
Followed by a Mully hill party.
I received;
- Kid-free weekend away including dinner at L’Enclume
- Tickets for Stone Roses
- my wife also found my hoard of tickets from years of gigs and stuck them all together and framed them which was lovely
My wife received;
- Spendy Wedgewood dinner set. She’d always wanted one apparently. Made me happy as it’s years of presents sorted as I can just keep adding bits to it!
- As the above was not a surprise I also got her one of those silly Dyson hairdryers as she’d used one recently at a spa and had said how great it was.
Actually @joshvegas the big birthday party I'm having is at a castle in ... Guardbridge!
All those years and never knew it was there: https://kinnettlesmansion.com/
It's behind the chippy
Not quite 40 yet but I've already decided I'll be treating myself to my third visit to the Whistler area and parents will contribute towards it rather than a party (I did inform them I'd rather nothing than a party, well it would be a party for 5 people anyway!).
I had a weekend in Krakow (staying in a lovely little boutique hotel just off the main square) and visited Auschwitz.
A weekend in Graz, my dad had the kids up the road at the inherited home.
Set of kitchen knives from a cutler in the city and fun times with Mrs Sandwich.
The then teenage Ms Sandwich got mild hypothermia because a jumper and coat isn't necessary in a mid-winter temperature inversion in a city!
I’m 50 in a fortnight, anyone want to buy me a nice pair of socks?
I'm 50 tomorrow, perhaps we could buy each other socks?
Can't remember what I got for 40, and for 50 I've bought myself the Lego ISS set. And I'm sure a nice bottle of wine will appear tomorrow, although I quite like @binners plan of class A's and a gig...
For my 40th I decided to ride a proper century (100 miles/ 160km) at the local Gran Fondo that happens around my birthday; it was a step up from the 100k I'd done the previous year on my fixie, so I figured I needed a proper bike. So the family all chipped in to a new road/ gravel bike (Ribble CGR Ti), which was excellent.
Had mine end of last year. Didn't do anything. Would have felt a bit selfish, especially as my partner is 6 months older the chance of us both being able to both take the time out is zero.
I was due to have a meal in a Michelin starred place in town with family, but my wife miscarried and we were in hospital for 48 hours. Normal things kind of lost their urgency after that. I think I was supposed to have had a tandem parachute jump as well, but that got postponed, delayed and then just never happened*.
YGH, it's a special/not special celebration. Do what makes you happy, or that gives you memories you can look back to with happiness.
I got a cake!
Never banged a prozzer though…
So you've done coke then!
yourguitarhero
So far my thoughts have extended to:
A pair of William Lennon boots
Nice boots, I had mine on today, the tan waxy ones. I would probably go for the vibram sole on my next pair rather than the leather which can be a bit slippy in the wet but otherwise a quality product.
For my 40th I got a Ceilidh. It was awesome, kind of like a mini wedding again but without the stress and only the fun!
40th isnt really celebrated in my family, only the 18, 21 and then 50.
18 was nothing, but i did get some cake off the Welsh prison service, 21 the family got me a small TV as i was in a social work unit, which was promptly stolen, and for the 50th I got a nice meal(Mitchells in Glasgow) and some gold to stash away for that rainy day.
I think from then on in, it's a celebration on making to to 60, then (hopefully) 70. I'm not really a gift person, don't really like receiving, prefer actually giving.
I don't remember.
For my 21st, friends threw a surprise party. I came home from work knackered and stinky to be met with a houseful of people. Which was nice.
30th, I was dating a lass in Wales and we had a fairly low-key party at the local working-men's club.
40th I don't have the faintest idea, I was with a partner who had perpetual wanderlust so we probably went to Center Parcs or Scotland or something.
As for physical gifts, who knows. The things I treasure most are little things like, my current partner had a padlock engraved with our names. Such a sweet gesture.
I turn 50 in a couple of months, I'm already being asked what I want. The truth is, I don't want anything physical. I moved house a year ago so I'm time-poor and anything that I / we have needed we've just gone and bought. I don't need books, I have more unread than I know what to do with. Ditto video games. Ditto board games. Ditto chocolate. Ditto pictures and nick-knacks.
An interesting single malt would be well received. I'd quite like some new pans and I really need something to wear on my feet indoors like sandals or slippers, but they're hardly 'special' landmark gifts. Lego?
Rather than stuff, I'd like to do things whilst I still can. Assuming I can get anyone to join me I'm giving serious consideration to taking a week off work and touring the country doing escape rooms, that's my Thing these days.
A driving experience maybe, I love anything like that. I've never tried rally driving, that's always appealed. Learning things? (Kitchen) knife skills; photography course; axe throwing; veggie-friendly bushcraft; anything else random and a bit off-the-wall really. I want memories, not clutter. I miss friends.
For my 40th (almost 12 years ago now!!) I had 10 days at Whistler Bike Park. Bloody excellent and would very much like to go back, but i suspect that it would most likely kill me now 🙁
Nice venue YGH
But I still think Cupar sports centre inflatables would be more special. RR ound the night off with a trip to Jordans it's probably got the same CD playing on loop.
I got 2 special draught belgium beer kegs from the missus, she was well pleased.... however
1. it was Hoegarden and Leffe - so not special (and she has the nerve to raid my Belgium collection)
2. the kegs needed to be used with a special machine that cost another £200,
so it all went back - still waiting for it's repalcement 1.5 years later..
for my 42nd however -well 40 +2 as far as im concerned im taking my bike and mates somewhere fun.. there i've said it... its my day..
anyway back to the op - physical stuff, unless its from a special person and probably isn;t even expensive (my most memorbale gift is the watch my mum and dad got me on my 18th, it's stil lmy fav to this day), i'd stick with a memory -so go biking somewhere cool like Peru!
My family paid for a drifting experience did 40 laps loved it, wife not so much as she had to stand on a windy and rainy airfield for a couple of hours.
That was in July as my birthday was in lockdown.
Happy birthday @mogrim 🍻
Pm me and I’ll send you some socks 🙂
Thanks, although I'm fine for socks at the moment 😀
For my 40th I got a Ceilidh
Each to their own and all that, but that would be my idea of complete and utter unbridled hell on earth. Imagine Hieronymus Bosch set to bad music.
Thanks, although I’m fine for socks at the moment 😀
Whoops. Looks like woody2000's put their foot in it again.
I got a decree absolute 👍👍
I didn't know what that was and suspected it might be something a bit fruity.
A cautious web-search later and I am thoroughly disappointed.
Cotic BFe frame in green that I built up over a few months. Its still hanging in the garage, I’ll be 49 next week.
This is what I'm planning when I get to 40 in a few months (God willing, etc). Modulo the "green" and "hanging it in the garage" bits.
For my 40th I got a Ceilidh
Each to their own and all that, but that would be my idea of complete and utter unbridled hell on earth. Imagine Hieronymus Bosch set to bad music.
Damn, and I've already booked one for you. Is it too late to say I'm sorry?
I didn’t know what that was and suspected it might be something a bit fruity.
Some sort of flavoured vodka I think.
Each to their own and all that, but that would be my idea of complete and utter unbridled hell on earth. Imagine Hieronymus Bosch set to bad music.
Ceilidhs are great if you had the dances drummed into you for 13 school years.
I love ceilidhs
I got a Marino hardtail frame for my 40th 🥰
I am shocked at the love for ceilidhs :-O
I'd rather go to a Celine Dion concert.
Oof. Imagine a ceilidh at a Celine Dion concert.
had a big party in my back garden because it was july - absolutely hosed it down all day !!!
everyone brought me either wine or scotch 🙂
Went to Barcelona for the weekend with my wife
Went to the Alps for three weeks culminating in the Mega.
People didn't buy me anything special really, I'm a grown-up.
joshvegas
Free MemberCeilidhs are great if you have a decent ceilidh band that takes you through the dances
had the dances drummed into you for 13 school years.
People didn’t buy me anything special really, I’m a grown-up.
Stop being so miserable. It's nice to get nice things even when you are a 'grown up'.
Stop being so miserable. It’s nice to get nice things even when you are a ‘grown up’.
Fair comment.
😀
I just get a bit irked by all the self-indulgent "which expensive watch" or "which titanium ego chariot" threads on here for blokes' 40th or 50th birthdays.
But TBF to the OP he doesn't seem to fit that mould anyway. And the essence of my comment was really experiences > products.
And the essence of my comment was really experiences > products.
100% this. But some sort of keepsake would be nice. You don't need to spend thousands to get "Alan @ 50" engraved onto a glass. (Other names, ages and engraveables are available)
100% this. But some sort of keepsake would be nice. You don’t need to spend thousands to get “Alan @ 50” engraved onto a glass. (Other names, ages and engraveables are available
Yep, ive still got my 30th birthday mug that gets used every day for drinking tea
For my 50th my two best mates got me:
- A pair of the Italian square whiskey tumblers used by Deckard in Bladerunner and a bottle of JW Black Label (as also seen in the film)
- A bottle of JW Blue Label with some Joy Division lyrics etched into it.
I was very humbled.
Tudor Black Bay red (sorry Chakaping) which is a really very lovely thing.
I also had a child free weekend away in Bath with Mrs LJ (who is also very lovely)
The kids made me a framed picture with 40 things they loved about me, which was properly cheesy but also a little bit amazing. I will be quoting it back to them when they are teenagers.
A big box of climbing holds and the iou for timber to build a climbing wall in the garden (as yet unbuilt). I did spend the day on a Spanish hillside overlooking the med so that was nice.
Update:
In the end my parents are getting me a bushcraft weekend and my girlfriend is getting me a label maker cos I've always wanted one.
Looking forward to my party!
