:: gia’s blog ::

NOTE: Before you buy anything, you can claim a £5 gift voucher for Firebox here!

I’ve been ill, busy and otherwise unable to write lately. One thing my ‘resting’ has allowed me to do is get a lot of Christmas shopping done. For the past several years I’ve got pretty much every Christmas present online, 90% of them from Firebox. This year is no exception.

Because I’ve literally spent hundreds (upon hundreds) of pounds there over the years on presents for others, I decided to sign up for an affiliate account to see if I can earn some money to buy myself a gift (I’m hoping for one of these). I’ve never really been an ‘earn money from my site’ kind of person, but I thought I’d do a little experiment. So, I’ve gone through Firebox’s site and chosen some of the things that I have bought as gifts already (not necessarily this year) to maybe give you some gift ideas.

1. The Postcode Puzzle is great for your kids to your grandparents. You give the postcode of, say, your parents’ house, choose Ordnance Survey, Aerial Photograph, London Street Map or Victorian map and you get a personalised puzzle with your place of choice right in the centre in a house shaped piece. Sweet.

2. Dr. Who Phone Flashers. A phone charm which lights up and spins when your phone is ringing. My son thinks he’s pretty cool with his. I’ve been secretly hoping that he thought it sucked so that I could have it instead.

3. Mathmos Aduki Light is a lovely re-chargable light which is closer to a lava lamp than a bright light source. Consequently it makes a good ‘shagging light’. I got this for Brian a couple years ago.

4. My dad is really difficult to buy for. Well, before I discovered some of the weirder things at Firebox. The first one which caught my eye was Monkey Picked Tea. Little monkeys in China climb up cliffs which are inaccessible to humans and pick tea leaves which are then packaged and sold to people who have to buy gifts for their fathers who are normally really difficult to buy for.

5. Brian’s number one favourite gift last year? A limited edition Star Wars Print. Yes, Star Wars images on canvas. How very grown-up and not at all dorky.

6. Remember Simon? I got it for my son this year (*ahem*actuallyitwasforme*ahem*) . I’m totally excited for Christmas Day. :)

7. Another one for my son, the 20Q. It’s an electronic version of 20 Questions and is remarkably accurate. Except when you try and get it to guess the word ‘penis’.

8. Another weird gift for someone who has everything, except clean air -Oxygen. Just Oxygen. The other week I had a lung infection and wasn’t able to get enough oxygen so spent a week really light-headed and almost passing out every time I walked up some stairs. I could have used this then.

9. A very, very useful gift for your favourite Londoner – a Credit Card Tube Map. I gave one to Brian who said it looked like it was made for chopping up cocaine. As probably the only person in the British media who has never done cocaine, the thought never occurred to me. So, perhaps it’s useful not only to your favourite Tube-riding Londoners, but your favourite druggies as well.

10. I may or may not have got this present for Brian and my son this year. They are so going to love it. If I actually bought it for them, that is.