The Birthday Wishlist – First Dibs

Brandie, an old friend and frequent collaborator back in the “good old days”, is the first to respond to my Birthday Wishlist post with an offer I found quite hard to turn down. :-)

But I did because she always seems to send me things and I rarely return the favour. So. Knowing that she is probably crazier about cats than I am, I suggested that she looks into donating to a local cat shelter.

Brandie looked around and wrote to me saying that she will be putting together a donation basket for the Citizens for Animal Protection organisation, who included a handy wishlist of their own on their website.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited waiting to see photos and read about she and her husband David will see and do there.

So what are you doing for my birthday?

Black cat staring, Betong, Sept 2007.

The Birthday Wishlist

I’m away on a work trip from 25 Aug – 1 Sept. This is a scheduled post.

In my last post, I talked about how I don’t need any more stuff given to me because I don’t have any room for things that I don’t use. Since I have a birthday coming up (October), I know that some people will feel compelled to give me things anyway.

I’m gonna be thick-faced and give you a list of things that I will certainly find useful and appreciate more than a random coffee mug. I also included a few other things you can do to celebrate my birthday.

Things to do

1. Support your nearest animal shelter or conservation effort. Find out what the shelters need and buy something within your means for them. Adopt a turtle. Do something to help out the animal kingdom. If you’re in Malaysia (KL particularly), see if you can give the Independent Pet Rescuers a hand.
2. Gather all the stuff you don’t need and cart them off to a thrift store that will put the profits to good use – Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.
3. Buy a book for a kid you know.
4. Support your favourite local indie musician by attending gigs, buying CDs or giving away their CDs to friends.
5. Go outside and blow bubbles.

Stuff I want

1. Give me money. I can think of infinite uses for money, including paying off my shiny new credit card debt, getting stuff that I’ve been eyeing and saving to do more travelling. I’ll give you my bank account number.
2. If you think I’m irresponsible with money and will spend it on booze and drugs, here’s a list of stuff that I actually want and will save money from #1 for:

• new luggage – I plan on travelling more and am eyeing the High Sierra backpack (with removable day pack) at Greeks in Sarawak Plaza although I haven’t gotten around to trying one on for size. It costs a lot more than what I’m willing to shell out right now.
• more kayaking trips with Kuching Kayak – while I can usually manage this, saving any amount of money is always good. Anyway, I want to get good enough to tackle Bako in a kayak, crocodiles be damned, and one trip every few months isn’t going to cut it. Now if only I can get more days off from work!
• an mp3 player – because I need my music and my mp3 player is dying. The new iPod looks delicious, but any one will do as long as it can hold more than just 30 songs. With the amount of travelling I unexpectedly have to do recently, I need something to keep commute time from driving me crazy. (Thanks, Rin & Fariah!)
• a good pair of headphones – the ones I have at the office are flaking on me. Sound is not a problem but I have black flecks on my face every time after I use them. Nice noise-cancelling ones would be nice, to block out ringing phones and noisy colleagues.
• a laptop – I don’t really expect anyone to buy one for me because it’s something I’d rather pick out myself. But this is where the cold hard cash will come in useful!
• book vouchers – I’m always buying books. A friend once said it’s impossible to buy me a book because I might already have it. A little help is nice. I like Times Bookstore.
• Lock & Lock Lunch Set Bag – I saw this in Parkson earlier this year but it’s not there anymore and they’re not restocking. Have you seen this somewhere else? I picked up a lunch set from Thermos.

I’ll add to the above list when I think of something else, but this should get you started. Of course there’s always a danger that two parties might end up getting me the same thing. I guess you’ll have to check with me. :-)

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