I think my dad may have just died and gone to dad Heaven. You should have seen the look on his face when we handed him his fiftieth birthday present – it was absolutely hysterical.
Dad’s always been a pretty easy guy to buy birthday presents for. Whereas with mum, you’ll have to be picking up on only the subtlest hints, with dad, there’s an easy jump to make from things he likes and currently owns, to things he wants. For example, only a couple of months ago he bought this brand new ute and he’s completely obsessed with it. I tried to get in with an ice cream last week and he completely flipped out, carrying on and on about the potential for spillages. His car is like his baby, I’ve even caught him sitting in it, not doing anything, just for fun. So, obviously, this obsession created the perfect window of opportunity for gift giving.
Of course, if you’re going to give some kind of car accessory, it has to be good. You can’t just grab something on iBay and hope for the best. You need some kind of expertise to back you up, and so after a week or so of hunting, I found this great little company that specialises in aluminium accessories. Can you believe my luck? Of course, I have no idea about cars or anything like that, so I had this really weird conversation over the phone where the staff member was asking about the specifics of the car and I felt like a complete idiot. He was really good, though, and just really took his time to talk me through it. He even talked me into getting one of these aluminium trays. They are the Melbourne experts and everything, so I’m sure the tray will be pretty high quality, but honestly, I have no idea what it’s for.
Dad freaking loved it though, and that’s all that really matters.