Finding the perfect gift

FOR a Mercedes Benz SLK roadster the generous wife gives to someone so dear...

I find it difficult to buy a gift for a man whether he’s my dad, friend or special someone. Girls are relatively easier to please. You can’t go wrong giving us girls the usual flowers and chocolates, a day at the spa, cucumber melon body wash, or a bag. Of course it’ll be better if the last one has the LV initials, but usually a box of Chuckie is enough to make our day—or so I speak for myself.

Finding the perfect gift for guys is no walk in the park; rather, it’s a drive on a congested road on a payday rainy three-day sale weekend (make no mistake, I’m referring to Edsa during the weekend). I guess guys would say the same about girls. Not that the opposite sex is hard to please. Giving the usual or the expected just won’t do, for those who matter.

Bottom line, it has to be perfect. And special.

Special means that it must be well-thought-of from the gift itself to the manner of giving. The element of surprise makes it “more special.” Special may also mean unique in the sense that not everyone can pull it off. Lastly, and perhaps optionally, special means giving the best, the most expensive and whatever superlative it is you can think of. OK, maybe I’m over thinking it and I’m the only person in the world who has to enumerate the definition of special. I just get anxious and I usually wrack my brains out thinking of what to give someone, and it doesn’t help that a woman recently surprised her husband with a gift of a brand-new Mercedes-Benz SLK roadster to cap a party she threw for him right inside the Benz show room in Greenhills. Add up all the gifts I ever gave the men in my life and it won’t even come close.

Honestly, I don’t know if I envy the wife or the husband. How I wish I could buy a car for my man or my dad someday. I wish it were that easy and I could just pull out wads of cash out of my nose. Well, saving up is actually easy as well as finding a way to purchase a car. I think it’s deciding whether to give the car or keep it for myself that will be difficult. For this, I commend the incredibly thoughtful and ingenious wife of the new Benz owner.

...she gets this very tight, very emotional hug.

To some maybe it’s not advisable to give a husband such a woman-magnet present. I think otherwise, nothing says “I love you so much (but you better behave)” better than giving a sports car. My advice though: Place the documents under your name, confiscate the car keys when he misbehaves, keep a spare key, and tell him that the car has a tracking device. Placing an actual device is optional. You’d bet there will be no other woman but be ready to almost never get to drive what you bought.

Life is actually quite simple, some make it a bit complicated to spice it up. The difficulty of finding the perfect gift makes giving as exciting as opening a present. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what or how much you give, and when or how you give it. It’s really the thought that counts—cliché as cliché is, but wow, the thought of a brand-new car surely counts a lot.

Of course, a P4.12-million price tag makes it very special.

(Grace Enriquez is the PR Officer of CATS Motors, Inc., the exclusive Philippine distributor of Mercedes-Benz.)

Photos courtesy of Great Image