Hello,

My husband's birthday is next month and I was wondering if you could give me some ideas for a good gift.

To give you some direction, I think that he would not enjoy paragliding or bungee jumping, but would probably enjoy trying a racing car. Is this a mad idea and do these things exist here at all?

Of course, I would prefer him to survive the day, it would be utterly irresponsible of me to get him killed, so a safer option would be some kind of a gadget.

Or something else that is not a tie (that is what he usually gets from me, I am just hopeless when it comes to gifts)...

Many thanks!

Mine man's b-day is next month too! Can't wait to find out what we are going to get them!!!!

How about accessories for his hobby, that is if he has one?

For example, a long lens for a freshly minted photography enthusiast.

Grab the car and head up the saleve .... they do paraponting (base jumping) with a parachute. If it is a warm day you glide around as a tandem with an experienced person for about half an hour....

Otherwise try water skiing on the lake or hire a boat for the day.

I heard a new fancy phone has been released recently...

How about this ?

Here is one site http://www.saleve-vol-libre.com/ worth a go. I loved it and never do that sort of thing

Arena brought her hubby sky-diving

Dave suggested men bags and gun racks

Power tools always go down well with men for some odd reason. Has to be top of the range and come with as many buttons, blinking lights and hellishly complicated instructions as possible...

i usually go for the 3 pronged gift approach:

1) something meaningful (eg home made card, or a nice note)

2) something useful (maybe a pullover or something they NEED)

3) something they'll just love ( gadgets/books/dvds/concert tickets etc)

if he's interested in racing but you're scared it'll kill him, how about a racing drivers biography ?

or - for a thrilling but not-too-scary experience how about a hot air balloon ride (they do it a lot around interlaken)

anyways, men are definately way harder than women to buy for. i hope you find something good!

What about an i-Phone?
or a nice watch? I saw few new Tissot models that are reasonably priced and also have the "cool" factor.

Hope this helps

Not to be pedantic... but to stop someone from getting a big shock, base jumping and paraponting (paragliding) are two very different things.

BASE jumping involves jumping off a Building, Ariel, Span or Earth(cliff) with a closed parachute, free falling for a period of time and attempting to open the chute before you become a mess on the ground below.

Paragliding is more sedate and involves taking off from a hillside with a much bigger parachute already open and gliding around looking at the scenery etc.

Mixing the two up could have disastrous consequences! BASE jumping is one of the most dangerous of extreme sports in existence and only done by already very experienced parachutists. You can sometimes see them do it off the cliffs in Lauterbrunen in Berneroberland.


As for birthday suggestions, how about a spin in the ring Taxi in Neurmberg (Sp?) ring. You get driven by a professional driver around the ring in a works prepared BMW M5 at race pace. Would definatley bring a smile to most mens faces, especieally since you said racing cars would be his thing.

Don't know how old he is but this is presently marked down from 199 to 79 CHF at interdiscount.



its rollicking good fun and cheap enough to crash the s**t out of.

A mug with a photo of you kissing him. Hot drinks taste so much nicer I tell ya.

Firstly it depends on how much you want to spend?
Do you have kids?
are you free to go and do what you want when you want (so to say other than work)?

My partner's birthday was last week and it took me a long time to deceide what to get him, in the end i booked a holiday to italy for 4 days all inclusive and i bought him a nice silver chain....

but everyone is different...

look at http://www.geschenkidee.ch/index.html
it's in german though but i got a few good ideas from there....

you can also get to drive a ferrari and stuff like that on this site...

good luck

where would you get such a thing?

Thanks, that's a great idea, unfortunately he is already getting different lenses himself. But he used to be an amateur radio operator, so perhaps I can get him something (what?) to rekindle his interest in this old hobby...

Thanks for these ideas, but parachuting and water-skiing as well as other suggested outdoor entertainment is a bit too extreme for him, I think.

Fancy phone/i-Phone -- this is what he sort of hinted at being a good present for my birthday.

A watch I already bought him for Christmas...

This actually IS harder than I thought...

Personally I wouldn't bother, as video killed the radio star, the internet is killing ham radio.
How about getting him something as a start for a new hobby?

Barbra.

Yes, this is what I am talking about! He is not really interested in racing per se, it is more that in Switzerland you can never drive really fast and I am sure that every man would love to be able to do it occasionally.

But it is presumably in...Germany? Need to do some googling to see how far, how hard and how much it would be.

Thanks a million!