Sometimes here giving expensive gift to someone, really fills you with warmth
Putting effort into gifts sucks. Yes it is a gift and they don't owe me anything just because I gifted them something. But it still makes me feel bad if they don't seem to appreciate it even a little.
So my grandfather turned 90. He talked about wanting to try Kobe Beef a few years ago. I was playing with the idea to get him some for a while but anything more than a tiny piece is a bit expensive as a simple birthday gift.
Since he was a very successful butcher with a shop inherited from his father it should be an appropriate gift and not be totally random.
Now for the 90th birthday I finally got him a 400g piece. While 180€ isn't ridiculously expensive it is still more than anything I have ever gifted.
Well the reaction was quite underwhelming because there was none. I asked about it a few days later and they just put it down in the freezer in the basement. I said something along the line of "I hope you will like it. It's supposed to be the best beef in the world" and got a "Ahhh, is that so?" back. They probably don't know how expensive it is. Knowing my grandparent they wouldn't have accepted it or offered to pay me back, I am sure.
The problem isn't that I want them to know how much I spend. It's more that it feels like they don't even entertain the idea that I got them anything that is worth something.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Do you sometimes feel like you are in the Truman Show?
Today my grandmother suddenly told me that they have eaten it that it was incredibly good, which is nice. But it also felt like she was going out of her way to tell me that. Like she knew I made this post.
That seems to happen quite a lot to the point where I even kind of expected it to happen.
For example when I was learning how to para-glide. When we went to the alps, to do our first real flights with the school I was with, I told someone unrelated I was kinda disappointed how unexcited everyone seemed to be. I mean we where literally running of a mountain with a piece of fabric being the only thing keeping us in the air.
The very next day two people came up to me (one of which never spoke to me before) and asked me how I felt. But it felt so unnatural like someone made them do it.
There are many smaller examples where people seem to randomly know exactly how I felt or thought, but most of the time it happens after I wrote about it somewhere.
Am I crazy? Is this a sign of tuning into a schizo?
If you really don't know what to give and get a shitty reaction back, there is only so much you can do. If you have a relationship with a person where you don't know what they like, then you can't be expected to do more than guess. Maybe they just don't want anything, that's also a possibility.
I'd say just give something consoomable, nice, but not too expensive or niche.
I usually give some nice chocolates from a chocolatier, not some generic Milka or something. Everyone can see it is something special, but it is still "normal" chocolate, something everyone can understand. A kobe beef is just some kind of beef if you don't know what it is. And beef is an unusual gift.
Another thing is good or better coffee or tea. I know my mom likes coffee, but just has the same beans from the supermarket all the time. Sometimes I go to the special coffee shop and get some exotic beans for her.
My grandparents are simple people with no special tastes, they just get a nice looking gift basket with chocolates, wine and stuff like that. No real effort put into it from our end because it is made by a delicatessen shop and we give no further specifications, but since they have no special tastes, it is always ok.
