Can you beat it?

[baggygreen]

My missus, a 5 foot italian pocket rocket just went and blew all previous birthday gifts away by paying for flying lessons for me on a Cessna 150M, something I've wanted to do since I was a little kid.

:yeah:

What are the best gifts you've ever given, or received??

[HunterICX]

Nice gift! :yeah:

my best gift is the necklace I have around my neck with a small hand made iron cross crafted out of Yellow and White gold given by my parents when I turned 21 yrs old.

HunterICX

[TarJak]

That's a beauty mate! Hang on to her. ;)

My best was a bunch of laps in a V8 Supercar a year ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFA_rNIeH1M
Still smiling:D

[AVGWarhawk]

The gift of life:03:

[GoldenRivet]

I took my flight instructor check ride on March 22, 2002 at a time when the pilot job situation was looking most bleak *just months after 9/11.

As i was leaving the airport with my newly inked flight instructor certificate in hand i received a phone call from a guy at another airport who owned an FBO/Flight school.

"I heard through the grapevine that you are in training for your CFI, im curious as to when you will be doing your check ride because my current CFI has moved off and taken a job in another state and i desperately need an instructor." he asked

"Interestingly enough i just passed the check ride not 10 mintues ago." i explained

"Great! he said, your hired!... if you are interested i have a student for you at 8:30 in the morning!"

with that, my aviation career had begun on the morning of March 23rd, 2002... the day of my 22nd birthday!

a good "gift" i guess

:D

[Falkirion]

Damn TarJak nice. V8 laps around Eastern Creek short course. I prefer the long myself but thats just me.

Hmm my best birthday gift. Ironically I think I actually soloed for the first time on my birthday about 4 years back. I'd been up late the night before, rocked up at the airport with about 3 hours sleep, flew down to the training aerodrome from Essendon (YMEN) instructor jumped out and bam I'm flying solo. Great feeling.

[VipertheSniper]

That's a beauty mate! Hang on to her. ;)

My best was a bunch of laps in a V8 Supercar a year ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFA_rNIeH1M
Still smiling:D


Hehe, I'm smiling just looking at that, I hope I can do that one day myself, probably won't be a V8 Supercar like in your case, but still, blasting around a circuit in a race car would be fabulous.

[bookworm_020]

The best is one I gave to my wife. I got her a gold necklace for her birthday. She didn't expect it, the smile she gave me was the greatest reward I could ask for.

Might try and see if she will give me a V8 hot lap for my birthday???:hmmm::hmmm::hmmm:

[Task Force]

err... this expencive as heck pc infront of me.

@ TJ= Aww... I want a ride in a nice car like that also...

@hunter, wow, sounds like a nice necklace.

@BaddyGreen, yep, flight is something id like to do also.

[Aramike]

Flying lessons - awesome!

Best gift I've ever recieved was last year from my wife. A couple of years ago we bought a pretty large house out in a more rural area near Milwaukee that we fixed up, but for months we couldn't decide what to do with a certain room. I was pining for a room to watch sports in with my buddies (you know, big TV, bar, etc) but she wanted me to convert it into an office for work and save the money we pay on renting out a location in Milwaukee proper.

In any case, I ended up overseas for work for several weeks last year spanning over my birthday. When I got back, she surprised me with a completely finished sports room, complete with the TV, bar, an audio system, two rows of movie theatre-type seating, etc. Not only that, but she made it into a shrine to the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Nashville Predators - complete with all sorts of memorabilia and autographs. It was ridiculously awesome of her to do that (to be fair, my best friend got involved in the gift as well).

Needless to say, I gave her a pretty freakin' good gift that night as well - on my new bar. :yep: :up:

[baggygreen]

You might've given the gift, aramike, but I bet you didnt mind giving it one bit!!

Just remind me not to eat a peanut from off of your bar, mate!

The best I've given was to my missus, other than a big bloody rock i designed, was a nice baloon flight over the city with just the 2 of us and a pilot, complete with champagne. She deserved it, so i thought why not?

I'll see if i can find a link to a photo to show yas how nice it was up there. never felt anything smoother!!

[UnderseaLcpl]

Best gift I've ever recieved? That's a bit of a story. When I left my parent's house after high school, my Dad decided to move and sell the land. My brother was going to work in Tulsa and I was leaving for MCRD San Diego, so we had to give our horses away since we hadn't the time, means, or money to keep them. We gave them to a nice old couple in Weatherford, TX. They seemed like great people and they had always wanted horses, but couldn't afford them. It broke my heart to give away my Morgan horse, Charlie (or more properly, AMHA Challenger X) who I had worked so hard to buy. I spent an entire summer mowing lawns, painting, and doing other odd jobs to get him, and I brought him the apple from my brown-bag lunch every day while I was working (to this day, my mom still thinks I love apples:DL) Even then, I couldn't afford him, but the people who owned him gave me a break on the price because I came to see him every day and worked so hard. He was not broken, and he remains unbroken. I trained him myself, in my own way.
Anyways, I after I returned boot camp and interminable months of MOS training, I found out that the couple had sold both my brother's horse and mine. The husband had died, and the wife moved back to her family in Louisiana. I figured we'd never see either of them again, and we didn't for years.
Then, a little after I returned from OIF 2-3, I met a girl who I developed a rapport with right away(another horse-person). She and my brother's girlfriend worked together to find our horses and retrieve them, and they gave them back to us on my birthday. I'll never forget going into the backyard and seeing Charlie and his constant companion, Ginger (my bro's horse) standing there, munching contentedly on the grass. Even then, I thought they had only been brought to visit, and I said as much, but then Karen turned to me and said "No silly, he's back. He's yours again."
I will never forget that day as long as I live. It may seem like a trivial sort of thing, but there are few things as amazing as the bond between horse and rider when they share so much. To this day, Charlie will allow no one but me to ride him without a fight, and he retains the willfulness and elan that I saw in him the day I met him, despite entering his 17th year.
I could continue for pages, but this "Ode to my Horse" has gone on long enough.

As for the best gift I've ever given, that's a bit of a story as well, but I didn't really give it at all. I tried, but the opportunity never presented itself.
On the eve of my unit's deployment to Iraq, I spoke with a certain Corporal's mother (Corporal G, in the interest of not plastering his name on the internet). She had called him in tears, and he asked me to reassure her. I spoke to her only briefly, for ten minutes or so, but I swore to her the neither myself nor any other members of the platoon would let anything happen to her son. I promised that I would place myself in front of him and take special care to ensure that he returned to her unharmed, no matter the cost.
In truth, I had little power to uphold that oath, something I discovered later. Many times, Corporal G was on one convoy and I was on another and there was nothing that could be done about it. Mission accomplishment is the primary goal. Preservation of assets is secondary. Personnel serve where they are needed and that is all there is to it. He was a Security Humvee gunner, and I was an MTVR driver/gunner/ sole platoon light machine gunner. Our missions did not always coincide. I did my best to help him, though he was quite capable, an would have gladly interposed my truck between his HMMWV and an attacker, but the opportunity never arose. Most attacks were quick and brutal or quick and ineffective. We never really saw the enemy. I was virtually powerless to protect her son.
Nonetheless, upon his return, her reaction made that promise the greatest gift I have ever given. She looked at me as though I was Jesus Christ himself, as though I had single-handedly preserved him and saved him for all eternity. The worst part was that she plastered me with lipstick before I had even found my own mother, who was similarly distraught. I told her that the stewardesses had done that, which seemed to make her happy.
After the intial hugs and associated fanfare and a very talented school choir singing the national anthem, I tried to explain to Mrs. G that Corporal G's intactness was mostly due to his own merit and a bit of luck, and that the rest of the platoon was equally responsible for his well-being. I still don't think she heard a word I said. It's hard to describe without a picture, but the look on her face was worth more to me than anything I have ever accomplished.
The whole event still bothers me because of how little I really did, but in subsequent conversations with Corporal G. I have found that the most important thing I gave to his mother was hope. She knew that I would give my own life to protect her son's life, and she trusted me with his life.
That hope kept her going, and she showed that in her letters. Almost all of them included "Thank you for keeping him safe" or some variation thereof.
I think she knew that there was little I could really do, especially after reading some of Corporal G's distastefully descripitve letters home, but she held on to the belief that I would bring him home safely.

The whole thing is kind of a lie when you think about it, but somehow that doesn't diminish its' importance to me. Mrs. G knew I would do whatever I could to bring her son home, even if it amounted to very little, and that meant a lot to her. I don't know why she is so grateful, but I figure that that kind of gratitude must mean I did something right, even if it wasn't exactly what I promised. I'm not sure, the whole thing is kind of confusing.