Present for Stoooo

What Christmas present do you give to someone who just bought a fancy Subaru?

I was thinking something like this:

• Blanket, picnic basket with a bottle of wine, a roasted chicken, and some fancy European chocolate, and point to the other side of the island and say, "Take me there, as fast as you can."
• Gloves and coat, along with a cold beer, soup in a thermos, and a sesame village loaf, and point up to Mount Troodos and say, "Take me there, as fast as you can."
  or
• "Why don't we have the car detailed?"

or better yet...

"Would you like me to drive?" :jumpy:

Wait, maybe that would be my present. The feral cats get more time in/on the car than I do. Right now he's getting clothes and cologne, which he picked out. I'd like to come up with something nice, and I need help. I get that his car means as much to him as well, let's say food and sleep do for most normal people. I'll get Stoooo to agree not to look at this thread until after Christmas. Or you can PM me, but nothing naughty, please. I need to be able to find a present here in Cyprus, and despite all of the hoopla, shipping things here isn't easy.

Any ideas?

--Trish (aka Stoooo's missus)

p.s. We were driving to the seafront the other day and there was a huge billboard with a leggy brunette in a skimpy red dress splayed all over the hood of a car, and all Stoooo could say was, "She's gonna scratch the paintwork with those spiky heels." Guess hiring those models to pose on his Subie are right out, then, huh?

p.p.s. I am trying to get Stoooo to name his car Sue. I know it's a throaty manly car and all, but, well, Cyprus is hard on cars. He's going to have to get a lot tougher here, so we'd better toughen him up by giving him a woman's name. Then I can yell, "Suuuuuueeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy" in the parking lot when I can't find him. The car, that is. Not Stuart. If I yell, "Stuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy", Stuart gets ratty with me and tells me he's not in the porcine family. Anyway, Stuart isn't sold on the idea of "Sue" for his Subaru, but he'll come 'round. I can always threaten to drive it again (see his Stoobaru thread for details on that catastrophe).

p.p.p.s. I am so glad I'm not in Minnesota right now. Brrrr. It's bright and sunny here, and we're in short sleeves with the windows down. (I had to use the A/C yesterday.)

 

Coal in his stocking then?

No, he's a good boy! Anyone have any ideas? I am just not a car chick, or "petrol head" as he calls it. Stuart and I played a game last night... name any model that I could identify without looking at the badge. Um. Mini. WV Bug. Pretty much 2 hours of nothing else. I don't really get cars. They get you from a to b, right? He couldn't roll his eyes further when I told him that I wasn't really sure why a manual transmission made that much difference when driving. Automatic transmissions still got me from a to b just fine. At that point, he did a vroom vroom vroom around the giant creepy Santa head roundabout and made a pffft pffft sound. That head really is creepy. It's about 15 feet tall and Santa's expression is quite menacing.

So you see what he has to live with, and why I need your help, right? Help out a Subie comrade-in-arms... he's promised not to look in this thread until after Christmas, but he will eventually. You don't want him to make him cry, do you? Or is it because you hate him for his car? Tell you what, you come and see us and I'll slip you the keys when he's not looking and you can take it for a spin!

--Trish

 

he has a car we all envy, i don't really know what else he can want.

 

Hmm.. is there anything related to the '09 Cyprus WRC rally that you could get him, tickets special events during the rally, pit pass? I'm not sure what WRC events are like. That is, if he could wait 'till March for his present...

 

I thought Subaru and another manufacturer pulled out... I thought he was lamenting the ending of the WRC yesterday. But maybe a local rally. Who would I talk to about that? A dealership? (Keep in mind that nearly half of my conversations with the locals takes place using miming so they can understand me. Going to the butcher means I have to make the sound of the animal I want and then point to the part of my body I want. I hate ordering turkey breast. Though chicken thighs aren't much better, especially since I like boneless and skinless.)

Any kings of the Internet have a lead? Normally I would ask Stuart to find this sort of thing, but that would defeat the point.

--Trish

 

rally links

Cyprus 2009 rally page
http://www.cyprusrally.com.cy/

Cyprus Automobile Association. looks like they organize the rally
http://www.caa.com.cy/index.htm

or, maybe a membership to the Cyprus Automobile Association would be a nice gift...

 

Thank you! I was looking at the links, and from what I understand, for a mere €3500, I can enter him in the 2009 Cyprus Rally, right? I would need to buy some Pirellis, I think, and I could be the navigator (I do read maps very well) Here is the guide... http://www.cyprusrally.com.cy/documents/rally_guide_1.pdf

Well, if Stuart ever makes a million euros, I'll have to get right on that. :roll:

In the meantime, I just emailed the CAA and asked them about volunteering possibilities for a WRC event, or any WRC social events that are open to their members. I know that the cars all show up down at the seafront, so I'm sure we'll be down there.

When you've got two boys under six, grown up time is a coveted time, and for Stuart, volunteering at a WRC event would seem like a dreamy-dream-dream. But if that doesn't come to fruition, then just knowing that I support him taking a few days off of work (and us) to watch the rally should be pretty cool, too. Maybe I can even join him for the stages near us, at least during school hours. I would imagine that most of the time is spent waiting for the next car to come anyway. Maybe that picnic could come in handy yet.

Thanks again for your idea, but if anybody else has another one, please don't hesitate to chime in!

--Trish

 

I like your idea, with a twist. We are going to get family photos done this spring (Feb or Mar), and I could combine the two photo shoots. We could get his car all pretty, my boys all handsome in their Subie suits, do damage control with Stoooo and me, and then take all of us down to the beach for some cool family car pics. I suppose we should also get some pictures of us in non-Subaru stuff, but that can wait for the studio, right? :biggrin:

I haven't heard back from CAA, and I doubt I will before Christmas. There is a different pace of life here and no sense of urgency to much of anything. They told me on Dec 1st that though Stuart and the kids were fine to stay because they are all European citizens, my visa was only good until the 12th, and I would have to leave. My eyes bugged out and I started to feel a rising sense of panic at being deported and separated from my sons, but everyone just looked at me as if I was crazy.

The sergeant said to Stoooo about me not being a problem, as long as I didn't do anything against the law. But that I should get my visa thing sorted out. They wanted to give me an appointment in January, but told me I had to leave the country by Dec 12th. No amount of explaining was going to convince them that perhaps I should get an appointment sooner, before I got deported. So, in the most annoying way possible, I camped outside their doorstep at dawn and didn't leave until they saw us. So now I am the proud owner of a pink slip. I don't know what it means; it's all in Greek, but I think it means I can stay. Either that or it's somebody's shopping list with my picture on it.

Well, it's tea time, so I'd better toddle off. But I am so not eating that Branston Pickle on Sardines that I smell him making. In the words of our youngest, "Yucks!" I'd rather eat bread and fruit with the boys.

--Trish