December 12th 2017: Xmas madness

This time of year is nothing short of madness. The line has been drawn in the sand and everything that needs to happen in 2017 must happen before or on December 24. Each day that passes the deadline approaches and the screws get turned one notch tighter.

To make matters worse, it's about now that you realise that you also need to buy something meaningful for loved ones and good friends. And it is in that state – the pressure of the moment, the looming deadline and the recipient's likely response that you realise the shopping environment is a many headed commercial beast with little compassion or remorse for the purchasing-impaired.

I've always struggled with that. I once bought a snorkel and mask for my wife – a whole new world, but it turned out it was a whole new world that she wasn't even slightly curious about. Boxing gloves, weather stations, purple lingerie (looked great on the sales lady), kimono, ski helmet with googles, moose onesie, full-suspension mountain bike, wetsuit, another wetsuit, surfboard, scientific voyage, evening with morepork, antlers, goat for a remote African village – all the most awesome things you could imagine, but no. Not a single one of them appreciated by my beautiful lady.

So I have realised that there is only one answer to a swift end to the anxiety of Xmas shopping: gift vouchers. Who couldn't find the gift of their dreams at Hunting and Fishing, Torpedo 7, Bike Otago, Hydro Surf, Rachael Morrison Jewellery, Box of Light Gallery, Michael John Jewellery, or The Esplanade Restaurant? Now that's my gift to you ... take it easy this Xmas ... on us.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS Seriously, get in before December 15 if you want a custom-framed print from the Box of Light Gallery in time for Christmas and order before December 19 for any custom prints. We have a range of ready-to-gift mounted prints from $49 in our gallery at 8 Castle Street, Dunedin – that's right opposite the Dunedin Railway Station and we have a 5-minute park right outside. Did I mention we have gift vouchers?