For the purposes of this post I shall call Dawn "the wife" to avoid hurting her feelings.

At this time of year I'm plagued by "the wife" and others determined efforts to surprise me with their presents for my birthday (tomorrow by the way, I'm 25), and for Christmas. It is nice that they put so much effort into surprising me, but they really needn't bother because I don't like surprises! Well at least present type ones.

You see, what "the wife" doesn't understand is that not knowing what I'm getting just frustrates me, because I can't look forward to receiving it and having it. It works like this, tell me I'm getting a present, and I say that's nice, but then I can't do much else other than wait to get it, which is frustrating. However tell me I'm getting a Humax PVR9200T, or a XBox 360, or a funky remote controlled helicopter, snowboard boots, etc then I can do more. I can research it, find out everything there is to know about it, get excited about receiving it, so that when I finally do get my grubby mits on one I can dive straight into it and enjoy it immediately, instead of spending half a day reading manuals and deciding what the best thing about it is.

The most annoying thing is that in a heartbeat I could find out what "the wife" has bought me by checking her email or looking at the bank statement, but then I would have to endure a fate worse than death, served by a women who will be with me for the rest of my life. And it is simply not worth it.

So to conclude, in the future I'd rather know what I'm getting so I can look forward to it, than be told I'm getting something and have it frustrate me for weeks on end. A simple premise I think you'll agree, but something "the wife" and others simply can't comprehend.