the good, the cool and the (very) bizarre

Nice things I got there...a big fragrant bunch of roses from TD, bath salts with herbs and flowers from colleague B., a super-cool T-shirt from FCN saying "Jage nur, was du auch erlegen kannst" (only hunt what you are capable of slaying) and a watch I bought myself in my lunch-break as my great-aunt had instructed me on the phone on Sunday to buy myself something nice, she'd refund me later. I did not have to be told twice.

I got lots of other lovely things from my even lovelier colleagues. One of them proved not to be so lovely, in fact pretty much ruining my birthday, but that's another story. Another one of them, AFOS, took the biscuit with her gift as usual:

It apparently is a "night face cap" and according to AFOS' instructions you put it over your head at night in order to prevent potential loss of moisture. Hmmmm. More Guantanamo Bay than beauty treatment in my mind, but that's the Japanese for you. B. who got the same gift for her birthday 10 days before mine offended AFOS by replying to her question if she'd tried it out yet that she'd rather wait for her boyfriend to return from his business trip abroad before she slept with a bag over her head, risking suffocation with no one round to help her.
In previous years, B. and I received the following offerings from AFOS, always purchased on a holiday home in Tokyo: a Japanese toilet air freshener (!), a spice set for Indian curries and a very uncomfortable spongy contraption to put on your toes when painting your toe-nails. Last year, we got something she bought here in Vienna, but which was just as useless: a stainless steel mug to keep coffee warm in your car and which has to be plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. B. at least commutes to work every day but on my rare car-trips to IKEA on the weekends I can just about manage my coffee withdrawal symptoms...