Gifts your man will forever live to remember

Laura Akunga was the woman to end the month of June. She was on everyone's lips for making her man swoon with a chopper ride to somewhere for his birthday. Then a bow-tied VX Cruiser car, supposedly worth Sh10 million, had him over the moon.

But if you can afford seven figure presents for your man, perhaps you are better off buying the fellow a flat or a piece of land, rather than a motor vehicle.

This has two advantages over a depreciating toy like a Toyota. One, you can pass a plot off to your offspring. Two, you can always (secretly) leave the title deed in your name so if you split up, you have not pissed Sh10m down the culvert on the side of the road.

But most folks are just going to buy their man the ordinary type of presents. Shirts, pants, ties, boxers, shoes and sneakers are excellent Trojan horse presents to sneak your own sense of man fashion onto your man - even as you systematically trade those 'Boy to Men' shorts and 'Masaa ni ya Ngilu' campaign T-shirts from the 1990s (that he calls weekend wear) to mtu wa 'mari mari' for buckets.

A good belt and buckle is not a bad gift either! If it is a watch, make sure it reflects his tastes. No point getting a 'Flava Flav' watch the size of a clock for your corporate dude. Let cologne scents reflect his personality. Personally, I am a sucker for 'Tsar.'

If he is a football fan, you will never go wrong getting him his team's away football gear before the EPL season opens, with his name on it. (A Chelsea T-shirt with 'Mochama Mourinho' sounds muahhh!). If he is a reader, buy him relevant birthday books. If a refined drinker, a bottle of his 'matured' whiskey.

Think outside the box. Treat him to a weekend, and if you are really adventurous, invite that friend he's always eye-balled along (then, come Monday morning, never talk to her again. You've been dying to get rid of her for years, anyway).

If his birthday falls in July, and rent is due on the fifth of every month, and he always pays it, why not surprise him by paying it, just this once as a birthday gift, tomorrow?

Or if it falls in August, you could pay the third term school fees for the kids, and tell him that's your way of saying 'happy birthday, hubby.'

I tell you - you'll have Valentine's Day, even during Halloween.