OT: Disguised presents?

[T i m]

Hi all and seasons greetings etc.

I'm sure I'm not alone here in that if someone gives you a present it's often very easy to tell what it is pre unwrapping with a quick feel and shake? [1]

As you get older you may learn to suppress such 'skills' (so as to not take the moment away from the giver etc) or you can do what I'm sure many people do and disguise the present somehow.

So, with that in mind ... yesterday, daughter (22) handed me a long triangular present and with the 'go on, guess what it is' challenge.

Well, my first thought was 'Toblerone' (as I quite like the stuff), the package was the right length, shape and weight, the end to end movement of the contents was a tiny bit 'loose' but what really felt wrong was the CoG?

I'd worked all this out within about 2 seconds. So I replied "it's something disguised as a Toblerone". After being called a few names, she handed me a second package that 'felt right' (for a Toblerone).

This it what was inside the first package:

(front, the false carton in the middle, real thing at the back):

had even wrapped the false bar in silver foil so it made the same noise as it moved. I had to give her 10:10 for effort. ;-)

Ironically, she wasn't able to work out what the rugby ball shaped / sized package I gave her was till she had removed several layers and balls of screwed up newspaper. She was chuffed with a 1.5TB hard drive for her PC none the less. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. She also mentioned she wasn't sure what I'd think if I caught her constructing her decoy, seeing the letter scales and silver foil etc. ;-)

[1] She just held up and shook once a small, wrapped, rectangular box at me and I instantly said 'Maltesers' (but that's an easy one eh). ;-)

[Owain]

It's part of the fun, isn't it.

I was hoping for After 8 Mints but found screen wipes.

Owain

[Broadback]

Think yourself lucky, better than wet wipes, that would have told you something! :-))

[Tim Streater]

No, the CoG would be in the right place, judging by the pix. What would be wrong would be the Moment of Inertia, which measures its resistance to being *spun*. If she'd put the coins at the *ends* of the fake (in equal amounts) then it would still have had the CoG in the right place, but it would have been much harder to spin.

What you have subconsciously stored up from previous T-bars of that size is its MoI, based on the fact that a real one has a uniform distribution of material (i.e., choccy, yum!) along its length, whereas the fake would have a lower (i.e., "wrong") MoI, and you detected that in handling it.

What she should have done is, assuming she put in a weight of coins equal to the weight of choccy, was to distribute the coins *evenly* along the length of the bar. *That* would have done you!

Happy chomping :-)

[ARW]

Love it. My Dad never guessed that it was a house brick I gave him a few years ago and he is the master of guessing.

[Andy Champ]

I gave up on this when the kids were small. /She/ asked for some CDs, so I arranged three of them into a triangular shape and wrapped it carefully.

Son went into the other room and excitedly announced "Daddy's made a CD house".

Andy

[T i m]

I think so. ;-)

But they could come in handy when you get some mints yourself as screen wipes also work ok on fingers.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Ah yes, I didn't think CoG was right when I typed it but I meant what you just said. ;-)

It is clever isn't it, the human brain (even mine). I wasn't even ready for a trick / test as such but something felt wrong (I'd also had a Tennant's SL at that point). ;-)

Yup.

Well ... I think the final test would be to feel for the segments though the cardboard.

Cheers! ;-)

T i m

[T i m]

So, OOI, was this a 'that's the first brick towards the new house I'm going to build you' or 'knock yourself out (please)' moment? ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Doh! ;-)

This disguising lark can backfire of course. We (the family) bought daughters (now living with us, his own family going through some issue so we though we would try to cheer him up a bit etc)) b/f a selection of cycle parts for a s/h bike daughter bought him a while back. Crud guards, lights, bell, puncture resistant tyres, lock and pump etc etc.

I suggested she disguise the mini pump up a bit so she lengthened it with some old kitchen-roll cardboard tubes pre wrapping it up.

On the day we challenged him to guess the individual packages and he 'guessed' the pump was the fancy set of bars he had always wanted. ;-(

He was also a bit disappointed the 'Crispy pancakes' packet contained a pair of handlebar grips. ;-)

For a bit of fun we also included some pink / silver handlebar tassels and the frightening thing is I *know* he will fit them the next time we all go out for a bike ride! [1] ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[1] No, he's not 'that way' but is up for a laugh. ;-)

[ARW]

He just needed one brick to match the existing house bricks.

[T i m]

Ah. ;-)

And that isn't necessarily always as easy as it sounds (as we found when we wanted some matching Victorian red and yellow stocks to extend this place). Well, you could get them but not always at affordable prices.

It wasn't easy to get some that had also spent ~100 years close to a railway line and were equally covered in coal soot.

Cheers, T i m

[ARW]

I also bought him a DeWalt drill to remove the old brick - that was the surprise.

[T i m]

Nice surprise.

That said, many of my socks have holes in now but I'd still go completely sockless for a decent new power tool. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[SteveW]

I once gave a box of chocolates where I'd carefully removed the cellophane wrapper, swapped all the chocolates for fruit jellies, replaced the wrapper and carefully re-sealed it - I later handed over the chocolates in a bag.

SteveW

[T i m]

Hehe, that must have thrown them for a while?

The other trick with consumables of course is to gift something you know they don't like (or don't like all flavours etc). Like the Mrs doesn't like coffee flavoured chocolates ... or need an SDS drill ...

I realised quite recently I like chocolate liqueurs (which is sorta weird as I don't normally drink 'spirits'). Luckily, no one else in the house likes chocolate liqueurs.

Cheers, T i m

[polygonum]

Wondering, why do you "gift" something rather than "give" it?

Seems to be extremely common and yet consistently jars with me. Probably me being dumb/pendatic/old fart who doesn't lie change.

[Bob Eager]

I have a strategy of not eating any of the blue (coconut) Quality Street. Not because I don't like them...on the contrary, I am the only one who does.

Until that's all there is left...

[Graham.]

When my wife was a child, her uncle owned a sweet shop. Quality street was dispensed from a large glass jar and sold by the quarter. Customers would never get a green triangle.

Guess whose favourite was green triangles.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Years ago a girlfriend mentioned she didn't like salted peanuts but did like them unsalted.

I bought several(*) packets of KP salted nuts, very carefully opened one, removed, washed & replaced the nuts, glued the bag shut again, and finally very carefully changed the artwork on the packet to remove all mention of salt. (No, probably I changed the artwork while the bag was flat and empty

- can't remember though.)

All this effort was completely unappreciated. She didn't notice the new unsalted description, didn't care, and - even when it was all pointed out - just thought I was an idiot. I think I still have the bag somewhere.

• because I had to do various experiments to find the best way to open and then reseal the bag, as invisibly as possible, eg trying different glues. Also I needed to experiment with ink/enamel paint for changing the artwork. I seem to remember the bags were blue with white writing and I think I may also have stuck some tiny slivers of white sticky labels onto the bag.