My sister-in-law Emily went to Singapore a few weeks ago to meet her husband/my brother Matt, who’s spent the majority of the past four months in a Navy submarine. Because Matt was deployed 36 hours after the wedding, this Singapore excursion was basically their honeymoon.
Before she left, Emily asked if I’d like anything from Singapore. The conversation, which we had over IM, went like this:
- Emily: want any cool souvenirs from Country X? [Note: At the time, Emily and Matt could not disclose the location of their meeting, and Matt typically can’t disclose his future port calls with us.]
- Me: um of course!
- Emily: what is something you would use?
- Me: I have no clue what you might find
- Emily: ideas might be textiles, potter (mug, plate, bowl, vase), pewter something-or-other. apparently there’s a gong factory, but gongs are too large for a suitcase 🙂
- Me: I WANT A GONG
So Emily brought back a gong, and it arrived on Wednesday along with some Girl Scout cookies.
Some assembly required. For reference, the whole contraption is about eight inches high.
So now I have a gong. And it is awesome.
Words and Light 
I did that once with my parents. They went to Hawaii for my dad’s 50th birthday, and jokingly I answered the ‘what do you want’ question with “a ukulele!”
I now have an unplayable ukulele that says Hawaii on it. It’s destined for a wall, I think.