The 1st gift that the husband, then boyfriend bought me is a diamond bangle in white gold. I already had a good-sized diamond bangle which I purchased impulsively. I love to choose my jewelry, and I don’t always love jewelry.

He promised not to buy ring; he bought a solitaire ring as proposal ring; I returned and exchanged in less than a week’s time, solitaire ring scratches. As the ring was among the highest priced series in the jewelry shop, I had to choose another pair of earrings to make up the difference.

The husband has since learnt to buy practical gifts.

More than often, men are ‘trained’ to believe that the more expensive and glamorous gifts they buy for their partners, the more it shows how much they treasure and cherish the relationship. I am not sure if that proves to be true for others, but I think, the value of affection cannot be weighed on the scale of materials and prices.

I don’t really know what happened in between, but we are 5 years old! I mean, the marriage is 5 yeas old!

I am still talking about our love story and wedding day as if it just happened not too long ago, and it’s already been 5 years since the big day. Besides growing older in physical appearances, I think we are still young lovers.

So, on commemorating the 5 years mark in our marriage, the husband found a perfect gift.

I have loved typewriters forever. I especially love vintage typewriters. Like historic architecture, that once housed people of a long time ago, and there must have countless of stories within the building, or of the building. Typewriters, operated by a real person, must have typed so many moving words, formal letters, and stories of a completely different time and cultural background.

So much, only imagined in my head. That alone, fascinates me.

The sound of the typewriter is like music to my ears.

I imagine, back in those difficult days, job must be scarce. The sound of typewriter indicated that the typist had a job. Sound of importance and self-esteem.

Yes, I also love hot seals, envelopes, manual inking pens, and beautifully pressed letter notes.

Although I love vintage tools, equipment, and architectures, I don’t resent technology. I love new gadgets too. Some days, what we have and use will be vintage. I embrace the past and the now.

I hardly hint. If I want something, I take proactive action to make it happen; or to dismiss it as passing desire. I have wanted a typewriter forever; it is just in the lower priority group due to various considerations such as space constraint, and the time needed to source for a typewriter and the ribbons. Singapore moves very quickly and hardly known for keeping slow-moving stock – profit justification.

The husband has been looking out for a vintage typewriter, and gave several finds a pass due to unattractiveness of the machine and other factors. He had left his contact with the antique shop so that he could be contacted immediately to view new arrivals of old typewriters.

The shop never phoned.

He checked on the shop regularly anyway. A week before we left for our Anniversary Vacation to Chiang Mai, he spotted the perfect typewriter!

Needless to say, he bought it without hesitation. It was not in exact mint condition, some parts were rusting badly. He had the shop sent the machine for restoration – he was told that the restoration work will be performed by a aged mechanic.

The husband had told me that he bought me a gift, but left me to guess what was it. I made several crazy guesses, but I couldn’t think of anything that I really wanted at this time. I always want something, but I don’t need anything. The hints were that it was in my ‘to-buy list’, it had to be ‘made’ hence not readily available, and it can be used, but I would probably not use it often, and that I would not allow him to use it. (Oh well, the last hint was useless, I don’t really share many things with him, I even have my own quilt!)

My last guess was Wacom Inkling! I would love to have that, and it is taking forever to launch in Singapore. So, perhaps he placed a pre-order for the Inkling!!!! I was confident of my guess, but he denied. All the more, I confirmed my guess.

Today, the husband came home wearing a cheery expression on his face. ‘Your gift is ready!’

After unwrapping the typewriter, he went on with the ‘story’ of this very meaningful present…

More than 80 years old machine – Imperial Model 50 Typewriter, introduced in 1927

It is important that the machine is aged and dated back to way older than both of us – even with our ages added up!

The old age of the machine signifies that we will continue to enjoy many anniversaries, and celebrate our love even when we are 80 years old.

This sturdy machine survived World War II, and it still types; perhaps not as handsomely, but it still types decently, presenting a different charm.

The Typewriter

He gives me a typewriter so that I can type our love journal with this typewriter.

I sure hope he meant it as analogy! This cutie pie is not exactly the easiest thing to work your fingers on! I guess I will type a few love notes with it, but long story, erhm, please get a carton of correction tapes! This gorgeous does not correct! Say, it’s a machine of truth and perfection! ha!

Thank you, dear. I love the very meaningful gift, coming from the very thoughtful you.

Now, what would you buy when we hit the 10 years mark? Can’t wait!

What did I get for him, you ask? No..thing? I make coffee every morning, that’s very consistent loving gesture.