Swiss Knives and I

Early on in my paralysis, there was no Wheelmobile that could take me places. I had a driver then, which was great. He was strong enough to carry me into and out of the car. But he wanted a pay increase and I couldn’t afford that. He left.

Then I got married and had a driver of sorts – my husband. But that limited me – he could take me out only on weekends. Plus I couldn’t buy him presents without his knowing. So I resorted to asking good friends to buy him his Christmas present, his birthday present, etc. One of these presents was a Swiss knife. A classmate told me she had gotten one for her husband, did I want her to get me one for mine? I concurred. And thus did my personal adventure with Swiss knives commence.

Fast forward to 2009 when we went to Interlaken. There was this quaint store manned by a couple, not a young couple but an old one. Son got a Swiss knife for what he believed was a steal, with free engraving at that. I found some magnets for pasalubong and got a few. The couple must have appreciated our patronage so that when we asked to buy this, they gave it to us for free:

That’s not a real Swiss knife, but a chocolate Swiss knife. We thanked them profusely.

Incidentally, at that shop I also got two Swiss knives, both in this design. I thought I was such a genius to have found “printed” Swiss knives – with edelweiss flowers to boot. I gave them as pasalubong and proudly told the recipients they were special.

Alas and alack, a few months later, I found them in this store in Greenbelt. So much for my serendipity:

But wait, there’s more (I just couldn’t resist using that line from TV shopping and Eat Bulaga). CE had many other designs to boot. I’ve since bought maybe two or three for gifting, never for myself because I had a bad experience with scissors before – we were wrapping gifts and using this huge old pair of scissors, very sharp. Boyfriend then accidentally dropped it on my foot, yup, my foot. Went to the ER of Quezon Medical in Aurora Boulevard where it was stitched. Luckily, I was paralyzed by then and couldn’t feel anything. Paralysis does have its blessings…

Now back to Swiss knives. Last Saturday or Sunday, we went to CE again, and this time I thought, why not get Swiss knives for gifting to my girl/lady friends? They are small and easy to mail via JRS (plugging? joke). So I got an edelweiss and these two others:

Ever the cheapskate, I asked, “No discount?” Then I delivered my spiel about always (?) buying but never been lucky to get a discount. Months back, they were selling these TV show et al. themed t-shirts  (Diablo, Chuck, etc.) at buy two take one, but son didn’t want any. Son has also bought a telescope there for his dad. Husband has bought playing cards – all these purchases a clear indication of the variety of stuff CE carries – for example, for Coke afficionados they have trays, ice buckets, clocks, etc.

Perhaps my asking made them recall that they do have something for buyers of Swiss knives, and so I got this for free:

When I opened the box, this fell off from it:

Any idea what this might be for? Ponytail? Oh no, I just cut my hair. But really, any idea? Please do tell me…

By the way, the freebie comes in two other colors: white and yellow. And it can be availed of upon purchase of Swiss knives worth at least P2k. If your purchases add up to more than that, you might want to split them into two receipts so you might get more freebies…

Now do I use the freebie? Remains to be seen…

About these ads