Gifts for a... Science and Space geek...

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An ideal gift for someone into science and space is a magazine subscription, this way they can keep up to date with the latest geeky news. I would personally recommends BBC's Focus magazine and New Scientist magazine.

BBC Focus magazine is a British magazine that covers all aspects about science and technology, as well as regular celebrity features and interviews. It also features regular articles to correspond with the BBC television series. It is certainly the much cheaper option as it is issued monthly. You can chose between paying £16.00 direct debit every 6 months (giving you an annual saving of 32%) or paying for 12 months by credit card for £38.50 (but with this option you will only save 25%). Subscribing will also entitle you to free delivery for each magazine. And if you buy this magazine before the 31st December you will also earn your choice of a free gift; you can chose between the 'How To Grow A Planet' DVD or 'Why Does E=mc2?' plus 'The Quantum Universe' books by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. If your geeky boyfriend is also tech savvy (which I have no doubt he is), then the subscription also allows you free access to digital issues of the magazine through the iPad app. Just give them his email address when you subscribe and they will send him the details of how to register a digital account.

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New Scientist magazine reports, explores and interprets the results of human endeavour set in the context of society and culture. New Scientist is the much dearer option at £143 annually, but you can manage your payments by breaking it down into quarterly direct debit payments of £35.75. This will give you an annual saving of 24%. Also, as it is a weekly magazine, it will seem like one huge gift, or you could think about it as 52 little gifts - this will earn you a great deal of girlfriend brownie points!

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A personal favourite gift of mine is a great little book called 'So you created a wormhole: The time travelers guide to time travel'. This book is hilarious! Humans from H. G. Wells to Albert Einstein to Bill & Ted have been fascinated by time travel, but in order to travel safely and effectively, newbie travelers need to know the dos and don’ts. Think of this as a handy little guide book of essential time traveling knowledge. This includes; choosing the right time machine, the complications of creating a time paradox and how to befriend a dinosaur and subsequently fight other dinosaurs with that dinosaur.

You can buy this book from Forbidden Plant.com for £9.99 (£7.99 and £2.00 postage and packing). I would highly recommend buying products from Forbidden Plant as they package their items extremely well. Or if you are lucky enough to have a Forbidden Plant locally, I would defiantly drop in. These shops are usually little treasure troves full of amazingly geeky goodness. Some stores include; London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Liverpool, Newcastle and Southampton.

lazy oaf

If you happen to live with your boyfriend, or if he has a pad of his own, you could buy him this cool moon bowl from lazy oaf. Made from melamine and at 35mm round it would look great on any boy's coffee table, or why not buy him a plate hanger and have him mount it on his wall? You can have this quirky center piece for £26.99; £23.00 and £3.99 postage and packing.

tesco direct

Or, if you really want to geek out his house, why not go the whole 9 yards with this outer space double duvet cover for only £10.97! It is even available in king size for just £12.97 - what a bargain! When you place an order with Tesco Direct, not only do you earn clubcard points, but you also have the option of collecting from your local Tesco store for free. Recently I discovered that you can also collect from your very local Tesco express stores. Our local store is at the end of our road, so you can imagine my joy when it came up as one of the store options - how convenient! The duvet set is machine washable and can be tumble dried.

Gifts for a... Train geek...

Did you know there are many different names for a train enthusiast? These include; railfan, rail buff, trainspotter, gricer, anorak, basher, metrophile and zeds. These rail enthusiast can also take on many forms with a range of interests. Some are more interested in steam locomotives, whilst others have a passion for diesel engines and some even have a particular interest in metro subway and underground systems. And their interest often span to much more than the trains themselves. These interest usually include; visiting disused lines, tunnels and stations, railroad photography, timetable collecting and railway restoration

I grew up in a family of train lovers and my own Dad is a model railway enthusiast. Not only does he have a model railway he has been hand building into our loft for the last 30 years, but he has also built another model railway which he exhibits all over the county with the Elizabethan Model Railway Society. If you, however, are new to the whole model train thing then there is one major piece of advice I can give you - never call it a 'train set', always call it a 'model railway'. Otherwise you may find yourself getting an ear full!

ebay

A great gift for any type of rail enthusiast are these replica customised British railway totem signs. I bought one of these signs from this same ebay seller last Christmas. As Dad is a model railway exhibitor, I thought it would be a nice idea as he could take it to display at his exhibitions. However, you could always buy it for someone to have on display in the garage, in his shed, in the garden, or somewhere in the house.

The great thing with these signs is that you can choose how you want to customise them. My Dad's sign read ANNSTON  (the name of his model railway) as the main text, then in the smaller writing at the top I wrote his name, and in the smaller writing at the bottom I wrote E.R.S (the initials of the society he exhibits with). They come as 305mm x 85mm (12 inches x 3.35 inches) and are avaiable in a range of colours. However, you must be careful when choosing your sign colour as you have to make a choice. You may not know that railway signs are colour coded to their region and, therefore, you have to decide whether to order a sign in their favourite colour, or choose a colour relevant to their region. I chose maroon as my Dad's railway is set in the Midlands. Don't worry, if you decide to buy a colour relation to a particular region, the colours and corresponding regions are clearly stated on the webpage. This sign will only set you back £13.95 (£11.95 and £2.00 postage and packing).

NRM

If your boyfriend travels a lot then maybe a wash bag would be the ideal gift for them. The National Railway Museum are selling this faux leather 'Flying Scotsman' wash bag for £24.95 (£20.00 and £4.95 delivery.

john lewis

Another option could be to buy him this enamel Hornby mug from John Lewis for £8. However, if, like me, you don't have a local John Lewis store you can always order it online for £11 (£8 and £3 postage and packing).

Gifts for a... Star Wars geek...

Star Wars is a hugely popular trilogy and is still, to this day, the number one selling brand of toys. However, as it has been around for so long it becomes difficult to buy something they haven't already seen or bought before.Well hopefully these ideas will help...

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The first gift I would suggest is a hilarious comic style book called 'Darth Vader and Son'. Hopefully I'm not giving the ending anyway by saying that Darth Vader is actually Luke Skywalker's father. But what if Darth Vader took an active role in raising his son? What if "Luke, I am your father" was just a stern admonishment from an annoyed dad? In this adorable little book, Darth Vader is a dad like any other - except with all the baggage of being the Dark Lord of the Sith. Celebrated artist Jeffrey Brown's delightful illustrations give classic Star Wars moments a fresh twist, presenting the trials and joys of parenting through the lens of a galaxy far, far away. Life lessons include lightsaber batting practice, using the Force to raid the cookie jar and the special bond shared between any father and son.

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From first glance 'Star Wars: a pop up guide to the galaxy' looks like just another Star Wars book, but believe me when I say that it's in a whole other league! Published in 2011 to celebrate the 30th anniversary, Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy is a pop-up extravaganza that takes readers on a 3-D, movable journey into the fantastic Star Wars universe. Each spread contains a variety of novelty features tonnes of pop-ups, side flaps and it even has working lightsabers!
You really have to see it to believe it.

forbidden planet

If your boyfriend likes Star Wars, but also happens to like Chinese food then maybe this is the gift for them. Forbidden Planet are selling these Darth Vader lightsaber chopsticks that actually light up! Unfortunately they aren't due for general release in stores until the 16th December, but you can pre-order them now online for £16.99 (£13.99 and £3.00 postage and packing). These are also available in Luke Skywalker's blue.

John Lewis

Or what about this Lego Darth Vader alarm clock from John Lewis. This clock stands at 23cm high and 14cm wide and batteries are included. The LCD also has a 12/24 hour display and a backlight to view the time at night, all for £19.99. Yoda and Stormstooper versions are also available.

Gifts for a... Batman geek...

The popularity of Batman has risen a tremendous amount in the last few years, no doubt due to the release of the recent Batman films; Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Therefore, as the latest film is due for release on the 3rd December, this would be an obvious gift choice. You have the choice to either wait and purchase it in stores, or you can pre-order from places such as play.com, which usually guarantee your item by the general release date. You can currently pre-order The Dark Knight Rises from play.com for £10 on DVD or £15 on blu-ray. Or if you looking to get him something he will really love, you could pre-order the Batman: Dark Knight Trilogy 5 disc DVD boxset for £23.00 or £25.50 on blu-ray from amazon.

Lazy Oaf are currently running an extremely popular range of Batman clothing for Men and Women. In fact, these clothes are so popular that it they are continuously running out of stock! But have no fear, they do re-stock regularly. And as I am focusing on boyfriends, I would recommend this Logo short sleeve shirt with a small pocket detail on the front. This is available for £68.99 (£65 and £3.99 postage and packing) in sizes S to XL.

Or, if you fancy buying him something a little less formal, you could buy him these Batman pyjama bottoms from ebay for £13.98 (£10.99 and £2.99 postage and packing). These are also available is sizes S to XL.

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Or if you think he would be more interested in the comic books then I would defiantly recommend buying 'Batman: Year One'. It was written by Frank Miller, who also wrote 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' and 'Sin City'. Lieutenant James Gordon takes up a new post in the crime-ridden and corrupt city of Gotham, while billionaire Bruce Wayne returns to the scene of his parents' deaths, intent on avenging their memory. Each faces trials and challenges of their own, only for their lives to become irrevocably and potentially tragically intertwined.

This 144 page deluxe edition comic is available from amazon for only £6.71 - the perfect stocking filler to finish off your Batman themed gifts.

This year my aim is to share a range of alternative Christmas gifts for those whom we are closest to but also find to be the hardest to buy for and I am going to start with 'the boyfriend'. If, like me, you have been with your partner for longer than you can remember, then this time of year can prove to be difficult. Yes we do admit that they do always need new socks (how do they get through so many pairs?!) But socks aside, what else is there? As my partner and I are particularly geeky, I would like to start the ball rolling with a week of geeky gift ideas for geeky boyfriends. Each day I will post a range of gifts to suit a particular type of geek, and where better to start than with everyone's favourite lovable geeks.

Gifts for a...Big Bang Geek...

play.com

Most people I know love The Big Bang Theory, in fact, I don't think a day goes by without one of us quoting from it. Therefore, my first gift choice would be to buy The Big Bang Theory series 1-5 boxset for £39.98 from play.com. Hours of entertainment for the both of you and something to help the January blues.

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However, for the more dedicated Big Bang fans you could also buy Sheldon's famous folding shirt board for £8.38 (£5.89 and £2.49 postage and packing). This is the same as the one he uses on the series.

ebay

Remember Sheldon's famous rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock game? Well you can buy this graphic game t-shirt for £7.98 (£6.99 and 99p postage and packing) in a range of sizes and colours from ebay. And for all those Big Bang Geeks out there, just remember - scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and — as it always has — rock crushes scissors.

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Or, if you really want to push the boat out, why not finish it all off with the Sheldon and Leonard's periodic table shower curtain for £28.98 (£26.99 and £1.99 postage and packaging) from amazon.

It seems like we spend all year building up to Christmas. An enormous amount of time and effort is spent saving and spending for this one special day, especially if you have children to buy for. But in my experience, kids are easy! Toys, cute clothes, sweets - sorted. So what do you buy everyone else? What do you buy the people you care about the most, but whom already own everything they could ever want? Racking our brains trying to think if anything but chocolate, socks and bubble bath.
Over the next few weeks I will be looking at alternative Christmas gifts to help you guys out.