Clear and Present Danger

Now I shouldn't complain but...My brother with his usual lack of anything approaching sense has bestowed on me a really not very useful Christmas gift - a set of spices and herbs for making curries, which strangely enough contains almost exactly the same ingredients as I was given by him for my birthday (and still haven't started using). Consequently the kitchen cupboards are now full to capacity with a good five years supply of chilli powder (enough to fill seven normal size spice bottles from the supermarket) and things I've never used like mango powder. Now here's the thing - the authentic chicken curry recipe given to me by my boss (who's a Sikh and knows about these things) only requires garam masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander and fresh chillies, and certainly not in the quantities I am now the proud possessor of.
For the record my brother wanted a spirit decanter (bought for him by parents) and I bought him a suitable liquid for filling it - a little research goes a long way.

I'm not the only one suffering from seasonal disappointment either - Mister Squeaky wanted one of those oh so clever Swiss Witches' knives - you know the sort of thing - the handle's half black and half white and it has a boline and an athamay and a useful little gadget for getting the stones out of a certain Deity's hooves too. What a pity he only got some woolly ear warmers and a Blue Peter Annual (what a mistake - he's managed to stick himself to the ceiling with sticky-backed plastic)