To echo the idea of a charity gift, I recommend goodgifts.org. You can choose from a wide range of gifts for lots of different causes, at a wide price range too. You could pick a cause that you know your friend cares about. For instance, you can buy a week's hot meals for a hungry child in the UK, clothes for a street child in a poor country, operations to save people's eyesight in India, various gifts for animal charities, hedgerows to be planted to help the environment, a week's supply of food for a pensioner living below the poverty line... It would be a nice way to mark a special birthday by helping others at the same time.