On lighter note:)

This will be my last blog till after weigh in lol as I'm blogging like a madwoman to catch up on some things. 
Today was a struggle with the exercise, holy crap I'm sure Mish thinks that we are training for  the Olympics or something. just when i thought i had a handle on the exercises we struggled with last week she changed them and gave us even more skipping, 125 to be exact. well I'm sorry to say i only skipped 250 of them before  deciding to do knee high jogs instead. I'm new to skipping so i do tend to get really breathless. Today even more so cause its Monday I'm sure of it lol. 
it was a very tough workout for mum and i but we got through it, it was an almost 400cal burn for me , and lately my blood pressure has been a bit low so i have to be very careful after i train. 
mum and i have come a long way this year with our training and even when i felt like i couldn't keep going we got each other through it. 

 this is us trying to get a pic together , but as you can see we do not cooperate very easily and that's not on purpose either , Kahlyssa got a shot of us doing knee high lifts too, those things are brutal at times

 i wanted to keep tabs on my legs as i haven't had a pic of them for comparisons so i got a calf and thigh one for my future references. 

this one of me  is me getting into some rowing type of exercise as an alternative to towel pulls.  

 I think we are really kicking ass, and intermediate is bloody hard for peeps like us so i will stick to it next round too as i think beginner might be too easy and we really haven't gotten the most out of intermediate yet. I'm waiting for my gold medal in skipping. 
Have a great day and see you on Wednesday x

Why i will never buy anything from a Harvey Norman store again

AS promised in my last post i will give you the reason i had a very nasty run in with my local Harvey Norman store, and to have the story make any sense i will give you all the back ground info on it  so it will be a little long winded but i will do my best to not lose you before i get to the point .

In late 2011 i bought myself a  brand spanking new office desk and chair,  i didn't spare the expense as i wanted it to be solid and the chair had to be extremely comfortable. 
I have had a back injury leading to severe and sometimes crippling lower back pain so i cannot sit in ordinary seats in my home, or even the couch for that matter so i can only "relax" in  my office chair otherwise i suffer the consequences. The accident that caused my back pain  was also the same accident that gave me vertigo. the vertigo took control of my life, i didn't like to go anywhere , i couldn't walk very far and my anxiety and depression went through the roof. My office chair was my safe haven and my prison, i couldn't and still cant stand for too long and to sit i had to be extremely well supported, hence the $300 purchase of my high backed office chair, you may notice it in some of my selfies. 

Early through the next year and whilst still under warranty the gas lift on the chair stopped , in the lowest position, which meant my knees were up under my chin.  So i rang Harvey Norman and made an enquiry about it. I was told that yes indeed it is under warranty and that they will send for a new part immediately and will ring me as soon as it arrived. 
A week later i rang and was told the right person to help me would ring me back soon.
I rang a few days later and was told that the part was on its way 
Then a week later after no word from then i rang again, still no word yet and no part. By now i was getting really annoyed and sitting on a tiny chair that i couldn't lift. eventually another 3 weeks later they had the part for me , that was supposedly already there 2 weeks before but they couldn't find my number *coughbullshitcough.
i went in and got the part and Damian fixed my chair. All was well and good for a few months before, bam the same thing happened again, wtf, i don't even use the gas lift other than to raise it to the right height  then it stays there. 
By now I'm thinking this must be a dodgy make of chair  but i couldn't really complain as i have used it non stop every day since i owned it, i sew in it, paint in it, eat, relax, anything i needed to do that was sitting (other than the toilet ewww, you guysssss) 
 so my chair looked well worn and loved. The amount of mummy hugs and stories i have had in this chair were uncountable. 
This leads me to another phone enquiry with Harvey Norman. I wanted to know if this was normal and if not how can i get another gas lift, either under its warranty or i buy one, either way i just wanted to fix my chair. 

Unbelievably i got the same run around, this time for the same amounts of time, over 5 weeks told they were on hoilidays, noone else could help me as it was  this ones job or that one had their files and knew what was happening. I eventually after my last enquiry before i  lost my cool , get told that the manager has decided that the stock must have been faulty and they want to refund the chair so i can get another. I am a little reluctant at this as i  was concerned to be without my chair if i couldn't find a replacement that was suitable.  I also reminded the lady that this was an older chair now and that i would be fine with a gas lift i can put back into it myself. She insisted i get it into the store , this was not going to be an easy task as my van has been at the mechanics for am month waiting on a new cylinder head. more money i have to come up with. 

So mum helps me take the chair to the store on Friday. I a little embarrassed as i didn't want to wheel the chair past other customers. so i rang the store from the car park and asked which section they needed me to take the chair to. Bring it to whichever end you want to , it will be fine.So i wheel the big cumbersome thing with much struggling into the store, with everyone looking at me , yay me. ugh . i get to the desk and explain the situation and  she informs me that i need to now take it  through the store to the other section. You have to be kidding me, by now there are  many sets of eyes wondering what the hell I'm doing  with this big assed chair  plowing through  the store.  I cannot see anyone at the main desk but there is this man in  his uniform glaring at me like i just walked dog crap through his store. he asks what i want and i try to explain the situation briefly and that i needed to speak to the lady that organised it all as she would know what was happening. 
He tells me to go to the other desk but is really glaring at me and my chair like we are filth. this is rather embarrassing as i start to fumble my words a bit trying to explain the situations again to the lady at the counter while the before mentioned staff member is looking at me and saying i should be thankful I'm getting a refund cause look at the state of the chair , then in front of everyone and with the flamboyance of a man at the mardi gras he swans around the chair hands on hips saying rather loudly , look at this chair, i need to get peter to see this and make sure its one of our chairs. then calls out to this peter fellow who doesn't arrive. By now my face is red, I'm more embarrassed than i have ever been  and this upstart  is being really rude glaring at me like i just ruined a chair and am now trying to get a refund. I looked him square in his orbital areas and said to him, you are a very rude man and you have no right speaking to me like that when i didn't ask for the refund, i didn't ask to  have to drag  this chair through the store to have him treat me like a criminal.  He then stood there with his hand on his hip again , with a face like he just burped up some bile and told me i should be grateful I'm getting a refund at all, I was then told that it would take days for the funds to get into my account and i asked is there another way that they could do it so i was not left without a chair for that many days. 
The guy just rolled his eyes and huffed and puffed at me like i was the biggest cow in the world for asking such a question. then they tried to say they would give me a cheque and i refused it, the only way that the refund would be done was by eftpos.
By now i had  well and truly had enough there was a gathering now of another staff member and also customers in the store.  The newly arrived  older female staff member must have sucked a lemon on her way over to the desk to watch what was going on, or she thought she was a body guard the way she had her arms crossed and sidled up to the desk near the man and not looking at me at all. 

I looked  at the guy again who was making me feel like i was stupid and i said, that i would not be accepting his behaviour and that i will be speaking to someone higher up than him. 
Next thing you know A short  balding man with his chest all puffed out like he was a fake body builder steps around the corner with the look of death in his eyes and says, lady you aint gunna get higher than me, i own this place. from the look on his face and how rudely he snapped those words at me  i could see i was in for the time of my life here. i looked at him squared my shoulders and said so i see from that comment that you condone how your staff members speak to your customers then. 
He then looked at me and said lady you look at this chair, its been abused. He practically spat those words at my face. I  was stunned and said i beg your pardon if anything this chair has been nothing but loved.  then i said whats your problem , you were the one that told me to bring my chair back in here that has been much used and loved for the past two years when i simply asked that the staff do their job in a timely matter and get a gas lift. He was then going on about this refund and i reminded him again that i never asked for a refund and if it was going to cause so much animosity towards me then i would rather take my beloved chair with me and he can give me the gas lift and i would fix it, he then yelled louder about how there was no way he was fixing it , that he was going to send it to the manufacturer , and was i going to pay the postage of running it around Australia.
 i asked him what that had to do with any of it that i have complained about the parts on this chair since the first year i bought it and it was his staff that didn't do their jobs properly. he was going on about the fact that the chairs arms has wear around it and i said maybe that's something you need to ask the manufacturer as i also mentioned that to the staff when i first complained, that the vinyl wore off the arms within 6 months  and the only thing they were used for was to steady myself to get up .I tried to explain that i had to use that chair daily due to medical reasons and that while i was not well i practically lived in that chair ( meaning it was the only chair i could use each day in my house) He then said Ohhhh well then maybe you could have said to the staff member who sold you the chair that you were going to live in it.

 I was absolutely gob smacked this guy was just being a complete arsehole and i just smile and said I'm amazed that you don't have a very good grasp on the English language if you think that is how it went and then i said, i will have you know that you young staff member knew exactly what i wanted the chair for otherwise i would not have spent so much money on a chair. By now i could feel the humiliation setting in. I don't even want to imagine what my face must have looked like. I could see the crown gathering through the store watching and listening to what was going on.  the other rude staff member was still standing there staring this time very smugly as his boss tried to tear me down. It didn't work, i stood tall as the lady got me to sign a refund slip and put it through on my card. 
He was still  standing there and  having cheap shots at me  about how i should go and look at his office chair , and i said let me guess its two years old in perfect condition and you bought it from here huh. he was like , yes in fact , ..... yer right .  I just got my card back , and started walking aways but not before letting him know he hasn't heard the last of this. I then said to them all that i am glad they confirmed the fact that i will never spend another cent in his store and that i will make damn sure anyone i know doesn't go there again either. He just yelled out "Good". i turned and then had to walk the 50 meters out of the store knowing they were glaring at me as i exited.  The customers all furtively looking at me as i went, I have no idea what they were thinking i just was biting the inside of my lips to stop me crying and got out of there at a steady and fast pace. 
 i got to mums car and told her about it , before breaking down. i couldn't stop crying for over an hour, every where i tried to go , shopping, butchers etc, i would have tears rolling down my face. 
Never in my life have i been so humiliated like that by so many people at one time. 
Over an hour and a half later i get a phone call on my mobile. It was the police. WTF.  i expected him to say that someone had seen or heard the abuse i had gotten and had reported this man . Nope it turned out that the lady that was doing the refund, was so caught up in the arguments that she over refunded me....... the policeman told me she was scared she would lose her job....... is that right ? i said to him after that treatment and abuse in there i should let them just dock her pay. I also told him i will not be stepping foot in that store ever again...
What would you do if you were in this situation? p.s i have not touched a cent of it.

i do have a chair now that i got from a lovely young gentleman at office works that was not at all worried that i was standing there crying or that i had a call from the police mid sale . as he had already talked to me on the phone before i even went to Harvey Norman when i was checking on chair prices .

All this drama because one person couldnt follow up on a work order and an owner of a store thought he had the right to humiliate a customer. Maybe he needed to check my name up in his system and see that i had spent over ten grand in his store over the past ten years, now im taking my cash elsewhere.  I knd of felt like julia roberts in pretty woman as i walked away saying "big mistake... big mistake , huge"

What makes me feel good on the inside?

yes this is my third post in as many days, aren't you guys lucky? or not, depends if you like reading them. 
Sometimes when I'm feeling a little off i like to remind myself of the things that make me happy or that I'm grateful for . Most of these things are from nature and will be simple things like  big white fluffy thunder clouds in an otherwise perfect sky. Beautiful flowers with rain drops on them, the smell of my vege patch when I'm watering them. 
Being able to cook my family a special meal. The  way my kids play or talk, or make each other laugh. 
The sweet little love notes my youngest son writes for me just to tell me he loves me to the moon and back. 
Singing my fave songs, or better still hearing one of them come on the radio when I'm driving and i can crank it up and sing like noone can hear me.
Or when i can crank it up at home and dance like noone can see me, throwing my arms around if i want , just feeling the beat and letting go. 
Having a really tasty meal that makes me moan as I'm chewing, yup i do that and I'm sure it embarrasses anyone around me lol, 
That sweet taste of a square of dark choccy i allow myself each night after a job well done, i eat in in 6 bites , savouring the flavour and enjoying the moment. 
Snuggling up with Damian on a cold night and hearing the sweet things he says to me even after  all  this time. 
Speaking of Damian, he is one of my major  inspirations for my happiness moments after my kiddies. I just need to think of all the times he has surprised me with sweet gifts and love notes or loving texts just to say he is thinking of me, or he appreciates me , or that he loves me. These are the moments you cherish as a woman, when your man makes you feel like the only girl in the world. 
This weekend has been a big one for me emotionally and i had a really rough time on Friday morning, i will blog about that incident involving the owner of Harvey Norman in another post. Due to this and a very heavy training day on Saturday i was a wreck, emotional and exhausted , i was feeling the pull of anxiety trying to claim hold but it didn't win, i was not letting a few hard moments ruin my inner happiness.
 Damian knew i had really been battered around, including  by myself and my dance class and training session straight after ( i need to ease up on that , my body did not like me after it ) i was hardly able to move at all, let alone function and it was Damian that guided me to the car and took me to a beautiful lunch that was just what i needed,
 It was exactly what my body was craving and i felt alot better after it. He made sure my weekend was filled with things that would make me happy, we went shopping, made another vege patch, went fishing,  And through it all i was realising , it wasn't the activities themselves that was making me feel good and loved and even cherished, it was his consideration and care and company that made it all feel so good. 
Even if we were just at my place doing nothing  his demeanour towards me was the winner. So there are a million things i can list that i use to inspire happiness in me , but the most important one is gratefulness, I have learned that i get the most happiness from things i am grateful for  because without gratitude there is no way of bringing forth the things in life you deserve to you. 

I treat my relationship with the same respect, i am grateful to have him, i am grateful for the things he says and does to and for me , and its this gratitude  that brings with it love, trust and all those other wonderful things that makes a relationship a lasting one. 

What else makes me smile and feel happy, tonight when i stepped out of the bathroom after blow drying my hair, Damian was there  welcoming me with a warm hug and leading me to my office, when i got there i saw a beautiful   bunch of red roses and a loving note, for no other reason that he loves me and enjoys seeing me smile :) 

There are many things that make me smile, too many for me to list. you have seen but a small portion of them, even the way mum and i laugh together when working out, will always make me smile later as i think about it. Its these things that become inspiration to get fitter, stronger and healthier so i can enjoy them all for as long as i possibly can.. I hope you all have found your reasons to smile xx