Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Friday, September 16, 2016

Our Personal Valentine's Day

Earlier this year, on the day that the entire world celebrated Valentine's Day, Adoring Husband and I decided that we were going to select our own date for Valentines.

We had three reasons for doing so. Firstly, Chicklet's birthday is 13th February, and because of this I have not spent Valentine's Day at home for 5 years. Secondly, flowers become ridiculously expensive for the week leading up to VD and thirdly, unless you plan well in advance, the best restaurants are booked out quickly

The date we selected was 15th September. That's the date that we met face to face for the first time. (For anyone who doesn't know, AH and I first met in an 'over 40s MSN chat room' on line)

So, today was the day.

A couple of months ago, I bought a free standing plaque that reads 'Every love story is beautiful, but ours is my favourite', and at the local markets, I found some hand painted cards and I selected one with a bright red heart in the centre with vibrant colours radiating all around it. Words flowed from my heart when I wrote inside the card and I placed the gift on AH's chair for him to find this morning.

We drove into the The Bay where AH bought me two large photo frames so that I can hang a couple of my favourite photos on the wall.

We visited Fantastic Furniture to follow up on our lounge which still hasn't arrived after seven weeks.

When we purchased our furniture, they advised us on a 5 week wait. The lounge is manufactured in some factory somewhere. 'Apparently' there was a problem with the fabric that we selected (they ran out and had a problem ordering more). 'Apparently' they received the fabric two days ago and 'apparently' our lounge will be manufactured 'soon'.

Still absolutely no idea how long it will take for the lounge to be completed and delivered.

Seven weeks ago, we asked if we could buy the store display lounge, but they told us that wasn't allowed. It was gone today and when we asked about it, they told us that they sold it! That made me angry.

So, as it currently stands, Fantastic Furniture have at no stage, made any contact with us, to advise of possible delays. They cannot give us even an estimate for when the lounge will be ready. There have been porky pies told about the situation - because the elaborate stories just don't add up.

We looked at other furniture stores in town and the prices are more than double for a similar product and the wait time is 8-10 weeks, so if we cancelled our order with FF, we would still have to wait a ridiculous period of time for our lounge.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

This evening I went onto their website and complained in a feedback email. I also sent a private message to whoever manages their Facebook page complaining bitterly - there is nowhere on the FB page to post a public complaint.

Not happy Jan.

We did get to pick up the beautiful bright yellow single chair though, so at least that was a positive to come out of the FF debacle!

By the time we finished with that store, it was lunch time and Adoring Husband shouted me a delicious prawn and mango salad for lunch, which we enjoyed on the water front in the newly refurbished Aquavue Cafe. It's our favourite place to eat in The Bay, so it couldn't have been a more fitting location for our first Valentine's meal!

On the way back to the car, we browsed through an interesting shop where I tried to convince AH to buy me an amethyst crystal cave, but he considered $37,000 too extravagant. Perhaps I should have asked for a Powerball ticket instead!

We decided to look at beds.

Our bed is now twelve years old and the quality really wasn't that great to begin with. It is showing it's age and losing support in the well worn parts of the mattress.

We had a lot of fun checking out various beds, some with vibrating bases and where each end of the mattress could be raised or lowered with a remote control. It's amazing how much pressure is relieved from the spine when the ends of the bed are slightly raised! We spent a lot of quality time in that bed.

The Beyonce bed was pretty spectacular - on sale for $8,500, but INCREDIBLY comfortable.

The racing car framed bed looked like fun, but could only be bought in the single size and two of them probably wouldn't fit in our bedroom side by side. I also liked the dinosaur bedding. This too was only available in the single size.

In the end, we did not make a decision on a bed and are still contemplating our options.

We stocked up on our kombucha supplies, coconut ice cream and yoghurt before heading home.

Upon arriving home, AH collected his cordless drill from the shed and proceeded to put the chrome feet on my yellow chair for me. The chair now sits proudly, but very alone in the family room.

Except for Fantastic Furniture, we have had a most pleasant day together. Since I didn't get the $37,000 amethyst crystal cave or the $8,500 bed, I came home and shopped online to buy a new sandisk sd card for my camera and $150 worth of jewellery pieces that I hope will be waiting for me when I return home next week.

It's now rapidly approaching 1am. I'm off to bed.

Happy Valentine's Day AH xox

Nite all.

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