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!!

Monday, October 24, 2016

Over it!

Yes, you guessed it. I'm still fluttering.

I woke up with the fluttering, but it disappeared fairly quickly and I was fine until about 1pm when I began to prepare myself to attend a 'Scentsy' party. By the time I arrived at the party, the fluttering was building and increased steadily over the two hours that I was there.

I was the first to leave the party and as I rode home, the fluttering disappeared again, so I assumed that it might have something to do with anxiety. Unfortunately, after I arrived home, the fluttering returned and caused me considerable discomfort all evening .. bad enough that I didn't make dinner and for a period of about thirty minutes I strongly considered finding a doctor!

I know right?!

Five times over the duration of about an hour, when it was at it's worst, I checked my blood pressure and heart rate, and they were normal each time. On average 112/73 (within the normal range) and heart rate around 80 (normal is between 60-100).

As I sit here at almost 11pm, the fluttering is still annoying me, but is much much milder now. My blood pressure and heart rate are still normal.

Anyway, back to the Scentsy party.

I had never heard of Scentsy, but with hindsight, I think my sister may have gifted me a warmer with melts for Christmas one year. I used it once and decided they were a bit too toxic for me.

Scentsy is a party plan business that sells diffusers, warmers, scented wax melts, scented oils and a few essential oils as well as other cleaning products and perfumed wardrobe and car hangers. There are shaving lotions, face creams and hand moisturisers, among other things.

I think I sniffed every single scent available and only found two that smelled acceptable to my nose. In the end, even though I considered buying a diffuser, I left empty handed and without putting in an order.

When I arrived home, I did some research to discover more about them. The party operators were obviously well scripted and fluffed around some of the questions that were asked.

My most important question was "what are the ingredients?" The print on each item was so tiny, and with colour combinations that made them impossible to read. The only answer was "all natural" which immediately rings alarm bells because that usually means "far from natural".

Having scoured the website, I could not find any information about the ingredients of any of their products. Apparently they once declared that Scentsy used a secret combination of ingredients, but now there is nothing on the site (that I could find). At the party, it was stated that Scentsy use 100% natural fragrance.

That tells me that if they are not willing to disclose the ingredient list, then I don't trust that they are providing a safe product. And please explain how you put 100% natural 'By The Sea' in a melt, or 100% 'Clean Breeze' in an oil, or 100% 'Skinny Dippin' in a room spray ... please? That's just plucking a few from the list.

They must use chemical compounds to create the scents, as most fragrance oils do (pure essential oils SHOULD be closer to all natural) and they also usually contain ethers, amines, terpenes and many other toxic ingredients. Once those are heated, they release toxins, despite what the Scentsy people tell you.

Obviously, there are many customers and potential customers out there who trust that the Australian Government would never allow a company to sell us dangerous, toxic or fraudulent products. These people never think twice about the health risks and always believe that 100% natural means 100% natural. They might even get annoyed with people like me who ask the hard questions.

Those are the people who keep the money rolling in. Ignorance is bliss and all that jazz.

I, however, chose to let this one pass and after biting very hard on my tongue during a conversation about the fabulous the new boat ramp and after sitting in front of plates loaded with gluten and sugar, I was happy to be feeling unwell enough to leave early.

It must be time for me to go to bed and rest my body from the fluttering.

Nite all.

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