Pie! ...and Wenatex
So I finally got around to making my sweet potato shepherd's pie! It was FANTASTIC!!! Matt even said it was the 'best pie ever'! :D
Here it is...
Mmmmm PIE!!!
I am also wearing an apron that my Aunty Peggy started making (she cross-stitched and cut out the pieces) and I finished (by sewing it all together) because she didn't have a chance to finish it while she was still alive. I love my apron!
Matt's excited about Wenatex!!! LOL :P
He got that letter in the mail saying he and a partner were invited to an obligation free dinner and we'd also get a free $20 gift. Obviously the whole thing screams AMWAY or something but we figured we'd go for the free dinner and a bit of entertainment and adventure. lol Matt thought it was a scam and was curious to know how they planned to recoup the free meal and gift (which they didn't hehehe). The food was yum... and the guy hosting it wasn't tooo much of a hardcore salesman. The product was an orthopedic mattress and doona/pillow "system".
Our friend Dan also came along and we all got to have a chuckle at the GIANT magnified pictures of dust mites they passed around for us to look at (which I had predicted they would do when we were talking in the car beforehand). Sure the product was pretty cool (I got to lie on it and be the model). It was comfortable and the mattress has this awesome core full of relaxing herbs (like lavender etc) which smell lovely... but the whole thing was SO expensive!! I'd buy it in a second if it was like $1000 but it was $6000!!!! o_O Insanity! It's because they're making the whole thing in Austria... if they were making it in China they could sell it for $1000 and then I'd have a nice new mattress.
So anyway... that was our evening with Wenatex. And they also gave us our free presents to the value of $20!!! lol It was a herbal massage balm and some special wool wash stuff for the washing machine. Overall I have to say I had a good evening. Thumbs up to Wenatex... I hope they invite us over for dinner again! :) lol
In the end Wenatex did alright because there was another couple there all set to buy a "sleeping system" from them.
*** UPDATE 9th October 2007 ***
So it seems that there isn't a whole lot of real material online about Wenatex and so this LJ entry is coming up high in Google when you guys search on it.
I'm glad I can give this non biased information so you know just what you might be getting yourself into! That said, the Wenatex people really didn't do a hard sell, though they were obviously still pushing the product. The night was comfortable enough and it was a good product. I am just not a fan of that kind of selling. If it is really worth that much then they should have no problems selling it in a regular store for the same price.
The night was educational and I learnt about a fantastic material called 'memory fibre' or 'memory foam' that they have built into their mattresses. This material contours to fit your spine and means that the bits of your body that stick out more than the others will sink further into the bed making it much more comfortable and keeping your vertebrae in better alignment.
I have since bought a contour pillow made of this same memory fibre from IKEA for I think it was $15... Crazy Clarks also offers the same pillows from time to time at an even cheaper price. This pillow has done wonders for my neck and I never wake up with a sore neck anymore.
As far as mattresses go you can buy a memory fibre mattress overlay from Pillowtalk... they seem to be the only store in Brisbane offering such a thing. The overlays are about $199 for a King size and then less for each smaller sized mattress. Again, no more back aches and it was especially comfortable when I was heavily pregnant last year in those last 'I'm larger than a bus' months.
If you want to buy either of these items just remember memory fibre is the stuff that stays squished in for a bit after you squish it and then slowly plumps back out again. Regular foams don't do this.
These things have made my bed lush and way more comfortable than before and at a fraction of the cost of the Wenatex 'sleep system'.
As far as the free meal goes I have no qualms about taking someone up on their offer of an 'obligation free dinner'. If this bothers them then it obviously wasn't truthfully an obligation free dinner!
I say go and enjoy the free meal so long as you aren't easily talked into buying something you don't want. :)
*** UPDATE 3th March 2008 ***
Everyone who reads this should know that someone (obviously a Wenatex representative) has been spamming this post with fake positive comments on their products all day today (all pretending to be different people).
How do I know it's the same person? I log IP addresses here. ;) *cough* 58.110.43.71 *cough*
It seems they've been doing the same on any blogs that they can find on the internet that reference Wenatex.
What I can guarantee you is that any comment by me on here is entirely non biased. I am not opposed to Wenatex, I just think that they are overpriced. I don't think that anything I've said here has been nasty and yet they've thrown in some insults too. Wenatex, I think I've thrown you a bone here by being pretty neutral. If the constant fake comments continue I will disable anonymous commenting and this post will stay here as it is and you'll have no option to add anything. Your choice. ;)
*** UPDATE 20th November 2008 ***
Just adding some useful information posted here by someone...
"After reading all of this, I did some further research on foam overlays and mattresses using "memory foam" and have discovered that "Dunlop" produce this type of foam and several manufacturers and retailers in Australia stock it/use it in their products. If you go to the website of "Dunlopfoams" it has all the information about the product and has links to retailers eg. Clark Rubber & Super Amart and manufacturers of mattresses eg.Sleepmaker, Sleephaven, Adriatic Slumber etc who use it in their mattresses. I know Town & Country advertise a "memory foam" queen size mattress from $999 which is well short of Wenatex price. Worth looking at I reckon. Hope this is helpful."
*** UPDATE 10th September 2009 ***
A month or so ago I got an email from livejournal saying that someone had attempted to reset the password for my journal (and it wasn't me). This has never before happened in the entire 6 years I've had this journal so you can imagine that it was at least a little unnerving. Livejournal also happened to send the IP address of the guilty party in that email.
I looked it up and it was somebody in Austria! Now at the time I thought, 'That's weird! Who do I know in Austria?!'. It has only recently occurred to me that the Wenatex head office and factory is located in Austria. That plus the fact that this entry comes up at the top of a Google search for "Wenatex" and they'd probably like to delete it... coincidence? You be the judge.
*** UPDATE 19th January 2010 ***
A comment that came through today from someone who went to a Wenetex free dinner...
____________________________________________
Subject: WENATEX DO NOT REFUND DEPOSIT!!!!
We went to the seminar. We got into the hype and although we felt the price was way too high, decided to leave a deposit for the Queen Deluxe System so that we could benefit from the 25% discount only offered on the night. We had assumed that if we changed our mind, end of deal. However, to our horror, we were told when we rang to cancel the order (once we came home and googled Wenatex and came down from the hype of this overpriced product), that our deposit was non refundable. It was there in black and white on the order form, but we didn't see it because we unfortunately got completely over excited and signed up on impulse. I know that this is how I shop, but when you buy from a reputable store, you always have the choice to return the goods or cancel the order.
The option we have now is to spend the deposit ($519.00) on one of their overpriced products. Which leaves me with the option of buying two pillows at $254.00 each (that's minus the discount, or some lame, overpriced Sheraton sheet sets (a crappy 300 thread count), or basic overpriced towels. I am kicking myself! I could have brought two Tempur pillows for less than that. This was one expensive mistake. Hope this helps and warns others. By the way, we found out afterwards, that we could have put a 10% deposit on one pillow and that would have locked in a 25% discount on whatever else we wanted to buy, we could change the order at any time as long as it was done before the order was ready to be delivered and paid in full.
____________________________________________
Here it is...
Mmmmm PIE!!!
I am also wearing an apron that my Aunty Peggy started making (she cross-stitched and cut out the pieces) and I finished (by sewing it all together) because she didn't have a chance to finish it while she was still alive. I love my apron!
Matt's excited about Wenatex!!! LOL :P
He got that letter in the mail saying he and a partner were invited to an obligation free dinner and we'd also get a free $20 gift. Obviously the whole thing screams AMWAY or something but we figured we'd go for the free dinner and a bit of entertainment and adventure. lol Matt thought it was a scam and was curious to know how they planned to recoup the free meal and gift (which they didn't hehehe). The food was yum... and the guy hosting it wasn't tooo much of a hardcore salesman. The product was an orthopedic mattress and doona/pillow "system".
Our friend Dan also came along and we all got to have a chuckle at the GIANT magnified pictures of dust mites they passed around for us to look at (which I had predicted they would do when we were talking in the car beforehand). Sure the product was pretty cool (I got to lie on it and be the model). It was comfortable and the mattress has this awesome core full of relaxing herbs (like lavender etc) which smell lovely... but the whole thing was SO expensive!! I'd buy it in a second if it was like $1000 but it was $6000!!!! o_O Insanity! It's because they're making the whole thing in Austria... if they were making it in China they could sell it for $1000 and then I'd have a nice new mattress.
So anyway... that was our evening with Wenatex. And they also gave us our free presents to the value of $20!!! lol It was a herbal massage balm and some special wool wash stuff for the washing machine. Overall I have to say I had a good evening. Thumbs up to Wenatex... I hope they invite us over for dinner again! :) lol
In the end Wenatex did alright because there was another couple there all set to buy a "sleeping system" from them.
*** UPDATE 9th October 2007 ***
So it seems that there isn't a whole lot of real material online about Wenatex and so this LJ entry is coming up high in Google when you guys search on it.
I'm glad I can give this non biased information so you know just what you might be getting yourself into! That said, the Wenatex people really didn't do a hard sell, though they were obviously still pushing the product. The night was comfortable enough and it was a good product. I am just not a fan of that kind of selling. If it is really worth that much then they should have no problems selling it in a regular store for the same price.
The night was educational and I learnt about a fantastic material called 'memory fibre' or 'memory foam' that they have built into their mattresses. This material contours to fit your spine and means that the bits of your body that stick out more than the others will sink further into the bed making it much more comfortable and keeping your vertebrae in better alignment.
I have since bought a contour pillow made of this same memory fibre from IKEA for I think it was $15... Crazy Clarks also offers the same pillows from time to time at an even cheaper price. This pillow has done wonders for my neck and I never wake up with a sore neck anymore.
As far as mattresses go you can buy a memory fibre mattress overlay from Pillowtalk... they seem to be the only store in Brisbane offering such a thing. The overlays are about $199 for a King size and then less for each smaller sized mattress. Again, no more back aches and it was especially comfortable when I was heavily pregnant last year in those last 'I'm larger than a bus' months.
If you want to buy either of these items just remember memory fibre is the stuff that stays squished in for a bit after you squish it and then slowly plumps back out again. Regular foams don't do this.
These things have made my bed lush and way more comfortable than before and at a fraction of the cost of the Wenatex 'sleep system'.
As far as the free meal goes I have no qualms about taking someone up on their offer of an 'obligation free dinner'. If this bothers them then it obviously wasn't truthfully an obligation free dinner!
I say go and enjoy the free meal so long as you aren't easily talked into buying something you don't want. :)
*** UPDATE 3th March 2008 ***
Everyone who reads this should know that someone (obviously a Wenatex representative) has been spamming this post with fake positive comments on their products all day today (all pretending to be different people).
How do I know it's the same person? I log IP addresses here. ;) *cough* 58.110.43.71 *cough*
It seems they've been doing the same on any blogs that they can find on the internet that reference Wenatex.
What I can guarantee you is that any comment by me on here is entirely non biased. I am not opposed to Wenatex, I just think that they are overpriced. I don't think that anything I've said here has been nasty and yet they've thrown in some insults too. Wenatex, I think I've thrown you a bone here by being pretty neutral. If the constant fake comments continue I will disable anonymous commenting and this post will stay here as it is and you'll have no option to add anything. Your choice. ;)
*** UPDATE 20th November 2008 ***
Just adding some useful information posted here by someone...
"After reading all of this, I did some further research on foam overlays and mattresses using "memory foam" and have discovered that "Dunlop" produce this type of foam and several manufacturers and retailers in Australia stock it/use it in their products. If you go to the website of "Dunlopfoams" it has all the information about the product and has links to retailers eg. Clark Rubber & Super Amart and manufacturers of mattresses eg.Sleepmaker, Sleephaven, Adriatic Slumber etc who use it in their mattresses. I know Town & Country advertise a "memory foam" queen size mattress from $999 which is well short of Wenatex price. Worth looking at I reckon. Hope this is helpful."
*** UPDATE 10th September 2009 ***
A month or so ago I got an email from livejournal saying that someone had attempted to reset the password for my journal (and it wasn't me). This has never before happened in the entire 6 years I've had this journal so you can imagine that it was at least a little unnerving. Livejournal also happened to send the IP address of the guilty party in that email.
I looked it up and it was somebody in Austria! Now at the time I thought, 'That's weird! Who do I know in Austria?!'. It has only recently occurred to me that the Wenatex head office and factory is located in Austria. That plus the fact that this entry comes up at the top of a Google search for "Wenatex" and they'd probably like to delete it... coincidence? You be the judge.
*** UPDATE 19th January 2010 ***
A comment that came through today from someone who went to a Wenetex free dinner...
____________________________________________
Subject: WENATEX DO NOT REFUND DEPOSIT!!!!
We went to the seminar. We got into the hype and although we felt the price was way too high, decided to leave a deposit for the Queen Deluxe System so that we could benefit from the 25% discount only offered on the night. We had assumed that if we changed our mind, end of deal. However, to our horror, we were told when we rang to cancel the order (once we came home and googled Wenatex and came down from the hype of this overpriced product), that our deposit was non refundable. It was there in black and white on the order form, but we didn't see it because we unfortunately got completely over excited and signed up on impulse. I know that this is how I shop, but when you buy from a reputable store, you always have the choice to return the goods or cancel the order.
The option we have now is to spend the deposit ($519.00) on one of their overpriced products. Which leaves me with the option of buying two pillows at $254.00 each (that's minus the discount, or some lame, overpriced Sheraton sheet sets (a crappy 300 thread count), or basic overpriced towels. I am kicking myself! I could have brought two Tempur pillows for less than that. This was one expensive mistake. Hope this helps and warns others. By the way, we found out afterwards, that we could have put a 10% deposit on one pillow and that would have locked in a 25% discount on whatever else we wanted to buy, we could change the order at any time as long as it was done before the order was ready to be delivered and paid in full.
____________________________________________