Recently we invested in some new equipment and expanded part of our factory.

I thought that you might like to see a short photographic essay by Chris Hellyar our IT manager.  You will find his comments at the bottom of each photo as you move through them.

http://static.xtend-life.com/MoveSlide/

We will do another one after they have been commissioned and the new walls and ventilation has been installed.

When I am out of the country it is always with some concern when I answer a call on my cell phone early in the morning.  I am in Thailand at the moment and early yesterday when I was asleep my cell phone rang and I learnt that my only sister had just died.

I share this with you as there are some lessons to be learnt.  Diane was only two years older than me but, was not particularly health conscious…in fact, not health conscious at all.

She was a wonderful person but had always had faith in her Doctors.  Her heart health over recent years had begun to deteriorate…ironically since she was talked into going on statin drugs and other medication!  I did my best to have her consider other options and use our products but her Doctor was not positive about them and insisted on her taking only her medication and as such she never tried them…not even our Omega 3 DHA fish oil.

From her perspective I can understand this…after all I was her brother and I don’t wear a white coat and have a bunch of degrees hanging on the wall.  I have learnt years ago that if someone really doesn’t want to know about ways they can change their health that the information cannot be forced on them…they have to ask and be receptive…sadly, that principle also has to extend to family.

Earlier this week Diane went to hospital to have a new heart valve.  This should have been a pretty straightforward procedure but the valve was slightly out of shape and as such the operation took a lot longer than anticipated.  As a result air got in her system and up into the brain.

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I just had to share this with you.

A couple of days ago I was at the airport in Christchurch, New Zealand waiting for a flight to Auckland and then on to Shanghai.

Well, when I arrived at the airport in CHCH I realised that I had forgotten my tooth brush.  So, I went to the bookshop in the terminal building to buy one.  They had a double toothbrush set for NZ$3.50 so I bought it.  Only problem was that I couldn't find any New Zealand currency, although I knew that I had some in amongst a variety of currency that I carry. 

Anyway, I am sorting through this wad of cash which had 16 currencies whilst the attendant patiently waited.  I could have used my EFPOS card or a credit card but I was determined to find some NZ cash because it was such a small amount.

In the meantime a woman came in to buy a newspaper and had overheard my discussion because it was quite funny.  She insisted that the attendant takes the $3.50 out of her change.

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Just a short note from Warren.  Warren is travelling on business and inspecting new manufacturing equipment.  Unfortunately, due to a hectic schedule and technical difficulties Warren will not be able to post any comments for the next 10 days.  He is finding this very frustrating because not only is he unable to make any new posts, he cannot respond to any comments readers have posted.  After the next 10 days the blog will get back to normal.  Warren apologizes for the delay.  Thank you.  Kane Matthews

As another year draws to a close I would like to say on behalf of the team at Xtend-Life located in New Zealand, Thailand and the UK a BIG THANK YOU to all our loyal customers now spread throughout mcuh of the world.

Personally I would like to thank all the readers of my blog for their contributions. This interaction I have found most valuable and I sincerely hope that readers have benefited from it as well.

We are all aware that 2009 will be a tough year for many of us. But, most of us have experienced tough times at some stage in our lives and understand that when they pass we are the wiser for living through that period. I have certainly found that to be the case on more than one occasion.

Remember that although in tough times we have to compromise in many areas we should not do so with our health as it can create a downward spiral which can be hard to recover from.

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Not too many things make me mad but when people scam others it really gets me going.

Over the last few days I have been getting a lot of email which appear to be coming from my personal email address at xtend-life.com.  These emails have a variety of subject lines but they all come from a Canadian online pharmacy drug store.  At least that what it seems.

Because I get upset when someone hijacks my email address for sending spam I decided to look into it further.

This email is worse than just spam...it is also a scam.

How do I know?  Well first I had a look at their contact details to see if they had a phone number or physical address...and as expected there was none.

So, I thought I would proceed with a dummy order and see if it went to a secure page for processing.  As expected when the order was placed in the shopping cart it went to a check out page asking for credit card details.  This was not a secure page.  It did not even have the 's' after http which designates a secure page.

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It started about 10 days ago when Thai airways cancelled a flight I was booked on from Bangkok to Chengdu, China this coming Thursday 4th Dec.  This threw all my meetings which I had in Chengdu and in Shanghai into chaos...affecting other airline tickets and hotel bookings.  It was difficult to rearrange as I only had a limited time to do what I needed to do and I had to be back in New Zealand by the 12th Dec in time for our annual end of year staff party.

But, I managed to rearrange everything.

Then last Tuesday protesters moved in and took over the main airport in Bangkok.  What should have been sorted out within a day or two at most is still unresolved a week later.

Then on Saturday I had a call from home that my father in law of 40 years had just died.   It was not unexpected though and he was only a couple of weeks short of 94.  I had told him before I left that he was to hang on at least until the 5th Dec as I was a guest speaker an an international symposium on skin care in Bangkok on the 3rd Dec and I could not get back before the 5th.

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Since we released our new natural skin care products a few months ago the sales have been steadily increasing in spite of tougher economic times...no doubt reflecting the excellent value for money of these new products.  Feedback has been good with repeat order rates high.

Like our Total Balance range of supplements we will continue to ensure that we keep up with the latest developments in natural skin care and periodically (at least once a year) 'tweak' the formulas if we can see a benefit to our customers in doing so.

It is not as easy as it may seem to get a natural skin care product with perfect texture.  The process of preparation is quite complex for our products.  We have to use water 'baths' to indirectly heat certain oils to specified temperatures.  At the same time powders have to be mixed into purified water at different temperatures and then these have to be combined at a specific rate and blended for specific times.

All these processes are carefully documented and the final product goes through a QA inspection and is tested at an independent laboratory for any micro-biological contamination before being released.

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