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Nov. 4th, 2014 08:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljNote to self... you know the gym is going to be busier on a Monday after work. Why don't you wait until Tuesday? Because you're a numpty and you keep forgetting.
Not only is it busier, but the reason it's a pain in the backside is because of the knobs that sit on a machine and use it for forty thousand sets rather than get up in between and let someone else use it. I'm not aggressive enough to ask. And you know what? The women in the gym never do this. They do their two sets and get off. 5 minutes tops. I'm left wandering around looking for a machine that I like to use to be free. I can do some things with the free weights and I do but the set up in the gym since it's moved doesn't seem to have any incline benches to do some of the other exercises that you can do instead of using a machine. Well, they may have them but they're in the back where the muscle bound heavy lifters are and very few women intrude. They don't bother you but it's still intimidating.
Goodlife decided they wouldn't build a womens' only section in the new location which sucks. I think most of the new Goodlifes don't have them though a few of the older ones still around do. Problem is not having a car, it's very inconvenient to go to one of those after work and I just won't go if i had to do that. When they were right in Scotia Square, they had a small womens' area, it had crap machines but it had a couple of treadmills, bikes and eliptical machines, a full set of weights and two benches. They expanded, moved across the street and it's a nice place, but there are two things wrong with it. One is the elimination of the womens' area and the other is the area they have for the private personal trainers and clients. It's all out in the open and just roped off. I do understand that they can now share that spot with other trainers and clients though that gets a bit too much as well if there's more than two pairs there. Before, they had a room that was closed off and you didn't have to worry about people watching you. But it could only be booked for one trainer and client at a time, the rest would have to work out with trainers out in the main gym so I *can* see their point.
Now that I"m not using a trainer it's moot. (paying for a wedding instead, y'all!) Anyway, I am still going to the gym, though it's harder to push myself there without the incentive of having to meet the trainer but i'm managing at least twice a week most weeks. There's enough of an improvement both with the stability of my lower back and a bit of an improvement with my blood pressure to provide me with reasons not to stop. We get a good rate through work with payroll deduction.
Oooh speaking of payroll deduction, did i mention that they're *finally* organizing an employee transit pass for us at a discount that we can pay through payroll and which is good for the whole year? Not having to get a new pass each month and it's still tax deductable. I think it will have a photo id or it will be a photo pass. The discount is something like 25% but the savings will be a taxable benefit. Even so, the amount taxed on the savings will still be less than the tax refund on the deduction. The government allows monthly and yearly transit passes to be used as a deduction on your income tax and it does make a difference in the refund amount though I'm not really sure how much it worked out to. Because the transit is part of the City government which is where I work, I've been bitching for years that we should have some sort of staff discount.
They want to encourage people to take the bus, it would make sense to start at their own doorstep and finally now they are. They've been offering students a ridiculously cheap student pass that is good for the university year (Sept. to May) and is mandatory and part of their tuition now. It's something stupid like $150 for the student year. Consider that buying a student pass currently costs $70 a month (adult passes are $78) and you can see how good a deal that is. I"m sure some students bitch that they won't use the pass so why are they being charged for it and I'm sure Transit makes a bucket load of money because of the thousands of students in this city at universities, I'm betting probably half of them won't use it at all or very little because parking is still a pain in the butt at the universities and staff don't get the discount, I don't think. (Halifax has two big universities, one smaller one that's affiliated with one of the bigger ones, a medium sized one, an art college and several campuses of the Nova Scotia Community College). I'm pretty sure the universities are on the bus pass system but not sure that the colleges are.
I believe they'll be setting up for the staff passes this month, making dates and times for the photo ids to be created, and I expect the first payroll deductions will be taken off in January when I think is when the passes take effect.
Not only is it busier, but the reason it's a pain in the backside is because of the knobs that sit on a machine and use it for forty thousand sets rather than get up in between and let someone else use it. I'm not aggressive enough to ask. And you know what? The women in the gym never do this. They do their two sets and get off. 5 minutes tops. I'm left wandering around looking for a machine that I like to use to be free. I can do some things with the free weights and I do but the set up in the gym since it's moved doesn't seem to have any incline benches to do some of the other exercises that you can do instead of using a machine. Well, they may have them but they're in the back where the muscle bound heavy lifters are and very few women intrude. They don't bother you but it's still intimidating.
Goodlife decided they wouldn't build a womens' only section in the new location which sucks. I think most of the new Goodlifes don't have them though a few of the older ones still around do. Problem is not having a car, it's very inconvenient to go to one of those after work and I just won't go if i had to do that. When they were right in Scotia Square, they had a small womens' area, it had crap machines but it had a couple of treadmills, bikes and eliptical machines, a full set of weights and two benches. They expanded, moved across the street and it's a nice place, but there are two things wrong with it. One is the elimination of the womens' area and the other is the area they have for the private personal trainers and clients. It's all out in the open and just roped off. I do understand that they can now share that spot with other trainers and clients though that gets a bit too much as well if there's more than two pairs there. Before, they had a room that was closed off and you didn't have to worry about people watching you. But it could only be booked for one trainer and client at a time, the rest would have to work out with trainers out in the main gym so I *can* see their point.
Now that I"m not using a trainer it's moot. (paying for a wedding instead, y'all!) Anyway, I am still going to the gym, though it's harder to push myself there without the incentive of having to meet the trainer but i'm managing at least twice a week most weeks. There's enough of an improvement both with the stability of my lower back and a bit of an improvement with my blood pressure to provide me with reasons not to stop. We get a good rate through work with payroll deduction.
Oooh speaking of payroll deduction, did i mention that they're *finally* organizing an employee transit pass for us at a discount that we can pay through payroll and which is good for the whole year? Not having to get a new pass each month and it's still tax deductable. I think it will have a photo id or it will be a photo pass. The discount is something like 25% but the savings will be a taxable benefit. Even so, the amount taxed on the savings will still be less than the tax refund on the deduction. The government allows monthly and yearly transit passes to be used as a deduction on your income tax and it does make a difference in the refund amount though I'm not really sure how much it worked out to. Because the transit is part of the City government which is where I work, I've been bitching for years that we should have some sort of staff discount.
They want to encourage people to take the bus, it would make sense to start at their own doorstep and finally now they are. They've been offering students a ridiculously cheap student pass that is good for the university year (Sept. to May) and is mandatory and part of their tuition now. It's something stupid like $150 for the student year. Consider that buying a student pass currently costs $70 a month (adult passes are $78) and you can see how good a deal that is. I"m sure some students bitch that they won't use the pass so why are they being charged for it and I'm sure Transit makes a bucket load of money because of the thousands of students in this city at universities, I'm betting probably half of them won't use it at all or very little because parking is still a pain in the butt at the universities and staff don't get the discount, I don't think. (Halifax has two big universities, one smaller one that's affiliated with one of the bigger ones, a medium sized one, an art college and several campuses of the Nova Scotia Community College). I'm pretty sure the universities are on the bus pass system but not sure that the colleges are.
I believe they'll be setting up for the staff passes this month, making dates and times for the photo ids to be created, and I expect the first payroll deductions will be taken off in January when I think is when the passes take effect.
