u/iSolaced

Having a bit of a mare with Amex at the moment.

Flew into Florence last week and thought it'd be great to try the Amex Dining Credit. Went to one of the restaurants on their list (Gucci Osteria) and made sure I paid using my Platinium card.

Got back to the UK and realised the credit hadn't been applied. Spoke to the chat who mentioned the payment seemed lodged under the Gucci store and as such, they're unable to honour it. I submitted a copy of the receipt from my meal and checked in a few days later - same decline as they felt my evidence wasn't enough (they even claimed I had made the purchase online, while I had paid with it on their machine in the restaurant).

I'm now going through their complaints process which takes 15 - 30 business days, but feel miffed about this whole ordeal. Feels like I need to chase them to honour their terms. I've submitted the receipt (again) alongside my email confirmation of the booking.

Anyone has any experience with this?

I didn’t really know where else to vent, and this community has been incredibly supportive in the past. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read this.

I (36M) went through a really difficult breakup about a year and a half ago. We were together for two years. At the time, I genuinely thought I had found my forever person.

About halfway through our relationship, her father suddenly died. It hit her extremely hard. She had a complicated relationship with him and carried a lot of regret, so her grief was intense and messy. It was incredibly difficult to support someone through that kind of raw, unfiltered pain, but I made a commitment to be her rock.

Over time though, she changed. The kind, empathetic person I fell in love with slowly disappeared, and she became increasingly toxic and aggressive. I stayed because I was committed, even though things were clearly deteriorating. I let her walk all over me and many boundaries we had built together got trampled on but I mostly blamed it on her grief.

The breakup ended up being life-changing for me. I’ll never know exactly what happened, but I strongly believe she cheated on me with an ex. She came back from a weekend away completely different. She told me nothing physical happened, but admitted she had feelings for him. I didn’t want to (couldn't) believe it and tried to save the relationship. Things spiralled for a couple of weeks until she ended it. She confessed it was likely her biggest mistake and I was "right person, wrong time." She also mentioned she wished her father had met me.

It was incredibly confusing. I didn’t want the breakup. I had pictured marrying her, and I couldn’t reconcile that with what was happening. I handled it as badly as I could have. I pleaded, begged, and we even agreed to go on one last trip together to “try and fix things.” Looking back, she had already checked out. It felt like she wanted to keep me around while also exploring being single.

At the end, I completely lost myself. The only way I could pull myself out was by giving her an ultimatum: either she was all in, or I couldn’t have her in my life. I couldn’t keep living in that anxious, one-sided dynamic. She said she understood and told me she would always love me. A few days later, she removed me from social media, and we had a falling out. She blamed me for things and, from what I understand, told her friends and family a lot of negative things. It's as if she was determined to burn the bridge.

Getting out of that hole was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I was deeply depressed and had no motivation. It felt like my world had collapsed. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my friends, I don’t know where I’d be.

Eventually, I started rebuilding. I found a great therapist, got into fitness, reconnected with hobbies, and built new social circles. I started dating again and met some great people (even if nothing serious came from it). Over time, I began to feel genuinely good about my life again. At first, I hoped she might regret things, apologise, or try to reconnect in some way. But eventually, I let go of that and found my own closure.

I ran into her twice in the months after the breakup. Both times, I was friendly and polite, but it felt off - like I was pretending. It didn’t sit right with me to treat things as normal with someone who had hurt me that much. So I started avoiding places where I might run into her. And I hadn’t seen her in almost a year.

Which brings me to yesterday.

I was meeting my friends at a rooftop bar. I walked in and instantly noticed her friends, and then saw her. We locked eyes. I immediately looked away and walked past her without acknowledging her.

A few minutes later, I ran into two of her friends. We exchanged brief pleasantries, then went our separate ways. I passed them on our way out and just ignored them.

Part of me is really proud of how I handled it. During the relationship and break-up, I had no boundaries. I bent over backwards for her and let a lot slide. Ignoring her felt like finally choosing myself.

But at the same time, I feel pretty horrible today.

It’s a strange feeling to ignore someone who once meant so much to you. This is someone I supported through one of the hardest periods of her life. I saw her at her lowest, held her through her grief, and was there when she broke down over losing her father. And now we can’t even acknowledge each other. I've set the boundary because of how hurt I got when I didn't have it in place.

I’m in a much better place now, and I know I would never let her back into my life. But it still feels sad, like this is a really unfortunate ending to something that once meant a lot. I feel broken today. I'm not back at square one, but it feels like some of the emotional scars have opened up again. I think what really bugs me is it felt like it didn't mean much to her while for me it was so pivotal.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking for here. Maybe advice, or maybe just a place to get this out. I don't know.

I (36M) finished my first marathon this past weekend and ran London Marathon in 4:03. Was aiming for a sub 4 hours but proud of finishing my first one. Couldn't have done it without reading all the stories and advice in this sub so a massive thank you!

I've got a half-marathon in 2 weeks which I'm going to do the marathon recovery runs and just enjoy it, but I'm beginning to think about my next steps. Ideally want to retain the fitness and structure of the marathon training plan (without the intensity) as I want to try to get faster and more efficient with my runs.

I'm trying to structure a normal base running routine and wanted to check if it makes sense to structure it as 3 x runs a week (1 x 5KM, 1 x 8KM - 10KM, 1 x 15KM - 20KM) while I find another race to build a training plan around?

As well, for my first marathon I used Run with Hal's novice which I found useful to get used to the distance, but could use any recommendations on other programs which would be great? I've been reading about Pfitz, Hansons or just continuing with Hal's but any advice would be appreciated!