Category: Business/Career

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Lockdown

Yup ! we have been placed on a lockdown for 2 weeks starting 3 days ago. But I think this time we are more prepared than the last one. At least the spouse and I are trying to do things that are useful for both the home and store. And the kid started her online learning today.

The spouse started going back to work and I started cleaning and purging the house and making ourselves useful. I’m hoping that this time around, we will make use of our “free” time effectively.

Wish us luck and pray that the lockdown is only for 2 weeks.

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OMG ! It’s March 2016 Already !

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Yes ! Life happened !  And of course , we had a nasty virus on our blogs and websites that was encrypted into our blogs automatically and apparently the virus had been dormant till now.  The script was in place a few years ago as far as we can see it and all of a sudden, it decided to create havoc in all of our blogs.  The spouse took time to clean out all the blogs , and if you must know , I have more than a few blogs that I use for monetizing purpose.  Yes , yes ! I make money thru’ blogging – bite me !

 And of course, Chinese New Year came about and we had to co-ordinate the celebration with our Asian friends , plus Chloe had some health issues and a girlfriend had and online boyfriend issue that actually left me quite perturbed and lost of words.  But lesson to be learned her , never , never play match – maker online or offline because you are caught in the middle of it and boyyy!  you kenna shit for nothing.   But you also get to see who your true friends are and who’ve got your back, so all in all , it was a good lesson learned.  You would think at almost 51 years old , I would have seen it all and done it all and avoided it all right?  But nope !  I guess one can be stupid still at 51.

 Anyhow,  my consolations are , the spouse, the kid and many of my friends had been very supportive throughout it all and I cannot ask for a better spouse , kid and friends .  Like the saying goes, you can never lose a true friend, you just find out who are the ones who are not.  And business continue to thrive and I was featured recently in a local article on Facebook – stoke !  And I managed to get a massage , my hair colored , manicure , pedicure  and all kind of good stuff done to my body.  I even got to play catch up with my girlfriends.  But I learned how to take are of myself and my family first and always ask for help from your neighbors because I’ve got some awesome neighbors now.

 

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Perks That Comes With My Job

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At the store, we get free lobsters and other stuff for Chloe all the time from our customers.  And for my online job, I get so many free stuff to check out and to review.  Yes, there are plenty of perks that comes with my online job and vlogging.  Just last week, I received a boxful of things to try out this summer and to vlog about it if I wished from advertisers.

PB never have to buy me cosmetic, perfumes or skin care , I always remind him how lucky he is – hahahha!  Vlogging turned out to be so much fun and so fruitful and fulfilling, not only do I make money, get free stuff, I get tons of friends/fans online.  What do I vlog about ?  mostly cosmetics, skincare for women over 50 of course and things happening around this town as well as Canada as an expatriate, you cannot imagine the many people who are interested in migrating to this part of the world.

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If I Were A Stay – At – Home Wife

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I salute those who made the decision to give up their jobs and stay home to take care of their kids and family because it isn’t an easy decision and that would entail some financial shift in the family.  For those women out there who’ve done that, you are definitely my heroes.

Many think that being a stay at home wife is easy but I can assure you that it isn’t.  Staying home and being isolated most of the time and not having a lot of adult interaction is not a situation that I want to be in.  When Chloe is sick , I have to stay home with her and I tell you , it wasn’t an easy task for me.

If I were a stay at home wife, I figured, I would be a very lonely one, because I don’t drive and need to wait for the spouse to bring me everywhere.  When I was in Asia , we drive on the right hand side of the road and for many years, I’ve been so used to it, I find it pretty difficult to get adjusted to drive on the left hand side.

Of course , I love my child and want to do stuff with her every minute of the day, but unlike Asia, where transport is so easy and so cheap, I can’t just travel and shop on our own or bring her to Sentosa on my own or Universal studio.  There is no Gymboree here, nor are there public swimming pool or indoor gym for kids to be and a cafe inside the gym for parents to interact with each other.

So for those stay at home wives in this town , I really salute them because I really couldn’t do it, not because I don’t love my child and home but because it would drive me nuts, not to have any intelligent conversation or stimulation for the mind.

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$60K in RRSP

RRSP season is here again, what is RRSP ?  it’s the Registered REtirement Savings Plan in Canada and this year, if we don’t wanna pay our taxes, we have to put in $60K in our RRSP.  Yup! you heard me right, crazy right?  But if you look at it from a different angle, it’s savings for you and yours for old age.  But what if you don’t lived that long, I hear myself asking this?  I think if I am not wrong, a portion of it goes back to your spouse until he dies.  So it depends on how you look at it and for us, we think it is worth it – to save up for retirement.  There goes my $60K.

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Growing & Staying On Top

It had been a busy month for us both at the store front and also for my vlogging  business.  The store is growing and we know that we are going to have to buy a bigger place really soon.  So we’ve been on the hunt for the longest time and may finally settle on a place this year if the price is right.

As for the vlogging business, it has been going great, I cannot ask for a better advertising co-ordinator who does all the flying arrangement and meeting of clients for me.  All I have to do is show up and look pretty.  On the home front, it has been awesome too, we’ve hired a part time helper to help around the house, cleaning and re-arranging things and cooking for us as we’ve been so busy of late and I’ve been traveling so much more now.

Chloe is doing well in school , although I want her to do better, so a tutor may be in order soon.  As for her piano , she is doing awesome, and I cannot ask for more.   Health front, PB , Chloe and I are planning to join a local gym to exercise 3 times a week, I suggested yoga classes and we are currently looking into it.  I also took an x-ray for my legs and awaiting to hear back from my doctor.

 It had been a really busy January for us and even though we had many storm days, we were still on top of our sales as compared to last year.  So we are totally blessed.  And those who’ve time to sell me, please let me know.

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Busiest Year

This has by far been the busiest year we’ve had in the last 15 yrs in business.  And with my new vlogging venture with an American advertising company, I have very little time for anything else.  But all is good and I ain’t complaining , after all, that means we can do more of what we want in the future and retire earlier.

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More Gifts From Advertisers

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Now that I’m vlogging with Youtube, I get more stuff to try out in collaboration with different advertisers than before.  I still blog but vlogging has been going so well, you cannot imagine how busy I get during the day.  The courier companies knows us well before but now, they think that someone out there must love us a lot since packages comes in for me almost everyday.

Received these in the morning and not only am I paid for trying out these Korean cosmetic and the new winter make up , I also get paid for doing it.  Plus youtube plays pretty well too – I’m pretty stoke to tell you the truth.  Coz’ I didn’t think that as a vlogger, you get so much exposure.  But I have to thank my PR company for all the arrangements that they do for me.

Chloe said we might need a bigger house because 1 room is use for my filming alone.

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I’ve Been Busy

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Yes, I’ve been so busy doing a little traveling for work to Seattle lately and haven’t been online a lot.  But I only go for a few days and rush back because I don’t want to be away from Chloe too long.  Between vlogging and signing up for a book deal and of course writing all about migrating to Canada as a minority (asian) it had kept me so busy that I cannot be at the store all the time now.

Nevertheless, I’m enjoying every moment of this new experience and making a lot of connection with some advertisers as well as my communications people.  The only cons is that I have to be away from the family from time to time but I think most things are pretty much organized now, therefore, I can do my work from here and send them all my work over the internet.

Vlogging is so fun and it’s so rewarding.  Life cannot be better !  did we tell you that we bought another property for investment?  yup!  it’s been an exciting summer!

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Musical Instrument Shopping

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Yes, we finally bought a real piano for Chloe in Halifax because she had been taking lessons for more than a year now and attended her first recital this year before summer.   And since she is so good at it, we figured we should buy her a real piano.  Truthfully, I didn’t think that an acoustic piano would be so expensive, I was planning to spend like $3500 on it but an entry level acoustic cost about $6500 tax included.  But it is an investment and PB didn’t bat an eyelid paying cash for it.

Of course, he too wanted something from the  guitarcenter  since he was buying chloe such an expensive “toy” , he feels he deserved another one in his collection too.   Well, i didn’t stop him of course, after all he worked so hard for them and he is entitled to spend some money as long as we don’t use our credit card and use our line of credit.  Everything has to be paid in cash and that’s how I am teaching my kid.  If you cannot afford your toys, then don’t buy them.