I wanted to think of a title that won’t offend my Chinese friends – but there isn’t really a good way to put it – without upsetting some. But this only applies to those who are not technically inclined because the Chinese men that I’ve met – are not very technically inclined – well – except for the engineers I used to work with. But truth be told the Western engineers are by far more handy and knowledgeable when it comes to anything electronic. And I can prove it because PB is such a person – ask him about wires, cable or even digital video cables, he is able to tell you exactly what they are for and how to use it. But if I were to ask a chinese friend – I seriously doubt they are so good with it. Some of the chinese male friends I had known all my life – don’t even know how to tune a VCR to record what is on tv *slap forehead* so can you blame me for wanting to marry a chinese? well – of course, there is more to knowing about cables to choose from a Chinese to a Westerner – but that’s for another post and another day.
Raising A Kid Well
When Chloe was born – the minute I held her in my arms – I was very happy but at the same time overwhelmed with fear and responsibility as to how I am going to be able to raise her up well. Not only in terms of feeding her and clothing her but also with her education and making sure she grows up to be a responsible adult, well-behaved – you know the works – like any good citizen of society. My fear derived from seeing so many teenage pregnancy in this town – and also so many problematic teenagers. I fear I may not bring her up well – I fear she may grow out of hand – I also fear for my own health – what if I am not around to help raise her with PB. You see – after arriving in Canada – I realized that my health is not what it used to be and since PB was the only bread winner in this household, therefore I was very worried – what ifs???? So I did what any responsible woman and mother would do and took out my life insurance calculator and got some good advice from my insurance agent and did the right thing with my term life insurance. You never know what life may bring you eh – and in the event when something does happened I want to be prepared because I want my kid to be raised up well. I want an option for PB to leave work and to look after Chloe properly – i hope that day may never come – I hope to watch my princess grow up – and go into college and get married and have kids – but you never know right? What about you? how do you raise your kid up well?
Doing Business In Canada
Being in business for almost 12 years this year in a small town in Canada can be quite challenging but the spouse loves his retail store and as owner by association – I just play the supportive role and watch out for anything that can improve our business, our store and of course making the customers happy.
The store had been using a program written by a friend of the spouse and in most part it is an alright point of sale software but we know that at some point of time we are going to need a software that keeps better inventory than the one we are currently using. It would be awesome to be able to do inventory on a monthly basis with a bar-code scanner like the big retail stores – not with printed papers and pen since our inventory is growing so rapidly. Plus we also have a ebay store that we are doing a trial on – to see if it is feasible to move some products online. It’s alright if you are working alone but if you have employees – it is definitely much more effective to have a good POS system – more accurate, more systematic.
I told the spouse that at some point – we will have to do all the above not only because of ourselves but to be able to serve the customers better as well. And with a professional POS system, we can then go for long vacations without worrying about whether the employees can cope with doing inventory work the way we used to do them. 12 years in business is no easy feat – and to keep everything organized gets even harder without a good POS system – I think it’s time to call in the professionals eh.
Re-Organizing Our Study Room
We spent yesterday re-organizing the papers from the store that were store in our study room for the longest time. We have a closet full of documentation for the last 7 years from the store – because that is what we are supposed to do – according to revenue Canada. I told PB that he should get that software for document management – that way – everything is being stored in the hard-drive and we can store the paperwork in the basement or can throw those that are older than 7 years away. Of course, we are going to keep the ones from the last 2 – 3 years – but a closet full of documents – receipts and more – you can imagine – how much we had to do yesterday just to re-organized them. But truly, I would like to turn our study room into a guest room once our basement is finally done and we have a study in the basement again. For anyone with any amount of paperwork you have to keep – you really need that software – it will safe you a lot of space and time – that’s for sure.
Helping Hands
The chinese have a saying – no one wants to be bald if they can helped it. And no one want to borrow or get a loan with high interest either but look – life can be tough sometimes and as bad as people may say cash advances are – I beg to differ. Why? personal experience of course. Many years ago – the store wasn’t doing so great – and we need a bit of cash for a roll over at the store – and we couldn’t go to the bank – because they wanted a collateral that we didn’t have. So we had no choice but to get a high interest loan – and it took us a while to pay it off – but we knew what we were getting ourselves into and without this cash advance – we wouldn’t be where we are now. Our loan is paid off after several years – sure it was high interest – but what can we do – we needed the money BAD! the folks where we got our loan from never bothered us – we paid our loan monthly and religiously and we are debt free now – and we know how to make better choices now. So for those who say that cash advances are evil – it’s not true – it is you who made that choice to loan – so it is your responsibility to want to get out of debt. It is what you do after getting the cash advance that is important.
Own A Commerical Buidling
So a commercial building came up for sale – within our price range and PB is interested in investing in it. An option is to move the store to that building and then rent the 3 other apartments on the top out. But the inside of the apartments need working on – the 2nd floor really needs lots of work and we also have to check out the property tax for this building – to see if it is worth buying it. We do have the highest property tax in Nova Scotia – so lets hope the town don’t get too crazy about the taxes. Truth be told – I’m not too keen – because good tenants are hard to find around this town. Some folks think that becoming a landlord is good but it’s not true – it’s a lot of responsibility and if you get bad tenants then you are totally screwed.
Want To Buy A Bowling Alley?
We just got back from the bowling alley and learned that it is on sale again soon – so we heard from the other bowlers who where there bowling. I guess with the mess the church is in – because of the priest being sued for something – they had no choice but to sell the bishop’s house and the bowling alley? so I’ve heard. Anyhow, I figured if I were to take out my CPF money – it should be enough to buy the bowling alley – it should be a profitable thing? after all, this is the ONLY bowling alley in town. It does need a little sprucing up – but it should be doable. Or anyone out there wants to buy a bowling alley? let me know eh – good investment i say – should be able to make $500 – $1000 a day from what i see.
Her Dreams
My friend’s daughter – who just turned 18 found out that she is pregnant this week – yes – 18 is really young – and she had planned to do a nursing course at Dalhousie this year – but I guess she has to shelve that plan till after her baby. But who is going to take care of baby and her – she can’t just up and leave for Halifax to continue with her nursing course? or can she ? she asked me. I suggested maybe she can look into some online nursing degree , that way she can do it at home – and take care of baby as well as being near to her family.
I have seen my married friends to it – and if she was determined and has ambition – some motivation from her parents and support from her loved ones – having a baby at 18 is not as bleak. But having said all the above – my friend’s daughter – really need to get her act together and decide what she really wants for her baby and herself – for she needs to think for the future.
Snow Day
Snow Day means no school for Chloe – they canceled school as early as 6am this morning. No school doesn’t mean sleeping in for us – because Chloe wakes up as early – so no diff for us truth be told. And i love having her at the store with us – but very quickly she would find out that she would be bored too. By noon – she would be so bored – it would be the worst day in her life – as she would put it – hahahha!! a bit of drama queen would come out soon enough. Unlike in the city – there would be things for Chloe to do – or a library she can go to – or the discovery center – or museum – or even catch a good movie – but here – there is absolutely nothing for her to do – how sad eh. Oh well!
Internet Free For 24 hrs
Or should I say computer free for 24hrs? You see – I think I can – but the spouse aka PB – I doubt so. We were up in the city for 2 days last year – and mannn!! he can’t do without the computer and the internet. He had to check his emails – had to check the webcam of the store and even when we were out shopping – he was looking for computers *slap forehead*. But can you really blame him – at this time and age – can anyone not know how to work the computer and go on the internet? even his grandaunt who is 90 yrs old checks her email everyday. I sometimes wonder what it would be like without the internet, without ICQ – without msn messenger or skype? what would life be like? one thing for sure – without the computers and internet – PB and I wouldn’t have met – he is in the other side of the world. And most importantly, we won’t have Chloe – our cheeky PITA (Pain In The A##)- hahaha ! whom we loved and adore. Yes! so my challenge to you is to be internet and computer free for 24hrs one day a week – can you do that? I have started – and every Sunday – I refused to do anything on the computer or the internet.