Category: The Other Half

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We’re Moving To Alberta!

Hehe!! of course not! but a local magazine had done some survey and proven that Alberta is the best place to live in – throughout Canada. Apparently, they have good schools, good neighborhood and a place where you can find jobs easily. But all these are only in paper – is it true? Well, I really don’t know to be honest – because I haven’t lived in Alberta – but if you are thinking of migrating – then you should definitely speak or write to some people who are already there. Canada is a huge place – and the town that I’m in is very small – a population of like 7000 – and even though it’s a small town – taxes are high for your properties and jobs are hard to come by. We are very fortunate because we’ve owned our own business for the last 12 yrs this coming August – but I know people who can’t find a job here – and had to move their entire family so that they can find better jobs.

Having said all the above – being in a small town suits PB very much – he grew up here – he doesn’t like driving in the city – and of course food in the city is way much more expensive even though the varieties are more. I don’t know if I would move elsewhere in the future – but for now – we have no plans yet. As much as I would love more asian food – I’ll have to say that the competition both in school and on the store front isn’t as competitive as it would be in say Alberta or even in Halifax.

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Blue Grass Festival

So we all know that I’m the adventurous one – and PB – well – he is PB – he doesn’t change and you young gals out there who think that they can change their men – forget it! they never change – you just go with the flow if you want the relationship to work (lesson #1 to #100). Anyhow lets come back to me being the adventurous one (blowing my own trumpet again) – but when the best friends said that they wanted to go see the blue grass festival this summer – I was all for it. They were bringing their families in their motor home aka RV and I wanted to do it too – after all, how can one go wrong with so many friends on the road together right? But being the paranoid one – I also want PB to check out on the 5th wheel warranty for our trailer – since we don’t have an RV – we thought we should borrow the trailer from PB’s uncle – who goes camping all the time. But I wanted to make sure that we were covered on the road – you never know what might happen right? so yes – as soon as we find out more about our trailer’s warranty – I think we are all set to go. Very excited that we don’t need to actually drive the RV but bring our SUV and the trailer along – that’s way easier. Blue grass festival here we come!

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Fatherhood Changes Men

I asked PB if fatherhood had changed him – at first he said he didn’t know – and after a little bit more of questioning – he turned around and said yes – ” fatherhood made him a pussy!” muahahhahahah!!! I asked him what he meant – he said normally, he wouldn’t worry about the car – but now that he is a father – he had to make sure that the car was safe not for him but for the kid. He also said that he is worry that he might not be around when the kid is older. So touching right? Yes ! I think fatherhood had changed PB some – at least he is the tooth fairy who wrote with his left hand so that Chloe won’t recognized his handwriting – muahahah!!!

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School BBQ For IWK

So I went for the school BBQ alone – i took a walk up to the school on my own and I stayed for the BBQ because Chloe had asked if I would go. She said – I didn’t need to go – but she hope I would go. She was too cute when she asked – she wasn’t demanding that I go – but she would loved that I go – actually PB and I – but since PB needs to look after the store – I went instead. It was a good BBQ – nothing spectacular – only another parent was there chatting with me and some of Chloe’s teachers. But it was a milestone for me – since I never go anywhere without PB – so yes – I’m starting to feel better it seems – I hope soon I will be able to drive on my own – so looking forward to driving!

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Mini Vacation Gone Wrong

So we just got back from our mini – vacation to the city – and boy! was it a worrisome vacation. Our friend said I’m a worrywart but how can I not be – when the car was having trouble and our safety was in question. I was so looking forward to this mini-vacation because it had been 6 months since I had gone up to the city to savor my Japanese food and dim sum. And even though I did get to eat one meal sit down dinner at a Japanese restaurant and some dim sum – I know that PB wasn’t really enjoying it – nor was Chloe – because all the time during our mini-vacation – she said she wanted fish and chips *slap forehead*. We also lost some shopping time because we were out searching for a garage to look at our car – and our hotel room wasn’t the best at first but the hotel staff were excellent and tried their best to make our stay a great one. I had wanted to stay for another day – to get the car looked at first and also to get some more shopping done – but in the end – PB decided to come back on the schedule date *sigh*. So I rushed to get a few things done and get as much chinese food as I can get and then came back. All the way – praying for journey mercy from God. What a vacation!

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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.

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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.

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Target For Racism Already

So we went to pick Chloe up from her After School program today and she complained that she had a bad day. We asked why? she said one of her classmate – a boy said to her – that he hates CHINESE! *slap forehead*. We asked Chloe if she had spoken to her teacher about it – and she said yes – and that her teacher had spoken to her entire class about it. I don’t know how a 7 yrs old would said something like that to another kid in his class. In our household, we never use the word “HATE” – according to Chloe “HATE” itself is already a bad word. While we constantly teach Chloe right from wrong – why are other kids saying hurtful things to my daughter? What had that kid been taught at home or around home/friends? I’m curious to know exactly what is going on at this boy’s home/friends. Should I be worried for Chloe? or should i just brush it off as a kid’s thing – that they don’t know any better?

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Neither Here Nor There

My burner at the store is constantly lighted up – to keep me calm – even though PB think it is to make the store smell nice – well it does – so I let him think so. The general election is just round the corner and I’ve been reading up a lot about it. My Singapore passport had been renewed in New York High Comm and was sent back to me via courier. It’s a 5 yrs renewal now and not 10 like it used to be. I asked myself if I should vote – since I’m in Canada – but truth be told – I don’t really feel like a Singaporean no more. Why? i can’t imagine going home for good – for it’s too expensive to live in Singapore – but having said that – I don’t really feel at home in Canada either. I always feel like a guest here – even though my true loves are here. The spouse said i think too much – maybe it’s true – I should just go with the flow – and not think too much.

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Umbrellas Don’t Work Here

It had been raining a lot here – and for years, we’ve tried all sorts of umbrellas but they don’t work – because PB gets all upset – that the umbrella is just not strong enough for the wind and he claims that it gets blown away. So for years, we haven’t really bought any umbrella except for the few that we’ve had sparingly – that always end up somewhere – like the garbage in the basement. So the other day, I saw some very cheap rain coat from the dollar store and picked one up for her because I saw one of her school friend wearing it. Chloe liked it a lot and it did the trick to shield her away from the water – while walking into school from the car. As for PB – it was so cheap – he didn’t really protest – because to him – little rain is nothing – but he doesn’t know that it’s so irritating to be wet. Yes! he rather get wet than to wear a rain coat.