Category: Useful Links 101

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12 Yrs In Business

Definitely not an easy feat – but I have to say PB did a pretty good job – from the start – till when we had a tough time some 4 years ago – and now bringing the business back where it should be and even better than I had anticipated. Being in business for this long also means constantly upgrading – and the money that we made – always goes back into the store somehow. Besides the paying of bills – and stocking up inventory – and buying what is necessary to live on – we rarely splurge on ourselves. This year we are looking at getting a barcode scanner for the store – because it would be a lot easier if we were to hire on part-timers. We don’t have to specially train them how to punch in the codes and look out for the price difference – all they need to do is to scan the products and once scanned – the cash would balance and we won’t have to worry about missing money.

We are also constantly looking for ways to make things a lot easier on us – the initial part to put everything into the system using the scanner may be a bit tedious but in the long run – it would be a lot easier – we don’t need to hire a very skill person to man the counter for us – even a monkey can do it – like the sales person said. And yes – as we look forward to celebrating our 12 yrs in business at the end of the month – I hope this year PB would give out some free gifts like pens or memo pads – to our regular customers. What do you think? should we have cakes and coffee too? or get the local radio to come celebrate with us.

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The Western Men & The Chinese Men With Electronics

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.

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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?

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A Collection Of Jewelry

My love for jewelry started when I was very young – I think it was my grandmother who actually got me interested in jewelry and when I was young and visiting my grandmother – she would take out her jewelry to show me. My great-grandmother who loved my sister so much – left her a ring – on her deathbed – so you see how we all got started young with loving our diamonds and gold. My grandmother also kept most of her jewelry at home therefore, she had all her jewelry insured – even an engagement ring insurance – that’s to tell you how early she started with buying insurance for all her jewelry. Being a Peranakan – descendants of Malay and Indonesia – they have exquisite jewelries – it’s too bad that my mother didn’t get left with a lot of her jewelry since she was the oldest amongst her siblings. But because of generations of love for jewelry – I too develop a love for them and passing on the tradition to my daughter.

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Health Exams

Last year – I had gone to see my new family doctor because my old family doctor decided to abandon us – and move to a more vibrant town. But thank God – he is gone – because my new family doctor is way better – very encouraging and never once did she talk down to me – like the old one. But since I am new to her practice and not a spring chicken no more with so many health issues – she insisted that I have a full body check up – which included a ecg because I had high blood pressure – according to my old doctor. But truth be told – my blood pressure only go up when I’m talking about the town I am living in – other than that – I’m pretty calm. But she insisted an ECGs are not uncommon to me – because my mom used to do those – since she worked in the hospital. But I do like my new doctor and her office – because her clinic is pretty high tech – with all the savvy equipment and everything recorded using a notebook and not paper – so that they can pull out a file – without having to pull out paper folders. So my health exam will be up soon – and again I know i will have to do another ECG test – but this time – I’m more prepared since I’ve already done it once – and I’m not so panicky now. So wish me luck – while I await my ECG.

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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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Yoga Or Kick Boxing

A new Yoga studio just opened upstairs from our store – and the kick boxing opposite our store – at the same time – well almost. I’m interested in both – and even though I don’t have the strength or muscles to do both – I think I don`t need anything special to build my body mass as read on www.creatinepowders.com. I think those are more for body builders and wrestling fighters that are having a show at the Mariner Center later this month. It`s amazing how they do it – I wonder if they really take stuff like creatine powder for leaner muscles but they sure looked good from the posters that I saw around downtown. Anyhow – going back to Yoga or kick – boxing – both are about the same prices for the group classes and both as just as convenient – and I`m sure both are good for keeping healthy and fit – so which one? Keeping fit and calm is good – but I also want to be able to build some muscles and strength. I think they do offer trial classes – so I’m going to do that – and then decide – wish me luck!

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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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Golf Course @ My BackYard

For those who are not aware of this – the golf course – for the country club is just behind our backyard – one of the main reasons why we bought our home there. It is a very beautiful golf course – lots of greens during spring time and also summer and it is my hope that I will one day pick up golf again. I used to play golf when I worked for a Spanish company – I needed to entertain our clients – so I would practice since my handicap is not even worth mentioning. My boss has a gps for golf course – yes! he was a serious player alright. Hopefully, this summer – I can get a chance to play again – coz’ my girlfriends from here – wants to play with me – I’m trying to do different things this year – to make my life a better and healthier one – I’m darn proud of myself alright!