Category: This Town

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Getting Married In Canada

So you found a Canadian boyfriend and he gave you the ring – and proposed – so you want to get married in Canada? or should you get married in your home country and then do it all over again in Canada? Or is it legal to get married in your home country and not bother when you come back to Canada – since you are thinking of moving to Canada with him some time right? Well, of course, if he decided to move to your home country – now that would be a different story and of course you wouldn’t be reading this right?

Well, whatever you decide – you will have to think of what you are going to do first – for immigration purpose. Getting married in your hometown – doesn’t automatically make you a Canadian resident or a Canadian citizen as far as I know – in fact – getting married away from Canada – may post a little more complicated than you think when trying to migrate to Canada. From my experience – I strongly suggest – you come to Canada first as a tourist – apply for a marriage license here – get married here and then do your immigration from here – while you have a tourist status. Usually, Canadian immigration will grant you a 6 months visitor pass – and that is enough to get your application going. But my experience is only my own – my 2 cents – so don’t hold it against me – if yours work out differently. Good luck!

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Owner By Association

As owner by association to the spouse’s business – I still have to worry about what is going on in the store – and our financial situation and dealing with customers as well as suppliers. Although I tell people that it’s all about PB – it’s not true as we all know it – my ears and eyes are always open and when I am at the store – I play both the good guy and the bad – while PB plays the boss. If you’ve ever run a business – you will know that there is more than meet the eyes – those that think that we are sleeping on money – must be crazy. I wished we had a friend or a business lawyer – like the raleigh business lawyers who handles all aspect of dispute and negotiation for businesses. But in a small town like ours – PB don’t think that there is one that specializes in doing just that. And even though we are a small business – it is always good to have someone who knows all about dealing with irate customers – or what we can do at our store and not do. There are so many little things that I would like to ask our business lawyer if we had one – and since we don’t have one – we are always worrying if we can do certain things or if the cops came for somethings that were sold to us – that were reported stolen – what are our rights as store owners. So yes! being an owner by association – is not as easy as some of you might think – I still worry a lot about the ins and outs of the store.

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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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A-Frame Houses

The photo doesn’t do it justice because the A-Frame houses that is near the lake – looked really cute from far away. I don’t really know who lives in these A-Frame houses – or if they are for sale but i found on the internet that they are for rent at $500/month – doubt they have heats and lights included though. But it’s such a unique place – great for bachelors or single ladies – who works near the hospital – it has a great view that’s for sure. If I were single – i would definitely rent something like that – back home rental for a room alone is about $500 – if not more for just a HDB house. Rent is a lot cheaper here in Canada – but of course – the standard of living is also lower as compared to back home. So will you survived in Canada ? for sure – but make sure you have some money saved up and run your little business. Working for someone unless you are a professional yourself – can be harder.

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Summer 2011

Every summer since coming to Canada – it doesn’t seems that we’ve done that much at all down at the waterfront. The last few years – I had gone down to the waterfront with Chloe on my own – or with her babysitter – but it’s different without PB. This year – we’ve managed to do a lot together during summer – I guess it’s because we’ve got Gary – a friend to help us in the store – volunteer work. Plus Gary we trust our store in his hands – we don’t worry at all – that money is going to go missing or some hanky panky going in the store. So when Gary is helping out – I just totally relax – no worries whatsoever. I’m just happy that PB is willing to do a lot more with Chloe – because she is growing so fast – and I really don’t want him to miss out on all the fun – watching her grow.

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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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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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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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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!

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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.