While everyone was worried about the stock market ending up lower – my investment banker outperformed others and made me some money.  When the index when up 0.14%  I was quite sure they would go down again – but nope, my investment banker told me to keep it for a little longer last Tuesday.  So trading ending about 0.32% higher, so for the first time in a long time – I made some money.  So I’m sending him instead of a thank you note – I ordered some cookie bouquets for the entire department = after all, they do deserve something special and I don’t want to give them something ordinary right?   The Thanks a buzzillian cookie bouquet definitely fits the bill.

Yes! It’s time to get new signage for the store.  When we moved to the new location 4 years ago – we didn’t do up a new one – in fact, we had used an old sign and just asked the sign company to paste in our logo onto the old sign.  By the way, the old sign wasn’t even ours to begin with.  We will keep the logo of course, but instead of waiting for the sign store to design for us – I rather do the design myself – since I do have the Wacom Bamboo Capture right?  gotta make use of it sooner or later – so why not now.  Stay tuned for a new signage.

PS :  For those who are wondering why we didn’t do it earlier – it was because we were so busy with making money – and taking care of the kid – so no extra time to do this.

13 years in  business and not much has changed in town – the infrastructure – the look of the town and almost everything seems the same.  Sure, the kids are having a new high school, they also put some fountain at Lake Milo, Christmas lights in Frost parks during Christmas, a new car dealer coming into town and some big boys along the shopping strip.  But on the whole, I don’t really see any changes – plus we lost the ferry, the airport look really non-function able and a lot of small business closed its door and a lot more residents left town in search of work.

Politics we are not into, the town had asked why don’t the people who are so concerned do something but we are not paid to take care of the town.  We worked 12 hours a day both at the store and online, plus raising a kid – and most people who are working are doing the same thing – they don’t have spare time for politics.  Are we not paying taxes, so that in return we have a better living – a better place to raise our kids?

Don’t get me wrong, we are not in anyway doing bad in business nor personally but when I stand on Main Street – on a cold winter day – like today – it’s pretty grey and grim looking for a lot of people.   As for us, we better keep our mouth shut and truck on and work really hard.

For the last one year – the entire town has been in debate  – some more actively than  others and some care more than others – some couldn’t care less but some pretend to care for their own gain.  *shrug* but I can’t really blame them can I?  Most people would say – to each his own – we take care of our own first.  Is that your assumption too?  Is that your stand too?

I think the boss must think I’m mad sometimes – for being so passionate about what’s going on in this town – after all – truthfully I’m really not from here.  So why you asked am I sometimes so pissed off?  especially when we are doing a lot better than when we had the ferry and tourists.   Some may think that I’m crazy and spending too much time in trying to make things better but I’m thinking not for myself only but for the rest of the people in town and the kids and the future of this town.  What has this town gotta offer the younger generation?

Christmas is tomorrow – and as I reflect on the many hours I spend reading up the forum and FB pages – I think next year – I’m going to give it a rest and concentrate on what matters most first.  My kid and the store – and the rest is going to have to wait till I’m free.  So for now – debate or not – the above cartoon tells you how I feel about the situation in this town but not at our business or life.  We are doing pretty well – despite everything.  I think the town had ignore the signs for far too long – so this is where we ended up.

ikoni

The government or rather the provincial government here never fails to amaze me – while I know that the local hotel here needs money – so do all of us here – the small businesses.  If the government is giving $1 million to the hotel – surely they can spare some change to the small business owners – like the golf store that is closing down and a few others as well.  We are all struggling to stay afloat – so why is the hotel the only one getting any money?  I guess since the hotels have other hotels in the province – the government need to keep their own boys happy right?  don’t worry about the small flies around – they can die and rot for all the government care.

I don’t know about other working moms – but I know how hard it is for me to help out at the store – do my own work yet gotta go home and cook and clean the house.  Some people I know don’t really care what they feed their kids nor if their home is clean but I on the other hand being brought up different – is quite OCD about cleanliness.   When in Asia – it’s easy to hire a maid from Philippines to help you clean and cook while you are out working but in the West – they don’t practice having a maid.  I wished we had residential maid service durham nc here – so that I can get some help with cleaning my home – that way I don’t have to do it on the weekends when I actually want to spend time with my kid and spouse.  Plus truth be told, I don’t really think I clean so well either  – so I do envy those who can get maid service at a reasonable price and who does a great job.

I’ve tried hiring people to clean my house – but they either don’t clean well – or need specific instructions to what I need them to clean.  I don’t have good luck with part time cleaners because they are not trained – and they don’t even come with their own cleaning products.  Why I won’t hire a non-professional anymore is because the last one I hired used one cloth to clean just about everywhere in the house, from the kitchen to my dining table and the other rooms of the house.  And no that cannot be hygienic, so I won’t hire anyone who don’t have a reference have is qualified to clean my home.  When you pay someone to clean your home, you want to make sure they really clean it – and not leave halfway.

Movies have been picking up steadily ever since Movie Gallery closed shop – but to say that we are making thousands every week on movie rentals alone – then you are wrong.  For those who wants to open their own movie rental store now – should re-consider for we too found out that a lot of people are downloading their movies and steadily becoming a pirate.  So rental may be steady – but to say that we are making lots of money – then you might be in for a shock.  For being in rentals for 11 years – we still have people come in and tell us that they didn’t know we rent movies – muahahah!!!

Yes, we went out to pick up more Christmas decor for the store this week – because they are now all on sale – at about 40% discount at the mall.  I can’t wait to get some more Christmas stuff for both the store and home.  This year – we’ve spent more on decor than other years, I think it’s because we are debt free – from credit cards and everything else – so I can spend money on things that I like to pretty up the store.  I loved Christmas and have always wanted the store to look nice and Christmasy – this year – I have to say we are the happiest – with no employees to worry about – and a great help from Gary – who comes in to relieve us when we need to go home for supper.   We really should have done this a long time ago.

So we broke down and bought 2 infrared heater at the store – just to see if it would help with the oil bill since oil has gone up again.  But after using it for a few days now – it doesn’t seems to work as good as we would like it too.  The store is still pretty cold after turning it on for a few hours – and it’s still running to bring the temperature up in the store.  But having said that we have quite a long store – so that might be why it’s not heating up as well.  Perhaps, it’s only me – we shall see – in a few more days.

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