Inspired by a local reporter in this town – I’ve decided that I will also invest on a good beach cruiser with a basket like the one above and some suv bike racks – so that I can ride my bike to work everyday – and then when we pick the kid up from school I can ride home myself for some form of exercise.   On weekends this year, we shall all go to the beach and go biking and keep healthy.  Now the weather is too call but I think I might get some sort of deal if I shop now.

I really do love biking – and I’ve always wanted a cruiser bike but had been too el cheapo to buy a good one – so no more stinging on myself and giving out money this year but first to take care of myself.  I can’t wait to order my cruiser bike from Manser the bike person and of course, need to check out on those bike racks.

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

So I’ve been asked by other business owners what I had thought about the downtown promotion – you see they didn’t participate nor supported giving the anything to promote it because they were the ones who had said nothing would come out of it.  We did support the downtown promotion by giving a $50 gift voucher for the draw and also a buy 2 get the 3 game free coupon for the directory.  We had thought it was a coupon book to every household before Christmas – to encourage people to shop downtown with those coupon savings.

i do like the directory and we do appreciate the work done by the 2 employees but I think we might have expected something different – but this is the first time doing it – so I guess we all had different ideas since we didn’t attend the meetings for planning it since we were busy and don’t have any other employees except for Gary who comes and help us as a friend.  I think maybe next year – they should invite the residents to sit in for the meetings as well – because hearing the consumer/s is very important too.

]]> http://www.babybokchoi.com/2011/12/22/downtown-promotion/feed/ 0 http://www.babybokchoi.com/2011/12/19/funding-for-hotel-from-government/ http://www.babybokchoi.com/2011/12/19/funding-for-hotel-from-government/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:02:32 +0000 bochupU http://www.babybokchoi.com/?p=5165

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.

You would think that with birth rate so high in this town – someone would try to bring a  Gynecologist Center into this town.  But nope we haven’t seen anything like that in this town – and we certainly could use one – for I remembered when I had my kid – there was no gynecologist in town except for one.  I was indeed worried and I wished that each time I had to see a doctor – they would have at least the  fetal doppler to check on my baby  even though they didn’t have the ultrasound machine in the pre-natal clinic.  It was really a time when I was so frantic about the health of my baby especially when I came from a country who is so advanced medically.  Back home 3D ultra-sounds were already introduced.

While it was just announced that the provincial government is giving a million dollars to the hotel for upgrades and keeping jobs because of the lost of the ferry.  I think if they would spend it on giving us a well equipped gynecologist center – for the woman/girls here – it would definitely be a plus.  Keeping the jobs is important – but the health of these women having babies and having women problems need to be address too.  I vote for a new Gynecologist center anytime – or an upgrade in equipments like a 3D ultra sound machine and many fetal doppler for the pre-natal clinic.  This Christmas – my wish for this town is a better gynecologist center for this town.

We are indeed blessed every year  – we always get a lot of fruit baskets and presents from our friends of the store and some from the customers.  Chloe is always blessed with a lot of gifts – one for her birthday and one for Christmas.  We have already received a few gifts and yesterday a good girlfriend showed up with fruit basket and gifts for Chloe.  We are so grateful for their friendship – there was really no need for gifts.  Their friendship is already the greatest gift.

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