Still at the shop at this hour

It has been a week since my last post. Busy and sick.

Busy with the kids since nanny is on leave and sick; down with fever and sore throat. Gosh! Everything comes at the same time. For the past 4 days I have been taking my afternoon nap at home with the kids. I do not have the energy to think about anything but sleep. Probably the medicine is the culprit too. Sigh!

Today is the month end, so a lot of reports to be printed out. And some mails and update to be done. Yes! I am still at the shop. Hubby is at home with 2 kids and I hope by the time I reach home, both kids are asleep. And I can take my sleep too.

Tomorrow is another new month! Hopefully a better month too.

Have you met this little fella before?

When the first time I saw him, I have to see twice to make sure my vision did not deceive me. I thought what a weird creature (and scary too). Must be some kind of poisonous frog.



Wonder where are his other friends?

Cakes, lanterns and the moon

After reading Small Kucing's blog yesterday on Oyster King, I could not resist the temptation to taste oysters. Slurp! I love oysters, either fresh or made into oyster pancakes. Kuching's oyster pancakes are usually made dry, in crispy pancakes.


We had our dinner in Peach Garden, Jalan Song last night. And of course we ordered the Oyster Pancake, which is RM8.00. But big serving although not many oysters on it. Nevertheless for time being, it satisfy my craving.

If you noticed a chunk has been eaten. Cannot resist but still remember to take photo before it all gone! :p

Today is the Mid Autumn festival. How time flies. Mid Autmn celebration is equally big as Chinese New Year, although it is not declared a holiday in Malaysia. Have you eaten your mooncakes yet? Or leave it for tonight, a special night for every Chinese around the world. Although there is no autumn (or 4 seasons) in Malaysia, nevertheless we still celebrate the autumn blessing with the traditional dinner with family and then enjoying the sight of full moon with Chinese tea and mooncakes. The children will lit up and show off their beautiful lanterns. There tend to have few burnt paper lanterns.

We have bought some lanterns for little gal to play with tonight. I still like the old fashioned paper lantern. Look more authentic than the music-and-battery-operated lanterns.

As for mooncakes, nothing to look forward to because I have been selling and eating mooncakes for a month. Why not? I gave away free testing of mooncakes to customers in the shop and I tested them myself. When I have a craving, I will nib on some of them sometimes. Lol! Only this year I started to try new flavours of mooncakes, the Shanghai Single Yolk, Mix Fruits and Nuts, and Sweet Corn. Nevertheless I still love the Pure Lotus, White Lotus and Snowskin Mooncakes but I have not tasted snowskin this year. You may agree with me, the mooncakes now cost a lot. 1 mooncake can buy you a bowl of kolo mee and a hot tea in coffee shop. Gosh!


So, any dinner and mooncake feast tonight? Probably we will have dinner at my parents' house. It has been a while I did not visit them so it is good reason to gather around and chat tonight and let my girl have a lantern walk around the big compound. *wink* And meantime, enjoy this mooncake bought by my Indonesian maid from Singkawang.


Happy Mid Autumn and Happy Mooncake Festival, everyone!

No pets allowed

I love going to one of the coffee shops in Green Heights. Not only because of the food and nice Sarawak 3-layer tea or its cleanliness, but I go because of its "no pets" policy. So far I have never see any coffee shops in Kuching that put up a "No pets" sign in their shops and disallow customers bringing in their dogs or cats with them. My personal opinion is that it is not only unhygienic but a nuisance to other customers.

Imagine yourself in a coffee shop where you may spot one or two stray dogs (or shop owner's dog) going around every table begging for food! I encountered one incident where a stray dog was barking and preying at my mee sua the whole time I was eating in a coffee shop in Hui Sing. From there onward I never gone there for mee suah. The dog is still there because I saw it when I went over last weekend, but I had laksa so the dog did not come near my table. Lol!

So it just happened that I had breakfast with hubby in the morning in BDC area on Friday morning and a couple brought their cute terrier covered in shirt to the coffee shop. They were sitting next to our table. And my usually sweet hubby was almost having an outburst. He never likes the idea of having pets in an eatery, so he was critisizing the couples (quietly to me). He is calling me to eat faster, so we just have our quick breakfast and left the coffee shop with hubby still complaining about the dog. We are not blaming the dog, mind you.

I don't know about you; it is everyone freedom and right to bring their pets to where ever they want to, but the thought of eating and sharing seat with a pet is not my cup of tea.

Business assistant

Few days ago I went to visit my friend's shop in another shopping mall with my hubby. It just so happened that there was a meet-the-fans session. The crowds were crazy and we hardly could go through the stage to reach our friend's shop. If not for the velvet rope and barricades, we would not managed to squeeze ourselves through. The security guards were good in dealing with the crowd control.

When we reached our friend's shop we were surprised to see that he has just installed a new poster on the stanchions in front of his shop. A great way to utilise the shopfront and create publicity to his shop.

After visiting my friend, it makes me think of getting a new banner display for my new product promotions next month.

Have not been shopping

It is ironic but I have not been shopping around in the shopping mall where my shop is. Most of the outlets are open now, but I do not shop around. Not at all.

I used to love window shopping and whether I buy or not buy, window shopping makes me feel great. I don't know about you, but I like the feeling of browsing from one outlet to another. Now I know how it feels to be on the other side of the shoes as I am a shop operator! Lol! Customers are always right and nothing changes that fact. *wink*

Back to shopping, I used to love shopping for jewellery and fashion accessories, but now if I ever do any shopping, it would be for the children. Even the last time I went shopping (early August in KL) most of my stuff is for my children. The last purchase I ever made (also in KL) is a belt and a top. So you can say that I do not shop much nowadays like I used to be.

Since I started my business, I think I have lost some weights. Even my friends commented that I have slimmed down. *happy* I am thinking of buying new clothing especially dresses. Lately I have been browsing online shopping websites from my shop and love to check out on dresses. I have few dresses for special occasion but sorry to say, I do not have a black dress. I think black dress never gone out of fashion and fit for any occasion. So maybe I will treat myself to a nice black dress when I get my next cheque.

By the way, I have just make a new purchase (not clothing or anything alike) this morning. It was initially planned to be a trip to lawyer firm for some signing with hubby but after that, we dropped by Tun Jugah shopping mall to check out on something. It just felt weird to go back to the building where you have been for almost 9 years, but a lot of shops closed and new shops moved in. Everything looks different to me. Not much look familiar for me in there. I have mixed feeling of going back there; hard to explain to you. Anyway, both of us ended up with something. It is actually not a purchase, more of a subscription comes with a gift.....I am still waiting for the "gift" to come.....shall let you know what it is once I receive it. Lol!

No show

The new girl that hubby interviewed yesterday did not show up today. So I guess it means she did not take up the offer. Or probably she took another offer from other outlet. Not only my shop that have immediate vacancy around here. As I was strolling around the mall this morning, I noticed that few shops putting up vacancy notices in front of their shops.

Alas! Why it is so hard to get a loyal staff to work for you?

New girl?

Hubby interviewed a young lady this morning for the post of sales promoter. After briefing her on the job responsibility, we decided to give her a try. A little quiet and does not have much experiences, not to mention touching the pc.

She will start her first day tomorrow. Just hope that she will come and not like the previous girl that I interviewed, who sms-ed me last minute telling me that she could not take my offer. Sigh! Very hard to find staff nowadays. Give me some headaches only.

On a good side, my little gal will be coming back from her holiday tonight. However the flight which is supposed to be departing from Sibu at 8pm now is been delayed to 930pm. So I will be seeing her after I closed shop tonight.....

Open as usual

It is holiday today. First day of Hari Raya, but I still have to open up my shop. Don't know how the crowd would be as the mall is relatively new; just opened early this year. Hopefully to see a lot of shoppers as it is going to be a long weekend.

My Malay staff suddenly resigned a week ago. She just sent me a SMS on the last hour; told me about her ailing grandparent in kampung on the pretext of resigning. However it turned out hoax. How I found out? Her father suddenly came to look for her few days later. And the poor father was surprised to hear that she has resigned and that was how I know. Anyway, that the end of her and I am still looking for another girl to work for me. For time being, I would have to be stucked in the shop till we find a new girl.

So anyone care to bring some lemang, curry, rendang and satay to share with me? It is better than eating economy rice here. Lol! Selamat Hari Raya and happy holiday.


glitter-graphics.com

Keeping it after all

First I were excited to own a house but when hubby mentioned on selling it off few months ago, I was a bit disappointed. After been struggling for few years on scouting, securing and paying for its house loan and when we finally have the keys, hubby suggested on selling it off.

I understand on his reasoning behind, but it was a great investment in first place. Initially a RM280K two years ago, now the value of our house (intermediate terrace, double storey, mind you?) reached more than RM380K. Isn't it a good reason to sell it off and probably settling some of our credit debts?

However since the operation of the shop and hubby's housing project is starting this month, we slowly have income coming in. So we are keeping the house for good. Over the weekend we brought the kids for a swim in its clubhouse's swimming pool. It was Baby Jay's first experience in the pool. From the look of it, I guess the kids will have great time utilise its swimming pool and maybe we will have to hunt for some furniture soon. Just don't know it would be in time to move in for next year's CNY.

Holiday

It is going to be school holiday soon and my little chatterbox is away for a week. Yes, little gal will be going back to her hometown with her grandma tomorrow morning. So she is having her holiday a day early.

As for myself, everything will goes as usual for business. No holiday. Last month was a great month for me as I managed to hit my targets. Yes! Happy. Business is booming as slowly people is coming to the shopping mall. Hari Raya is a week away, and customers are taking opportunity to shop around. My Malay staff will be taking a 3 days holiday, so it means I would have to be at the shop. When it comes to holiday, it would be busy time for us.

The kids' babysitter is taking a week off end of the month as she is going to Thailand for holiday. So hubby and I have to juggle between our times to take care of the two kids during the day.