So PB bought me the Bamboo Capture from Wacom ! woohoo!!! i’m pretty pleased with it - although I haven’t had much time to play with it yet. So why do i need a bamboo capture since I’m not good with drawing - I hear you asking. Well, I can still work on the pictures for my webpages - and re-design templates of my own and when I get the chance I want to learn more about web designing. I have lots of interest in it and I think it’s a great way to make more money online.

I haven’t been job hunting for a long time - but many who are planning to migrate to Canada or even in United States would prefer to secure a job first before migrating. Some looking for Psychiatric Technician Jobs will find that there are plenty of jobs in this field - and even without a head hunter - you can land a job easily. But what about other jobs in the sales department or clerical field ? I get asked these questions very often as an expatriate.

I have friends who’ve migrated here but didn’t stay because they say they can’t find a job here but truth be told I don’t think they got the right job - and most likely feeling a bit homesick and inferior - to the Westerners. So one good advise before migrating is to make sure you know what field you want to be in. I think those who are in the health industry have plenty to offer in the West - whether you are a pharmacist or a health nurse - there are plenty of jobs here for you. As for other industries, if they can find their candidates from within - I think they rather hire their own. So shape up or ship out!

Taking a car ride out to Chloe’s grampie’s or anywhere in the country, we’ve noticed that there are quite a number of dead zones - where we cannot call out or receive calls. So whenever we need to leave the store and head out to the country - we sometimes worry about not being able to receive calls from the store. Paranoia I guess - but the store needs to know that they can reach us anytime - so we went out to our favorite store at the mall to get a cellular booster , that is said to be able to improve the signal on any vehicle. We did find one at the mall - and for $39 - I think it’s a good investment - so no more dead zones for us when we are in the car. That should make PB happy and the store happy as well - for I know PB don’t like to be in a dead zone at all.

12 yrs as a owner by association to the spouse’s business - you would think that he would get the hint and get me some business cards right? well apparently, my hint wasn’t that good - so I am going to get some business cards by postcards and the price is so cheap - the spouse cannot even say I spend too much on it. For as little as $6.99 for 100 business cards - you cannot go wrong with it - i’ll say. One can even upload your own photo if you so desire - for example if you are a realtor or a mortgage consultant and even a banker - like I get all the time when I visit my bank.

1000 of templates to choose from and if you are not internet savvy - no worries - they have a live chat person to help you along the way. But it’s very easy to do - just follow the instructions - and you will receive your business cards from as little as 2 days. I liked that moms like myself can order as little as 20 business cards just to have when we want to give them out to teachers, principal or other parents for play dates.

And since Christmas is just around the corner - I too am looking at making some personalized greeting cards with our family pictures on it - just like the ones I received every year from friends and family. I admired those cards tremendously and since they are so easy and cheap to make online - I’m going to try it out this year. So friends and family look forward to our family picture in our greeting cards for this year.

Most people write and ask me about finding work in Canada after migrating here - and they also want to know how difficult it is to look for the kind of jobs they are trained for back home. There are lots of jobs to be found around Canada - it’s the matter of finding the right one for you - assuming you speak fairly well in English as well as write in English too. Restaurant Manager Jobs may not be as easy to land - but the hospitality industry has plenty one can opt for. Like I tell everyone - as long as you are willing to work hard - and speak fairly well in English and is computer literate - you should have no problems landing a job in Canada. Places like Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver are more likely to have Asian bosses but even the Canadian bosses have no problems hiring an Asian worker here. But of course - you need to have a Permanent Resident status and not a tourist/visitor status.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

So a commercial building came up for sale - within our price range and PB is interested in investing in it. An option is to move the store to that building and then rent the 3 other apartments on the top out. But the inside of the apartments need working on - the 2nd floor really needs lots of work and we also have to check out the property tax for this building - to see if it is worth buying it. We do have the highest property tax in Nova Scotia - so lets hope the town don’t get too crazy about the taxes. Truth be told - I’m not too keen - because good tenants are hard to find around this town. Some folks think that becoming a landlord is good but it’s not true - it’s a lot of responsibility and if you get bad tenants then you are totally screwed.

We just got back from the bowling alley and learned that it is on sale again soon - so we heard from the other bowlers who where there bowling. I guess with the mess the church is in - because of the priest being sued for something - they had no choice but to sell the bishop’s house and the bowling alley? so I’ve heard. Anyhow, I figured if I were to take out my CPF money - it should be enough to buy the bowling alley - it should be a profitable thing? after all, this is the ONLY bowling alley in town. It does need a little sprucing up - but it should be doable. Or anyone out there wants to buy a bowling alley? let me know eh - good investment i say - should be able to make $500 - $1000 a day from what i see.

My friend’s daughter - who just turned 18 found out that she is pregnant this week - yes - 18 is really young - and she had planned to do a nursing course at Dalhousie this year - but I guess she has to shelve that plan till after her baby. But who is going to take care of baby and her - she can’t just up and leave for Halifax to continue with her nursing course? or can she ? she asked me. I suggested maybe she can look into some online nursing degree , that way she can do it at home - and take care of baby as well as being near to her family.

I have seen my married friends to it - and if she was determined and has ambition - some motivation from her parents and support from her loved ones - having a baby at 18 is not as bleak. But having said all the above - my friend’s daughter - really need to get her act together and decide what she really wants for her baby and herself - for she needs to think for the future.

Snow Day means no school for Chloe - they canceled school as early as 6am this morning. No school doesn’t mean sleeping in for us - because Chloe wakes up as early - so no diff for us truth be told. And i love having her at the store with us - but very quickly she would find out that she would be bored too. By noon - she would be so bored - it would be the worst day in her life - as she would put it - hahahha!! a bit of drama queen would come out soon enough. Unlike in the city - there would be things for Chloe to do - or a library she can go to - or the discovery center - or museum - or even catch a good movie - but here - there is absolutely nothing for her to do - how sad eh. Oh well!

Or should I say computer free for 24hrs? You see - I think I can - but the spouse aka PB - I doubt so. We were up in the city for 2 days last year - and mannn!! he can’t do without the computer and the internet. He had to check his emails - had to check the webcam of the store and even when we were out shopping - he was looking for computers *slap forehead*. But can you really blame him - at this time and age - can anyone not know how to work the computer and go on the internet? even his grandaunt who is 90 yrs old checks her email everyday. I sometimes wonder what it would be like without the internet, without ICQ - without msn messenger or skype? what would life be like? one thing for sure - without the computers and internet - PB and I wouldn’t have met - he is in the other side of the world. And most importantly, we won’t have Chloe - our cheeky PITA (Pain In The A##)- hahaha ! whom we loved and adore. Yes! so my challenge to you is to be internet and computer free for 24hrs one day a week - can you do that? I have started - and every Sunday - I refused to do anything on the computer or the internet.

I’m not a perfect parent - in fact - far from it - but one thing I know for sure - is that teaching your kid to own up and taking responsibility for thing that he or she did - is a very important step to growing up and living an honest life. I find it so sad - when a parent starts pointing fingers at the other kid - when the kid is found stealing from our store or doing something bad. According the the parent - it’s not his kid - but the other kid he is with - and the same goes for the other kid’s parent - when I spoke with them about it. It’s easy to point fingers at the other family - the other kid - but what does it teach your kid?

Yesterday, another parent was in with her kid - wanting to rent a game - but the kid had a $30 late charge from a previous game rental. The mother said - nope she wasn’t paying for it - because it wasn’t her lates *slap forehead* - walked out - but called back and insisted that we shouldn’t have rented the game under her account but her ex-husband’s *slap forehead*. So what does it teach that kid? what would i do?

Firstly, I would pay up the amount - because it’s my kid - but I’m letting my kid go easy - that’s for sure - and I won’t be renting another game for her for a long time - till she works it off - by doing dishes or laundry or something that needs doing around the house or even the store in our case. But to argue with the store owners - to make it the store owner’s fault - now that’s the wrong way to teach your kid. Teaching responsibility should begin right now - not when your kid is 21 or 50 - it begins as soon as your kid is born. Being a responsible parent brings up responsible kids - try to remember that the next time you point fingers at other people’s kid.