Today, I attended an advanced course in feng shui. I am away from my shop and sales for a whole week. In this first-of-its-kind-in-the-world class, I met many many feng shui consultants from all over the world, some with much more experience than I have. There were participants from Sri Lanka, India, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Belgium, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, China, Japan, USA and of course, Malaysia. I thought I knew a lot about feng shui , but am humbled by the
fact that there is much more to learn. This goes to prove that no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn from.
I was invited to lunch with my most honourable teacher and 3 other consultants, 2 of whom, are as famed as my teacher is, in their respective home countries. What marvelled me was the fact that they were all unassuming and humble. I have often wondered how these world-renown masters would be like, and I found out today that they too, were ordinary human beings like you and me. We talked about clothes, cars,
fashion, work, family, customers, clients and religion.
Lunch was just like any other when a group of girlfriends get together - yak
yak yak yak. There were times when we all spoke at the same time, there were naughty jokes and exchange of news about family, comparison of job-related problems and
achievement of goals. All the gabbing about fashion and shopping must have seemed like a gathering of hens, much to the dismay of the one and only guy with us! The poor thorn amongst the roses!
In class, there was such a huge amount of comradeship as everyone knew that was being taught, with no stupid questions and nary a detailed repeat of anything petty. There was lots of laughing, joking and humourous experiences and incidents were narrated.
In just one day, I expanded what feng shui knowledge I have to include details on how to get seriously rich! We were taught to think big and to rid our brains of small mindedness and achievements. I can't wait for class to resume tomorrow as we continue
to deepen our feng shui know-how. So, watch out for me getting seriously wealthy when I go home to apply what I learn this week :)
Added to the above are two coffee breaks per day with delicious food, being whisked away for cosy lunches and an invitation to dinner in such witty company and my one week break from minding my store becomes such a refreshing break! Man! This can become addictive! Not to mention an ever-expanding waistline!
Till we meet again! Buuurrrrp!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A simple feng shui tip
A few days ago, my good friend Bee came to see me to seek some feng shui advice. At 27, she has come across her first brain-cracking, heart-upsetting, back-stabbing office politics! Poor Bee was quite unhappy.
I remember her as such a bubbly happy young lady to whom I wrote lots of creative notes to. (Psst...I used to leave her all kinds of brain/eye-challenging notes that drove her crazee!)
Well, just as luck changes with time in feng shui, the happy-go-lucky-look-4ward-to-work-cos-you've-great-colleagues-and-boss-days don't last forever. Up/down, happy/sad is here today and gone tomorrow. I found out a long time ago that I should store as memory, all my enjoyable escapades and never look for the same level of satisfaction at the same place with the same people ever again. A similar occasion with the same friends in the same place may not result in the same enjoyment you captured before.
Bee's office which I used to tear through, (We were once colleagues)is no longer the same. A change of ownership has changed her General Manager and most of her long-time colleagues. Then, as fate would have it, the new General Manager turned-out to be a first-timer at his post who BECAME SO UNPOPULAR, egoistic AND arrogant that EVERYONE hated him! This resulted in the resignation of most of even those who were NOT retrenched in the first place! My, my...how upside down everything has turned out to be.....Bee's beloved division head also got himself transfered far far away....
Meanwhile, Bee's entire department's furniture were rearranged. Tsk..tsk..tsk...in such a way that desks were grouped together in fours, with the staff facing each other directly across the desks - two directly opposite two. Now, anyone who knows feng shui will be able to tell you that that kind of arrangement is asking for trouble. Staff seated directly confronting each other will lead to office politics, uncooperativeness, back stabbing and quarrels, although not necessarily with each other. To sum it up, work in such an enviroment will not be smooth. Colleagues will turn against colleagues, there will be more absentees due to illness or otherwise, projects will be delayed and there will be a general air of dissatisfaction. There will be not much trust and a whole lot of unhappiness going around. Work wouldn't be very progressive or productive.
Which brings us back to Bee. Poor Bee.
I told her to take the directions of where she sits, sleeps and the direction of the door she uses to leave her home. I wanted to check out her Kua number and her directions.
Sometimes, without spending even a cent/sen, you can lessen the impact of your bad feng shui if you know how; although this may be only temporary. Sure, it will make things better but to actually start having better times, you'd have to do a little more. But we'll talk about that some other time. Let's see what happens to Bee.
Bee was born in the year of the sheep. The sheep has the best luck of all of the 12 Chinese horoscope animals this year because the home direction of the sheep has the most auspicious #8 Flying Star in 2007. She should be having it real good this year.
After some calculations, I came to the conclusion that she has the Kua number of 3, which makes her an East group person. Her auspicious directions are S - Wealth & Success, N - Good Health, SE - Good Relationships & Networking Luck and E - Personal Growth & Future Prosperity. Her inauspicious directions are W - Total Loss, NE - 6 Killings, NW - 5 Ghosts and SW - Bad Luck & Mishaps.
Bee told me that she has been going out of a side door of her home facing SW, she was sleeping with her head pointing to the SW, and her new work seating arrangements had her sitting at a desk facing W and confronting a colleague! Even her desk at home was facing an inauspicious direction for her and she had the desk pushed-up against the toilet wall! You must never share a wall with the toilet as you work or as you sleep!
I guided her to change all of the above to her good directions and if she did it correctly, she would immediately feel more comfortable and at peace.
Well, whadayaknow? Bee calls 2 days later.....to tell me that she had made some adjustments. She changed the direction of the head of her bed to the south and was using a south-facing door to leave her house so she could maximise her good luck by tapping into her success & wealth direction. She hasn't rearranged everything yet. She needs to wait till the weekend to do that.
To quote Bee - She said, "I just wanted to let you know that I really do feel such a sense of peace and I slept well last night, first good sleep in a long time!"
It really is a wonderful thing when someone feels better and is happier. I sincerely wish her the best and hope that she will continue to correct her feng shui so that she can reap the good luck 2007 has in store for her. But she'd better hurry! Half a year has already gone by. There's only another 6 months more for her wealth and success to manifest. next year, the sheep has the #7 Violent Star which makes her more vulnerable to theft, robbery, burglary and being cheated........
I remember her as such a bubbly happy young lady to whom I wrote lots of creative notes to. (Psst...I used to leave her all kinds of brain/eye-challenging notes that drove her crazee!)
Well, just as luck changes with time in feng shui, the happy-go-lucky-look-4ward-to-work-cos-you've-great-colleagues-and-boss-days don't last forever. Up/down, happy/sad is here today and gone tomorrow. I found out a long time ago that I should store as memory, all my enjoyable escapades and never look for the same level of satisfaction at the same place with the same people ever again. A similar occasion with the same friends in the same place may not result in the same enjoyment you captured before.
Bee's office which I used to tear through, (We were once colleagues)is no longer the same. A change of ownership has changed her General Manager and most of her long-time colleagues. Then, as fate would have it, the new General Manager turned-out to be a first-timer at his post who BECAME SO UNPOPULAR, egoistic AND arrogant that EVERYONE hated him! This resulted in the resignation of most of even those who were NOT retrenched in the first place! My, my...how upside down everything has turned out to be.....Bee's beloved division head also got himself transfered far far away....
Meanwhile, Bee's entire department's furniture were rearranged. Tsk..tsk..tsk...in such a way that desks were grouped together in fours, with the staff facing each other directly across the desks - two directly opposite two. Now, anyone who knows feng shui will be able to tell you that that kind of arrangement is asking for trouble. Staff seated directly confronting each other will lead to office politics, uncooperativeness, back stabbing and quarrels, although not necessarily with each other. To sum it up, work in such an enviroment will not be smooth. Colleagues will turn against colleagues, there will be more absentees due to illness or otherwise, projects will be delayed and there will be a general air of dissatisfaction. There will be not much trust and a whole lot of unhappiness going around. Work wouldn't be very progressive or productive.
Which brings us back to Bee. Poor Bee.
I told her to take the directions of where she sits, sleeps and the direction of the door she uses to leave her home. I wanted to check out her Kua number and her directions.
Sometimes, without spending even a cent/sen, you can lessen the impact of your bad feng shui if you know how; although this may be only temporary. Sure, it will make things better but to actually start having better times, you'd have to do a little more. But we'll talk about that some other time. Let's see what happens to Bee.
Bee was born in the year of the sheep. The sheep has the best luck of all of the 12 Chinese horoscope animals this year because the home direction of the sheep has the most auspicious #8 Flying Star in 2007. She should be having it real good this year.
After some calculations, I came to the conclusion that she has the Kua number of 3, which makes her an East group person. Her auspicious directions are S - Wealth & Success, N - Good Health, SE - Good Relationships & Networking Luck and E - Personal Growth & Future Prosperity. Her inauspicious directions are W - Total Loss, NE - 6 Killings, NW - 5 Ghosts and SW - Bad Luck & Mishaps.
Bee told me that she has been going out of a side door of her home facing SW, she was sleeping with her head pointing to the SW, and her new work seating arrangements had her sitting at a desk facing W and confronting a colleague! Even her desk at home was facing an inauspicious direction for her and she had the desk pushed-up against the toilet wall! You must never share a wall with the toilet as you work or as you sleep!
I guided her to change all of the above to her good directions and if she did it correctly, she would immediately feel more comfortable and at peace.
Well, whadayaknow? Bee calls 2 days later.....to tell me that she had made some adjustments. She changed the direction of the head of her bed to the south and was using a south-facing door to leave her house so she could maximise her good luck by tapping into her success & wealth direction. She hasn't rearranged everything yet. She needs to wait till the weekend to do that.
To quote Bee - She said, "I just wanted to let you know that I really do feel such a sense of peace and I slept well last night, first good sleep in a long time!"
It really is a wonderful thing when someone feels better and is happier. I sincerely wish her the best and hope that she will continue to correct her feng shui so that she can reap the good luck 2007 has in store for her. But she'd better hurry! Half a year has already gone by. There's only another 6 months more for her wealth and success to manifest. next year, the sheep has the #7 Violent Star which makes her more vulnerable to theft, robbery, burglary and being cheated........
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Fortune teller? Aaarggghh!
Let me tell you some of the shortcomings of being a qualified, certified, experienced Feng Shui consultant.
1 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
2 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
3 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
Occasionally my patience is put to the test. That's when people pop their heads in to ask if you can 'tengok nasib' or 'thai seong'. Needless to say, these people are from all the three major races - Malay, Chinese and Indians (In that order of popularity!)
I have to keep on telling them that I do not tell fortunes. I am a feng shui consultant or a feng shui master if you wish to accord me some measure of respect. If you want me to analyse the feng shui of your home or office, I can do that for you. I can recommend things that you can do or place in order to balance out the energies and elements of your workplace or home environment. I do not tell fortunes. Even if I took a course in palm or face-reading, it will be to enhance my feng shui consultations. I will not tell fortunes. If everyone's future is meant to be current knowledge, God would have made it available.
Honestly, it annoys the hell out of me when that happens. Maybe I should go to work with a bandanna wrapped around my head, wear huge loop earrings and sit in front of a crystal ball!
Today was the ultimate insult. A whole family (And I mean a whole family - dad, mum and about 6 off-springs) came in to browse.
The mum was so proud of her eldest son. She told me he is an interior designer and has already purchased all the feng shui books we have. She said that he is so interested in feng shui that he intends to use it in his designing.
Number One Son spoke to me and asked a lot of feng shui-related questions but didn't even seem to know the simplest of the basics. Humphm. So much for his library of feng shui books. Wonder if he even reads them. I mean, he asked me what he should place in his new car so that the registration number would win the four digits draw!!!?????!!!
I told him that there is nothing to place in a car other than to ensure safety whilst driving and protection against car break-in.
Almost immediately, his mum piped-up with this - "I bought this combination of numbers - 9*** Can you tell me if it will come out?"
I couldn't believe my ears. For a moment I was speechless. Then, I said,
"Ma'am, I am not a dead spirit who can give you four-digit numbers. I am a feng shui consultant" At this point, both she and her lady friend grinned and chuckled sheepishly.
SHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSESSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If ever anyone reading this posting, loses his or her daytime job or gets retrenched or laid-off work, put on that bandanna, hook-up the earrings, knock-out a tooth or two, grab that crystal ball and borrow your auntie's multi-tiered ruffled skirt - GOSH! YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING WITH ALL THOSE REALLY GULLIBLE PEOPLE OUT THERE SEEKING TO KNOW THEIR FUTURE!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
1 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
2 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
3 - Not everybody knows the difference between a feng shui consultant/master and a fortune-teller.
Occasionally my patience is put to the test. That's when people pop their heads in to ask if you can 'tengok nasib' or 'thai seong'. Needless to say, these people are from all the three major races - Malay, Chinese and Indians (In that order of popularity!)
I have to keep on telling them that I do not tell fortunes. I am a feng shui consultant or a feng shui master if you wish to accord me some measure of respect. If you want me to analyse the feng shui of your home or office, I can do that for you. I can recommend things that you can do or place in order to balance out the energies and elements of your workplace or home environment. I do not tell fortunes. Even if I took a course in palm or face-reading, it will be to enhance my feng shui consultations. I will not tell fortunes. If everyone's future is meant to be current knowledge, God would have made it available.
Honestly, it annoys the hell out of me when that happens. Maybe I should go to work with a bandanna wrapped around my head, wear huge loop earrings and sit in front of a crystal ball!
Today was the ultimate insult. A whole family (And I mean a whole family - dad, mum and about 6 off-springs) came in to browse.
The mum was so proud of her eldest son. She told me he is an interior designer and has already purchased all the feng shui books we have. She said that he is so interested in feng shui that he intends to use it in his designing.
Number One Son spoke to me and asked a lot of feng shui-related questions but didn't even seem to know the simplest of the basics. Humphm. So much for his library of feng shui books. Wonder if he even reads them. I mean, he asked me what he should place in his new car so that the registration number would win the four digits draw!!!?????!!!
I told him that there is nothing to place in a car other than to ensure safety whilst driving and protection against car break-in.
Almost immediately, his mum piped-up with this - "I bought this combination of numbers - 9*** Can you tell me if it will come out?"
I couldn't believe my ears. For a moment I was speechless. Then, I said,
"Ma'am, I am not a dead spirit who can give you four-digit numbers. I am a feng shui consultant" At this point, both she and her lady friend grinned and chuckled sheepishly.
SHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSESSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If ever anyone reading this posting, loses his or her daytime job or gets retrenched or laid-off work, put on that bandanna, hook-up the earrings, knock-out a tooth or two, grab that crystal ball and borrow your auntie's multi-tiered ruffled skirt - GOSH! YOU CAN MAKE A LIVING WITH ALL THOSE REALLY GULLIBLE PEOPLE OUT THERE SEEKING TO KNOW THEIR FUTURE!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Monday, May 14, 2007
*Sigh*
Dear whoever is reading this,
Today's been a kind of sad day. First, a second-time customer comes-in to buy some things and she started talking to me about her problems. She has A LOT of family problems. Not her immediate family. They're fine. She has lovely children and a hard-working husband. It's one of her siblings. He's been gambling and owes a lot of money to loan sharks. This lady has been trying to help him repay his loans by selling-off her jewellery. Now all she has left is a simple thin white-gold necklace with a semi-precious stone pendant. She cries.
Her sibling is still having it good and continues to gamble. When he has the money, he takes his wife and children on holiday and comes home, boasting of what they have feasted on. His aged mother is working in a coffee shop to earn extra money. Another of his sisters is also servicing his loans. His sibling's spouses have forked out money too.
Why then does this lady continue to help him? I tell her that they are actually ruining him further by paying his loans. He is not going to change. Why bother? When he can get away with gambling, losing and borrowing when there are people to bail him out over and over again?
I told her that she now should only be responsible for and to her very own spouse and children. It should be them she should slog for. It should be them that she should be sad for. Her kids are in their pre-teens. She tells me they are fine kids. She should sell her jewellery for them if they needed the money for their education or if her husband needed the cash to finance his business, not to pay off loan sharks for an irresponsible brother.
Whoever said that when a Chinese woman marries, it's like throwing-out a basin of water that cannot be recovered? That when your daughter marries, thereafter, she belongs to her husband's family and not part of her own family anymore.
*Sigh* I am sad. I am sad when people are so upset over something that has such an obvious solution. I am sad that people who are sad cannot think straight. Even in a peaceful country like Malaysia, we have so many sad people in trouble. So many people with not enough to live on. So many people struggling to make ends meet. So peaceful and yet so unhappy. What more in a country that is constantly at war?
I have become an Agony Aunt.
Then, in the afternoon, another second-time customer comes in to buy something to wear to enhance for love. They call this in Chinese 'Peach Blossom Luck' 'Toe Far Wan'. He read somewhere that Roosters have love luck this year and he wanted in. Never mind that he is already married. He told me himself! He has a girlfriend as well but he wanted more and he wanted a second-wife!!!
I told him it is not our place to judge him but he must be very unsatisfied with his wife to want all that. He replied, no, he is not dissatisfied with her. He did not elaborate and I did not want to ask more.
I sold him what he wanted but I was not happy. I was actually quite upset but did not show it. I can't stuff my ideals down everyone's throat can I?
And this has been the saddest, most upsetting post I have ever written.
Think I'll go drink insecticide now or hold my breath till I turn purple or something.
Today's been a kind of sad day. First, a second-time customer comes-in to buy some things and she started talking to me about her problems. She has A LOT of family problems. Not her immediate family. They're fine. She has lovely children and a hard-working husband. It's one of her siblings. He's been gambling and owes a lot of money to loan sharks. This lady has been trying to help him repay his loans by selling-off her jewellery. Now all she has left is a simple thin white-gold necklace with a semi-precious stone pendant. She cries.
Her sibling is still having it good and continues to gamble. When he has the money, he takes his wife and children on holiday and comes home, boasting of what they have feasted on. His aged mother is working in a coffee shop to earn extra money. Another of his sisters is also servicing his loans. His sibling's spouses have forked out money too.
Why then does this lady continue to help him? I tell her that they are actually ruining him further by paying his loans. He is not going to change. Why bother? When he can get away with gambling, losing and borrowing when there are people to bail him out over and over again?
I told her that she now should only be responsible for and to her very own spouse and children. It should be them she should slog for. It should be them that she should be sad for. Her kids are in their pre-teens. She tells me they are fine kids. She should sell her jewellery for them if they needed the money for their education or if her husband needed the cash to finance his business, not to pay off loan sharks for an irresponsible brother.
Whoever said that when a Chinese woman marries, it's like throwing-out a basin of water that cannot be recovered? That when your daughter marries, thereafter, she belongs to her husband's family and not part of her own family anymore.
*Sigh* I am sad. I am sad when people are so upset over something that has such an obvious solution. I am sad that people who are sad cannot think straight. Even in a peaceful country like Malaysia, we have so many sad people in trouble. So many people with not enough to live on. So many people struggling to make ends meet. So peaceful and yet so unhappy. What more in a country that is constantly at war?
I have become an Agony Aunt.
Then, in the afternoon, another second-time customer comes in to buy something to wear to enhance for love. They call this in Chinese 'Peach Blossom Luck' 'Toe Far Wan'. He read somewhere that Roosters have love luck this year and he wanted in. Never mind that he is already married. He told me himself! He has a girlfriend as well but he wanted more and he wanted a second-wife!!!
I told him it is not our place to judge him but he must be very unsatisfied with his wife to want all that. He replied, no, he is not dissatisfied with her. He did not elaborate and I did not want to ask more.
I sold him what he wanted but I was not happy. I was actually quite upset but did not show it. I can't stuff my ideals down everyone's throat can I?
And this has been the saddest, most upsetting post I have ever written.
Think I'll go drink insecticide now or hold my breath till I turn purple or something.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
My feet are killin' me!
La da di dum di le la da da dum di le.....I am singing 'cos my feet are killing me!
Today is the first day of the new Chinese Hsiah (Solar) month and thank you, yes, I've had a wonderful wonderful April. Though May is not expected to be as good a month, I'm off to a good start. Had to stay back for an hour at my shop tonight because a customer came in to shop just as we were closing. The air conditioner in the mall was, of course, off by then; and by the time I left for home, I was weary, sweaty and smelly.
Aching calves and heavy feet are a good sign when you sell things. May I drag me feet more and even grow a few small varicose veins in the next few months! Tee hee!
The bad news is that the mall where my shop is, has leased out a giant 'kiosk' space to a bakery. That's fine except that the bakery has decided to move its entire baking operations to this kiosk space. All heavy duty machinery, giant mixers, freezers, commercial refrigerators, the whole works! It's so ugly! That's cos they've decided to enclose all this with clear glass. It's worst at the back, it's just the railings of the first floor and the first thing you see if you look up when you enter the main entrance is the back of this bakery! Can you imagine the aluminium pots (The type you would see in a food stall at the hawkers centre), pink plastic bags, multi-tiered trolleys! To top all that, (pun not intended)there is no top to the place. Anyone from the second floor can *patooi* down. Actually, all anyone needs to do to sabotage the baking, is to shuffle their feet hard on the edge of the floor upstairs and all the dust will fall in! Yucks!
I don't know who the &*^&%$#@!! is who approved this but I have visions of the whole place collapsing onto the ground floor just like the pink department store in the Korean disaster we saw on Discovery channel. The floor may not be strong enough to hold all that stainless steel equipment all in one space. The poor fellas selling gym and exercise equipment below them would be squashed in an instant! What's the point of being so fit when chances are, they become 'sekeping orangs'! Sometimes I wonder if these people know that there is a maximum weight for floor space. Definitely not on a first floor of a shopping mall.I beg your pardon, I forgot to add that the heavy machinery goes right up to the edge of the first floor overlooking the ground floor.
I am about to sign a three year lease with the mall. Now I will have to reconsider this and conduct due dilligence again before I commit myself till 2010. You see, that spot the bakery occupies is in the exact South East of the mall. The South East is the universal wealth sector and the element there is wood. So. All them giant ovens will burn the wood which interprets as incinerating wealth for this mall! And if the wealth is killed off for the landlord, then, us tenants had better move to greener pastures. Wait! I have more - the bakery's ovens are also located directly over all the ATMs - TRULY BAD FENG SHUI! I don't even know how they obtained their operations permit as the town council here defines 'kiosk' space as public areas or that other colonial term - five foot ways.
These past 3 days, we have discovered we now have a pet mouse. Yes, a mouse that comes out at night to make sure we clean every single item in the shop the next day because it leaves 1 tiny piece of s**t on every shelf amongst all the displayed merchandise. One would need to remove everything to clean it. Yes, I think this mouse must have been sent by the god of cleanliness to make sure we dust, wipe and clean everyday. I don't want to sound bias but I am sure the mouse came compliments of the bakery since the whole damn first concourse now smells of baking cakes and bread all day every day! Oh, and the mouse has a pet too. There is also one cockroach. And the cockroach has many pets too - flies - indoors - in an air conditioned mall. And no, they don't s**t but they lay eggs. Tinier than full-stop white eggs ON ALL MY MERCHADISE!!! Maybe if I am lucky, my pet's pet will leave 1 piece of even smaller s**t beside the slightly bigger piece to make up a set.
Grrrrr........think I will stay off bread and cakes for a while in silent protest! Maybe I should stop going to the mall too :)P
Today is the first day of the new Chinese Hsiah (Solar) month and thank you, yes, I've had a wonderful wonderful April. Though May is not expected to be as good a month, I'm off to a good start. Had to stay back for an hour at my shop tonight because a customer came in to shop just as we were closing. The air conditioner in the mall was, of course, off by then; and by the time I left for home, I was weary, sweaty and smelly.
Aching calves and heavy feet are a good sign when you sell things. May I drag me feet more and even grow a few small varicose veins in the next few months! Tee hee!
The bad news is that the mall where my shop is, has leased out a giant 'kiosk' space to a bakery. That's fine except that the bakery has decided to move its entire baking operations to this kiosk space. All heavy duty machinery, giant mixers, freezers, commercial refrigerators, the whole works! It's so ugly! That's cos they've decided to enclose all this with clear glass. It's worst at the back, it's just the railings of the first floor and the first thing you see if you look up when you enter the main entrance is the back of this bakery! Can you imagine the aluminium pots (The type you would see in a food stall at the hawkers centre), pink plastic bags, multi-tiered trolleys! To top all that, (pun not intended)there is no top to the place. Anyone from the second floor can *patooi* down. Actually, all anyone needs to do to sabotage the baking, is to shuffle their feet hard on the edge of the floor upstairs and all the dust will fall in! Yucks!
I don't know who the &*^&%$#@!! is who approved this but I have visions of the whole place collapsing onto the ground floor just like the pink department store in the Korean disaster we saw on Discovery channel. The floor may not be strong enough to hold all that stainless steel equipment all in one space. The poor fellas selling gym and exercise equipment below them would be squashed in an instant! What's the point of being so fit when chances are, they become 'sekeping orangs'! Sometimes I wonder if these people know that there is a maximum weight for floor space. Definitely not on a first floor of a shopping mall.I beg your pardon, I forgot to add that the heavy machinery goes right up to the edge of the first floor overlooking the ground floor.
I am about to sign a three year lease with the mall. Now I will have to reconsider this and conduct due dilligence again before I commit myself till 2010. You see, that spot the bakery occupies is in the exact South East of the mall. The South East is the universal wealth sector and the element there is wood. So. All them giant ovens will burn the wood which interprets as incinerating wealth for this mall! And if the wealth is killed off for the landlord, then, us tenants had better move to greener pastures. Wait! I have more - the bakery's ovens are also located directly over all the ATMs - TRULY BAD FENG SHUI! I don't even know how they obtained their operations permit as the town council here defines 'kiosk' space as public areas or that other colonial term - five foot ways.
These past 3 days, we have discovered we now have a pet mouse. Yes, a mouse that comes out at night to make sure we clean every single item in the shop the next day because it leaves 1 tiny piece of s**t on every shelf amongst all the displayed merchandise. One would need to remove everything to clean it. Yes, I think this mouse must have been sent by the god of cleanliness to make sure we dust, wipe and clean everyday. I don't want to sound bias but I am sure the mouse came compliments of the bakery since the whole damn first concourse now smells of baking cakes and bread all day every day! Oh, and the mouse has a pet too. There is also one cockroach. And the cockroach has many pets too - flies - indoors - in an air conditioned mall. And no, they don't s**t but they lay eggs. Tinier than full-stop white eggs ON ALL MY MERCHADISE!!! Maybe if I am lucky, my pet's pet will leave 1 piece of even smaller s**t beside the slightly bigger piece to make up a set.
Grrrrr........think I will stay off bread and cakes for a while in silent protest! Maybe I should stop going to the mall too :)P
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Good day good day!
Today's been a kinda good day. My good friends Jennifer and Dato' Z came to have coffee with me. The latest way in Malaysia to call Dato's is by their initials. Siti Nurhaliza has her Dato' K and that other pretty lesser royal has her Dato' err.....he's so nobody that I can't even remember what his initials are! Well....coming back to what I was saying...I have my Dato' Z!
There's nothing like a friends visiting when you have been slogging for weeks. Ahhh.......'tis bliss to sit down for a cuppa to exchange some new 'BBC' news! *Wink*
Then, after a long and tiring day, I come home to write my blog, and there's some fler (Sorry Patrick, am borrowing this word from your vocabulary) named Jack, who wrote a comment on my last blog. This Jack wrote that feng shui is mumbo jumbo and that if people are so gullible, then a fool should part with his $$.....
Hey Jack! Have you noticed that the blog spot is called 'Feng Shui My Life!' It's a feng shui consultant's and retailer's dairy. You poor thing you...in this day and age, when the whole world is trying to understand each other and make allowances for each other's culture, you are not even willing to open up your mind to begin to discover what millions of other people have for thousands of years...maybe you need some feng shui to broaden your spectrum and be a little bit more friendly!
Anyway, coming back to more feng shui tales.....my sifu read this year's Eight Pillars Chart and said that there is a Noble Man Star in the charts. Therefore, we should display horses in the South corners of our home so he can enter via horseback. This will activate mentor luck for you.
I have horses in the South of my office, horses in the South of my shop, horses in the South of my living, dining and bedroom! This has resulted in a month of fantastic assistance from many people. First, there is my new partner, who has been so helpful with his time and guidance. Then, there is that customer who came in for just half an hour but who got on fabulously with me. She is organising an annual trip to Italy for a jewellery show and invited my husband and I for the trip! Pity I can't go but I have a new friend :)P
Anyone for horses?
There's nothing like a friends visiting when you have been slogging for weeks. Ahhh.......'tis bliss to sit down for a cuppa to exchange some new 'BBC' news! *Wink*
Then, after a long and tiring day, I come home to write my blog, and there's some fler (Sorry Patrick, am borrowing this word from your vocabulary) named Jack, who wrote a comment on my last blog. This Jack wrote that feng shui is mumbo jumbo and that if people are so gullible, then a fool should part with his $$.....
Hey Jack! Have you noticed that the blog spot is called 'Feng Shui My Life!' It's a feng shui consultant's and retailer's dairy. You poor thing you...in this day and age, when the whole world is trying to understand each other and make allowances for each other's culture, you are not even willing to open up your mind to begin to discover what millions of other people have for thousands of years...maybe you need some feng shui to broaden your spectrum and be a little bit more friendly!
Anyway, coming back to more feng shui tales.....my sifu read this year's Eight Pillars Chart and said that there is a Noble Man Star in the charts. Therefore, we should display horses in the South corners of our home so he can enter via horseback. This will activate mentor luck for you.
I have horses in the South of my office, horses in the South of my shop, horses in the South of my living, dining and bedroom! This has resulted in a month of fantastic assistance from many people. First, there is my new partner, who has been so helpful with his time and guidance. Then, there is that customer who came in for just half an hour but who got on fabulously with me. She is organising an annual trip to Italy for a jewellery show and invited my husband and I for the trip! Pity I can't go but I have a new friend :)P
Anyone for horses?
Thursday, April 19, 2007
To tell or not to tell???? That is the question
Hey, sometimes I do a bit of evaluation of how I run my life and make my decisions.
Take for example - what would you do if you had a business selling water features and a customer comes along to buy one. He's been advised to plug one in into his bedroom to activate his wealth star. What would you do, if say....you know that there should be no water in a bedroom as that would bring heap strong misfortune like loss of money, loss of good name and even loss of loved ones!
What if that particular day had been very quiet where sales are concerned?
Would you.....
A) Advise him that he should not do so, give him the reason why and lose a much-needed sale?
B) Keep quiet and sell the man what he came in to buy anyway...who cares if his so-called feng shui master is a charlatan? I would probably never see him again anyway. I didn't force him to buy it!
This is the second time it has happened within 6 months, no...no..no...two different men.
And on both occasions I chose 'A'. Then I wonder if I am cut out for business at all. At this rate, I will never be as rich as the late Nina Wang of Hong Kong. Those men probably think that I am the one who knows nothing. The first one came back to buy other things and only time will tell if the second and most recent one will be back.
But at least I can sleep tonight, poorer by a few dollars but zzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)
What's with men always thinking they know much more than a mere mortal woman?
Take for example - what would you do if you had a business selling water features and a customer comes along to buy one. He's been advised to plug one in into his bedroom to activate his wealth star. What would you do, if say....you know that there should be no water in a bedroom as that would bring heap strong misfortune like loss of money, loss of good name and even loss of loved ones!
What if that particular day had been very quiet where sales are concerned?
Would you.....
A) Advise him that he should not do so, give him the reason why and lose a much-needed sale?
B) Keep quiet and sell the man what he came in to buy anyway...who cares if his so-called feng shui master is a charlatan? I would probably never see him again anyway. I didn't force him to buy it!
This is the second time it has happened within 6 months, no...no..no...two different men.
And on both occasions I chose 'A'. Then I wonder if I am cut out for business at all. At this rate, I will never be as rich as the late Nina Wang of Hong Kong. Those men probably think that I am the one who knows nothing. The first one came back to buy other things and only time will tell if the second and most recent one will be back.
But at least I can sleep tonight, poorer by a few dollars but zzzzzzzzzzzzzz :)
What's with men always thinking they know much more than a mere mortal woman?
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