Boring....sianz...so quiet

Since after CNY, sales have been dropping. Well...not only for us, everyone else also complaining the same thing. Not only in suntec, but also in queensway. And I believe other places too. Getting so boring here. Retail is tough. My mum wants to stop retail totally and do f&b instead. But I am not a gal who give up just like that (one of the lines in one of the songs by Atomic Kittens)

Will be getting out of suntec. Most likely. See how the talk (not me but my dad) with suntec CEO and GM is 1st. Have approached a few other malls to try getting units there. Most shops in My.PlayGround, have also given up. Some of them their contracts are ending already (only 1 year ma), so not much of problem for them. Ours is a 3 years and 2 years contract for our long and circular unit respectively. If we were to shift out, we would have to find people to take over the unit first. Cineleisure not giving us the unit already. Putting us on waiting list instead Bugis Mall (the new one opposite Bugis Junction and beside Bugis Street) haven't gotten back to us. Neither has Jurong Point (we're hoping to get the unit next to 77th Street there). Friendly competition is good for both Elim and myself. Pray hard can get.

Went to far east plaza, bugis junction and bugis street yesterday to look around, check out other shops' prices and display and also what units available are of good location. Left the shop to the staffs. One of my staff is working full time till end of this month only (i.e. this friday). He/She is converting to part-time on sundays (i.e. if we need anyone on sundays). Then it's down to 1 temporary staff here in suntec and another full-timer in queensway. Looks like I would have to be in the shop more often now.

Back in Singapore...back to reality

I am back in Singapore. Arrived on sunday evening. And it was back to work/reality on monday morning. Man...sales not good during the time we are away (esp queensway). Sheessh....

All of our staffs are not supposed to be off for 2 weeks (last week when we were away and this week) coz of the 2 so-called off days we gave them (9th & 10th) when the shop closed for 4 days for CNY. Out of the 3 staffs that we've now, 1 get to have his/her off day as usual this week for we owe him/her an off day for working the whole week without any off on the week before CNY. The other 2 are taking a few days unpaid leave. We don't simply give staffs unpaid leave. 1 have informed us way way in advanced. Reason valid. The other reason was "tsk...tsk...". Work less than 1 month and taking unpaid leave. He/She already kena warning. Disappointed. I shan't name names or go into details here.

So I guess I need to be here everyday and it looks like it might be another week of not being able to go for service. Sigh.... I miss church and all my cg mates.

All we need for now is only 3 dedicated and reliable full time staffs (2 in suntec and 1 in queensway) yet it's so difficult to find. Part-timers only required for the days when the full-timers are off and during peak periods (like pre-christmas and pre-CNY). For now, out of our 3 staffs we got, only 2 I can say is pretty reliable. But the problem is that 1 of them is not full time and the other is not up to standard yet. I shan't name names here.

So here I am....back to reality.

Happy Valentine Day to all

Happy Valentine Day to all (friendship day to those singles). My parents and I are still in London. Been going out to walk around and shop. More of window shopping for me. I didn't buy anything. My sister did. Also went for 2 musicals, "The Sound of Music" and "Wicked", last night and the night before respectively. They are good. I enjoyed them.

London Fashion Week Exhibition is also on. But this week it is only open FOC for people who are in the trade (it will only be open for the public next week at a cost). We tried getting in using our San Street name card. They asked us a few questions (like what we do etc), looked at our shop website then gave us each name tags that say "San Street, Singapore, International Buyers" to let us in. How cool is that! Seems like San Street is a big name and we can just walk in to Fashion Exhibits for free by just showing our name cards. Though we managed to get in, there wasn't anything suitable in there for our street wear apparel shop. The exhibitors there are mainly ladies fashion.

Weather here is starting to get cold. The last few days of winter here were pretty like the winter in Australia. Not really that cold. But today is really chilly. Got a bad cold.

Alrighty...that's it for now. Going back to Singapore in a few days time. Though I get a break from the shop for a while, but I still feel very tired. But AT LEAST I get a break and don't have to think of the shop though sometimes I get awaken by calls from the shop (coz of the time difference the opening hrs of the shop happens to be london time 3.30am to ard 1.30pm.

In London....

I am now in London....since Thurs night (1st day of CNY). Will be here till 17th night. We close all our shops early on wednesday (CNY eve). That day we went for dinner then went down to Chinatown to "cho re nao" (join in the festivity crowd) with my parents and maid.

Have missed about 3 weeks of svcs and cg. Will be here in london for 2 weekends. So going to miss another 2. Sianz. But on a lighter note, I get to get away from the shop for a while. We closing the shops for for 4 days for cny and opening on the 5th day of cny (11th feb) which is tmr london time (today singapore time).

Pre-CNY period was pretty busy in the shop. Had no time for food and the loo during the weekend for the crowd just keeps coming in. Needed at least 3 people in suntec and 2 people in queensway outlet. The saturday just before the CNY (think it was the 2nd of feb), I went to work as usual but after abt 1/2 an hr I opened shop, I felt nausesous and faint. Was feeling really sick that I couldn't stay. Called my mum who was in suntec with my other 2 staff (i was in queensway). She came over to pick me up and brought me to the doctor. After that went back home to rest for about an hour and then headed back to queensway to help out. Had no choice as it was a really really busy and peak period.

The flight to London on thursday was pretty empty. My parents and I had a total of 7 seats (though we only bought 3 tickets). We could lie down and sleep. The timing of the flight was just perfect. We don't have much of a jet lag after we arrived in London. The last time I came to London was before I went to Australia to study. Think it was in 2000 or 2001. That's about 6, 7 years ago. Everything still looks the same.

Yesterday morning we were out for a 2 days 1 night road trip to windsor castle, bath and stonehenge with my parents, sisters and elder sister's bf. Intially we intended to go on a day tour but decided that driving there on our own will be better. So we rented a 7-seater mpv and booked 2 rooms in a B&B hotel in Bath. It was last min. We did all these just the night before we left. As it was last min, most hotels were fully booked. We were lucky to find 2 rooms (1 family and 1 double). It was a pretty small B&B hotel with only 20 rooms (only 2 people serving) but service is pretty good. We are pretty impressed.

In the midst of the road trip to stonehenge before heading back to London, I got myself into a mini accident. My fingers on my left hand was caught in between the front passenger car seat door when it was slammed shut. I was getting into the backseats then. Ouch. Thank God that only my middle and fourth fingers are slightly bruised esp my middle finger. Nothing is broken. I am so accident prone. And now I am so tired. Going to go get a shower.