Leading up to the festival

I'm enjoying a week off from the bakery, having closed it for Spring Festival.  I've been spending the time catching up on bookkeeping for the bakery, and studying to figure out why my breads are so crumbly. I haven't taken the time to seriously write and edit what I write.  However, as I do maintain correspondences with friends, I have copied snippets from these epistles to include here.  Once I've retired and have time and focus to shape this into a book, I will of course smooth its roughness.  Ha Ha.

The visiting Cat

Two of my friends have hooked up.  He is from New Zealand, she is an American.  They both are pariticpants in my Cat Loaner program.  They have three cats between them.  They are taking a holiday together for about a week, traveling the Pearl Delta area of China.  It is my joy to take care of ‘my’ cats while they’re gone. 

 Danielle has Ami.  Ami is a friendly cat who hung out in my apartment building courtyard for many weeks.  She would sit and visit with the old folks who spend their days out there.  One day I scooped her up and took her to the vet to have her spayed.  No one complained, although one or two did mention to me that they hadn’t seen her around.  When she was sufficiently recovered from surgery I let her out again.  But then Danielle was looking for a cat, so in the end, Ami lives with her.

Stewart has a brother and sister from the litter born in my home in August.  The female is gray tiger-striped.  She loves to climb.  One day she climbed up the mosquito netting around Stew’s bed, and must have fallen down.  He found her unable to move.  We took her to my vet’s and discovered she had broken a bone close to the pelvis.  I took her back to my home for a week or so, to give her a chance to recover.  Her brother is a ginger cat, and a bit rambunctious.  I was afraid he wouldn’t give her peace and quiet that she needed for healing.

Since then, she has not thrived.  She is skinny.  She is shy and retiring, even listless.

I have taken her back to my home while Stew and Danielle are away.  Both Ginger cat and Ami are pretty lively, larger animals.  I feared Grey cat would regress.

Now I have the pleasure of her company.  On a rare afternoon I came home early, lay on the couch, and rested with the TV on.  She curled up on my chest and spent the afternoon bathing me with affection.

She and Felix vie for the closest spot at night, in bed.  Last night I awoke to one of them cuddled in my neck, and the other cuddled up against him.

She finally has a name.  Lila. 

Spring Festival and the New Year

The spring festival is fast approaching. There's been an increase in fireworks noises over the past week, and it will continue all month.  All hours of the day and night.  It's a phenomenon to be experienced.  What a difference from the states, where fireworks are so tightly controlled!

Peter, my god-sent apprentice, is taking almost three weeks off.  I don't know how I'll manage without him.  His last day was yesterday, so they all gathered and gave me birthday gifts.  Linda is a part-timer who has been off this past week, to stay home with her twins during their school holiday. She came in also.  It was very sweet.  Xiao Lan is my other worker, she whose name is on the business license.  Her daughter Rachel hangs out at the shop each day when she doesn't have classes scheduled upstairs at Web, where she's a tutor.  So it was a nice little gathering.

We're approaching the year of the snake, which is my birth year.  They all agree it should bring positive energy, should be a good year, the store should flourish. We'll see.  I feel like I'm still not making any money, yet the urge to expand is strong.  I have two options.  One is to lower the ceiling and make a lounge area upstairs.  The other is to break a hole in the wall and take over the empty shop next door.  There's a chain in China in the larger cities called the Book Worm.  It is a private lending library (foreign language books) and restaurant. The shop next door was renovated with shelves lining the wall.  The gal in a boutique across from me remodeled it, thinking she'd expand.  But now she's changed her mind and it's for rent.  To buy her out would only take about $15,000, which is so cheap by western standards.  But my money has run out.  So I'm waiting to see if this expansion impulse is from God.  If it is, someone will come along interested in taking over that part of the expanding business.  Having a small version of the Book Worm here would be a huge hit.  But as with any business, success ultimately depends on good management.

Managing the shop now is a full-time job, but I'm still having to bake.  I need a partner!

We created special packages for people to give as New Year gifts.  Cookies seemed a natural choice, although my workers insisted on adding the occasional muffin and brownie.  Not my choice, as they go stale too quickly for such a situation of pre-packaging.  Cookies were my intention.  

Trip to Suzhou

Enjoying a week off.  It is too short!!  Took the train to Suzhou yesterday with an American friend my age.  I wanted to check out the Bookworm there.  I like the idea and would like to incorporate into my bakery.  We had a really nice meal.  I had a veggie burger!  It was nice to have a burger again.  It was squishy, but overall a nice experience.  the British owner does all his own cooking, having gone through five Chinese cooks before he accepted the inevitable.  You want western tasting food, have it cooked by a westerner.

We spent a lot of time walking.  Getting lost in a loop at the Suzhou train station upon arrival; from the bus stop to the Bookworm (we detoured a while when we stumbled upon one of Suzhou's many and ancient gardens and temples), then back again to the train station where coming and going we waited.  In fact, the return train was delayed an hour, so we waited even more.  We didn't want to pre-book our travels, because we didn't want to limit our freedom to be spontaneous.  So we accepted the waits, and enjoyed each other's company.  me, I just enjoyed having no responsibilities.