price isn’t everything

What do your kids do during the school holidays? my girl friend was asking me this morning. Playing computer games, what else ? Isn’t that what every kid does these days?

My kids each have their own laptop so they can actually play against each other. It’s all very nice until one of them drops the laptop from the bed and it goes crashing on the floor, which was exactly what happened recently!

I was betting the laptop would be a goner for sure, but it’s so hardy it actually survived the drop. It’s a good thing we have a branded laptop because if it’d been one of those other plastic-y ones (that everyone seems to be buying simply because it’s cheap), it would’ve died right there.

wild at the sales

Woo-hoo, the school holidays are here again and I’m out there going wild with my kids. We’ve planned to go shopping (so what else is new?) since there are so many sales on.

Today we were at Midvalley. We popped over to the Gardens since it’s so conveniently located in the next building. Both Isetan and Robinson’s are having their sale yet it’s so quiet there we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

We had lunch at Midvalley which is probably where the crowd is at. I was looking for a pair of sports shoes at the Jusco sale. At least it’s more interesting than looking at a bunch of home insurance quotes which is what my shopaholic neighbor is doing at home. Duh!

how to keep your kids from wandering off

Each time I read about a kid going missing while out shopping either alone or with their parents, it only convinces me that parents should keep a sharper eye on their kids.

When the mall is crowded and you’re focused on buying something, it’s so easy to lose track of your toddlers who are both curious and active and tend to wander away.

Frankly you just never know the kinds of people that lurk at malls. They could be well-dressed but with evil intentions. I’m sure you too have seen people who look like they belong in drug treatment centers rather than at shopping malls.

A couple of things you could do to keep your kids from wandering off:

• Keep them close and hold their hand or have them hold onto you.
• Let them sit in your shopping cart.
• If there’s a supervised play area within the store, you might leave them there for a while.

where are the sugar daddies?

A friend of mine who’s recently retired is contemplating starting a food business. Good for her, it’s something I would’ve done too.

I mean, just take a look around you. While other businesses may be affected by the economy, people still got to eat so what better business to get into than that?

The only worry my friend has is where on earth she’s going to find angel investors to get the ball rolling.

She was joking that she doesn’t have a sugar daddy to put up the capital for her to play with. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all did?

your favorite store not there anymore?

As I walk around the malls these days, I notice that many of the familiar stores have closed down. Such a pity. It’s true that on weekdays, the malls are usually pretty quiet.

Most of the stores rely on weekend and holiday business when there’s lots more foot traffic. The rental at malls is exorbitant, and shoppers are less willing to spend because of the rising prices.

So while stores may have done their homework well in terms of market research, these sorts of things can throw the business off balance. There’s this mom and pop shoe store where I used to find nice shoes and now it’s gone. Sob!