Bazaar?!

verabear Family, Food Trip, Weekend 2 Comments

Mom is home from her Bangkok trip. She’s been there since Sunday for a conference. 

I haven’t downloaded their pictures from the camera yet, I’m hoping there are nice photos of the river cruise. I went on one the last time I was there in 2000. It was a lovely time. Mom says that Dad complained about not knowing about the night river cruises, haha.

She brought me home a beautiful sarong of black Thai silk. I love Thai silk but I’ve always just found them really expensive. I did buy myself this nice big sling bag made of one, in maroon. Alfred has had it hostage for a long time now, but seeing the sarong reminds me to take it back. Now I don’t know if I’ll wear the sarong as is or have it adjusted to be shorter. I used to wear sarongs a lot when I was still studying. Actually, some of the ones I used weren’t even really designed to be sarongs. They were actually shawls that I’d just fold a certain way, then wrap around me. I’d fasten them with pins and wear shorts under, just in case they unravelled while I was out. Haha!

It’s payday weekend and we got half of our 13th month pay. People are usually very happy, but not today. They are saying that they can’t appreciate the bonus very much because it’s been divided in two. Others argue that the income tax deductions have made the sum really disappointing. 

I wasn’t very happy with my net pay either, but it is what it is. I am just hoping that I’d get a decent sum for the tax refund by the end of the year when they finally recompute using the new tax exemptions for tax witheld since July of this year. If not,  well then, I’ll just be happy I earn enough to be taxed that much!

Now there’s a bazaar at work every pay day. Vendors come to sell food, clothes, shoes, and anything and everything you can imagine. I used to participate there to sell brownies that I made, plus other stuff that my cousin and I could scrounge up. There was a time that we sold shawls, clothes, bags, makeup, accessories including those magnetic bracelets that we found at a very affordable price. When we bought those bracelets, we already thought about marketing them as healing bracelets – we actually sold a piece or two before the actual bazaar.

As Christmas is approaching, more and more of those who still remember those days are asking me about baking/selling again – they ask a lot for the truffles too. I really want to get back to it but thinking of my oven is enough to make me forget about everything. 

I bought a chocolate cupcake with marshmallow icing and a choco mudslide cake this afternoon. The cupcake base tastes a lot like the ones I make but I’d have to say I prefer mine. I’m not a big fan of having that much icing on it (beehive like) but perhaps people may prefer it over the type of icing I used – or not. The cake and its fudge was – uhm, okay. The caramel seemed to have been mixed in with the fudge itself and that doesn’t particularly appeal to me. I remember the fudge that my aunt used to make and I think that’s a lot better. 

So I know I can totally compete with the baked goods that are currently sold at the bazaar, I really just have to commit the time and energy into it. I don’t know if I want to spend on the space, and the person who would man the booth too. 

My days off are changing again starting next week. I’ll have a very short one-day weekend because I’ll be reporting back to work on Sunday night. That means Fridays off moving forward. Perfect for getting ready to sell in time for payday bazaar. Maybe that’s the universe way of nudging me towards where I should be going? Nyaha! 😉