Cosima Underwater

… but I don’t blame you, if you thought it were. Here are my bad excuses for not posting in a long while in no particular order:

- Little man had a week of school holidays over Chinese New Year.

- My parents are here for a visit.

- So we were out and about a lot, despite the…

- really awful weather. It was wet, cold, and windy, and just staying dry and warm took enormous effort. Thankfully, the weather has been much nicer the last couple of days.

- I have started my tax accounting for Cosima Inc for the entire last year. In retrospect, it would have been much better to do it at the end of every month, but I had thought that for such a small business I could do it quickly in one go.

- My bank thinks it is sufficient to put “Withdrawal”, “Deposit”, and weird number combinations as descriptions in 80% of the transactions in Cosima Inc’s bank statements, which makes reconciling accounting entries a real slog.

- The year of the rat has just begun, and I am still pondering whether it’s good or bad that I was born 36 years ago and it’s going to be my year. Yes, I confess I am a rat, known in the Western world as the bringer of disease and pestilence.

There seems to be a definite hierarchy among the twelve Chinese zodiac animals. Little man was born in the year of the horse, and I still remember the newspaper articles about Chinese women having Cesareans at the end of the lunar year, in order to birth a horse instead of a sheep.

I don’t think being a rat has as much prestige as being a horse, dragon, or tiger, but the rat is the first animal of the twelve year zodiac cycle, which has to account for something… right?

The 12 Zodiac animal signs (生肖 shengxiao) are, in order, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (ram or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. There are many legends to explain the beginning of the zodiac (see Origins of the Chinese Zodiac). One of the most popular reads, in summarized form, as follows:

The rat was given the task of inviting the animals to report to the Jade Emperor for a banquet to be selected for the zodiac signs. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat tricked him into believing that the banquet was the next day. The cat slept through the banquet, thinking that it was the next day. When he found out, the cat vowed to be the rat’s natural enemy for ages to come.

Source: Wikipedia

… oh well. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Did you know that Mickey Mouse is in fact a rat? He is on Chinese New Year decorations all over town.

… Behind the smiles and charm, rats can be terribly obstinate and controlling, insisting on having things their way no matter what the cost. These people tend to have immense control of their emotions, which they may use as a tool to manipulate and exploit others, both emotionally and mentally. Rats are masters of mind games and can be very dangerous, calculative and downright cruel if the need arises …

Source: Wikipedia

Poor Minnie…

574 spam messages. That’s what you get when you feel a little under the water and haven’t been looking at your blog much. Fortunately, I have this nifty spam filter that only missed 4 spam comments out of 574.

What else is going on? I am in Hong Kong and trying to get ahead of all the pressing things I have to do for Cosima Inc, which accumulated during our extended stay in Berlin. It’s all the more pressing because the Chinese New Year celebrations start soon. That’s when roughly 1.3 billion people stop working, board crowded trains to their birth place, and celebrate with their families. In short… Christmas x 10. As my suppliers tell me, it’s also the time when quite a lot of workers decide that their last place of work pays not well enough, and they leave for greener pastures.

China’s economy is booming, and who wants to work in manufacturing when the service sector promises lighter work and better pay? What kills me is that Western media still thinks that China will take over the world by manufacturing everything cheaper, and start World War III. Here is the inside scoop: they are much too busy eating abalone, and carrying Chanel bags.

To wind down, I have been watching LA Ink. Please tell me why she wants to get a boob job. I don’t understand the world anymore.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on “Smell”. I felt very bad about not responding to them, but I don’t have a sliver of time at the moment. I am working feverishly on Cosima Inc.’s website, and hope to have everything finished by the end of the week.

Love, Cosima

I view life as a mix of going with the flow and occasionally stepping back, assessing, and adjusting course. It’s quite a change from a few years back, when I thought that life is best steered with sheer will power and forging ahead without looking left or right.

It is something my son taught me. When I was pregnant with him, I thought that I could do it all: work in a demanding job and be a good mommy, but experience has told me otherwise. I stepped back and set priorities, and the number one priority was and still is my son. I also decided to see where life would take me next.

I am very grateful for the change I was forced to make, because I don’t think I would have been happy, if life had just continued as before. I call it my early mid-life crisis, and I am glad that it came when I was thirty and not forty-five.

Hong Kong is such a business and work-oriented city, and it is very easy to get sucked into this race for more money, a better career, or the next big deal. But then, once in a while, you have to ask yourself, if these things are really worth the time and effort, you invest into them, and more importantly what you loose while pursuing them.

Still, most of us have to earn money, and I am no exception. I am also someone who gets extremely unhappy when I am not financially independent. A former colleague of mine told me, half-jokingly but still with longing eyes, that she would like to be a tai tai, which is the Cantonese term for being the wife of a very wealthy man. “I want to have high tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with girl-friends, instead of going back to work after lunch”. I have nothing against chatting away the afternoon at the Mandarin Oriental, but I would like to pay the bill with my own credit card.

So the goal for the next few months, especially now that my son started school and I have more time, is to make Cosima Inc into a business with a regular income stream, but still not loose sight of the fact that life should be fun. I think it’s achievable, especially the fun part, because having your own business affords a lot of freedoms that are not there when you work for someone else.

In Hong Kong, your business is not really in existence without a “chop”. I am not talking pork chops here, I am talking about an official company stamp. It’s used to sign off invoices, acknowledge deliveries, or any other official company documents. A chop under a document is as legally binding as a signature, but for good measure really important documents are signed as well.

Until a few days ago, I didn’t have a chop. I thought that I didn’t need one. I thought that the signature of the business owner was good enough. Not for PCCW, a local telephone company. I went to one of their shops to transfer my personal mobile phone account to my business. After the clerk had filled out three forms…

“And now please put your chop here, here, and here… and sign there.”

“I don’t have a chop. I just sign it.”

Astonished glance from the clerk.

“Sorry Madam, we also need the chop.”

“But I don’t have one.”

“OK… I will check with my manager. Please wait.”

A call followed to the manager, who apparently confirmed that mobile accounts can’t be transfered to businesses without chops.

So, I left in search for a chop maker and found one a few blocks further down the road. A deal was quickly made. On the next day, I got a round chop with my company’s name in exchange for HK$60 (US$8).

Afterwards, I went to the phone company, and chopped three forms here, here, and there, and also the three sets of duplicates… here, here, and there. And I was beginning to appreciate the convenience of chops. From now on I will chop whenever I can.

The following pictures are from a little lane between the skyscrapers of Central, Hong Kong’s business district, where several essential services are located: a chop maker, a key maker, a shoe shiner, several shoe repair stalls, and also a jade seal carver. However, my chop maker is located somewhere else, in Wanchai, and I would have loved to take a picture of his tiny hole-in-the-wall shop, but a large truck was parked in front of it, eclipsing it completely.

I was looking for a picture to accompany my post, and found this picture on Flickr:

I have a million emails to write, spreadsheets to update, errands to run, and also ship Cosima Inc products that are occupying my living room. It’s impossible stretch my legs out when I sit on the sofa, so everything needs to be gone by this evening.

But I try to smile… occasionally… while working away the pile. It’s good to know that I still qualify for an organic juice.

How is your day going?

Thank you all for your well wishes! I would love to say that my cold is on the retreat, but these little viral bugs are still having a party inside my throat and nose. I am having a fruit and veggie day today, to send some battle-ready vitamins to them.

Yesterday, I spent the whole day in front of the computer to tinker with Cosima Inc’s website. I thought that a flash slideshow of my products would be a cool thing to have, and bought this product, which is a cheap and elegant solution to put a picture slideshow on your website or blog, but as always the devil lies in the details. It took me the whole day to make this work and look like I wanted too. By the end of the day, it was hard to focus my eyes.

So I thought, that I deserved a  special treat this morning, and went to the neighborhood coffee shop. It belongs to a local chain, and has very nice decor with comfy chairs and sofas, good jazz music, and a wide selection of newspapers and magazines. Only the coffee is lousy, but drinkable in cappuccino form. So I sipped my cappuccino and read the news on Burma. Apparently even Rambo aka Sylvester Stallone, who was filming at the Thai-Burmese border, thinks it’s a “hell hole”. Then I glanced at the people rushing by on the other side of the window, struggling to get to work on time. The coffee shop felt like a quiet and comfy bubble, swimming slowly against the tide. It was luxurious to be inside of it. Life felt good.

I have a thousand things to do, but can’t get anything finished. It feels extremely frustrating. In theory, now that little man goes to school, I should have more time, but the last week felt even busier than the ones before.

Most of the things on my to-do-list are important matters for Cosima Inc. Until now it was a small scale business, to even call it a business feels like an exaggeration, but my partner and I have been making steady progress and gained experience. It’s time to do it on a larger scale with a bit more organization. Now that my son is in school for most of the day that should be possible… in theory. The first thing to do is to bring organization and scheduling to my grand plans, and afterwards get an office.

Working from home has its advantages, but there is not enough space in my flat. My bed, the one you also see as the backdrop in most of my HNT pictures, has been serving as the headquarters of Cosima Inc for the last year… I am not kidding. The choice is between a bigger flat with one more room or a separate office. Both options have their pro and cons, but my gut feeling tells me to rent a small office space. There are too many distractions at home, and it is also harder to finish for the day and enjoy your private time. On the other hand, I am worried about the cost of renting an office space and the commuting time. A small space near an MTR station, not in the glitziest part of town, would be ideal. Will be interesting what I can find when I get around to it. Maybe next week, after I have taken care of all the other pressing things.

This evening, so many thoughts went through my head, and I would have liked to go for a walk to get them all sorted out, but the kitchen was one big mess and I still had to prepare little man’s lunch for tomorrow. First I cleaned a mountain of dishes to gain working space, then I cooked little man’s lunch (pork chop, carrots, and noodles), and afterwards prepared pumpkin soup. While the pumpkin soup was simmering (small pumpkin, 4 carrots, big onion, 3 cloves of garlic, chunk of ginger, one red chili, chicken stock, tomorrow I will add lentils to the mix), I cleaned the kitchen once more. It looked so nice and clean. Pristine. Then I took out the hand-held blender to puree the soup…

Me and the blender have been at war for a long time. There have been incidences before, but I thought I had figured this wicked machine out. Not so. Pumpkin soup sprayed across the stove, floor, and cupboards. I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out was hysteric laughter.

So I cleaned the kitchen for a third time. It’s now so clean that you can eat sushi from the floor.

Image: “The Key” by Jackson Pollock

During the last weeks, I have spent a handful of days in the office of a business partner, to get the most pressing things done for Cosima Inc. When little man is around, it’s impossible to get anything done, and it is also nice to talk strategy while I am in his office. He concentrates on sales, while I do the buying side of the business.

His office is in a converted shop, which he shares with another company, and it’s not exactly located in the best part of town. But I am enjoying it more than sitting in a glitzy office tower. It’s a colorful area with lots of people on the sidewalks, and restaurants with cuisine from all over the world. My favorite is a little Vietnamese restaurant, where I can get an excellent authentic meal with main course, drink, and coffee for 8 Euros (US$5.80).

Yesterday, not one but two gypsy bands came by to serenade us from the side walk, which let the rest of my office companions sigh in exasperation. Apparently, it’s a too frequent occurrence. I enjoyed it though, they were good.

Our neighbors are an organic produce shop and a hairdresser specializing in African hairdos. Opposite are an animal clinic and an old-style pub, a “Kneipe”. While I wouldn’t want to spend time inside – think smoky dark room with a few men sitting at the bar drinking beer at 11 in the morning – they also have a few tables on the sidewalk, an excellent spot to drink coffee and do a little people watching.

Best of all, the office is near enough to get there with my bike. So my working days are also my work-out days, which brings a sense of double accomplishment.

PS: The post title “Kiez” is the equivalent of hood or neighborhood in Berlin dialect. It’s mostly used for inner-city areas, not the wealthiest but with lots of character.

I am slowly learning how to shoot pictures with a macro lens, I bought recently for Cosima Inc. The lens is for a Nikon D100 camera, that we had for a long time, but which I have not used much. It takes much better pictures than my small point-and-shoot camera, but is so heavy, that I seldom take it with me.

The goal is to become proficient enough to shoot product pictures for Cosima Inc that look professional, but I am discovering that it’s also a lot of fun to just take the camera outside and capture the little things that often go unnoticed. Like snails and daisies in little boys’ fingers, and beautiful feathers, barely an inch long. Also, tiny ants and petals, all found in my parents’ wonderful garden.