Happyshop opens

July 10, 2011 in events, happyshop, heartfelt | No comments

Yes I’ve taken the plunge! Happyshop has put one foot off-line!

Holland Village is a part of my hometown and a big part of my growing-up years. Everything about the Holland area is dear to me, with the ghost memories of past buildings, shops and people, mixed with both new established and entrepreneurial shops alike. Same ol’ familiarity lives in the form of old and not-so-old structures within Holland Village (check out the hawker centre which has been demolished and rebuilt in the early 2000s — it has my mother’s favourite old-school stirfried noodle/beehoon), the old shops in Holland Shopping Centre (the one with the very patronised, despite higher prices than NTUC, the popular alternative along Holland Drive) 24h Cold Storage at Level 1) like EMF bookstore that used to buy your pre-loved books too and the now halved craft supply store right opposite it.

The Little Happyshop is housed in the smaller building called Holland V Shopping Mall; it’s more a Small Building than a Mall, really. Holland V Shopping Mall used to be called, officially or not I don’t really care to know, the Windmill. Why the owner decided to change the name to be something too similar to the bigger boy next door is odd. Built back-to-back with the ‘Holland Shopping Centre’ separated only by a narrow sliver of an alley that’s both the official garbage clearance point, as well as the unofficial stop-point for smaller delivery vehicles, this Windmill building (the fake-windmill half structure, by the way, still stands at the corner of the building, somewhat facing Lorong Liput and the often crowded surface carpark) is about a decade old, and looks fairly newer than the older counterpart. Business-wise, it has gone through several changes, with its first tenant, if my memory serves me right, as “St Michael’s”: that’s right, you’ve got it — Marks & Spencers. I remember buying my first (and last) turkish delight in its very shiny wrapper there, after watching the televised series ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. Then The Word Shop took over, but I don’t remember that lasting for many years either, though I could be wrong. Since I was probably burying my head in a lot of studying at a time, I don’t know who else came after, except that it became a Food Court (two different operators, I think), before finally someone saw the light, and had it replaced by the tried-and-tested Sushi Tei (which had been, at a different corner of Holland Village for some years before).

My favourite memory of this plot of land where Windmill now stands, however, has definitely to be of the old-school open-air cinema. I don’t know what I watched there — all I remember was feeling rather vexed by my very sticky fingers. It was such a messy affair managing an ice-cream all by myself. It had been night-time, and I had probably been with Uncle Ah-Meng’s children, whose names fail me now. And where Crystal Jade Kitchen and Crystal Jade bakery are now, used to be an appliances shop. I remember quite vividly the washing machines proudly displayed behind the full length glass windows. And up till the more recent history, where Frolic is was the most wonderful little florist. Sure I was usually half-frightened by the aunty, but still it was most, most wonderful for me to be in the shadows of buckets of flowers, hanging plants and what-not. That’s where some of my pocket money went to. Buying useless roses, gerberas, and white common daisies. I absolutely adore that experience.

And it is with all these very cherished and faded memories that I open my shop right here in my beloved hometown, complete with its jewels and warts. In this little corner on the 2nd floor of the “Windmill”, I’ve carved out a little sunny space, complete with my favourite Shinzi Katoh collection of glassware, bags and stationery, and other lovelies including stationery and quirks from Korea, America and France. And so it is! I’ve parked my wares here. Please come by soon, won’t you? I hope that you will fall in love with this amiable neighbourhood, and my little shop too.

the little happyshop
#02-07 Holland V Shopping Mall (Windmill), 3 Lorong Liput, Singapore 277725
tel : +65 64668995

Business hours :
Mon – Thu 11AM – 8PM
Fri – Sat 11AM – 9PM
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Shinzi Katoh Tea Booth

March 10, 2011 in happyshop | No comments

We came and went~

It was all rush-rush. The invite came out of the blue. We’ve had several roadshows; this one was special. Fancy, first foray into the Orchard crowd. Tempting it was to mini-celebrate prematurely for landing a gig like that, but no time: everything had to come together pronto. Certainly the shortest record time I’ve had to get my end of the deal ready.

To my delight, family, friends and Shinzi Katoh fans came, and so did many new customers. I saw many friendly faces, adorable babies and tourists from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia and America. And because of the Valentine season, I also saw loving young and older couples hand-in-hand, boys rushing to their date, and girls clutching their bouquets with much sweetness in their heart.

Most parts went according as planned, and some went according as imagined.

I will keep these worthy memories of our stint at Takashimaya with me.

A happyshop plini sits at my desk

January 6, 2011 in cool finds, happyshop | 1 comment

I collected a few new little friends late last year, courtesy of my sister-in-law’s 3 Christmas log-cakes and Jamie, the Magic Bean Buyer! Check out the Happyshop 2″ plini she patiently and expertly custom-made for me :

Ain’t it just swell with the Happyshop on top of her head ! Looks just like me too ! haha OK, OK, so we only share the short brown hair (and cheeky face) ~

This lil one’s gona be my mascot. Maybe I should go do the fun and whocares-if-it’s-already-passe thing with the travel (within Singapore) pictures, like what Amelie did with her daddy’s garden gnome.

:)

Right. I’m off to my dad’s now. Good Thursday to you!

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Happy new 2011 ~ !

January 4, 2011 in heartfelt | No comments

Finally, we’re one foot in on 2011! Things are nicely new, like resolutions and diaries and calenders and fresh laundry and a spring-cleaned home.

And yet in some ways, some stay the same. As always, I often waft in and out of my deep emotions and sometimes roundabout thoughts, so in that Department, nothing has changed very much.

2010 was quite a ride. It was for me a year that was filled with some wonderment and surprising twists. On the Happyshop front, undeniably, the highlights of the year were magical: the roadshow collaborations with Borders, the Happyshop birthday, hosting Mr Shinzi Katoh’s first trip to Singapore, the Shinzi Katoh art showcase, the “Meet Shinzi Katoh” Tea Party, and the Shinzi Katoh Tea Launch + reception for Juliet Pang’s album launch at BooksActually. On the personal front, undeniably, I wasn’t in the best of health (I still have a funny wheeze on some mornings), plus there was a fair bit of “re-growing up” I had to do, in a certain slice of this reality. At present, my biased hindsight throws up various significant distressing moments, now serving as a reminder of how fragile I still am and how much more or perhaps, different, I want to eventually be. Nevertheless, God does not fail. I know my Lord provides. Undeniably, in His omnipotence and grace, He provides food, shelter, love, safety, strength, and renewed comfort in loss.

Since my mother’s passing in July 2008, I’ve had a Project every year. That life is too short and unpredictable  just wrought my heart to bits. I decided I would not put off the very “thing” I was meaning to do, whatever it was gona be. So, 2008 was Happyshop. And 2009 was Project Driver’s Licence (it was my mother’s wish). 2010 was Project Real Estate (yes I am CES-certified and have helped buy/sell a number of homes). I haven’t quite figured out what Project 2011 should be. It’s not that easy, cos boy, I am a very sedentary, hermit-y kinda person with a family to look after. So definitely it’s not going to be anything dramatic like sky-diving (kudos to Stella) or study in Japan (like Chin’s luxury) or scuba-diving (my cousin Catherine’s an enthusiast) … So far each Project has presented itself, and there was no denying that that should be “it”. My desires for this new 2011 seem to run in so many directions, from cooking every single recipe in my mother’s cookbook, to exercise (yoga, anyone?) and re-starting on crafting, … and frankly I’ve given it more than its fair share of 20 minutes of deep, deep thought the early morning of 31 Dec 2010, and I’ve decided to put if off for now. I’m not in a hurry. It’ll come when it comes. I hope.

(:

Happy new 2011, everyone. Wishing it brings you new joy of many amazing beginnings.

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Coughing my heart out

August 18, 2010 in heartfelt | No comments

I think of myself as someone of a poor constitution. I do. I fall ill too easily and too frequently. Right now, I am in my 3rd week of bad cough. Or at least it feels like three weeks already. (That’s the other thing. My mind’s happily hazy; if I had control over reality, time will be fluid and inconsequential. But I digress.)

It was a rather quiet birthday celebration for the store this year. I guess it’s because I hadn’t planned for a big bang, with the number of things that happened/are happening in June, July, August, September. Thank YOU for swinging by my roadshow at the Borders Fair at Singapore Expo. (actually come to think of it, I think my cough originated from there; there were terrible cooking fumes from the fair next door. I think my entire respiratory system just broke down after 3 days of continuous inhaling of the stuff.) And thank YOU for coming by my online store, and the FB page. I do enjoy Happyshop activities, online and off-. I’m in the midst of tidying up the lost photos of the events, and will post them up soon, I promise ~

So, it’s time for a move again (don’t get me started on how many places I’ve moved to in 2 years!) and I think I should be quite ready for it when September knocks on my door. I should be a veteran by now, with boxing up stuff, labelling, packing, and yes! throwing all those things away! Trouble is, I get so nostalgic about the pieces of memory and the worst that happens will be me, repacking and relabelling the wonderful bits and finding new spaces for them. The new place will have fewer stock-space, my Other Half warns, so I need to either cleverly invent a new storage system, or just have less inventory on hand. Hmm. Gurus with hands-on experience on clever storage, please share!

And in the Work Department, I just signed a contract for my 6th job, which is a meaningful job for me. Kinda related to my 6 years as a high school teacher, and kinda fits what I set out to do when I refused to pursue a masters in sociology. I mean, I want to do something useful, practical, something that makes sense in the real world. This new job plays a small, small part in helping adult English learners find (better) jobs. I hope to do this well.

My 5th job as a housing agent has panned out rather satisfactorily on-off the past 6 months. My manager says it’s the “Seventh Month” (i.e. Hungry Ghost Festival) so ‘business’ will be slow. But to me, it’s good news. I think it’s great to be able to slow down now, cos the job is really quite emotionally draining. If I hadn’t gone through the whole deal, I’d never understand that there can be THIS many difficult people out there. Maybe circumstance (the industry) shapes people negatively. Or, as Julie once told me, we always have a choice, so then, we all decide how we wanna turn out, huh? 

It’s nearly September. Soon it will be Christmas before I’m ready! Aw… but I love Christmas so. All the new memories mixed with the old, and the getting-together, giving of thanks, and loving all the people so dear to us. Hmm.

These are happy thoughts. 

Hope you have a wonderful mid-week, wherever you are.

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