This ancient “Romeo and Juliet” story is very well performed. The music is pleasing, and there are English subtitles.

Here is the basic plot line:  (total of 10 scenes)

Scene 1: Zhu Ying Tai convinced her parents to let her go to school.

A young lady going to school is a No-No in ancient China. A young 16-year-old girl from a wealthy family, Zhu Ying Tai, really wants to go to school. She was bored doing the normal things a girl was allowed to do, sing, dance, read poetry and do embroidery. So, she hatched a plan, pretended to be sick, then call on her parents, dressed as a man in her effort to convince them to send her to college at Hangzhou. Reluctantly, the parents agreed on the condition that she went in the guise of a man.

Scene 2. On the way to Hangzhou

As was the custom, she had a personal maid travelling with her. Along her journey to the school in Hangzhou (Wansong Academy), she met 17-year-old Liang Shan Bo who was attending the same school. They became sworn “brothers”.

Scene 3: Awkward yet tender moments at school.

In this scene, Ying Tai was sick at school and Liang Shanbo wanted to look after her. This caused some awkward moments as she did not want her gender discovered. The deep friendship between the two begin to grow.  In another scene, Liang Shanbo was amazed how Ying Tai was so good with needlework.

More….  They  studied for three years together. Over this period of time, they formed a strong friendship. Ying Tai gradually fell in love with Shan Bo who, being a bookworm, never did discover what she was despite coming across a couple of oddities. When she was summoned home by her father, Ying Tai revealed the truth to her headmaster’s wife. Ying Tai requested that she be the matchmaker for her and Shan Bo and gave her a jade pendant as a token to be handed to Shanbo.

Shan Bo walked with Ying Tai for 18 miles to send off his sworn brother. She tried several times to hint to him her identity during the journey but to no avail despite insulting him twice in her exacerbation with his denseness. Finally, she found a way and got his consent to matchmake him to her “twin sister”. She exhorted him to seek out his fiancee’ soon before they reluctantly took leave of each other at the pavilion where they first met. Upon returning to school, Shan Bo was restless and could not concentrate on his studies in the absence of his sworn brother. Seeing this, the headmaster’s wife told him about Ying Tai, gave him the jade pendant and bade him to go propose to her.

The joy of the reunion of the two came to naught when Ying Tai told Shan Bo he was three months too late. Her father had already betrothed her to the frivolous son of the powerful and wealthy Ma family. Shan Bo, who was already ailing, was deeply grieved. He returned home and his health steadily deteriorating until he became seriously ill.

Several days before her wedding day, he asked to see her again. When his servant returned instead with a token from her, it was the final blow. He sent his servant to Ying Tai with a last gift and died.

Ying Tai was stricken with sorrow and forced her father to come to a compromise: to allow her to visit Shan Bo’s tomb on the way to her betrothed home or she would not marry.

At the tomb, she swore her undying love for Shan Bo and that if they could not be together in life, she would rather be with him in death. A tornado sprang up and an earthquake split the tomb in two whereupon Ying Tai threw herself into it. The whipping winds covered the tomb with sand. When the winds died down, two butterflies were seen soon after, flitting away to the heavens.

Address: WanSong College, 92 WanSongLing Road | 万松岭路92号万松书院 |

Inside there are statues of the two lovers while studying at the academy.

To watch a movie on the Butterfly Lovers, click here.

If you are planning to visit Hangzhou, it is worth reading the story of the Butterfly Lovers.  I’ve watched it over and over, it is such a bittersweet story.

I felt like punching Liang Shanbo, how could he be so thick and not get the hints!

• C:  Create
• C: Communicate
• D: Deliver
• V: Value
• T: Target Market (to the target segment)
• P:  Profitably

Your marketing strategy can be defined following this new mantra from Philip Kotler from the London Business Forum. This short little acronyms encompasses product management, brand management, customer management, open innovation, open technology, emotional connection, corporate social responsibility….

·

This Don’t Quit presentation is based on a famous poem which was written many years ago. The author of this poem is unknown. Sadly, in recent years a number of people have claimed ownership of the poem and some have even claimed to have written it themselves!

Here is the original poem in it’s entirety:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

Easy to say that there is the one remote to control the DVD player, cable TV box, the VCR and the television, yet if you slightly point the remote in the wrong direction, everything is messed up.

Once messed up, I give up!

Another problem I have with our current remote is that the buttons are too small, can’t see them in the dark.   Curious me always want to see synopsis of each TV episode using the INFO button, and get out using the EXIT button.  These buttons are small, so when I press them by feel, more often than not, I miss, and so POOF goes the setup.

So, it is with excitement that I anticipate the arrival of the Touchsquid Remote  Control Tablet, which solves this problem with easy to use touchscreen commands.

Like a Squid with ten tentacles, the touchsquid can control several gadgets with one touch.

As I entered the door, I saw a print of Queen Elizabeth on my right. Below it is a note from Queen Elizabeth. Here it is!

Vanda Cooper, who is in charge of jewellery at Thriftopolis, explained that this was an idea from a colleague, and they thought it was funny enough to post on the wall. I am sure Queen Elizabeth would be flattered.

Situated at 2579 Lougheed Highway, the store is 800 square ft full of interesting stuffs – almost like a history lesson. Vanda showed me a genuine hair bracelet. Apparently, in Victorian England, Hair jewelry became popular as both memorials for the dead and sentimental jewelry representing love, friendship or remembrance. Both men and women wore portraits of their spouse or betrothed, backed by the loved one’s hair. Men, especially, wore bracelets woven from their loved one’s hair and ended with gold clasps bearing ornamented hair.

Next thing that captured my eye is an unusual chair, and as Vanda explained to me, a gossip chair. The chair faces two directions, making it easy to turn one’s head to the next person for gossip. Again, this chair is a blast from the past. Gossip chairs were invented in France and later spread to other European countries.

Not to be outdone by Queen Elizabeth, I search for a bling to buy and fancied an antique jade pendant.  I later discovered that I was the FIRST CUSTOMER OF THRIFTOPOLIS. In fact, Vanda needed instructions to run the till. What fun! So here is my receipt as proof.

Next time you are near the Coquitlam area, do drop by Thriftopolis and say hello to Hal Merritt and Vanda Cooper.

I have never been to the Athlete’s Village, which makes this a pleasurable outing. After a leisurely Saturday breakfast with my husband, we visited the show. Women would love this show as it has many inspiring and original handcrafted accessories.

Above photo shows Magda Garbacz at her booth

I used to carry big purses to work, and continue to carry these big purses around on the weekends. Now, I own one of Magda’s “light” shoulder clutch bag for non-working days. I must say it is quite a liberating experience not to lug a big purse around. The bag I purchased has a red color similar to the one shown on the photo below. Surprisingly, I was able to fit a pair of reading glasses, a small wallet with a credit card, some business cards and a few paper bills.

I also like her bigger shoulder bags which have handsketched and silk screened designs. They look unique and trendy, and feature bright colors. These shoulder bags will look really sharp with an all black outfit.

Portobello West is now open from 11am to 5pm on the last Sunday of every month (except its two day March, November and December Markets open 11am – 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday). Worth a visit, as it has a lot of bling, retro designs, vintage inspired designs and much more……

Part I. How the Idea started.
Part II. Experimenting with colors.
Part III. Beginning of a Silk Mosaic Art Piece

I got a phone call from the Canadian tapestry and textile artist Robb Schinnour that a color rendition of my favorite photograph is now ready, so off I went for another consultation with Robb.

With the help of Maureen Burton, a homestager who has an eye with colors, Robb Schinnour gave me his recommended color scheme. I wanted brilliant colors of orange, red and yellow, and he gave me what I wanted. Here is the proposed sketch.

I must say this is an exciting process. To see the development of an art piece.

Once I’ve made up my mind to have my first piece of textile art commission, I went for a hunt for the photos I want to use. It took me a few days to locate these photos as I searched from boxes to boxes. Finally I managed to find these faded photos and handed them to Robb Schinnour. They seem to look a lot better in my memory, nonetheless, they remain very precious to me, and dear Robb treated my photos with so much care.

Here is the original photo.

This photo is a silhouette, and has no bright colors. So the challenge is how to translate this photo into something brillant and shimmering. I played with the colors using computer rendering and came up with some unusual color combination.

None of these colors look right, as I am limited at what the computer can render. I gave up and simply hand this to the capable hands of Robb Schinnour.

continued….

I have the fortune of meeting a Canadian textile and tapestry artist, Robb Schinnour who has impressed me most with a very unusual type of textile art.    The art is his own invention and it involves using layers of silk wrapped around a cord and attached to a canvas backing. Using a sketch as a guide, the art piece is built up layer by layer, and each layer take approximately one hour to finish. The border will add another three to four hours of work. It is hard to explain, but he has a video piece that explains the process.

What attracted me to this process were two pieces of textile art that are currently hanging in his studio, both of which use the same silk cording technique. The colors were brillant and gave a shimmering 3d dimension.

Immediately, I was transported to a favorite photo I have of my children playing at the beach.   This photo was taken years ago, but it left a big impression on me of being a golden moment in my life – two lovely kids having so much fun.

So I asked Robb Schinnour if he would be willing to help me translate this photo into a piece of textile art.   I could just envision this art hanging on top of my fireplace.

continued. Part II – experimenting with colors.