Unknowingly well in doubt

After a deliberate absence of being logged off on Facebook some four months , today I decided to log on. Perhaps due to the fact that I needed diversion from data imputing hundreds of clients email addresses into Outlook Express. Fabiola who now lives in her native home land,Venezuela, was the first to catch me. She is planning a mega fiesta for her 5 years old daughter next year. Faby is always planning parties of some sort and really does spend huge amount of energy in getting it all perfect to a T. I met Faby some 6 years ago in my store in Barcelona. She had spent over 300€ on Kasmiran metallic floral hand painted bowls, serving pieces and to create the epitome theme, threw in some bamboo free hanging dragonflies to dangle on the bushes and trees. All this was just for a garden party she was preparing.

Faby is an extremely gifted artist, but never managed to break into the art scene in Barcelona. It’s a real shame as her scultpures are wonderfully feminine and speaks volumes of beauty and purity. I put it down to racism. But let’s not go down this avenue today.

The theme for her daughter’s (Fiore) birthday party was an Asiatic one. She was having difficulties finding Asiatic props in Venezuela, so she asked me to help. After googling countless sites, we came to the conclusion that she would buy online from US websites, have it shipped to her sister in Miami, who would subsequently bring the goods to Venezuela. Simple!
All that took a mere 30 minutes. After which she asked me about Chinese Astrology. Not only will the birthday party consist of Asian food, props, but she wanted every single guest to know which animal sign they were. This goes to show the extent to which Faby would invest in a fiesta. It’s admirable.

I directed Faby onto the Chinese Fortune Calendar site. We deduced that Fiore is a Brown (earth) Sheep, born in the year of the Green (wood) Chicken, her lucky element is water.
I stumbled on this frightfully flashy site some 4 years ago. At first glance, the site looks tacky, but as I began to read, I understood nothing! After countless hours re-reading most of the stuff, I realised that the site was written by Chinese person/people. The Chinese tend to speak in context; one simple sentence speaks volumes. One has to almost decipher the meaning. Four years on, I still have difficulties understanding the stems and branches.

After discovering that Faby’s daughter lucky element is water, the next click produced a list of things she could do to improve her luck:

When the Water is your lucky element

• Pig and Rat are your lucky animals.
• Years of Pig and Rat are your lucky years.
• Months of Pig and Rat are your lucky Months.
• Winter or cold season is your lucky season.
• 21:00 - 1:00 (9 P.M. to 1 A.M.) are your lucky hours.
• Northern direction is your lucky place.
• It will bring you luck to live a house that faces north.
• You should choose a bedroom on the north side of the house.
• When arranging the office desk, you should sit facing the north.
• A metal or water bed is good for you.
• Your lucky colour is black.
• You should wear black often.
• You should use a black system (dark colours) for decorating your house.
• Take care of your excretory system - also your Kidneys, Bones and Ears.
• Wearing jewellery will bring you luck

There are no explanations to the points; you simply had to follow without any questions. So came an avalanche of questions from Faby:

“Why is black good”?
“Because black is cold”

Why water?
“Because water is deep = cold”

Why north?
“Because North is cold”

“Why the excretory system”?
“Because without consuming sufficient water Fiore is prone to problems in the excretory system”

By this time, I had only managed to type in some 30 email addresses and should have cut the conversation there. But made the error saying:

“Did you know that foods are considered cold or hot, some are neutral?”

We spent the next 2 hours analysing Fiore’s life.

1. Faby: “Fiore is having problems sleeping”.
Me: “That’s because her room is probably in the wrong part of the house”. She should be in a room facing north. If it’s not possible to change her room, her head bed should be on the north side”.
Faby nearly died upon hearing this statement. Fiore is presently in a south facing room, with the head bed pointing south!

2. Faby: “She’s a fussy eater and often complains of stomach pains”
Me: “That’s because she eating too many hot foods. Don’t tell me, she doesn’t like meat, but likes fish. She likes vegetable but hates lettuce and cucumber” ( meat is hot, fish is cold, most vegetables are cold but lettuce and cucumber are hot)
Faby: "OMG, she loves vegetables but there is no way she would even pick up a piece of cucumber"

3. Faby: “what about pasta?”
Me: "Pasta is neutral, but Fiore probably doesn’t tolerate wheat. Try rice, it’s much cooler"
Faby: "OMG, she loves rice"

4. Faby: “what about eggs?”
Me: “The yolk is cold; the whites is hot leaning on neutral”
Faby: "OMG, Fiore only eats the yolk"

Finally:
Faby: “How do you know all this?”
Me: “I’ve absolutely no idea". I suppose the fact that my grandparents were Chinese herbal doctors meant that we grew up unwittingly absorbing the knowledge and developed a natural feel for it.

The final conclusion about Fiore was: change orientation of her bed, let her decide what she eats because her body knows best. Get rid of the pinks, reds, orange colours from her wardrobe. Bring in blues,greens and black.

I was glad that I was able to help Fiore, but the chat with Faby had pulled another cord within me. For some years now I’ve given sporadic thoughts about my career. I’ve always had a soft spot for abandoned or injured animals. During my younger years, I was forever bringing sick animals home and getting told off for it. My store in Barcelona became a free consulation room rather than a home deco shop. I’d been to many homes of clients to give my decorative opinions. More often than not, I advised them not to buy that particular table or chair they had in mind from my shop. Clients cried on me with their life’s stories on numerous occasions. The problem got so severe, that I was banned from being present on the shop floor.

Perhaps I ought to re-direct my career path! Perhaps I ought to do that art therapy course! However, however, perhaps, subliminally, I’m avoiding the forth coming trade fair in Paris. Though I love the fair and excel on the adrenalin rush it provides, I don’t enjoy the indirect aggression that is expected from me. My top client, Mr Ide from Japan will come and hassle me about improving production and quality. Franz from Austria will negiogate a cut throat distributorship deal (and obligate me to have dinner with him), Didier from Belgium will push me to finalise his mega project. I will talk Italian clients into tripling their orders and charm all buyers to my new collection. Petty small French clients will hover over me like flies with a retail buy (which I absolutely refuse). It’s a hard sell and I’m not sure that my heart wants to do it anymore. Anyhow, my once high level of testosterone is depleting. Now, I'd rather bake a cake than chase after that lucrative deal.

By the way, chocolate is deadly hot. So don’t eat too much of it! Personally I only consume dark chocolate for the high iron content after menstruation. There, that’s put you off!