Wholesale Year of the Tiger - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from Spain

Extreme weather everywhere, snow in Athens and Jerusalem. Here there has been a howling wind buffeting my house for the last three days. Only just calming down now. As they say "It's an ill wind that blows no good"..
Katka in Slovakia office.

And so I'm getting itchy feet. It's time to get moving again, after Bondan (assistant to Ringo in Indonesia) went to east Java and discovered two towns making homeware products. I started to get excited about travelling to a new place and making new contacts. My business visa for Indonesia came through.. within minutes I'd book a flight.

Last week I was telling you about the sad day we decided to retire our EU websites operating from the UK. It's become impossible to serve EU customers well, and so now at least we can focus on serving the UK 100%.

Thank you for all the messages of support and encouragement, it really helps because we really didn't want to lose that fight.

Tomas and Katka flew to Slovakia yesterday. The other side of the coin is that inside the EU - we are busy and most of the customers that used to buy from AW UK, now buy from our EU distribution warehouses. So much so that the Slovakian warehouse is far too small and we are in the process of making a move to a much larger warehouse. Tomas and Katka are there to help the team make a decent plan.

Katka in Slovakia office.

Meanwhile back in the UK.. things have been picking up as new stock comes in and Valentine's Day gets closer. Containers from India and China this week.

Lots of changes going on in the UK as mask wearing and travel restrictions are loosened. It really feels like the covid era is drawing to a close.

Coco in China is officially on holiday, it's almost Chinese New Year and all of China closes for about a month. She sent me pictures of previous years when I would be there and we would travel to the hometown. It brought back all the memories. I remember one year we drove, it's normally a six hour drive. But at CNY everyone is moving at the same time and the G60 from Yiwu to Dongxiang which is like China's Route 66 was crazy. The day we chose to travel the government in their wisdom decided to make a free day with no tolls. So everyone in clapped out motors and rusty pickup trucks hit the road, it was like Mad Max with endless minor crashes and cars breaking down. It took 14 hours with me doing most of the driving, it was an experience I will never forget.

Last time I went the hometown was 2019.. it was also falling on Coco's grandmothers 88th birthday. The whole village came to a party in the street. A brass band came from the local church and played awfully and someone let off a massive firecracker that lasted for ages. Then we all got a bit drunk playing drinking games, fond memories.. I found some pictures.

The world has changed a lot since then.. Coco will take a fast train this time, it's like flying business class with comfortable seats and cabin service and the journey time is less than 2 hours.

That village now has a new road with a landscaped garden area and the houses have been painted. It's changed dramatically.

It's the Year of the Tiger. A quick google tells me.. The tiger is known as the king of all beasts in China and is associated with bravery, confidence and strength.. this is worrying.

How are things going to pan out in the year of the Tiger? Well who knows?. what we really need is a Crystal Ball..

Heavens above we have one right here.. Back in stock Crystal Balls..

And because the container from China had lots of display stands on it.. lots of starter packs are back in stock.

It's all systems go as we move into the Season of Love.

Take care everyone.

More news next week or I should say next year.. in the year of the tiger.

David