Today marked the end of Chinese New Year celebration for this year.

It also meant the last day for us who had eagerly and willingly wore our jewelery as part of the must-have accessories during Chinese New Year – thanks to the diamond, jade and gold investing activities that typical women like to do.

I know there are many women who wear their thick gold necklaces and several pieces of gold bangles all year round.

But as I have noticed, many Chinese women wear theirs only during the 15 days of Chinese New Year.

So it is normal during these 15 days, to see someone you don’t usually expect to wear jewelry when they work – such as a cleaner I saw today who swept the floor and picked rubbish up with her thick gold necklace, gold bracelet and beautiful jade bangle!

Despite appreciating jewelry as much as the next woman, I could only comfortably wear an extra ring and bracelet – which I will remove tomorrow.

“Latchkey Kids” is one book title which is stuck to my mind despite having read it more than 10 years ago.

I could no longer recall the author or what the story was about – but I do remember that latchkey kids is the term to call kids whose parents work and usually had to come home to an empty house or left with little parental supervision.

This came to mind after a conversation I had with friends on kids who had to latch themselves on their friend’s families for company and sometimes meals because their hard-working parents do not have the time to provide these – and not seeing the need to find a dedicated helper to at least make sure that food is prepared for these kids.

It is sad to know that this not only happens in cities where the pace of life is fast, where you can find niche jobs such as Mesothelioma lawyers and where people are basically too busy for anything but work – but in our small society too.

“No choice” seems to be the easiest excuse to justify an order of priorities which cannot be right.

Practising the ancient science of feng shui has never been easier.

When assessing the suitability of a property, checking for negative elements in the surrounding is very important for feng shui followers and practitioners.

But it takes more than read-a-feng-shui-book to notice elements or “flow of energy” that could be harmful – and more often than not, that’s also because some of these elements are not easily seen on ground level.

But these days, property buyers with basic knowledge of feng shui need not limit themselves to simply looking, walking and “feeling” the site.

Because these days we have the internet – and satellite imagery at our fingertips.

As easy as it is to sell or do an online auction for a product, service or property, it is equally easy for potential buyers to track reputation, find fake testimonials and in the case of properties, do a quick check for harmful elements visible only from up in the air.

And developers who fail to do a surrounding assessment in terms of feng shui risk having their properties ignored by buyers who wouldn’t mind paying full price – but will refuse even a heavily discounted property despite its grand specifications and workmanship, if it is in a risky location – feng shui speak, of course.