Last Orders Please, Time At The Bagua!

Here's a little story that happened in my town that I thought you might find interesting...

In a busy part of our town there is a lovely Chinese Restaurant that has been run by the same family for many years. It is directly opposite a slightly tatty pub that used to be our local. The restaurant is well run, clean and has reliably good food. For a long time the family kept applying to the Local Council for a licence to operate a take-away service but were constantly turned down. They tried to sell take-aways anyway, without a licence, and were told of course to stop. After a few years of this the Restaurant owners opened up a small Chinese store next door to their restaurant instead, selling all varieties of food, lanterns and ornaments.

One day I went into the store to buy a few things, and happened to notice lots of Bagua mirrors hanging up in the window, as well as an assortment of Feng Shui 'ornaments'. I started talking to the owner who explained that he did not know anything about Feng Shui; he sold the mirrors because it was traditional for such stores to sell them in his native Hong Kong. He had hung them up in the window in all innocence, decorating the window.

Whilst passing the properties over the months I noticed that, some time after opening the shop, the owner was finally successful in his take-away licence application. A while again after that we heard that the pub across the road, which had been steadily deteriorating for some time, had been declared Bankrupt! The pub is now under new ownership and has been completely refurbished at some considerable cost. The restaurant and shop are still there and open for business, bagua mirrors too. I am waiting to see what happens next...