Saturday, April 30, 2011

Signs of certain businesses

Just got back from Ipoh, and would like to share some unusual business names.

My sister-in-law was with us when she wanted to check out a tile shop in Bercham, recommended by her intended tiling contractor. She kept saying the directions were from someone 'uneducated' but we knew what she meant was more like someone with just basic Chinese education who cannot even spell out the name in English.

She knew some basic Chinese but not good enough to write the name out in Chinese character, so she wrote 'Kah Lai' according to his pronunciation. We went looking for a Shell station, but there are two opposite each other along Jalan Bercham. After calling him, we got the right side of the road and tried looking for the shop described as the back row of two rows of shops. After a random driving round, I found it! It was in fact, 'Galy' described as 'kah lai' in Mandarin!

Later, we went to Ipoh Garden for brunch. I noticed a boutique cafe with a really catchy name, Beauty Fools'! Later, we were caught in a massive traffic jam along Jalan Kuala Kangsar towards city centre (caused by police check!) which gave me the opportunity to look at the shops on the right. 'Penny & Fanny' was the name I saw on the top of a unisex salon. Not sure if it was deliberate, one way or the other (your guess is as good as mine), but I cannot help thinking it was named after two female hairstylists having those names. Just imagine, it could have been named deliberately Pennies and Fannies in a not so subtle way to describe the unisex salon!

On the way back into Batu Gajah, there is a shop with a not so business oriented name: Mysad Enterprise! Just like Taiping (ever peace in Chinese), a sad enterprise cannot be a thriving business concern.
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