YOU.
YES, YOU.
YOU ARE EMPOWERED.
YOUR LIFE IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU.
HOW COOL IS THAT?
YOU CHOOSE.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
YOUR LIFE IS ENTIRELY UP TO YOU
Ponder
BE THE ORIGINAL YOU
BE TRUE. BE THE ORIGINAL YOU.
NO ONE ELSE CAN BE YOU…BUT YOU.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
SWALLOWING THE HARDEST PILL
SOMETIMES,
THE HARDEST PILL YOU HAVE TO SWALLOW IS WHEN
YOU REALISE
YOU MEAN NOTHING TO THE PEOPLE WHO
MEAN A LOT TO YOU.
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE HELPED THE MOST.
HOWEVER, NOTHING IS PERMANENT.
DON’T STRESS YOURSELF TOO MUCH OVER IT BECAUSE
NO MATTER HOW BAD THE SITUATION IS, IT WILL CHANGE. LOOK FORWARD TO IT.
IN THE MEANTIME,
CONTINUE BEING YOURSELF AND
GIVE THE VERY BEST OF YOURSELF TO OTHERS.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
WEEKEND TO WEEKEND
Where have all the days, the work days, that is; in the week gone? Before you realise that you are on one of the weekdays – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; they vanish right beneath your feet. Time is moving so fast that warp speed seem unnervingly slow. It is quite unfortunate that many of us are moving from weekend to weekend, without actually living the workdays in each week.
Life is short, very short. Each moment that comes from the future, becoming the present, and soon vanishes into the past is gone – twee twee tak balik (1), unretrievable, can’t rewind… So, we should count each moment every day and make them count. There are gonna be great days and there are gonna be days that could have been better. Each day is definitely a plus.
I heard a preacher once say that we cannot control the beginning and the end of our lives, which are givens. What we can control is between those two givens. The length of time between those givens are different for each of us. It is like as though we are presented with a blank canvas for us to paint the best picture of how we are going to make our lives to be.
For me, I wish the weeks were elastic so that I could stretch them. I have so many things to do, writing being one of the main items on my list. I have a growing backlog of essays that I would like to write on subjects, that would be interesting and fun to explore and put pen to paper…in this case keyboard tapping to words on the screen.
This weekend, which has begun just over 4 hours ago (the time is 4.10am at this point of keyboard thumping) this Saturday morning; the Batik Influencer, Jeannie (my wife) and I, Alan, the Hatted Writer; will be at our usual place at F1.08 on the first Floor of Amcorp Mall. The Batik Influencer has got a new range of her very famous JEANNIE’S OWN label Batik Cape Creations that she will be showcasing. Very limited in numbers; come quickly to acquire one of each design pieces. She represents the Malaysian in each of her pieces.
Last weekend; I had the pleasure of meeting my school (La Salle Primary & Secondary School, Klang) classmate, Dr. Michael Lee Pillai who came by with his wife, daughter and her husband. Dr. Michael and I have known each other since we were 10 years old. I remember having had to go to his house twice a week for Bahasa Malaysia tuition when we were in Standard Five (1969’s version of today’s Year 5).
It was a nice surprise meeting him and his family. We don’t meet as often as we would like to. A major event in the works, coming up is our 50th anniversary reunion. It would good to meet with the other schoolmates of 1975 graduation.
Dr. Michael got a copy of my book, SPARKS OF JOY – SEIZE THE MOMENT, with me personalizing it for him.
I am expecting to meet a gentleman this weekend who had a serious issue in writing an article. He was inspired by my book, and my story behind writing and publishing it. Several months had gone by but he couldn’t stitch an article together. I helped him by providing him a solution. And that was it. He was sure to have this important article that he was to write, done, and present to an important group of people. He is coming back to see me and tell me how he fared with finally being able to assemble enough words together to create a highly credible article for his presentation.
The Batik Influencer and I, the Hatted Writer; have had the wonderful opportunity of meeting multiple number of people that visit us at our booth each weekend. These people are mainly Malaysians. We have also met many people of different nationalities from China, U.S,A., the U.K., Japan (Akato is coming to visit us again this weekend), Brunei, Australia, Singapore, India, Mauritius, Maldives, Italy, and many more. We welcome everyone to come visit us. That includes you, our friends. Looking forward to meeting with all of you.
NOTES:
1. Twee twee tak balik is a famous Malaysian play slang in the Bahasa Malaysia language; which means not “twee twee” coming back.
“Chup” is another word which means the same thing “or cannot take back.
Address:
Amcorp Shopping Mall,
Booth 1.08, 1st Floor, ,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: September 27th – September 28th, 2025
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)
A LOT
PEOPLE SAID THAT I HAVE CHANGED A LOT.
I TELL THEM THAT A LOT HAS CHANGED ME…
FOR THE BETTER.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
POSITIVE ATTRACTS. LIVE
BE POSITIVE, BE POSITIVE, BE POSITIVE.
EVERYTHING IS COMING TOGETHER.
THE MORE YOU FEED YOUR MIND WITH POSITIVE THOUGHTS, THE MORE YOU CAN AND WILL ATTRACT GREAT THINGS IN YOUR LIFE.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
WRITER, AUTHOR, STORYTELLER
MYSTERY BECOMES AN ADVENTURE
LIFE CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A MYSTERY.
IT CONSTANTLY SETS CHALLENGES UPON US.
CHALLENGES SCULPT US.
STAY COACHABLE. NEVER STOP LEARNING OR LISTENING.
THE MYSTERY THEN BECOMES AN ADVENTURE.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
BE A VISIONARY – GUTS NEEDED
BE A VISIONARY. IT TAKES GUTS TO BE ONE.
THERE ARE FAR, FAR BETTER THINGS AHEAD
THAN ANY WE LEAVE BEHIND.
YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!
A VISIONARY IS ONE WHO SEES THE INVISIBLE.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
THE RACE AIN’T OVER
IT’S THE FINAL MONTH OF THE THIRD QUARTER OF THE YEAR. THE FIRST DAY OF THE SECOND HALF OF SEPTEMBER IS OVER.
ARE YOU ON TRACK WITH YOUR GOALS?
ARE YOU FEELING THE HEAT IF YOUR GOALS ARE
NOT QUITE UP TO SCRATCH?
ARE YOU FALLING BACK QUITE A DISTANCE?
ARE YOU CONSIDERING THROWING IN THE TOWEL WITH THE THOUGHT THAT YOUR GOALS ARE OUT OF REACH NOW?
IT’S ON YOU.
YES, IT’S ON YOU TO GET YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO BE.
DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN.
THE RACE AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
MALAYSIA DAY AT PORT DICKSON AND AN ADVENTURE
As we approached Port Dickson, the familiar over-bright glare of the sun was there to greet us. I think the reflection of the sun hitting the sea of the Malacca Straits, then bouncing back to the sun and coming back down onto P.D., causes the extra glare. Hence, it requires hat shades and sunglasses for comfort.
We, that is, Jeannie, The Batik Influencer and my wife; and I, wanted a short break from the hustle and hustle of city life. Did I type hustle and hustle? Yes, I did. We needed a break.It shows.
Jeannie got our daughter, Laura; to book us into a hotel. It was a long weekend holiday. After much thought and discussion on how to avoid the traffic jams to and from P.D., we avoided going down (since P.D. is southwest of us [South is “down / bottom of maps so it would not be too correct to say “going up south” ]) on Saturday or Sunday and planned to go on Monday and be back on Tuesday.
Getting to Port Dickson or P.D. was a breeze. Jams almost seemed like a myth and worrying about them was unnecessary. Since, we were fairly early, we stopped by at the Scottish eating place for lunch. Notice words like breeze, myth, fairly... all somehow related to the weather. Pun?
Anyway, the Scottish eating (no, we do not eat Scottish people) place was serving a samurai (because it had teriyaki sauce) burger (I know what you are thinking… Scottish and Japanese are poles apart). It was quite good. The burger patty size was what it used to be back in the good old days – big.
We checked in to our room slightly early. The hotel and the beach were crowded with people. Everyone was enjoying themselves on the long weekend holiday. Jeannie and I, we just wanted to relax and enjoy the seaside.
We went down to the beach at about 5pm, when the weather was slightly cooler. We walked the length of the beach which was about 500 meters in length. It was a slow walk as we had to maneuver between adults, children and tents (lots of tents were out, up. Most of them were set up further up the shore). There definitely was no shortage of enjoyment. It was fun…for these adventurers I guess. I’d opt for the less travelled part – air-conditioned rooms with comfortable beds. Not to forget clean toilets, too.
Jeannie had prepared sandwiches from home, which we had for dinner…the sandwiches, that is. We had coffee flowing throughout the evening (for me), while I figured some work out, including upcoming articles and what’s next for the next three months leading to the end of the year. Lots of ideas…our goals are quite on track. The fun part is to explore new ideas.
Breakfast was early for us. We sat on the terrace of the dining hall, to enjoy the cool breeze that came in with each wave of the sea that was washed onto the beach. We weren’t the only ones enjoying breakfast on the terrace. So too; were the crows. The minute food was left on the table unattended, these black birds came swooping in to have a go at the food. When we saw this, we moved to a table inside the dining hall. So much for eating on the terrace to enjoy the breeze and wide open spaces.
After breakfast, Jeannie went to the beach again to spend some time with the water; while I went back to the room to get more work done.
We checked out of our hotel at half 12, to our next destination – a sort of adventure to locate the house(s) my parents, my late sister, Jennifer; and I, stayed over 60 years ago when my father was in the army. My parents were very young at that time. Jennifer; was about 2 or 3 years old and I, a year 4 days younger than Jennifer at that time. The story in the next essay.
Jeannie and I wish all Malaysians, around the world, HAPPY MALAYSIA DAY.
PS: The location of our house is in the army camp. And another thing, no traffic jams on our way back home.