#chapgohmei

Friday evening. The last weekend of February, 2024. Chap Goh Meh eve. Celebrations are on the way for many who celebrate the lunar new year celebrations, the last two days of it. More fireworks are expected to light and decorate the skyline tonight and tomorrow night.

In the meantime, the Batik Influencer has come up with some of her latest offerings, 5 of them at the beginning; However, before I could type “Jack Robinson” (and I type pretty fast; even faster still on my Logitech MX Mechanical linear (1), but not as fast as a bullet train…yet); two pieces were sold. She is working on more because we just confirmed that we will be running a booth at Amcorp Shopping Mall this weekend.

The Batik Influencer has come out with her latest creations. These are some of her newest creations and will be available at our booth this weekend.

There are a lot of ladies clothes accessories like brooches, bracelets and other items that are that are available on sale for those who want to add the bling to one or more of the Batik Cape Creations.

Like always, we; meaning the Batik Influencer, Jeannie; and I, Alan, the Hatted Writer; are excited to be at our booth where we will be able to meet all our friends and make new friends. It gives me the opportunity to meet with readers of leatherpotato, too. I hope to learn and get more input for my book that I am writing. You will be able to spot us easily. Jeannie, the Batik Influencer will be modelling one of her creations. I will be wearing my grey / white panama hat, with a red and black band just above the rim. It will be just dandy if everyone wears a hat over the weekend.

While I am creating this article and the Batik Influencer is miraculously coming up with more choices of her Batik Cape Creations under her own label, “Jeannie’s Own”, we are listening to some music. Right now, a vibrant song, “Nona Nona Zaman Sekarang” is on. This is the version sung by the super awesome Liyana Fizi. The music arrangement with acoustic guitar, base guitar and brushes on a snare drum, is superb. I have done a bit of research and found out that Liyana is based in Selangor. Hopefully in the very near future, I will be able to contact her, have coffee and perhaps do a write up on her.

On our way to Amcorp; we will stop at New Apollos and buy Nescafe ice kaw kaw. We will get the drink servers to fill our Hydraflasks with the Nescafe ice kaw kaw (2). Hydraflask does an excellent job in keeping it cold (or hot if you have a hot beverage in it) for many hours. We are expecting some sellers to offer a wide choice of snacks, cookies, cakes and sweets since it will be Chap Goh Mei. The meaning of ‘Chap Goh Mei is “the 15th day of the new year” which marks the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. (3)

We look forward to meeting with you all. We are gonna have fun. See you there.

1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall,
Booth 1.16, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping Mall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Feb 24 and Feb 25, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

NOTES:
1. Logitech Mx Mechanical Linear keyboard comes with the red switches which is the quietest amongst the other variants of blue and brown (the most popular being the red) for its accuracy and performance.
2. Kaw Kaw means thick or extra strong.
3. This auspicious day is also known as the Chinese Valentine’s Day. Traditionally, young single women write their names and phone numbers on mandarin oranges before throwing them into ponds or lakes, in hopes of finding a boyfriend or husband. Hopefully, they use permanent ink pens so that the water will not wash off the written information.😅

Chap Goh Mei which is today, is the last day of the Chinese Lunar Year celebrations or Chinese New Year. The day is celebrated similarly to the day before Chinese New Year, it is celebrated with much joy and festivity. This is the year of the Rabbit. The rabbit (兔) is the fourth in the twelve-year periodic sequence (cycle) of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. (1) The sign of Rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture. (2)

On the night of Chap Goh Meh, unmarried girls will throw tangerines (oranges) in the sea or river in the belief that they will be able to marry good husbands. I don’t know how the guys could identify which tangerine belonged to which girl “in those days”. Today, maybe the girls will write their name, telephone number and Instagram or TikTok ID (Facebook is for senior citizens, so they’ll skip adding their Facebook ID) on each and every tangerine with permanent ink pen markers.

Jeannie and I decided to celebrate this last day of festivities in a small way. We went to Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre in Subang Jaya. (3)

Since Laura is away in the U.S.; we decided to stop by at one of her favorite stores in this shopping Centre – Popular Book Store. Laura loved to shop for stationery especially in this store – pens, pencils, color pencils, magic ink, glitter ink, various types of writing and note books, and drawing pads. She had hundreds of these writing instruments in various shades, sizes and color. She is quite the artist, too; follows after her mother. Me? I can’t draw two straight lines with a ruler. We had quite a good time. Jeannie and I purchased a few items.

We had coffee at the Oriental Kopitiam (4) (naturally. It wouldn’t have been so traditional if we had coffee at Starbucks, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or at the mamak (5)). We had to have Oriental Kopitiam’s signature coffee. It was pretty good. We had butter with kaya on toast bread – one of the usual eats when one drinks kopitiam coffee. I had to also have Black Glutinous Rice or in aspirated local terms, “Pulut hitam”. Simply one of my favorites. It had two sort of glutinous balls with black sesame paste inside. People: it’s worth the try.

Jeannie spent a bit of time at her favorite stores; too. I…yes; at the gadget stores. Nothing really much going on in this area. You can find loads of interesting and cool new gadgets on the web, but they hardly seem to make their way to this part of the world.

5 hours later, we were on our way home. It was a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon, relaxed and had fun.

*Jeannie and I with three gold boat-shaped ingots (part of the deco).*

I know, I know… I am not suppose to be on the bridge, but under it, waiting to collect oranges…er.. I mean find “that special orange thrown over by a lenglui” (6). I figure that since I am already spoken for; I might as well collect as many oranges from the lenglui(s). The guys aren’t waiting under the bridge. They are at home on their phones or PS5 games.😁

NOTES:
1. Wikipedia
2. Chinahighlights.com
3. Subang Jaya is a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
4. “Kopitiam”: a coffee house serving traditional Malay and Chinese fare.
5. “Mamak”: Mamak stalls are indoor and open-air food establishments particularly found in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia.
6. “Lenglui”: Pretty girl.

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THE LAST WEEKEND OF FEBRUARY

The 15th Day