#HattedWriter

D. J. AT THE EAST WING, FUN

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

10.45am The morning of Chap Goh Meh. Amcorp Shopping Mall. We had “settled in”, more or less. Our things were all in place, and we were ready to meet people who were expected to come by and see what we had to offer.

The Batik Influencer put in many last minute hours (Hmm.. what are “last minute hours?”) to ready a couple more of her Batik Cape Creations under her label, “Jeannie’s Own”. So, yes, very little sleep over the night (or is it “Under the night”?) English can be very tricky.

The Batik Influencer demonstrating the unique innovativeness of “Jeannie’s Own” Batik Cape.
This is another way of wearing this unique, beautiful Batik Cape.

The Mall was quite quiet during the first couple of hours. Maybe, everyone was sleeping in late, due to the Chap Goh Meh eve celebrations, where the ladies were standing on a bridge, throwing..em…casting over the bridge all their oranges, with telephone and email contact numbers, hoping some lonesome hombres will find it and contact these ladies.

I did not research enough for the significance of this tradition. At face value, this could be my take: The ladies had eaten more than enough oranges for the season. The saying (“They say”) goes, eating too many oranges is not good for the throat. So, the ladies now had to get rid of the left over oranges since they were not going to eat them anymore. Some smart alec (alexandria?) thought of “killing two birds with one stone}: Get rid of the oranges, and maybe find a rich guy in doing so. As the saying goes, “single or unmarried women” are expected to be the ones throwing the oranges.

However, get this: there would be some ladies who are already attached but want to test the waters (pun intended; no, not to see if the oranges would sink) and who knows; pick up someone new. And a new trend could be in the making where the guys would be throwing oranges by the cartons (desperate situations calls for desperate measures) in the water, hoping to pick up a lady in distress (?). From what I heard of a recent story here in Subang Jaya where the lady orange picker up-er, liked the guy, bought him a Porsche and married him. (1)

Our booth, from a different perspective. The Ford Thunderbird next to a Formula One car.

It was just after mid-day when the crowds started coming in. The Batik Influencer was at her element, talking about anything batik while demonstrating her unique Batik Cape Creations. Derek, our lawyer friend; upon hearing that the Batik Influencer had new designs up for sale, asked me to send pictures of them. Within minutes, he replied, having chosen one and would come by to pick it up.

Oh, there it is. Found it!

Husband and wife got themselves each, a “JEANNIE’S OWN” Batik Cape.

In the meantime, I thought that since I brought my mini soundbar speaker, I would have some fun blue-toothing some music from my phone to the speaker.

I first started with Liyana Fizi’s rendition of “Nona Nona Zaman Sekarang”. It came out so beautifully over the speaker that it attracted some people from around, including from the floors above and below; to come over. It is such a happy, catchy tune. In fact, we could see many people tapping their feet or making some happy gestures in keeping in time with the music, especially to the songs they knew.

Then, I picked another one of her songs. I started playing many of Ushera’s pieces, too. She is super awesome. You should definitely link up to her and enjoy her beautiful, beautiful songs and support her career, too. Before I knew it, I was the D.J. for the east wing. I played songs sung by many singers, both, men and women. It certainly livened up the place.

We met with our friends, Khatijah Marianne Magness and Jane; both of whom run their own booths and are very established in Amcorp Mall. We also met my cousin, Leticia; who stopped by for a short visit. It is always nice to see her and her husband, Johnny. These are opportunities for us to bring each other up to speed with the latest going-ons in our lives.

I went to Mahmud, the hat seller’s booth. I found a cap which I think is nice. It’s a “newsboy” type of hat. Mahmud said that this is a favourite of the royals. What do you think? Should I go for it?

The Hatted Writer in the “Newsboy” look. Is this possibly a “D.J” look?

The Batik Influencer and the Hatted Writer (that’s me, of course😏) decided to call it a day at about 5.30pm. By the time we packed everything and was ready to go, it was just after 6. We are looking forward to tomorrow.

Venue and Time:
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. The “lighter side” of traditions.

CHILLING AT MID-VALLEY

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Still in the celebrative mood of Chinese New Year… Jeannie wanted to go to one of the shopping malls to do a bit of shopping. She suggested Mid-Valley Shopping Mall.

Traffic was good all the way to the mall. It probably is a good time to sight-see K.L. (1) Getting a parking bay at our usual parking area (Yes, I do a usual area where I park my car, can easily find it, and then; quite quickly exit when we leave) was easier than normal.

Not even 10 minutes in the mall when I realise that I, the Hatted Writer; was without my hat. I thought that I had left it in the car. I went back to the car to get it only to find that it was not there. Which meant that I had left it at home.

When I was searching on line sometime back for hat boxes, I saws that Mid-Valley had a hat store called “Hat Attack”. I decided to visit it. Who knows? I may be able to find something I like. Just in case some of you may be thinking that I left my hat/s at home on purpose so that I would have an excuse to get another hat…no, I didn’t.

I whipped (slowly. It kinda of contradicts the action “whipped” which depicts super fast😉 for the store location😂) up my phone from, searched for the location and got to the store within minutes. I’ve passed by this store multiple (A descriptive word I learnt from Laura instead of using “countless number of”. Sounds better) times without stepping into it. It was the time before I got in to hats, something which Jeannie kept egging me to start using, especially after watching the movie, “Shadows In The Sun” where Weldon Parrish (Harvey Keitel), the eccentric writer, always wore a hat.

This store was filled with a fantastic choice of hats of all kinds. I tried on several hats, found some that I liked and sent pictures to my fashion critics, Jeannie and Laura, to get their opinion on my choice. Cherie, the store associate, described the materials of hats I picked, and how to keep them clean.

I asked Jeannie to meet me at the store and get her opinion on my final choice. Finally, after a long 15 or 20 minutes of going through all these hats, I picked the bronze colour panama hat.

This is how to take a picture, with your phone, while looking in the mirror. Dressed for the occasion – writering or authoring or even storytelling.

The happy Hatted Writer.

Here I am, with the beautiful Hat Attack associate, Cherie.

The Batik Influencer (Jeannie) and I were soon on our way to explore the rest of the Chinese New Year-ed Mid-Valley in all its festivities. We took a lot of pictures.

What are they looking at?

The Centre Court was decorated with orange trees, everywhere. Fake trees of course.

Sophisticated. Jeannie bought me my red tee to be in CNY colours.

The Batik Influencer in her newly purchased cheongsam. She was in the right shoes, too. Notice the others with white sole shoes, too.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Gardens. Their CNY decor was all about simplicity at home, the simple living. We thought the decor was very nice.

Notice how the back props matches my hat?

Red paper messages dropping from orange trees? Interesting. Very interesting.

The pictures taken of us at The Gardens decor display are very nice. A lady helped take these pictures, using my phone. In all the pictures, the Batik Influencer looks very regal in her cheongsam.

We decided to head home after spending about three hours at the Mall. How quickly time flew. The traffic on the highway back to Subang Jaya was smooth flowing. How nice it would be if the traffic was like this every day. Wishful thinking?

NOTES:
1. K.L. or Kuala Lumpur, is the largest city and the capital of Malaysia.
2. Cheongsam or zansae, also known as the qipao and sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown, is a Chinese dress worn by women which takes inspiration from the qizhuang, the ethnic clothing of the Manchu people. wikippedia

THAT’S A GOOD THING

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

A fun weekend it was. We were at our F1.16 booth, setting up all the things we were putting up on sale. There were lots of new things we brought this weekend. Some of those new things included hats and angpow packets. For our readers who are connecting from over 80 countries; the ang pow packets are in connection and celebration of the lunar new year or “Chinese New Year”, as it is known in Malaysia and it’s neighbouring countries.

Once our booth was ready to rock ‘n roll; I headed over to Mahmud, the hat-seller’s booth. The traditional red & black tartan cap was there, waiting for me to choose it for my own.

The Hatted Writer with my friend, Mahmud; the man with many hats – the hat seller, if you may.

Mahmud confirmed that this cap suits me. What do you, readers; think? I love it. I bought it. It is just the right size, very comfortable to wear and creates an understatement about the Hatted Writer.

A nice pic of the Hat Seller and the Hatted Writer.

The Batik Influencer in the meantime, was busy explaining to everyone that stopped by, about her Batik Cape creations: unique, for formal and informal use, and when not in use; fold it into a small bundle which can be slipped into a handbag or small bag for ease of carrying and taking with you wherever you go.

When Derek Fernandez found out through an article I published that morning that we were in Amcorp Shopping Mall that day (Sunday) and that the Batik Influencer was there with a limited number of batik capes available; he asked me to send pictures of what was available, chose one and said he would come over to get it in a while.

He was not kidding. The next thing we knew, he showed up to pick his chosen Batik Cape. We chatted for a while. Very interesting guy. A lawyer by profession, he has served on many committees, all with the aim of improving and “jaga-ing” (1)the beauty of Petaling Jaya (P.J.) for residents and people who are in P.J. frequently; from especially what development of concreting almost everything in sight calls “modern times”.

Look who dropped in. Kirk Raymond; St Thomas More’s Sound and Technical Specialist. With the author.

Surprises of surprises, I saw Kirk Raymond, St Thomas More’s sound and technical specialist, passing by and called out to him. He was just as surprised to see Jeannie and I manning a booth. We had a nice chat. He had to do a drama shot of us (picture above↑).😁

Farid, our new friend, just bought this hat from us. He looks a typical journalist.

We had a couple of hats of our own up for sale. This guy, by the name of Farid, sporting a grey worker’s cap, tried on the Fedora hat. I took a picture with him wearing it. I told him that he looked good in it. He bought it.

A Japanese interested customer, with the Batik Influencer.

The Batik Influencer, Jeannie; and the Hatted Writer, the author, me, Alan; having a “wefie” moment. It was more like several minutes 😏 because we had to re-take this picture several times to get it right. 😉😁

The limited number of Batik Capes the Batik Influencer had with her today, were sold out. She will be working on new designs and have them ready soon, for the many, many enquirers. Many of the Hotwheels and ang pow packets were sold. We found it really fun to meet so many people – friends as well as new friends. We got to talk about fun subjects: family, living and what they do to chill and relax. We have learnt so much from them. The biggest take away on weekends like these, that we, Jeannie and I; get, is that people are relaxed and away from the everyday hustle and bustle they get during the week. That’s a good thing.

We packed up by 5pm as we had a birthday dinner celebration to attend in Subang Jaya. We were hosting a dinner for Jeannie’s dad, my father-in-law; who was turning 85 years old. Yes, of course I would be wearing my tartan flat cap.

NOTES:
1. “Jaga-ing” (If there is ever such a word), is a Malay word, the “ing” part is the English side; meaning protecting.😉😁😂

DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION?

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Monday evening. Time: 6.07pm. Place: D.C. No, not Washington. Damansara City.

Jeannie and Laura are with me after work. Laura was not going to the gym this evening. Getting back to Subang Jaya was the usual crawl, slower than a snail moving in reverse.

We did not have that usual question pop up: “What are we going to have for dinner?” Laura straight away said that dinner will be at that Scottish restaurant (I learnt this from a very good friend who resides in South Carolina, and is about to celebrate his 85th birthday soon – Richard [Dick] Black). This was / is usually an everyday tough question – “What to eat?” Now that that was settled, getting back to Subang Jaya would only on a fairly good day, take an hour and a half.

I already had in mind which McD’s I was planning to head to, when Laura said, “You are planning to go to the SS15 drive- through”. I said, “Yes”, mainly for the ease of parking. This restaurant had a more spacious layout for a comfortable dining experience.

After a long while, we were on the Federal Highway and passed the suspension bridge next to the former Motorola factory. Traffic was still at a crawl here, when normally, we would be able to pick up the pace. The reason for the longer than usual crawl was that a DHL truck had broken down on the fast lane (far right of the highway). Once we passed this truck, the traffic was smooth sailing or was it rolling as we were on the highway, not on the river? We got to the Scottish restaurant a few minutes later. I was obviously dressed for the occasion. I had my newly acquired Tartan design (and material? -wool?) flat cap on.

Laura and Jeannie made the orders. I had the usual – Beef Prosperity burger which is dressed with black pepper sauce. It came in a combi set with a large packet of fries and coke. My first experience with prosperity burger was 30 years ago, when I went on a Prosperity burger lunch date with a girl I had eyes for.

The prosperity burger is on sale only at McD’s for a limited time each year just before Chinese New Year (CNY) (Lunar New Year), till just after CNY.

Laura and Jeannie both ordered the hot ‘n spicy fried chicken, also in sets with drinks and fries. Jeannie ordered apple pie as dessert for herself.

The rectangular shaped prosperity beef burger was absolutely delicious. With spring onions and black pepper sauce.

The prosperity burger was its usual – really good. It has maintained its taste, quality and size for over 30 years (all but a couple of years where what looked like a reduced size burger and the black pepper sauce was not up to par). It came freshly prepared. I had to delicately unwrap the burger to prevent getting some black pepper sauce on me.

Laura and Jeannie enjoyed their fried chicken. It looked really good. However, there was no space in my stomach for the chicken, what with we having to finish two mountains of fries. The food looked like it was way more than the three of us could eat.

We did have a nice time. The drive-thru’ was not overly crowded and it was generally quiet. It was a good chill time for us family. We treasure our family togetherness time.

Just before we tucked in to our meals. Me, with the red tartan flat cap.

Notice in the middle picture and the one just on top. The guy with the tartan hat was holding his magic wand, a.k.a. (also known as) the “S-Pen” from his Samsung S23 Ultra; and shooting pictures while Laura held the camera phone at the right distance away to have all of us in the picture.

As for the girl I had a prosperity burger meal lunch date 30 years ago – she is now my wife.

THIS WEEKEND WITH LA BATIK INFLUENCER AND THE HATTED WRITER

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Sa..aaa..yyy, weren’t we at Amcorp Shopping Mall just, oh so recently? We are at the weekend already.

We are back at Amcorp Shopping Mall, “we” meaning the Batik Influencer and the writer / author / storyteller from http://www.leatherpotato.com, this weekend; starting tomorrow, February the 3rd. This weekend, we will be on the 1st floor on the west wing.

My wife, Jeannie; also famously known as the Batik Influencer, will be there, too; with a line up of her new creations. They are fast taken up as they are all unique in their on their own way, more so with the fact that they are usually one-of-a-kind, literally speaking, pieces. So… I would like to say “ladies,… However, many men have purchased these creations for their wives, sisters, friends, mothers. Yes, ladies…come early to our booth at F1.16, 1st Floor, West Wing; to secure at least one batik cape for yourself as pieces are very limited.

I, the writer / author / storyteller from http://www.leatherpotato.com is sporting a new look, going as the Hatted Writer; will be there to meet our readers, and make more new friends. Come find out how the “Hatted Writer” came about. In our last few “episodes” having a booth at Amcorp Shopping Mall; I have had the opportunity of re-connecting with many school classmates dating back to over 48 years ago, colleagues from the insurance and financial services industry and friends, too.

Two separate people from Penang, one an old friend whom I have not seen in 15 years, and the other, whom I have not met; both connected with me through leatherpotato.com, will be meeting me over this weekend.

People are very fascinating. I don’t have to think too deeply to try to understand them. Maybe, it is because I have become the writer or journalist where I try to view each person as completely different from another, just like there are no two sets of the same fingerprints. This itself, is intriguing.

Come share ideas with me for my upcoming book. I am very much at the start of the chapter, type, type type. Junk it. Start again. Can you imagine if I was working on a typewriter? Type, type, type, junk it. Type, type, type, junk it. I will have the waste paper basket full of junked ideas. HaHa.

I will be putting over 100 Hotwheels vehicles up for sale. These sport the dark blue blister packs, indicating there are from the year 2005 – 2010 era; many are probably rare. There will also be some Corgi, Dinky, Matchbox and other brands of diecast vehicles, some dating back 45 years ago.

There are two rare ladies Swatch watches in the form of bracelets, up for sale, too. As for pen collectors; there are some rare writing instruments like the 1998 Parker MDRT Duofold ball point pen in blue lacquer with gold plated finishing – a very elegant and must have for the discerning few. We have lots more things of interest that you can choose from.

So, we are looking forward to seeing you all there. Let’s make plenty of noise over the next two days.😁

1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall (1),
Booth 1.16, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping lMall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Feb 03 and Feb 04, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)