MAKE TODAY COUNT.
BETTER STILL, MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT.
LIFE IN ITSELF, IS SO, SO WONDERFUL.
WE HAVE YET TO BEGIN TO GRASP
WHAT IT HAS TO OFFER.
SO, DECIDE TO HELP MAKE IT COUNT,
FOR OURSELVES AND
FOR THE PEOPLE AROUND US.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
HAVE NO REGRETS IN LIFE.
JUST LESSONS LEARNED…IN EVERY INSTANCE.
LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO NOT ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF IT.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
I’M DEFINITELY NOT PERFECT.
HOWEVER, I AM COMMITTED TO BECOMING BETTER,
NOW AND THE FUTURE.
THE FUTURE IS THE MOMENT AHEAD OF THE PRESENT.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
As the seconds go past, equally spaced out, one after another, in precision; be year end becomes less and less further away.
The new year is eagerly rushing to reach us as fast as it can; bringing with it many, many surprises.
It is time to reflect on everything great, good and could-be better, how it has shaped us.
GOALS –
Have we hit them?
If yes, Congratulations.
If it was a near miss, re-focus, aim and get the goal in the coming year.
If you have missed and way off target, analyze what worked for you and what didn’t.
No point beating yourself up over it.
Just get back to the starting block / line and start all over again. If you did not leave the starting block / line; you have to be honest with yourself with the “why?”
Then, get back on the starting block, focus, aim, get the target.
If you want some form of consolation; even those who have achieved or just missed their goals this year,
have to start the new year at the starting block / line, the same as you.
As we close the final hours, minutes, seconds, moments; let us rejoice and be grateful for our family, friends, people in general, who have impacted our lives, that the wonderful impressions in the time over 2025 become the memories that we want to keep all our lives.
HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE 2025.
FILLED WITH GRATITUDE, LOVE, PEACE AND JOY; LET US ENJOY THE LAST MOMENTS OF 2025.
Listen… Do you want to know a secret???
Whisper…
LIFE IS A GIFT.
ENJOY EVERY MOMENT.
LIFE IS A JOY.
LIVE IT.
~ Alan Ian Atkinson
Writer, Author, Storyteller
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)
I AM MOVING FORWARD & CREATING MY NEW LIFE,
ONE MOMENT AT A TIME;
AS EACH MOMENT AHEAD, IS THE FUTURE;
PREPARING FOR THE PRESENT.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
DON’T SPEND TOO MUCH OF TIME ON THE PAST.
IT’S GONE.
DON’T FRET OVER THE FUTURE EITHER.
IT HASN’T ARRIVED AND YOU CAN’T DO MUCH ABOUT IT.
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST IN THE PRESENT.
MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL FOR YOURSELF, AND ALSO FOR OTHERS.
MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT.
WHAT BETTER WAY CAN THERE BE?
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
TIME IS PRECIOUS.
AS AN ASSET, YOU CAN’T PLACE A VALUE TO IT.
AS EACH MOMENT BECOMES THE PAST, THERE IS NO WAY OF RETRIEVING IT BACK. YOU HAVE BECOME A MOMENT OLDER, HOPEFULLY, A MOMENT MORE WISER.
LOVE YOUR LIFE, EVERY MOMENT OF IT.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
I think I am a bit blurry-eyed, or is it blood-shot (oops! Spelt it wrongly just now. I’m now going to tell, say or re-spell the way I spelt it wrongly. It’s too mischievous!).
We are in between visitor visits. One of the earliest visitors was Keisha. She was attracted to our display of Ferrari cars. As we started talking, I found out that she helps her mum run a booth, selling rare collectors baseball, football and other types of collector cards. They basically are selling off her late father’s collection of cards.
Keisha is a Formula One (F1) fan, and a Ferrari fan at that. Ferrari has been progressively gaining momentum back to its position as a top F1 team, and currently is amongst the top 3 teams. Keisha, predictably chose the F1 Ferrari car that was on display for sale.
The Batik Capes under the “JEANNIE’S OWN” label was doing well. The Batik Influencer did multiple demos throughout the day, which led to several acquisitions by the audiences.
I think it must have been the lack of sleep that kept me actively thinking of what to do next to stay awake. Then, I got this brilliant idea, why don’t I write a new article. And since I quite often break off from writing to recalibrate my thoughts, people stopping by our booth will also help me break off to recalibrate my thoughts. However, here it may be too frequent a break off.
I decided to give it a go, and here I am, working on this article with my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5. Though the “start / stop” of writing or finger tapping on the Fold 5 screen was quite frequent, yet bearable; stopping in the middle of a sentence while creating it was not because I kept losing my train of thought. However, as my late grandmother used to say (when she was alive), “Slow, slow, catch monkey.” Let me know in the comments if you guys know the meaning of this phrase.
As, I sit, momentarily to catch a moment’s rest, I watch people as they walk past. The hat culture seems to be catching on. Here, when I talk about people wearing hats, I am not talking about the usual baseball cap wearers. More and more are wearing fashionable hats, be it flat caps, Panama, Jason Miraz, bucket, etc. There was one who donned a “Sherlock Holmes”, look – interesting. His sidekick, Watson (“elementary, my dear Watson” ), was not with him today .
I can hear someone in the background, a couple of floors down; strumming a couple of musical notes on his electric guitar. He has been at it for some time. However, no song or even part of it can be made out. It’s o.k. He’s chilling out with a couple of people.
I spoke… wrote (?) too soon. He’s now singing , ” To Love Somebody” by the Bee Gees, and strumming to the tune of it.
My best and most beautiful Tibetan friend, Rigzin, who is more popularly known by her last name, “Dolma”, and runs a booth next to ours; has been kept busy with many customers visiting her booth. She sells mainly ladies’ costume jewelry and some East Asian items. One of them is a brass sort of bowl. You strike the brass bowl with a small wooden mallet and it will echo, vibrating a melodious sound. At the same time, you rub the wooden mallet round the outer age of the brass bowl and it creates a sweet melodious sound. Very unique. You should drop by and visit her booth. By the way, Rigzin is the only Tibetan friend I have so far. 😁
What do you call a specific time that is shorter than a moment, as my moment’s rest has come to an end. The moment felt shorter than a moment.
There was a guy who dropped by last week and asked me to reserve the Samsung Buds Pro2 for him. This Buds Pro2 set is brand new, with the box still unopened. The guy said he would be coming by today. I am going to give it to him at an amazingly low price with an 80% discount. I think he is a low income wage earner who would like something very nice like this lilac colour Buds to have some enjoyment.