#the_batik_influencer

F1.08 AT THE MALL

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

Yay! It is the weekend again. We sure can be happy about it. The last two evenings, coming through P.J. on the Federal Highway and surrounding areas was what can I say? “Peachy”. It put P.J.’s road system to the limit. You are going to say, “What system?” I am sure that all of you who were on the Federal Highway or surrounding areas are going to agree with me and say, “Yes, it was just…’peachy’”.

To be fair, it was the exceptional heavy rain downpour that probably was the culprit. Come to think of it, in all the areas that we drove through on both evenings, we had missed both storms. The rain at its heaviest, was just a heavy drizzle. Today, the weather is fine. And, I don’t need to pick my wife, Jeannie; and our daughter, Laura; up from work. They both, have own their plans for the evening.

Which leaves me home alone. It works out well for me as I have lots to do in the current phase of getting my book manuscript ready for publication. My target deadline is to complete this phase by middle of next week.

Both Jeannie, who is the Batik Influencer; and I; are looking forward to this weekend, which has officially begun. We are looking forward to it because we will be having a booth at Amcorp Mall Shopping Centre in P.J.. We always look forward to having a booth there as it gives us multiple opportunities to meet and make new friends.

As the Batik Influencer, Jeannie talks of batik with passion. Batik designs are endless. They are either factory or block printed, or hand painted motifs. Hand painted motifs are really for the exceptional exclusive few.

Batik showcases colour in all its richness and vibrancy. I love colour. At one time, handheld Personal Digital Assistant devices boasted 16k (16,000) colour screen displays. Recently, the brand, Oppo, a smartphone maker from China, introduced its Reno8T model, which is capable of displaying 1 billion colours. Wow!  Technology takes the spectrum of colours to a whole new level. Can you imagine, batik, in its finest; displaying 1 billion colours in its prints?

The Batik Influencer will be showcasing her Batik Cape Creations under the “JEANNIE’S OWN” label. There are a very limited number of pieces of these “JEANNIE’S OWN” Batik Cape Creations available. So, come early to get yours. One of our good friends, Jino Lim; has somehow always missed us. So, we have to send a personal invite to him and his wife, Angie; to head on down to our booth this weekend.

I will get the opportunity to meet followers, readers and visitors of www.leatherpotato.com in person. I am honoured to meet these wonderful people. They share their views on the articles and have many, many suggestions for various stories, and cafes and restaurants all over town that I should write about. The biggest takeaway I guess, is that they are excited for me, that my book is going to hit the bookshelves at bookstores real soon. They are pre-booking orders so that they can be the first to get the first series print. They seem to be making it a “limited edition”😁. One of the most important points that resonates with them is that this will be a physical book.

A physical book offers the opportunity of the reader getting immersed in the stories, which come alive as they are being read. There are no distractions like notifications and other such things that you would get if you were reading from a screen. No glare, pleasing to the eyes. Anytime, you want to re-read the story or article, you just refer to the book. As the Hatted Writer, I am always reminded of the multiple reasons that reading a physical book is always better.😊

While we take weekends running a booth at Amcorp Shopping Mall such as this as an opportunity to meet new people, we are just as happy to meet with all our exisiting friends again. We have met multiple people whom we had not seen in years, come by. I wonder who will be the mysterious friend or friends this weekend.

We are at Booth F1.08, First floor. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Amcorp Shopping Mall,
Booth 1.08, 1st Floor, ,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: October 5th & 6th:
Time: , 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

BOOTH 1.02 – COME MEET WITH US

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

1st Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall (1),
Booth 1.02, Level 1
Amcorp Shopping lMall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Jan 20 and Jan 21, 2024
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

Yes, we, i.e. Jeannie and I; are at it again. We are at Amcorp Mall, the happening place, where discerning customers come looking for specific things of interest to purchase and collect. This is our first outing at Amcorp Mall for 2024.

Already having fun. We are entertained by Tamil (2)  rock n roll songs, and now, Kenny G, playing “I’m Dreaming Of a White Christmas” – music coming over the speakers from a booth one floor below us, selling vinyl records.

We watched the film “Shadows In The Sun”, starring  Claire Forlani, Harvey Keitel and Joshua Jackson; 5 times on tv during the week. I thought this is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. The setting: a little village in Italy. Jeremy, an editor / publisher, was tasked with getting Weldon Parish, a writer, to come out of retirement and sign with his publishing firm that he was attached with. The movie was very captivating. Claire was absolutely stunning in her role as Isabella Parish.

Weldon, the writer; wore a hat or a cap (more the “Andy Capp” [3] cap) wherever all the time. So, Jeannie thought, that me being a writer, should wear one, too. What do you think? Should I start doning a hat to have a more distinct writer image?

Here, below; is a couple of pics of me trying on a couple of hats which we are selling. One took me back to the era of the tv series, “Colombo”. However, a close friend, Patrick Archibald; may claim that he has inspired me with a hat like this. I can see the smile on his face now. 😀

Some would mistake me as Inspector Colombo, of the famed TV series, “Colombo”. Admit it, this hat does look cool on me.

The other hat was a baseball cap, with the word “Girl” in pink on the front of it.

The atmosphere, in Amcorp Mall, at least in the area we were at; was wonderful with one Christmas carol after another by Kenny G; coming over the speakers, filling the air with Christmas calm and joy. After all, Christmas is everyday.

The Batik Influencer, Jeannie; with one of her latest creations.

“Silent Night” is on now.

Met with my dear friend, Khatijah Marianne Abdullah and her husband, Fadil; at their booth. Their booth is super, super colourful; with their many colourful handmade and painted works of art. We had a nice chat. Marianne said that she now bakes homemade brownies, too; and will bring some tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting them.

The Batik Influencer (4) is making her rounds to all the booths, visiting all our new friends that we have made over the multiple times that we had set up our booth here over the last nine months.

Throughout the day, I was sipping ice-cold, super kaw kaw (5) coffee we picked up from New Apollos restaurant before coming to Amcorp. Mall. Jeannie’s ice coffee was of normal strength, without the “kaw”. The coffee remained cold throughout because we kept it in our Hydroflasks.

We have made quite a few new friends today. One of them is Jean Dorcet, who runs a women’s clothing business. Another, an engineer; who collects expensive watches. He was wearing a nice Carter Santos with leather band.

A customer browsing through the Hotwheels selection, while Jeannie is explaining the beauty of batik to one of our new friends).

The “kopi peng kaw kaw” is in the red Hydroflask (naturally, “dangerous”😂😉).

As we draw to the end of the day at Amcorp Mall, Jeannie is making her final rounds to the shops around here.

We will be back tomorrow for more fun, laughter, thrills, and excitement. Come drop by for a chat. See you.

NOTES:
1. Amcorp Shopping Mall is located in Petaling Jaya, a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
2. “Tamil” language is spoken mainly by Indians in Malaysia.
3. Andy Capp is a British comic strip.
4. The well-known Batik Influencer is Jeannie Ong-Atkinson.
5. “Kaw kaw” is inb Hokkien dialect which means very thick or strong.

WEEKEND AT F2.09

/ Alan Atkinson / Leave a comment

A day’s diary.

It’s Saturday, past noon. The Batik Influencer and I have set up post at F2.09.

It has been a pretty good start.

Except for a little “odd step”. As Jeannie and I were lugging big heavy bags of our “wares”, with more bags slung over our shoulders, literally with no hands free, just wanting to get these things to our booth as quickly as possible; a young representative from a U.N. booth, stopped Jeannie to ask her if she would like to be a member or something like that. I understand that this lady was trying to make a sale. However, she should have had some common sense to see that we were in no position at that very moment to entertain her. Jeannie gave her a stern look and continued towards the lifts to go up to our booth.

The beginning had some pretty good music streamed across by someone from another booth nearby.

A collector (chemist by profession); picked up some cars and key chains.

Another person, a teacher; came soon after and bought some key chains, too. And then, another person, one who bought quite a few key chains last month and the month before that, stopped over and said he will come again later to acquire more key chains when less people are around.

Net, going through the key chains.

Once the people started coming to check out the Batik Influencer’s Batik Cape Creations, there seemed to be no stopping. Jeannie was in her element, sharing the influence her grandmother, who was from the east coast state of Trengganu; imparted with her the beauty of batik. Her grandmother used batik everyday. Jeannie also loved the uncountable designs and the different hues and colours of this traditional wear.

A gentleman, enquiring about Jeannie’s Batik Cape Creation. And Jeannie, sharing the many uses of her Batik Cape Creation.

Net, as he searched for the key chains that suited him, purchased 12 of them.

The Batik Influencer, doing her stuff. Flying, soaring high, introducing the colours of Batik in her Batik Cape Creations.

We had a steady stream of people visiting our booth. Besides the batik capes and key chairs, several Hotwheels and Matchbox cars were sold as well. The 1979 Corgi “WonderWoman” car has found a new owner, too. The buyer, appreciated the mint condition of this 44 year old model.

A prospect trying a batik cape on. She and her husband were convinced this was the one for her. A very satisfied customer.

In between the day, while I manned the booth; Jeannie went to ronda-ronda (1) the food fair on the ground floor. One of the first purchases she made were the currypuffs from the same lady she bought these delights from a couple of times before. They were consistently tasty as the previous purchases.

Jeannie also bought more than 1kg of dokong langsat (a Malaysian fruit). The lady was selling it for RM8 per kg. Jeannie decided to buy 1kg. However, the lady kept tambah-ing (2) more and more dokong langsat until the weighing scales showed RM10 worth. Jeannie obliged her with the extra sale.

These are super delicious doughnuts (donuts for the Americans).

Doughnuts – of the delicious kind! Jeannie bought homemade pack-of-4 doughnuts (Queen’s [King’s?] English spelling. The Americans spell them as “donuts”) for my lunch. These doughnuts were really good. There aren’t the branded ones you get from the two top chains of doughnuts stores. RM10 for a pack of 4. We aren’t too sure if the seller is going to be here at Amcorp Mall every week from now on, but she will be here tomorrow. However, this young entrepreneur is here whenever Amcorp Mall has an F&B fair. So, if you are looking for some great Sunday morning or afternoon bites to go with your “mugga” (coffee) or “cuppa” (3) (tea); head on to the doughnut booth at the entrance of Amcorp Mall.

Gary, a newly made friend, and me.

Met Gary, when a couple of Corgi cars for sale on the table, caught his eye. He said he has some of the same models… and we started talking about many things we have in common. Gary said he is in USJ, Subang Jaya, on most days, after sending his daughter to school. He shared with me more cool (one place in SS12 has large ceiling fans) places that I have yet to visit. A large part of our discussion was on “leatherpotato“, how it started, why it started, where we are now, and what the immediate to short term future has in store for it. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out. Interesting.

A satisfied customer, her husband; the Batik Influencer, Jeannie; and me.

Jeannie and I popped by (more like we took turns) to visit Khatijah Marianne’s booth, “Anne Rocks”. She and her husband have got many, many items personally designed and coloured with passion, to colour your homes and offices, for any occasions. Drop by their booth on the 2nd floor.

Marianne, as usual, in “fun mode”.

Marianne came over to have a look at Jeannie’s batik capes. She was witty as usual. She’s a lovely, lovely person. If you can manage to coax her to sing, she may sing for you. She is the daughter of Michael Magness, a pioneer member of the famous Malaysian band, “The Strollers”.

Jeannie and I decided to call it a day at around 5.45pm. The good playlist of music which we heard from the time we settled at our booth, was still playing. Lots of great songs were on the playlist throughout the day.

As for the lady representative of the U.N. that we met at the beginning of the day; we will give her some time (that is if she is still there tomorrow) on our time schedule, to listen to what she has to promote. We wanted to give her some time on our way out at the end of our day, but the U.N. booth had already closed.

NOTES:
2nd Floor, Amcorp Shopping Mall,
Booth 2.09, Level 2
Amcorp Shopping Mall,
8, Jalan, Persiaran Barat, Seksyen 52 Petaling Jaya, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: Sept 23 and Sept 24, 2023
Time: 10.00am to 5.30pm (can be extended to 7.00pm)

  1. Ronda is a Malay word for roam or in this case, “visit”.
  2. Tambah-ing. Tambah is a Malay word for “add more”. In this case, the “-ing” part is just jazzing and having fun with some English.
  3. Mugga is my expression in relation with coffee, as “cuppa” is to tea.