CHILLING AT MID-VALLEY

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

Pushin’ and Slidin’

It’s my usual siesta time…whenever I get a chance. Which is rarely…which is usual. So how does it become my “usual” siesta time? Does more than once constitute it as “Usual?”

So, what am I (“was”, since I am reporting this hours after) doing at my usual siesta time? For one, Malaysia has public holidays aplenty. Great breaks for those who work really hard. Tough for those guys who look forward to going to work to get a break from all the holidays.

Anyway, in the wee hours of Sunday morning (after 10.00am); we (Jeannie my wife, and I) were looking for a joint we have not been to before for our coffee fix. Over the last two weeks; we were sipping coffee, having lunch and eating cake at cafes that were leafy green decorated – surrounded by plants and such (an article on this topic is on my ideaSketchpad).

Our plan was to chill, while our time away and do almost nothing. This is near impossible for either of us. I would whip out my Fold 3 and get on with writing something…anything…or working on any of the topics on my ideaSketchpad. Jeannie would be on her usual, “Business development market survey”.

I said, “We have two main choices: one was to look for a cafe we have not been to, which could be in a shoplot on its own, where we could sit and relax for a few hours…drinking coffee and eating cake or pastries.

The other choice was to have coffee in a cafe located in a shopping mall. We could drink coffee, eat cake and pastries. Then, walk around all the stores and shop…..then, to another cafe…drink more coffee, eat more cake and more pastries. Generally, we still do keep watch on our calorie and sugar intake. Which means, working off the extra calories on my daily 15 kilometer walks.

Of course, we all know the outcome of this. Though I love my coffee fix, I am not one who can sit for hours in one place, then get up and go home. This is so (so? Like, like so not “English” English?) not me. Ok ok. Throw the brickbats, coffee, mugs, kitchen sink, an S22 Ultra 18gb ram with 1 Terrorbite of storage, all your boxes of unopened chocolate (just had some milk chocolate from Germany. It was sssooooo ss-mmm-ooo-th and divine) at me. As for the chocolate, I like the ones with hazel or mixed nuts, better (hint, hint).

Oh yeah… the outcome was: we went to a shopping mall – Mid-Valley shopping mall. We drove to the carpark and parked our car; finding an empty space fairly easily without having to loop the carpark several times. Ours is not one of those self-drive, electric vehicles. From the looks of things, the upcoming new models may be able to “twit” as well.

When we got in the shopping area, it hit us like the “matrix”. There were like (like?) a kezillion people. It was crowded. It was like this on all the shopping floor levels. I did not see people carrying their portable printing presses to print cash if they ran short. I suppose now is the day of plastic. But that’s on its way out, too. It is pay by scan.

Jeannie and I headed to KFC for a quick bite as I had not had lunch yet. The meal was good. Then, we braved our way through the crowds again. This was not what we had envisioned for a nice Sunday afternoon… coffee, cake, pastries, relaxation, shopping, coffee, cake, pastries. When I say, “relaxation”; I’m with my fold 3, in my ideaSketchpad💡; “writing” / tapping / swiping / keying – working on my articles.

We spent about an hour window-shopping. Jeannie went to her favourite – “Zara” store. She spent a bit of time at Metrojaya, too. I popped in to the various IT shops – TMT, Logitech and Samsung. Samsung’s premium store does not promote many of their accessories like watchbands for the Watch 4 & 4Classic, cases for the Fold 3, etc. It would be good if they do as they will be able to reach out to a broader base of customers.

I went to Skechers, too. Skechers is Jeannie’s and my favourite brand of footwear. They are the most comfortable to wear, especially for long periods of time. We find their “air-cooled, Goga Mat” inner soles the most comfortable. The soft outer soles completes the comfort. I was looking for a casual, sort-of-formal pair – dark tan leather top, with a white or off-white outer sole. They did not have such a pair.

We left within an hour to an hour and a half after arriving at the mall because the crowds did not make it comfortable for us to shop. I had a couple of rough “bump-offs” by two oversized (and I mean oversized) people who may believe they are God’s gift to mankind, because they did not even apologise.

So, making our way back home was a capital idea. When we got home, I made a “Super” Rich 3-in-1 kopi ice. Very nice. Not too sweet, not too weak, either. This is my new “try-out”. After a cup of this coffee, I go back to my usual all-black coffee, strictly plain and rather “kau”, too.

There are helpful instructions on the back of the packet, for you to follow to make this coffee. That’s if you can read them. It’s in 0.0001pt font size.

The thing about being back home is I have all my creature comforts, big screen monitor, laptops, tablets and phones and I am back working.