AW Artisan Wholesale Giftware

Greetings from somewhere in central Java Collaboration. That's a good, profound and important word. I'll explain below something I learned this week. Last week I was telling you about being Independent in Indonesia, if you missed it you can catch up here . So earlier this week Bondhan and I caught the morning Lion Air flight from Denpasar, Bali down to Yogyakarta in central Java, the main island of Indonesia. Lion air has a reputation of being bad, but our flight was up there as the most perfect and beautiful ever. The seats are the tightest gap you can imagine, but our air hostess spots my cramped long legs and moves me and Bondhan to the emergency exit row with views just before the wing.   Taking off and banking around over beautiful surf, overflying our beach office then flying west over all Bali and seeing the straits between Bali and Java. Spectacular views of the Ijen mountain with a vivid acid blue lake near it's peak but also live lava flow burning down a fla...

  Greetings from a traffic jam in Bali I'm on the way to work in the AW-Advantage office (we call it the beach office). It's 10 to 15 minutes of normal traffic, but these days it can take an hour, the traffic in Bali has reached crisis proportions. So I open my laptop in the back of my Grab taxi and get some work done, including writing to you. Last week I was telling you about Angels & Babies and how we are supporting a young charity here that is saving the lives of babies and helping single moms in dire-straits..   if you missed you can catch up here . The streets are lined with Red & White flags, because tomorrow is Independence Day in Indonesia, a big thing around here . I just arrived at the beach office. The team are enthusiastically dressed up as historical or mythical figures of Indonesia culture and then do cosplay acts. All before work.. so I have to be here early because I'm the appointed judge, it's like an episode of AW got Talent . So ...

Greetings from Pantai Lembeng, Bali I'm sat in the Beach office of AW-Advantage, where Raul (the IT wizard) is deep in consultation and concentration with his small team of programmers..  You might have noticed things happening on our websites recently.. New search bar, new discounts, a revamped Gold Reward System and a new way to display product prices. It's a lot more complicated than you can imagine.. but big changes are coming soon. Actually I'm feeling a little traumatised.. I have just come back from a trip to the nearby  Bali Babies Home .. and made an important decision.. (see below) Last week I was telling you about 7 surprising surprises... if you missed it you can catch up here .  This week has been manic.. lots of problems that need fixing, suppliers to see and deals to be renegotiated. We went to see one of the families that are making  Hati Hati Angels  and managed to catch them in full production mode.  Off the be...

  Greetings from.... yes surprise! (I'm back) in Bali.. Hope you guys are well, enjoying the heatwave and the Olympics - last week I was telling you about how HOT HOT HOT it was in Spain and how we almost melted on our team bonding beach meal. If you missed it you can catch up here . Surprise number one.. Since then I have been travelling... first to Kula Lumpa for a few days. Mostly to work with Raul (AW IT Wizard) and then to get my annual body check up.. Well Coco flew back to China (she is very busy). And then to get here I took a KLM flight from Malaga to Amsterdam. After a pleasant sojourn in the updated KLM lounge I took the flight to Singapore. I just had time to wander around that beautiful airport - check out the gardens.. then a short flight to Kuala Lumpur international airport. Finally a Grab taxi downtown. I arrived a little bit jet lagged.. sleep hardly at all and then have an early appointment at Gleneagles Hospital KL. I checked out the view from the breakf...