David's AW News: 7 Surprising Surprises

 

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 breakfast room of my hotel (Lanson Place) on the 48th floor..  since I was here last they have built what they call a Megatall building called Merdeka 118. It's SURPRISING! Get your mind around that thing!

Compared to the other skyscrapers its just stupendous. Actually the second tallest building in the world. Not officially completed yet..

So that was Surprise number one..

Then I went to the Gleneagles Hospital - about 15 minutes by taxi for an 8am registration. The lobby of the hospital is like a five star hotel.. it's a bit confusing. There are uniformed staff, valet parking and I guy in a tux playing a grand piano.. I mean that's quite surprising no? (No.2).  Imagine if you got this on the NHS! - on the 5th floor is the health screening department. They can do about 30 people in a four hour sesion. The lady on the reception remembers me from two years ago.. welcome back Mr David, I have your previous report and records.  I was given a face mask and asked politely to wear it.. felt surprisingly like I was back in the pandemic. Everyone without exception customers and staff wearing a mask. I'm given a number TK014 and it pops up on the monitors with the message "go to room 5" - I go from room to room for the next 4 hours with barely a minute to sit down. Xrays, blood test, stress test, eye, ear and skin tests.. CT scans, poked, prodded and pricked and heaven knows what else they did. And through it all the staff are absolutely delightful, kind and chatty.

I have been told not to eat for 8 hours before coming.. at a certain point after the scans they tell me I can visit the breakfast buffet.. The jolly staff are a mix of Malay, Indian and ethnic Chinese.. They speak between themselves a curious mix of Malay/English/Mandarin.. which I seem surprisingly to be able to pretty much understand.

They gave me a voucher for lunch in the posh DOME restaurant just by the lobby.  And was told to come back for consultation with Doctor Wong at 3.15pm. Doctor Wong, a nice lady, tells me everything is Surprisingly good.. I'm given a fat folder containing all the results nicely printed and presented, a CD with more data. Same DAY! For goodness sake.. She talks me through everything, doesn't even attempt to sell me anything and answers all my questions. I drink too much, but my liver and kidneys are surprisingly pretty.. she says I'm lucky, probably genetic. I'm so happy..

How much does it cost I hear you ask.. well I had the male premium package (check absolutely everything) - about £250.. Surprising no? That was Surprise no.3

Spend some intense days working on a deep dive into the details of a web update (see below).. Then I fly on Batik air to Denpaser, Bali. Bondhan and Ringo meet me at the airport. Bali has got crazy busy, don't come now.. it's just a log jam. They are complaining about over tourism in Spain.. it's happening in Bali also. I even struggled to find a decent hotel room.

But today I visited the warehouse, I'm surprised to find a lot of changes since I was last here. Now we have a solid dedicated team. A specialist QC lady called Atiek who administers checks at all stages of packing. The warehouse is better organised, the office has been cleaned out and redecorated and we have a brand new revamped Showroom. Wow.. I'm very surprised (no.4) how much things have changed. Then Bondhan takes me across the road to the small warehouse we acquired last time I was here..

A Surprising New Venture (No.5)..

Our warehouse is called Frangipani Warehouse locally. Did you know that the fragrance of Nagchampa incense comes from the yellow frangipani flowers? Here in Bali the frangipani grows everywhere, streets are lined with trees. The flowers are used in offerings and young girls wear the flowers in their hair. The frangipani is totally embedded into the culture of Bali.

Ringo told me a story.. about a Japanese company that came to this area a few years back. They put a big poster on the side of the road saying "We buy Frangipani 40,000rp per kilo". Ringo said everyone and their aunty was out early in the morning collecting the freshly fallen frangipani petals.. it was like free money, get them weighed in and walk away with hard cash. 

So as a new venture I wanted to try and distill our own frangipani oil.. but this is not easy.. first step Bondhan and his wife went on a training course in Solo Java.. learning all the tricks of the trade. Last year we went to visit distillers of clove oil deep in the clove forests of northern Bali.  Last time I was here we acquired a new warehouse. Yesterday our first mini still came.. If we make it work then we will buy a larger one.. if that works we can fit maybe 24 of them in the space we have. My vision is guys in lab coats in a spotless space looking after rows of gently stewing machines and a heavenly fragrance coming drip by drip.  I can't wait to put up our sign "We buy Frangipani petals".. probably on Facebook..

Finally the BIGGEST Surprise (no.6).. perchance you visit an AW website today.. like awartisan.eu you might discover something quite SURPRISING.. that is Gold Reward Discounts are massively back.. and right across the product range now more than 6000 products have Volume and Gold Reward Discounts.. Eg order 4 from a family range and get a 20% discount.. or if you are a Gold Reward member you can order just 1 item and get the same discount.. Discounts range from 5-20% and on almost everything. PLUS  - there will be more ways to qualify for Gold Reward Benefits.. and many MORE SURPRISING BENEFITS are in the pipeline..

New format order box is already there.. more stuff coming over the next few days..

So that's Surprise (I'm losing count).. I think it's phew.. No.7

And surprise surprise we have a couple of containers booked into the warehouse - more new products..The team is working hard to get them on sale as soon as possible. Now you can see the products that are about to arrive here.

Since we started rolling out the Gold Reward revamp.. it's getting Surprisingly Busy..Orders flooding the warehouse.

I'm proud of our team.. we actually shipped a record number of orders in July..our best July ever. And pretty much keeping the orders flowing for same or next day despatch.. Well done team!

Plus have you checked out our Surprising New Menu Bar? Try it.. customers are telling us they are discovering surprising things they never knew we stocked.

Wishing you a wonderful and surprising week!

More updates to come.

David