30/12/11 - Took Deepa and Ranjitha to Community Of Praise Taman Wahyu for their Christmas Service (right); was a pretty lackluster service compared to last year, you can tell how empty the church is without the PETE Hostel kids there to perform and boost church numbers. Fortunately that'll be my last time visiting there as they don't want me back over what happened when I moved out, but now I can see these people for who they truly are I wouldn't want to continue to be a part of such a place...

This was my fourth Christmas in Malaysia, and I stayed at Shanthi's house with her five kids. I had planned to take the girls shopping at Times Square for Christmas, and after they spent all morning putting on make up (left), Hema wanted to visit her Uncle Richard in Damansara Damai, as they're Christian and were having open house. Little did I know that this was just a plan for Hema to try and stay up there with them, as she has some serious obdience problems, but the family told me to send her back, and sadly most of the day was wasted thanks to her.

December 26th, still at Shanthi's, I decided to take Deepa to Tesco with me for her Christmas shopping, as I also wanted to buy a small electric oven there, which they had on promotion for just RM 65; Deepa got herself a shirt and two pairs of slippers. Also, after buying new furniture this month, I had a spare set of plastic draws I no longer needed, so I donated them to Deepa's family as an additional Christmas gift to them; now the kids each have their own personal draw to keep their stuff in, which I think is really nice for them.

A couple of days later and Shanthi brought all her kids back to her mother's house, in what seemed like another surrender to motherhood by her again. She had Hema, Ranjitha, Rooban and Gautham staying with her for over a month, and all except Rooban came out of there with much worse characters. Hema is how I already described (but I think she's been like that for much longer), and Ranjitha developed an overly affectionate relationship to two year old Gautham, which has left him unable to be independent. I tried to keep the two of them apart, but was met with a hard slap round the face by Ranjitha; these kids are going to need a lot of work to be put back straight again...

23/12/11 - Really settling down nicely in my new apartment, and have been buying plenty of new furniture this past month, including a small book shelf (RM 40), a wardrobe (RM 60) and a food cupboard (RM 60). Also had Ranjitha visit here twice this week, and she really likes the fact that I have a swimming pool at my apartment; she even knows how to swim, so she's at least learnt something useful from the years she's spent in care homes. Got tickets booked to UK for Easter too, at RM 3080; I'm flying with Qatar Airways and have a long transit in Doha, so I'll get to see another Middle Eastern city on the way to UK...

16/12/11 - Took on a big challenge on Saturday by taking Rooban (who's only almost 3) across KL from his mother's to his grandmother's house, and was suprised at how little problem it was; very fortunate that he's very well behaved for his age. I'd been ask to bring Rooban as his family and I had been invited to a Buddhist temple by a Chinese woman who visited the village. Having just left the church, I've been looking to restart myself spiritually, but I don't think Buddhism is the answer for me.

In a twisted irony, after not donating to the Buddhist temple, I stretched my abdomen whilst doing chin-ups whilst the kids were in the playground, which has given me stomach problems and I've had to buy medication from the clinic. It's been a very tough and painful week, though I think I've recovered just in time for work tomorrow... Also met up with Annrita on Sunday, and visited the Praise Emmanuel Assembly in Petaling Jaya again (since 2008), a much better spiritual refreshment than a Buddhist temple...

09/12/11 - Getting settled nicely into my new apartment, and have been buying more new furniture; a RM60 cupboard for food storage and RM100 curtains to accomodate my massive bedroom window. Trying my best to get settled down into a routine again, as things have been quite chaotic since late September, but it's still all madness with my Hindu family, trying to find out where the kids are going to be settled come January, when the new school year starts. I'm hoping Ranjitha will stay with Deepa at her grandmother's house so I can try and give her much needed tuition, which is impossible at her mother's house (where she's currently staying) with two young boys screaming all the time...

02/12/11 - Managed to find a new apartment to stay in with Shahram and Gloria. It's a nice, new apartment, and my room is bigger than my last one, so got plenty of space for all my things (which I moved via lorry hire). The rent's a little more than what I had been hoping to pay, but any amount anywhere is better than staying in some miserable, neglected, excuse of a 'care home', which supports Poverty Eradication Through Entering and Stealing. Still, if I hadn't had anything stolen I wouldn't have had an excuse to pick up a couple of useful redemption tokens for my new place...

25/11/11 - Enjoyed my last few days with my Dad before he went back to UK; went with him and Ranjitha (right) to Mid Valley and Times Square to buy Ranjitha a dress. I had wanted to bring Deepa along too, but she had to visit a temple as she had some spiritual problems. It was a nice day, despite some delays, but the time took sadly caused me to miss a last minute call of a photography appointment for Samson's 3rd birthday (a boy from church).

Delays that day were also caused by discovering that my room had been intruded again, to the point where the latch on my padlock had been unscrewed. What's even more sad is not who stole what, but how they got in, and there's a funny correlation between the days my room was broken into and the seldom visits Victoria paid to the Boys' Hostel (it's their house, so they're going to have copies of all the keys). It even got to the point of one of the boys trying to put their arm through my door to try and unlock it.

Fortunately I've been reacquainted with Shahram, who's currently living in Pandan Indah and is also looking for a new place to stay, so we've been looking for a new place for both of us and his girlfriend, Gloria, to stay in. It's not easy finding apartments when so many places will either only take Chinese, females or do room shares. It'll also be the first time I formally pay rent in Malaysia (as I've always stayed with church members before), but as long as I can get plenty more photography work, especially with La Seleccio (who played in some heavy rain during the JFL on Sunday), then hopefully I'll be fine. Regardless of how much it costs though, I know I'll be staying in a much better place...