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15/01/10 - There was a hard spell of snow over the weekend, which led to some serious panic buying at work; it was literally worse than Christmas inside the store. I, however, was placed outside to work on trolleys, which was twice the work for half the output, trying to push trolleys in the snow. I had to run home and get my trekking boots to get a better grip on the snow, which helped a little, but it was still hard work, and I finished the week having done 47 paid hours.

I've been enjoying the Indian Winter season on Channel 4 so far, and have even been watching Blue Peter, who have been in India, and have made me want to own a rickshaw, after they did a segment customising them. The Kevin McCloud 'Slumming It' documentary was very interesting, and showed close-knit community brings so much more to life than self obsession and absorption. I'm hoping to hear the words 'social poverty' describing the West at some point during these documentaries, but perhaps that's something the modern world is yet to realise; perhaps their too self obsessed and absorbed to realise...

08/01/10 - The snow has been falling, but not much over Ashford the past week, though I'm unaffected by the weather, with work being five minutes walk away. Not sure how successful I'll be in getting my placement with Adult Education, as they'd rather take volunteers that would want to work for their college, than those just looking to gain experience for themselves. I may or may not still get a placement, but I think I should keep looking.

Received an invite for Isaac and Charlotte's wedding for next month; I still have to meet with them to give them their decorations I received in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to attending, to meet up with all the former 'Gappers' again, and to be official co-photographer. I've done a lot of work on the photography site the past week, improving the presentation and making the site update a lot of parts itself. Also updated the Themed Albums for the past year, but had a lot less Featured Content compared to 2008, most likely due to spending so little time in Asia in 2009.

01/01/10 - Happy New Year! Spent the turn of the new decade at home, after passing on taking a trip up to London. Watched the fireworks of London on TV and for Kuala Lumpur on YouTube; they should have some fireworks coming off from the twin towers, would be much more impressive and may capture KL into the world media on New Year's Day.

After slacking off from work for most of pre-Christmas, I've gotten back into doing long hours again, though the store has been very quiet since Christmas; we were very over staffed Boxing Day and New Year's Day, plus we received Bank Holiday pay for it (their loss, not ours). Received my memory card back from Jessops, after another round of data recovery, but only received 25 extra photos (of one's that I wanted) for a fee of £10. I guess I can survive not getting the photos from Sri Lanka back, but I really want the photos I took of Pathmini, Dharsini and Shakina, moments before the 'Delete All' incident happened.

After reading about the terrorist threat on Detroit from a flight from Amsterdam reminded me of a small incident just before I boarded my flight to Kuala Lumpur, also from Amsterdam. I had forgotten to take off my wrist watch and money belt as I went through security, just before boarding. The alarms went off and I was given a standard body check, but was simply allowed through, without my money belt being checked, which was a little relaxed of them. Perhaps Schipol should be investigated for their possible failings against an attack, and they're the one's that are using the 'controversial' body scanners too.

So, it's now 2010. Not much to summarise on the past year; I'm glad I was in solid employment throughout the past twelve months, spent five and a half weeks in Malaysia, but have made little progress in getting closer towards moving to Malaysia, apart from fundraising, of course. Hopefully in the next twelve months I can get myself a volunteer teaching placement in the UK, get some valuable experience, and take those first few steps to getting myself a Malaysian work visa.

25/12/09 - Merry Christmas! It's dissapointing to be away from Malaysia again this Christmas, with their annual Desa Water Park trip and Christmas Service, but fortunately Pastor Paul has put some photos on Facebook of the churches big events. Attended the Palmers Green Carol Service over the weekend, which was a nice service, but lacked a little compared to last year. Stayed with Sathees, who's family were planning on going to Paris, but the Eurostar was closed due to the weather and an incident in the tunnel.

My Christmas presents were also a bit dissapointing, though by accident. I got two copies of Slumdog Millionaire on DVD, and also received a bilingual book of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Theives', which was supposed to be in English and Tamil, but we received it in English and Urdu. My main present for Christmas was, of course, my new camera, which I used for the first time at Palmers Green. I'm surprised that such sophisticated cameras can carry less zoom than the cheaper, more standard digital cameras.

I've been suprisingly workshy over the Christmas period, though I wasn't able to get much overtime anyway due to being in Malaysia. But I've made no attempt to try and get extra hours, despite it being our busiest time of year, but I guess I'm still recovering a little from my latest Malaysia trip. My latest wage packet was only a third of what I got last month, due to being away, so I'd best get back into doing long hours again soon, as my money's not going to save itself...

18/12/09 - Been back in the UK just over a week now, time is passing slowly and I'm trying to get motivated again, despite my lack of hours at work. I visited Elizabeth to give her some early Christmas gifts from Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and found that the tea I bought when I visited Pussellawa was Elizabeth's old hometown. It's a small world...

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