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05/12/08 - My nine days and eight nights in Malaysia have already come to an end, but I still enjoyed my first holiday (non-long term trip) there, seeing all my friends again. I got to see quite a number of people on my penultimate day, with quite big turn outs at the Petaling Jaya and Taman Wahyu churches, though I was dissapointed Ranjita stubbornly pulled out. I couldn't take Theeba either, as whilst I was away, she was asked at school to sing an Indian song, but she refused as she said she was Christian, which resulted in her grandfather getting a visit from one of the teachers; I never expected church to have that much affect on her.

After giving presents and gettng a really nice send off from the Taman Wahyu church, I made my way to spend my last night in Taman Tun, but ended up being sick on the train, and just after the taxi ride into the kampung (village). I'm not sure what brought it on, but it was the worst I've been as far as being ill is concerned in Malaysia. Ashwini and her mother looked after me well once I arrived, and I made a slow recovery, and am now feeling fine, though I did lose my appetite for a few days, after a complete stomach cleansing late Sunday night.

Atleast I managed to complete a whole trip (despite being so short) without getting anything stolen. In fact, I actually made a little money whilst on this trip. With the UK's failing economy, the Ringgit has gone from approximately RM6.5 to £1, to around RM5.5. So, after a little debt collecting from iZZi (my former internet service provider in Malaysia) and Daniel (the church guy who promised the bicycle that never was), plus having atleast RM500 left over from my last trip, I think I must have made atleast £20 from this holiday.

I managed to get from Victoria's house to mine in about 21 hours, with no delays or problems this time, but there was no time for me to rest. Tuesday I had to organise myself for an interview for the position with the Mission Aviation Fellowship, but I'll continue with what happened there next week. I recovered quite quickly from the jet lag coming home, and my illness has gone, and my appetite has been restored. It was a shame the trip was only nine days, but I still feel I made the most of it, and being so busy, the time went quite slowly for me. Bring on the two week holiday in June! Only six months to go...

12/12/08 - Last week I had my interview with the Mission Aviation Fellowship, but unfortunately I didn't get the job. I'm not sure if unfortunate is the right word, as I get to stay at Tesco, where I'm quite enjoying myself. I think had I not been so happy at Tesco, and were stuck in another horrible temp job, I reckon I would have put that little bit of extra effort into the interview. I was told in my feedback that my interview was fine, but they just decided to choose someone else over me.

I think the most interesting part of my interview was a Personal Profile Analysis, which they had me do on the internet before my interview, with Thomas International Limited. The feedback was very interesting, and scarily accurate; it said that I have a very constant personality, and tend to be the same whether at work, home, or under pressure. It'll have to be something I refer to every time I encounter certain situations. There's too many things on there to quote, but hopefully I can get some little bits of it on here some time in the future.

So, should I be upset that I don't have to wake up early every morning, cycle to the train station (in the winter weather), struggle to find a bike parking space, spending £5 a day on a twenty minute train commute to Folkestone, spending eight hour days, with little flexibility, entering numbers into a computer? Is it worth keeping a job that's five minutes walk from my house, where I get to see so many people a day, have so much flexibility, opportunity for extra hours and possible opportunities abroad... and am finally in an environment where I don't have a female manager that hates me for reasons I don't understand? OK, the MAF job had plenty more salary, and I'm sure no female managers would have hated me there too, but I've got happiness before money, which is the way everything should be...

19/12/08 - Only six days till Christmas, though I'm not particularly interested, to be honest. I'm more looking forward to the new year, and hopefully some new direction in life. I've spent quite a bit of time at work this week, and have even more lined up for the next, which is all simply to keep me away from any boredoms of being at home. Since my holiday, which finished only less than three weeks ago, I haven't had much determination to do anything. I put a lot of work into upgrading HuckoolPhotography.Com before my trip, but now I have no drive to work on anything more elsewhere on the site.

I'm hoping next year I can do some voluntary work as a teaching assistant. I think my future direction either involves teaching or retail, so I'd best keep myself at a decent level on both, so if one doesn't work out, the other's still there. It's going to be a long time before I'm going to Malaysia again, so I've just got to wait it out and keep busy. Not much news as far as Malaysia goes, they're just continuing their Christmas preprations, and they have their annual trip to Desa Water Park tomorrow.

Anyway, I finally feel that I'm properly fitting in at Tesco now. I won a tub of Celebrations chocolates at the Christmas Dinner last week, and I've now got my work uniform, which I started wearing this week. Though they've provided me with two pairs of trousers, they've only given me one top, and one fleece, both of which are sleeveless (I'm sure I didn't order a sleeveless fleece), which is not ideal at all for this time of year. Some sleeved uniform would really help right now, as I've been struck down with a cold, causing me to take the evening offer yesterday, and today I had my first entire sick day off work in a long time. I hope I get well soon, as next week is going to be a long week...

26/12/08 - Merry Christmas, everyone. Another Christmas has passed, and I'm feeling exhausted, not at the fact I had to do any prepration for Christmas (well, I didn't do any), but doing thirty four hours (about a weeks work) in the three days before Christmas took quite a bit out of me. I recovered just in time from my brief cold, though I feel I still could have kept going if I was needed.

Something that suprises me about Christmas is that people want to start it as earlier as possible (sometimes in September), yet want it over with even quicker. On Christmas Eve, Tesco already took their Christmas decorations down, and started moving all the Christmas stuff into one small area, whilst the Ashford Baptist Church started taking down their decorations as soon as their Christmas Service finished. I sometimes wonder what it could do for the economy if Christmas were treated more as a bank holiday, rather than a solid public holiday. It would have less impact on those who are 'unfortunate' enough to have to work Christmas day, and would keep busy those who less fortunate no not have any close loved ones to share the special day with.

It was nice getting the traditional Christmas dinner at home this year (though mine and Rebecca's attempt last year wasn't bad), but I think this past weekend at Palmers Green was the real highlight. I spent the weekend up there, firstly for the Carol Service on the Saturday, then the Children's Carol Service on the Sunday. They were both really good services, where I took plenty of photos. I even watched some of their Christmas Eve service live on the internet, though I'm hoping I can be there for the New Year's Service.

Just to finish off the year, I thought I'd post some random photos from around the house taken during the festive season. The first few are of the family Christmas tree and presents at home, whilst the last one is my complete collection of the new coins made this year by the Royal Mint, which together make a picture of the Royal Standard. Well, I think it's impressive... See you next year on HuckoolBlog.Com!