Root Directory:

Huckool.Com HuckoolBlog.Com Blog 2008

Index Menu:

Index Bullet Points Photography

Entries:

January February March April May June July August September October November December

07/11/08 - Two weeks to go until my fourth trip, and first short vacation, to Malaysia. I played it cool on the number of hours I did at work this week, after going over drive last week, when staff were in high demand for Halloween. But despite all the hours, I still had the energy to go to two Tamil churches on Sunday. The first was a church in Wallington, near Croydon, which I was invited to by Mercy, the Tamil lady I met in Tesco a few weeks ago. I attended the morning English service, and was quite suprised by the number of English accents, mostly from the second generation youths.

After the Wallington service, I felt I was back in my comfort zone when attending Palmers Green, which had a baptism that day too. I sway more towards traditional outlooks than modern, but I wonder if Palmers Green only holds onto its traditionalism because it still has a young second generation, whereas the Wallington's second generation have grown into youths already, though I think the Palmers Green's Pastor's encouragement on traditionalism helps. From what I can tell, most people are bilingual at Palmers Green, yet some members at Wallington don't know Tamil at all...

With two weeks left before my holiday, I'm just trying to keep myself busy with work and web design. I finally have image software that will make photo editing on HuckoolPhotography.Com much quicker and easier, though the amount I want done will unfortunately leave other parts of the site a little deprieved of attention. Lastly, Barack Obama has become the first black president of the United States. I guess Hollywood can finally breath again, after making so many films set in the future, aspiring there to be a black president for their country.

14/11/08 - Only one week left until my holiday, and today is also my twenty-second-and-a-half birthday! This week I attended a WWE Smackdown house show at the O2, in London (I suggest you check out the album). This is only the second wrestling show I've ever attended, the first being in a small indy show several years ago, featuring Jim Neidhart, and after seeing Natalya Neidhart this week, I've seen a father and daughter perform at different shows.

We were sitting five rows from the back wall during the event, but fortunately my camera had a good enough zoom to get some good shots. Actually, it was fortunate my camera was allowed into the arena, as security found it to be borderline between ameteur and professional. But I certainly took advantage of the opportunity, and took 520 photos that night, along with 30 movies. Deleting the bad ones took it down to 400 photos, then 150 have been put on the site, along with three movie compilations. Overall it was a great show, though I don't think I got to 'appreciate the size' (as they say on TV) of some of the wrestlers, sitting so far away.

I really feel I'm starting to settle in well at Tesco at the moment. I seem to be getting on quite well with everyone on my department, and I have no problem doing the flexible hours I do. It's also very nice that the place is a five minute walk away. I was supposed to have an interview with the Kent County Council this week, but decided to turn that down, as I don't think the job will take me anywhere. I also finally got a reply about my interview with Wilkinsons, which turned out that I didn't pass. But I haven't heard anything back about the Mission Aviation Fellowship position. Never mind, I'm happy just where I am.

Lastly, this past week had Remembrance Sunday, and Remembrance Day itself, though I do wonder what the point of it all is now. Coming back from London on Sunday, there was a middle aged guy, with his wife and adult son, dressed in smart uniform (obviously had attended a Remembrance Service), and was absolutely pissed. Did he attend to remember those who fell before him, or to help himself to the unlimited, free champagne?

Also, what do the younger generation make of it? During the minutes silence at work, a couple of young cashiers were still scanning items during the silence, and were told to be quiet. I expect if you went to any sink school, they'd say it's that time of year where you buy poppies, which you then take apart and play with the needle, and are told to be quiet at 11 o'clock, where they then ask why the minute of silence isn't at 11:11. I think this year's Remembrance Day is just best forgotten...

21/11/08 - On this very day in 2007, I went to Malaysia for several months on a study break. Now, exactly one year later, I'm going to Malaysia again, this time for a ten day break. I've only been in the UK five and a half months, but I'm already off again, on my first ever holiday (as in a trip less lasting less than a month). Only a handful of people actually know that I'm coming, so it's going to be quite a shock to some people to see me suddenly turn up again. I've heard there have been rumours that I've still been in the country, since I left in June. This coming week should be very interesting indeed.

I've not done anything particularly exciting this week. I've just been packing my suitcase, getting ready for my trip, working so-so hours at Tesco, and re-developing the photography site, again. No matter how much work I put into this photography section, I just don't think I'll ever be satisfied with it. I've gone through some major updates across the whole section, upgrading the photo size (to a respectable 640 by 480), and splitting albums into folders. Despite all the work, I'm quite impressed I did it all in under two weeks. My target was to get it done before this goliday, and I have done, so now I can relax.

Last moment news before my holiday; Berry Recruitment have just called me and told me I should be having an interview for the job with Mission Aviation Fellowship when I get back, which is very interesting. Also, I am stuck in Amsterdam for the night, after my first flight from London City Airport was delayed, and I missed my second flight to Malaysia. I've been rebooked on a Malaysian Airlines flight tomorrow afternoon, to arrive Sunday morning. The cause of all this? Snow and hail, something I happily haven't witnessed in four years!

28/11/08 - I eventually arrived safely in KL Sunday morning, unfortunately without my suitcase, which was delivered to Jinjang that night. After losing Saturday evening and night to the delay, I kept to my schedule and headed straight to CPKL, though unfortunately without Ranjita. Ranjita must be happy this week, having me back, along with her father, who was staying at Jyothi's house for a few days. Although Jyothi's house may now be more cleansed of problems, Ranjita hasn't seemed to have progressed much in her school work, and it hasn't felt like she's prospered much in the five months I was away.

Sam and Shay, who have been wanting to see Ranjita again as much as me, have suggested looking after her, and trying to help her in school, whilst I'm away in the UK. I invited them to Jyothi's house, though I'm not sure if anything developed in them being able to take her places without me. Though I was interested in their concern for Ranjita's welfare, I wasn't interested in getting involved with the network marketing Shay's recently joined. It felt a little weird when I met with her at KLCC, where one minute she was my friend of a friend, then suddenly turned into this business saleswoman who didn't know anything about me.

They're not the only one's getting into the network marketing craze; Rebecca is also with another company, though she's focusing more on the selling rather than the egotistical networking, which gives promises that you could 'retire within five years if you can get several dozen people to sell things for you'. I gave in to Rebecca and let her buy me some deodrant, which she earnt points through, though the system doesn't seem much more sophisticated than a supermarket reward card than something you can live and maintain an income off.

Maybe Rebecca could have spent a little more time focusing on her son, Ebbie's, 13th birthday. Ranjita and I went round their house yesterday to wish him well, and seemed to be the only people that cared. I gave him a present, which was a small doll my parents bought in South Africa for me to give to someone in Malaysia, and a card. I saw him rubbing his eyes, which he claimed he had just been sleeping, though I think he was lieing. I've known Ebbie since just before his tenth birthday, and I came all that way again for his thirteenth, which must have been very special for him.

I've made pretty good use of my time on this trip so far, and have seen most of the people that I've wanted to see. I think the best welcome I had was going to Taman Tun; the whole kampung (village) still remembers me from the Holi, and doing teaching at the temple, and got a lot of greetings as I came back. I didn't see that many people at the Taman Wahyu service on Sunday though, which was a shame. Hopefully more people will come this coming Sunday, and I'll get to tick off the remaining people from my list that I've wanted to see again.