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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.

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.

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 result, 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 all the shows about India on TV lately; Blue Peter had some segments from India, and have made we want to own a rickshaw after they customised their own. The Kevin McCloud: Slumming It documentary, on Channel 4's Indian Winter season, was also very interesting. I was taken in by a quote they showed of Prince Charles talking about the Indian slums, saying that 'though they are people that are poorer in material terms, but are much richer in the ways they live and organise themselves as a community'.

There were a lot of meaningful parts to the documentary, showing not only strong community, but how slum areas are low on crime, are big contributors to the economy, and have minimal unemployment rates. Yet greedy, modernised businessmen would rather build over places like this, and place the people in neglected housing estates. I can tell from visiting places like Taman Tun and Jinjang in Malaysia, that a set of small set of bungalows has more openess and community than cramming as many people as possible on top of each other in block upon block of flats.

22/01/10 - Met with Charlotte and Isaac on Tuesday, where we had a long catch up, having not seen each other for just over three years. We sat at my place, with mugs of Milo, reminiscing about times gone by. We gave my new camera a test run, as I'll be the photographer at their wedding, and judging from the photos on the Photography site, I think there'll be a very good turnout. We also watched Ghana play in the African Nations, and just before Isaac and Charlotte were about to leave, Ghana scored the only goal of the match, much to Isaac's delight.

Wednesday saw the end of a 23 straight day working streak for me; I hadn't had a day off since December 27th, but had Wednesday and Thursday off by 'force', as they were allocated days off from working Bank Holidays (26/12 and 01/01). I usually work overtime on my odd days off, but I wasn't even allowed to do that, which annoyed me a little, as I had to go two days with earning only six and a half hours wage, when I could have easily earnt more.

Watched the rest of Channel 4's Indian Winter; Cowboys In India was an interesting documentary, not at its quest to shame a mining company, but at the journey of those involved, especially the producers two Indian assistants. Slumdog Secret Millionaire was really good, seeing all the various charities at work, and seeing the things some people have to do in order to survive. Life can be tough, having to work from a young age etc. but as Slumming It showed, there are a lot of jobs people can do that are beneficial to the economy and the community.

Dispatches: Slumdog Children of Mumbai was also an interesting insight into the lives of poor children in India. It's sad that the children can't have the comfortable and stable lives that Westerners take for granted, but it has to be accepted that India is still living a hundred years behind in a Victorian-like age. But still, what you don't learn in school, you can still learn many lessons in life, and what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

29/01/10 - Went to church for the first time this year, this past Sunday. After my 23 day working streak ended, I thought it'd be best to go back, though I'm not sure if I will continue to attend church as regularly, mainly due to finances, as I want to save as much money as possible. I've noticed since the High Speed trains have become full service, the standard rail lines have become more unreliable, with engineering works etc. Are they trying to push everyone onto the more expensive trains, perhaps?