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04/06/10 - Attended Stuart and Karen's wedding reception on Sunday, where 11 of us had a meal at the Beefeater in Folkestone, where I had to drive my parents to. It was nice for both families to have an entire get together, after the wedding itself was decided to be kept minimal. It was nice seeing the happy couple's photos from their honeymoon in Wales, and I was suprised to know how much Karen is into photography. They also bought us gifts from Wales, where I received a little dragon, which I'll be taking with me on my next Malaysia trip, which is tomorrow! I received a cheque from Isaac and Charlotte for their wedding photographs, which I'll be donating to the PETE Hostel in Malaysia.

The Tesco I work at has now been having limited deliveries of standard sized bags (as we've been going over budget on them), and we've been providing smaller shopping and 9p Bags For Life as alternatives when we run out, but it amazes me how unadaptable people are. Where most of the developed (and even undeveloped) world is starting to take more consideration over their use of plastic bags, the UK still has many mindless, spoilt and selfish people who feel it's their basic human right to have free shopping bags for them to just throw away without caring, but people's turtle-on-their-back reaction to there being no standard bags is amusing, though stressful to deal with.

Continuing with the selfish lack ecological resourcefulness theme, who thinks Obama's acting totally selfish with what he's said about the BP oil spill? OK, it's BP's fault and problem, but if he cares so much about his country's coastline being spoilt by oil, why doesn't his country and government make an investment to clean it up (and where there's oil, there's American investment), rather than blaming everything on BP? Screw the UK-US alliance; they bail out the crooks of the banking system, but not BP?

11/06/10 - I have returned to Malaysia once again, for my seventh trip, which I'm hoping will be my last 'holiday' to Malaysia. Took Malaysian Airlines for the first time, but of the four airlines I've taken to Malaysia (Sri Lankan, Emirates and KLM), Malaysian Airlines was possibly my least favourite. Now that I'm serious about moving to Malaysia, I could have done with more than a 20kg weight allowance, and though it can be nice to have no transit and have a direct flight, sometimes it's also nice to get out of the plane to properly stretch your legs during a transit.

Despite my 17:30 arrival time, I still managed to make it to church on time (or before it closed, atleast); I was quite pleased to see the taxis are now regulated in Malaysia, with touting now banned, though I'm sure they'll still have their old tricks up their sleeves. Everyone seems to be happy to see me again, and Shakina was speechless when I returned, visiting her house. I've noticed quite a few families have stopped coming to church now, mainly due to transport and communication issues. Hopefully I can do my best to overcome these problems and get people back to our church again.

Just days into my return to Malaysia, and I'm now seeing on the news that David Cameron is planning massive budget cuts in the UK. It really does seem like the UK, Europe, and the whole Western world is heading down on an economic slide, whilst Asia is slowly becoming the new super power, which I'm sure Malaysia will also take great benefit from too. I'm definitely right in wanting to move to Malaysia, and it's not just for cultural reasons, it's for economic reasons too.

18/06/10 - Met up with some of my 'modern' friends this week; I met Jamel for the first time, after never crossing paths from our Gap Year, which was five years ago! Jamel is already 'living my dream' as he's already been working in Malaysia as a teacher for almost a year now, though he's a more experienced and qualified teacher than me. Though I may not yet be on par with working for high level International Schools in Malaysia yet, there's plenty of colleges that should be suited to my CELTA qualification, and obtaining a work visa, from how Jamel told me, seems relatively straight forward (as long as you're a skilled worker, of course).

My second modern friend of the week was Yans, the woman who gave me tuition work in Malaysia, whom I hadn't seen in about 18 months. It's nice sharing time and conversation with people like Jamel and Yans, who both have strong understanding of Western culture, and have more philosophical and psychological views than the typical traditionlist Asian. But Yans, for me, makes a great life coach, as she understands both sides of the spectrum so well, having spent so much time in Europe as well as being born and living in Asia.

And whilst I haven't been getting modern and philosophical, I've been spending time looking for colleges to apply for, and working on my CV, with the help of Pastor, so it appeals to all eyes. I also attended a wedding service this past Saturday, which was pretty boring throughout, until the very end when a group of kids started dancing to Michael Jackson songs. And talking of weddings, I have not yet found myself a suitable partner for when I do settle in Malaysia...

25/06/10 - With the school holidays in Malaysia now over, Victoria back at the PETE Hostel, and the fact I'm living on top of a hill, I'm now renting a car in Malaysia. The car is an automatic, which is much easier to drive than a manual, but I'm finding the Malaysian roads and drivers harder to adjust to. It's all pretty unorthodox and chaotic at the moment, and I'm finding myself continually getting stuck in filter lanes, but I've enjoyed escorting people round this past week.

I had quite a momentous Father's Day, where I took Karberi to see his three daughters; Hema, Deepa and Ranjita. Hema and Ranjita are now in a care home, whilst Deepa's still in Taman Tun. It was nice seeing Ranjita again, after about 18 months, who's much bigger, and finally has a full head of hair. I was suprised to find, despite all that time apart, Ranjita's still very much attached to me as she was before, and though having spent so little time with Hema, she also has a close bond with me too. I thought seeing the girls again may have closed some doors on our relationship, but it's just opened many more.

Whilst Hema and Ranjita are now out of bounds for now, back in their care home, I'm focusing my attention on another two sisters of the same age, Dharsini and Shakina. It doesn't appear as though the girls are keeping up appearances at school, but the mother is very against my intervention to try and help. She's keen for me to take the girls to church every Sunday, but seems avoidant of me wanting to help with any deeper issues in their lives.

Over the past couple of weeks, Pastor Paul and Victoria have been receiving a lot of strong and emotional prayer from other Pastors, in trying to receive greater strength from God to work deeper and harder into helping the Indian community, and to produce more leaders within the Indian community. Listening to testimonies from Pastor Paul, and Yans, about how difficult it is to motivate people in the Indian community, plus my own recent experiences in trying to help, I can see why Pastor needed so much strong prayer to help him. Talking of prayer, I was sent to 'prayer detention' this evening, by a female guest preacher, for wearing jewellery, which I was told was a spiritual hindrance...