The final preparations

The last few days have been a bit hectic as I make the final preparations for departure on my big holiday trip. My tickets arrived this week and the travel agency has confirmed that my ship is on schedule to arrive in Thamesport early next week. I have now booked all my accommodation and transfers (I hope), researched how I am going to get from Tanjung Pelepas to Singapore, bought supplies of five different foreign currencies (which really makes you appreciate the convenience of living in the Eurozone), and completed most of the other things that need to be done before departure. However, there have also been some recent developments which have made the process even more rushed.

Some months ago, when it was apparent that I was going to be joining the ranks of the unemployed this summer, I started to consider what I was going to do next. I very quickly came to the conclusion that I didn't immediately want to start another job similar to the one I had just finished (especially in the multinational environment). One of the options that I considered was taking on some voluntary work and I went along one evening to an information evening run by VSO. VSO is an international development charity with a very high profile in the UK, but, due to the fact that they have only recently established an office in Ireland, have a lower profile here at the moment. Having attended the information evening and spoken to some friends who are returned volunteers from other agencies, I decided to go ahead and complete the long and detailed application form. Shortly afterwards, I was called to attend an interview and assessment day and a few days after that I was told that I had been selected and would be added to their database of available volunteers. Almost immediately (much to my surprise), I received a placement offer with a very thorough job brief, description of the workplace etc. which I had some time to consider before formally declaring my interest in accepting it. The challenging part is that the time between my return in January after my holiday trip and the start date of the placement is very short indeed, in fact much shorter than I had wanted so I will have only two weeks after getting home before departing again, this time probably for about 16 months (and during that two weeks I have to attend a five day pre-departure VSO training course). I will post more about the placement in due course but for the moment, you can do some homework on Wikipedia on the likely location by clicking here.

The prospect of this placement starting immediately after I returned meant that the bill for my vaccinations climbed substantially and my vaccination certificates now run well into two pages ! While I am now up to date on almost all my jabs, it appears that the vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis is currently unavailable in Ireland.

Last night I attended my last band rehearsal for some time (I have played in The Stedfast Band for many years) and was delighted to receive a most useful present of a Sony SSB radio from my friends in the band. Many thanks to all in Stedfast for their good wishes and generosity - keep practicing while I am away !