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03/10/08 - This past week has been a slight information overload, I've just done so much the past several days. I've now officially left Marley, the warehouse job I had in Lenham. I wasn't really going to try and do 50 hours a week, but I'm glad I don't have to get up at 4.50am for morning shifts any more, or have to get the train and cycle several miles every day; now I just have to walk up the road for a few minutes and I'm there. Working so close to home in a supermarket does shrink my world quite a bit though; I have everything I need (food, income) just a few hundred metres from home.

Unfortunately, I don't know how much longer the Tesco job will last. I had two interviews with Saga this week, the first being a selection process, where we had loads of little tests to do, and the second was a formal interview. Atleast I'll still have Tesco if I don't get Saga, but it'll be awkward going back into Tesco just as a customer, having walked out on them after only a few weeks, even if I am currently only under a temporary contract. I could have had another interview this week with Costa Coffee, which I applied for in June; I made it easier for them and turned it down.

I made sure I made good use of my trips, going all the way down to Folkestone for the Saga interviews. I met up with probably my longest current friend, Scott Daniells, who I knew at the Harvey, went to Namibia with etc. and learnt quite a bit about web design. I'd say I stand as being an Intermediate Web Designer, but Scott stands somewhere around Professional. He runs his own website (link), which is set to run it's own social networking site soon, all programmed by Scott himself.

I spent some time at the learning tree, or Scott house, and he's now made a new Guestbook system to go on my website, and got me a good deal in transferring me to a new host; I've now moved from GLXHost, to GoDaddy, to Valcato Hosting in just a couple of months. I've signed to stay with this host for a year, so I've got somewhere comfortable to settle for now; I don't want to be uploading 1.2 GBs of data, and setting directories and databases too often. No matter how much effort I put into it, I'll just never be 100% satisfied with this site...

10/10/08 - Today marks yet another 'new era' for this website, as Huckool.Com is now under four domains, covering it's three major sections, and one more for the base of the site. I've changed the site design slightly again too, and have pretty much ditched all graphic design from my site now, apart from the logos. But the big addition is the comments board that Scott made, which I've tweaked slightly, just to perfect it to my liking, through a mix of my own knowledge, and trial and error. It's a shame Scott doesn't have the time now to help guide me further, but I'll just have to try and learn from what he's given so far.

Unless Scott does happen to be free, I won't be going to Folkestone again any time soon. I didn't get the job with Saga, so I may as well give up with getting an office job now. I think my lack of sales experience was the problem, but how am I supposed to get the experience without getting the opportunity? Well, atleast I'm happy that I can stay at Tesco, for the time being atleast. It's just a shame I'm restricted to thirty hours there though, so I'm earning as much as I did at Marley's. The only thing I've earnt is more free time, and not having to worry about travel, which is a good thing, but despite working for almost ten years, I'm still not in a job with a five-figure salary, but perhaps I should try staying in a job longer than a year to do so...

One more thing that will be different to working for Tesco is only getting paid once a month. For the past few years, I've been getting paid weekly, so getting these huge monthly amounts will be an experience for me. I also seem to be a lot more confident to spend money on my credit card too now. Since almost getting conned in Malaysia a couple of years ago, I kept my credit card tightly in my wallet, but since coming back from my third trip there, I use it for practically everything, which in a sense is a good thing, as I can now keep track of everything I spend each month. Though I may get scary looking credit card bills, I know I'm not buying anything unnecessary, and it just shows what I used to spend on my debit account.

17/10/08 - I'm now into my third week at Tesco, and am feeling so happy to be back in retail. After three years of living in Malaysia and doing temp work in the UK, I'm finally settled in a job, this time with my former employers rival (I was working with Sainsburys before my Gap Year), and am doing a much better job than last time too. I guess I can count the past three years as a learning phase, gaining loads of experience and confidence, and have now been given that second chance at a job I enjoy.

Working in retail is probably one of the most enjoyable jobs you can do, even though it's not for everyone, but I enjoy interacting with the public, and I'm capitalising it as a chance to network too. I've had a couple of Tamil customers come to my till (who were impressed I had learnt their language), and another customer who seemed interested that I did web design and photography. These are things I wouldn't really be able to do in an office, so I'm glad I didn't get the position at Saga, and I really feel I can go somewhere with Tesco, especially with all their stores in Malaysia, hint-hint.

And lastly for this week, Isaac Joe, who's quite a famous Christian singer, from Chennai, India, came to Palmers Green at short notice and did a performance for our church. He was very talented in what he did, but I didn't feel he did much for my opinions on celebrities. After the service, I approached him, like I do with most of the guest Pastors that come to the church, and told him a little about visiting Chennai and Malaysia, but the conversation felt a little hostile and awkward. God bless him, and all his future endeavours...

24/10/08 - Things have seemed to have gone a bit too well for me this month. Not only have I started a wonderful new job with Tesco, but I've also managed to get some time off to go to Malaysia next month. In just four weeks from now, I'll be flying off again, but this time only spending ten days in KL. I think for now I'm going to have to call off any long term trips to Malaysia, so the best alternative I feel is to go there every six months, instead of going again for six months. The Tesco (and general retail) policy said I couldn't be away later than December 8th, but fortunately the Malaysian school holidays start on November 15th, so I've just managed to get some good dates for travelling.

The Tesco position is certainly one that I'm not going to give up any time soon. I received some very positive feedback from the checkouts manager in my four week review, so it definitely seems like I'll last their Christmas temp period, as they're setting me position targets for February. And I'm actually entitled to 36.5 hours a week there, so as long as I can keep the overtime maxed throughout the year, I could end up earning a five figure wage. I certainly have the stamina for the job too, after doing a 12-hour triple-shift yesterday, and didn't even feel tired at the end of it. I think I'm getting too attached to the place, as I found my day off today incredibly boring.

Classes have started again at the Palmers Green Sunday School, after a lengthy three month break. I'm still teaching with the youngest class, and Sylvia, who I temporarily replaced, after she had a baby, is teaching them with me. We were given the syllabus just before the class started, so didn't have time to properly prepare anything, but fortunately I had some colour pencils, and a few extra colour sheets, to keep all the kids busy. Hopefully we'll have a routine going by the next class, and hopefully Sylvia will be fine without me for a couple of weeks whilst I'm in Malaysia...

31/10/08 - Only three weeks till my holiday in Malaysia, and I'm certainly working hard to pay for it, perhaps a little too hard. Well, I already had the money to pay for it, but it's just making up for the expenses. I even worked a few hours on Sunday too, as there was no Sunday School at Palmers Green that week, and my brother's girlfriend, Karen, came round for Sunday lunch. Over time on Sunday's is usually pretty full, so it doesn't matter so much for Tesco that I don't work that day, but there's more demand for workers during the week, which is where they have me working so many hours.

I really think I've become a workaholic, and am even doing extra hours at the last minute. I think maybe I'm trying to kill having too much free time, and keeping the boredom and loneliness feelings from coming back. Working as a cashier in retail (especially a supermarket) can be quite a social job, and as I don't really have a busy social life anywhere else (apart from Sunday's), I guess it's an ideal job for me to be in. But now my old agency have found a permanent position with the Mission Aviation Fellowship, for a Support Relations Assistant, and Kent County Council have offered me a job interview too. Just when I thought I was finally settled in a job, another two come along...

I definitely feeling like I'm part of the team at Tesco; I was even brave enough to dress up for Halloween, wearing tattoo sleeves and any old gothic attire I could find in my room. I'm usually a bit of a scrooge with Halloween, as it's not really a relevant holiday, but I thought I'd make the most of probably the only proper dress down day Tesco would do. It was a shame that not many people actually dressed up, but a lot of people were curious as to whether my arms were really tattooed, or atleast painted...

Deepavali was also this week, though I've never really celebrated it before. I've only been in Malaysia once for Deepavali, though that was only a couple of months into my first visit, when I hadn't properly adapted into the Indian culture. It was also my parents' birthdays the past couple of weeks, and I missed them both due to my current workaholic nature. I think I need some help...

And lastly, something that's a current talking point of the nation, Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand's phone calls to Andrew Sachs on Radio 2. Listening to the segment, it was a little funny, though pretty immature for guys like them, but though I don't think it was that bad natured, it was nice to see Ross and Brand's egos completly destroyed by their mistakes. Why anyone in the entertainment business gets such massive salaries, I'll never know, but I'm glad the millions these two get has now been diminished. Brand shouldn't even still be around in the entertainment biz, with his whole drugs bust, but if that were the case for everyone, then there wouldn't be many celebrities left...