Asti's birthday was yesterday and she had a get together for drinks at the George. Alan and I went and had a surprisingly good time. (Surprising because Alan was concerned that we'd be out of place with everyone so much younger than us. It turned out fine, programers are programers regardless.)

The George was an interesting pub to visit in any case.

You can read about The George here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_George_Inn,_Southwark

Anyway, we had a nice time chatting with Asti and her friends, a few of whom we knew from ACCU. Tati, Asti's neighbor from Basel flew over for the weekend so it was very nice to see her again.

We lucked out going home. Our leisurely stroll to the London Bridge tube station (only about 1 block really) was perfect timing. The Jubilee line train arrived almost immediately and got us to Waterloo station in a few minutes. Thinking we had a really long wait at Waterloo for the Isleworth train, we took our time making our way to the platform and voila! There was a train waiting there just about to depart. Kismet! We hopped on and 35 pleasant minutes later were getting off for the brief walk home.

Friday night was the start of August Bank Holiday weekend and several of our neighbours were still holding parties in their back gardens. The music wasn't loud enough to prevent our falling asleep so all in all a really pleasant evening.

The job search goes on. Nightmare.
Alan comes home from work and asks why am I sitting in the dark. It's not really dark, I just haven't turned on the lights. I'm still at my computer searching for and applying for jobs and there's enough light for that. I'm at the point where everything is now superfluous except hunting for a job. It's a race against time and money - both are running out. Perhaps have run out.
I have an interview on Wednesday, still applying for jobs, tho.

Job hunting is possibly the loneliest, most depressing thing there is to do. Soul destroying. You are putting yourself on the slave block and doing your best to sell yourself. Hoping someone will pick you. And each time you fail, you have no recourse but to smile, smile, smile, and do it all again.

One of the worst aspects of the ugly process is the sheer insanity of the reasons given for some rejections. I've been told I was too interesting, too bright, too work focused! Because the workplace culture here is more good enough and jobsworth, my Amercian values of hard work and can do, get it done might make co-workers uncomfortable.

Arrrgh! How do you make yourself seem stupider and lazier?

This week's winner of the most frustrating job interview is actually reasonably good but just frustrating. I've made it through the first interview and was called back for the short list, so to speak. Met with them again, including an additional higher up. That seemed to go ok, but there's no real way to know. It's all a guessing game. I'll know how well I impressed them if they call me back to come in for the final meeting they plan for this Friday. It's go-no go at this point. If I get that call back, I'll probably get this job. If not, not. So it's a get through each frustrating day wait now to see. Very, very stressful. This job is really a good match for me, the company is a great match for me. I like the people I've met, like their style and I think we'd work well together.

We'll see if they think so soon.

Stay tuned for more news as it happens. Same bat time, same bat channel.