I left for Port Elizabeth at about half past one on Friday, driven by Tim (Tim left on Sunday, before I got back. I can't explain how much I'll miss him). Everything went fairly smoothly, I arrived with twenty minutes to spare before boarding, so I had a whiskey in the departure lounge. The plane was then actually delayed for a while ("One of the tyres exploded on landing. Enjoy your flight."), but we got off eventually. I tried to nab the window seat, although my ticket was for the aisle seat, but two crusty old tonsils came and sniffed at me until I moved. Mr Tonsil then settled down in the window seat, closed the blind, and went to sleep. I hope he finds half a spider in his casserole.
Kulula.com are an interesting experience to fly. The whole flight, they were cracking jokes, when you least expect them. Just thrown into the rest of their announcements etc.
"In the case of loss of cabin pressure, you can either hold your breath, or grasp the oxygen mask and...".
"Once you have your oxygen mask firmly in place, decide which child you love most and...".
"Please wait until the aircraft has come to a screaming halt against the airport building."
"There is no smoking on this plane, and we have cameras in the toilets for the pilot's in-flight entertainment in case you were going to sneak in there."
"Smoking will be punished by moving the passenger to a seat on the wing, where the in-flight movie will be 'Gone with the Wind'..."
And so on. It was a good flight, though, and we got there fairly quickly.
On Saturday morning, Claire (may she win the lottery) picked me up from my aunt's house and drove me through to Stellenbosch, where we eventually found Adept. She went off to find somewhere to read/nap/drink tea, while I did the interview. (Tim++ for SMSing me Fatboy Slim lyrics, since Claire only had a Rob Zombie tape in the car.)
Adept's offices are a coffee shop, so Gideon and Jac and I went and sat at a table and drank three cups of coffee and just chatted. They were wearing shorts and t-shirts and flipflops, and it was nice and casual. I was wearing an executive jean-pant, and a button-up shirt! I know! We basically just chatted for an hour and a half about Rhodes and Zimbabwe and me and them and VoIP and Stellenbosch and Servers and Linux and Masters and Philosophy and so on and so on. As Russell said, it seems they pretty much knew whether or not I was able to do the job, and the interview was just to see whether or not they could stand seeing me in their office every day.
And it seems that they can. They didn't actually say "You're in, you can have the job", but Ivan says that they don't. What they did say was "Get your thesis written up in January, and then you could start in February", and "We're excited that you could come work here" or something. I mean, pretty much, yes. We didn't even mention salaries and dental plans and all that, not a word. They said we'd iron out those details over email now.
Now it remains to go and find somewhere in Stellenbosch to live, pack up, and get down there. Oh, and finishstart my thesis.
As for the rest of the weekend, it was great. Claire drove me back to Cape Town, we went and had a drink, went and visited Adeline at her work, and then I bought a sixpack and went to visit Jono Pare. Later that night, Claire picked me up and we went to visit Ads at her other work, and then we went out to Cornerhouse, the dodgiest, murkiest, dingiest little club in Cape Town. It was a very awesome night, and I got to bed at 5:30 in the morning, to wake up at 8:30 to catch my plane back. The flight back was also fine, I managed to pilfer a window seat properly, and no snotty elderly people kicked me out. The jokes were just as bad, though.
In other news, Noodle left this morning. That's the entire Family that's left, leaving me bereft and digsmate-less. I have been instructed to make sure that the Adept job includes pension, dental-plan, but most important, a Family Fund, so that the penniless journos and artists can maintain their standard of living.
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