The interview was, well, interesting. First off, I had to call in and see the agent at her office, where she went through the job and what they were looking for again, all the while fixing me in the eye with a don't bullshit me, buster stare. That's was good, actually, because agents don't do enough of that kind of thing, most being happy to staple together wads of CVs and stick them in the post. After expressing a great deal of concern for my wellbeing (you know where you're going?, yes, Lombard Street, yes, sure you'll be alright?, yes), she let me go off to the interview proper.

The bulk of the interview was a technical test. I've done them before and generally find they reveal more about the interviewer than the interviewee. This was a little different, because after the initial pick-the-bugs-out-of-that section, there was some fun stuff like "who are these people - Bjarne Stroustrup, Fred Brooks, Larry Wall, CmdrTaco, Dr Dobbs, Tom DeMarco, etc, etc". The final question asked what was a good way and a bad way to interview technical staff. I laughed and told them their test was too easy.
Hugo the interviewer : You'd be surprised how many people get it wrong.
Me : How many?
Hugo : Lots.
Me : I'm surprised.

I knew I'd got it, if only because I've never been interviewed for a job I wasn't subsequently offered. Ah, if only I wanted to do them all ... They confirmed the next day that they want to see me again next week.

Swapswire turned out to be a short stroll away from GorillaPark, so I wandered over and had a top salady lunch there with Frazer. GorillaPark are the leading pan-European business accelerator for high-tech entrepreneurs, specializing in identifying early stage technology investment opportunities and accelerating them through their critical initial stages of development, but the important part for me was that they have very stylish offices and a free canteen serving good nosh. Actually for a business that bangs on so much about being at the cutting edge of new technology (The concept must be innovative in order to obtain potential "Gorilla status" in the proposed market segment, which means that the idea is revolutionary enough to shake up the market.) I saw far too many Wrox books on Visual Basic lying around for my liking.

Via a lengthy detour and a change of clothes to the Freedom Brewery to met the Aicom boys and the ex-Chrystal boys. Phil, head Aicom bloke, was handing the out the corporate goodies. And what fantastic goodies. I thought getting a JezUK pen would be a bit exciting, but now I know better. Phil was handing out Aicom branded Cybertools. Wow! And he paid for all the jolly good beer we drank, and then he paid for the curry too (although that was a bit iffy). What a Lord! If you need some software consultancy (and I'm not available) go talk to Aicom and maybe they can afford to take us all out again next year.