Cousins and Interviews
As people who read this blog no doubt know, I was in Cape Town recently for an interview with Amazon's SA dev centre. The nice people at Amazon were kind enough to fly me down and let me choose the flights. This worked out very nicely, as it meant they didn't have to handle any of the logistics and I could fly down on Saturday for a weekend with my cousins. As a bonus, the Saturday flight was quite a bit cheaper than anything on Monday morning, so we all won.
I was a little delayed on the flight down because the airport computers were broken and they had to do all the paperwork on actual paper. Also, Nationwide's online booking system isn't as slick as Kulula's. I had to go to the sales desk and show them my ID and credit card before I could go to check in. Of course, I only discovered this trying to check in with nothing but my ID and the reference number. At the car rental place in Cape Town the only car they could offer me was a citi golf. I can't stand those bloody little cars, because I'm too big for them and always get bruised knees from the window winder and the dashboard. But the alternative was a BMW I couldn't afford. I got lost on the trip from the airport to my cousins, but that's normal. I took the M3 in the wrong direction and then navigated a maze of twisty little side roads, all different. (Bonus points if you spot the adventure/zork reference.)
I got there just in time to grab a quick bite of lunch and spend the afternoon in the pool with three sets of cousins. Dexter and Little Dennis were there, of course, (it's their house, after all) and so were Big Dennis and most of his family. Also present were the cousins who live in Australia and were on holiday in Cape Town, so I got to see them for the first time in ages. They've grown quite a lot and were surprisingly friendly, considering that they don't really know me all that well. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and on the trampoline which had not yet been installed (they're still digging the hole) but was set up in the middle of the grass anyway. Unfortunately I neglected the sunscreen somewhat and am now burned all over my shoulders and upper arms, which are the bits of me usually covered by shirt and hence not used to sunlight.
Sunday was far more relaxed. All the various kids had gone home and I spent most of the morning lying in the hammock next to the pool reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman and watching the kids frolic. In the afternoon I drove over to Fish Hoek to visit an aunt on my dad's side of the family. She doesn't get many visitors, and I'm usually too busy or transportationally disadvanteged to get out there so she was very excited to see me. We drank lots of tea and ate half a cake and I caught up on all the news and anecdotes from that side of the family. I tried to take her out for supper, but the only eatery open in Fish Hoek on a Sunday night is the KFC, so she cooked some chicken and mashed potatoes for us instead. By the time I got back the kids were asleep and I crashed shortly afterwards.
Monday morning I was up in time to eat breakfast with the kids (their parents ate earlier) and see them off to school. Then another half hour to get ready for the interview and an hour set aside for the drive. This only took about twenty five minutes, so I spent a quarter hour wandering around the local shopping centre seeing what's on offer before I went over to Amazon's offices.
I was let into the building by someone, so I didn't realise that it was one of those where you're supposed to buzz the people you're visiting. Thus, when I got upstairs, I was faced by a frosted glass door with a security keypad next to it. Fortunately the receptionist/secretary/kind lady behind the front desk saw me (or my shadow) and let me in. I was given a cup of tea and sent off to the conference room to await the interview.
The interview itself consisted of an hour being grilled by some developer types, two of whom I had already spoken to on the phone. The dress code seemed to be jeans or shorts and a t-shirt, so I took off my tie. One of them commented that they had been looking at my website and particularly liked the How not to cheat page. I won't go into details on the questions they asked, but they were mostly of the "show us what you can do" variety. After that, some more developer types grilled me along similar (but different) lines for another hour. When their time was up, some managerial (but still decidedly developer) types lightly sauteed me for another half hour and answered the remaining questions I had about the company and the job.
And that was it for the interview. They said they'd discuss me and check my references and they should have either an offer or a "go away" by the end of the week. So I'm being optimistic.
After the interview, I phoned my aunt (grandmother of all the little cousins I'd tossed around the pool) to see if I could get directions to their new flat which they moved into since the last time I visited them. She was out taking one of the Australian kids to a movie, so I went to Dennis' house to lie on the couch and read my book for a bit. About two chapters after I got there Dennis came home from school and was quite delighted to see me. Between us we tossed some chips in the oven and fried some leftover chicken in some kind of bbq sauce for lunch which turned out to be surprisingly good despite my general dislike for bbq sauce. After lunch, my aunt came to visit on her way home. Dennis decided he wanted to come with us, but was told that he had to do his maths homework first. Said homework consisted of a bunch of multiplications and some divisions.
It turned out that young Dennis is not very good at multiplication. After I confiscated his calculator and covered the previously completed sums he got a little upset about the whole thing but the point is to learn multiplication, not look the things up on a calculator or a table. Eventually we got through the lot, although I had to lend him a few fingers to count on. By this time, all the rest of the brothers were home and they decided between them that I was to spend the night there instead of back at the other cousins. This meant a trip across town to pick up my bag, but by this time I was almost sure of the route.
Tea with my aunt was very pleasant and her new flat is bigger than I had expected. Three bedrooms two bathrooms, a lounge, a dining room and a decent-sized kitchen. I dropped Dennis off at home on my way to get my bags (he had more homework to do) and arrived at the other cousins to find the kids bathed and watching TV. I decided that one last dip in the wonderfully heated pool and even more heated jacuzzi was required and Dexter accompanied me. Nice to know that I'm more interesting than cartoons. Well, to one of them at least. It's always nice to swim when the water's hotter than the outside air.
After the swim I dried off, packed my bags, listened to the end of the bedtime story (something very alliterative about foxes feasting on fondue) and made my goodbyes. The drive back was mostly uneventful although I took the wrong offramp and had to navigate by instinct for a bit. I'm getting rather better at finding my way around in general. At least I no longer panic when I discover that I'm lost. Of course, having a map helps, but I've been trying to rely on it as little as possible. When I eventually got back, I realised that I'd left all my toiletries in the bathroom, so I'd have to go back there again before the airport. Ah well, I still had a couple of hundred kilometers left on the rental. I also ran out of book just before I arrived, and for some reason the mp3 player wasn't seeing the other book I had on there. A few minutes reorganising the filesystem after all the kids had gone to bed sorted that out, though.
Tuesday morning was the usual chaos for that household, but they conveniently left at the same time I had to. I finally got to the other cousins (where I'd left my toiletries) without getting lost and got there just in time to wave to Dexter on his way to school. I grabbed my toiletries, declined another breakfast and watched cartoons with Little Dennis until it was time for him to go to school as well. All in all, a much more relaxed atmosphere than the other household. The drive to the airport was uneventful and free of wrong turns, as was the flight home.
Things got exciting again at Durban airport, though. They're currently renovating the parking, which involves ripping up the whole dropoff/pickup area and about half the parking lots. When my mother came to fetch me, she was told to drive to the end where there was a pickup zone. When she got to the end, she was told that there was no pickup zone and she would have to park. Except all the parking was full, even the parking way down at the other end of the runway which is a fifteen minute walk in the sun even when you don't have luggage. When she came around again and stopped in the middle of the road for me to get in with my bag, we were yelled at by the cop directing traffic. Despite the fact that the traffic wasn't actually moving at all. Bloody airport.
And that's it. Now I just have to wait for Amazon to get back to me and hopefully offer me a job.
I was a little delayed on the flight down because the airport computers were broken and they had to do all the paperwork on actual paper. Also, Nationwide's online booking system isn't as slick as Kulula's. I had to go to the sales desk and show them my ID and credit card before I could go to check in. Of course, I only discovered this trying to check in with nothing but my ID and the reference number. At the car rental place in Cape Town the only car they could offer me was a citi golf. I can't stand those bloody little cars, because I'm too big for them and always get bruised knees from the window winder and the dashboard. But the alternative was a BMW I couldn't afford. I got lost on the trip from the airport to my cousins, but that's normal. I took the M3 in the wrong direction and then navigated a maze of twisty little side roads, all different. (Bonus points if you spot the adventure/zork reference.)
I got there just in time to grab a quick bite of lunch and spend the afternoon in the pool with three sets of cousins. Dexter and Little Dennis were there, of course, (it's their house, after all) and so were Big Dennis and most of his family. Also present were the cousins who live in Australia and were on holiday in Cape Town, so I got to see them for the first time in ages. They've grown quite a lot and were surprisingly friendly, considering that they don't really know me all that well. I spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and on the trampoline which had not yet been installed (they're still digging the hole) but was set up in the middle of the grass anyway. Unfortunately I neglected the sunscreen somewhat and am now burned all over my shoulders and upper arms, which are the bits of me usually covered by shirt and hence not used to sunlight.
Sunday was far more relaxed. All the various kids had gone home and I spent most of the morning lying in the hammock next to the pool reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman and watching the kids frolic. In the afternoon I drove over to Fish Hoek to visit an aunt on my dad's side of the family. She doesn't get many visitors, and I'm usually too busy or transportationally disadvanteged to get out there so she was very excited to see me. We drank lots of tea and ate half a cake and I caught up on all the news and anecdotes from that side of the family. I tried to take her out for supper, but the only eatery open in Fish Hoek on a Sunday night is the KFC, so she cooked some chicken and mashed potatoes for us instead. By the time I got back the kids were asleep and I crashed shortly afterwards.
Monday morning I was up in time to eat breakfast with the kids (their parents ate earlier) and see them off to school. Then another half hour to get ready for the interview and an hour set aside for the drive. This only took about twenty five minutes, so I spent a quarter hour wandering around the local shopping centre seeing what's on offer before I went over to Amazon's offices.
I was let into the building by someone, so I didn't realise that it was one of those where you're supposed to buzz the people you're visiting. Thus, when I got upstairs, I was faced by a frosted glass door with a security keypad next to it. Fortunately the receptionist/secretary/kind lady behind the front desk saw me (or my shadow) and let me in. I was given a cup of tea and sent off to the conference room to await the interview.
The interview itself consisted of an hour being grilled by some developer types, two of whom I had already spoken to on the phone. The dress code seemed to be jeans or shorts and a t-shirt, so I took off my tie. One of them commented that they had been looking at my website and particularly liked the How not to cheat page. I won't go into details on the questions they asked, but they were mostly of the "show us what you can do" variety. After that, some more developer types grilled me along similar (but different) lines for another hour. When their time was up, some managerial (but still decidedly developer) types lightly sauteed me for another half hour and answered the remaining questions I had about the company and the job.
And that was it for the interview. They said they'd discuss me and check my references and they should have either an offer or a "go away" by the end of the week. So I'm being optimistic.
After the interview, I phoned my aunt (grandmother of all the little cousins I'd tossed around the pool) to see if I could get directions to their new flat which they moved into since the last time I visited them. She was out taking one of the Australian kids to a movie, so I went to Dennis' house to lie on the couch and read my book for a bit. About two chapters after I got there Dennis came home from school and was quite delighted to see me. Between us we tossed some chips in the oven and fried some leftover chicken in some kind of bbq sauce for lunch which turned out to be surprisingly good despite my general dislike for bbq sauce. After lunch, my aunt came to visit on her way home. Dennis decided he wanted to come with us, but was told that he had to do his maths homework first. Said homework consisted of a bunch of multiplications and some divisions.
It turned out that young Dennis is not very good at multiplication. After I confiscated his calculator and covered the previously completed sums he got a little upset about the whole thing but the point is to learn multiplication, not look the things up on a calculator or a table. Eventually we got through the lot, although I had to lend him a few fingers to count on. By this time, all the rest of the brothers were home and they decided between them that I was to spend the night there instead of back at the other cousins. This meant a trip across town to pick up my bag, but by this time I was almost sure of the route.
Tea with my aunt was very pleasant and her new flat is bigger than I had expected. Three bedrooms two bathrooms, a lounge, a dining room and a decent-sized kitchen. I dropped Dennis off at home on my way to get my bags (he had more homework to do) and arrived at the other cousins to find the kids bathed and watching TV. I decided that one last dip in the wonderfully heated pool and even more heated jacuzzi was required and Dexter accompanied me. Nice to know that I'm more interesting than cartoons. Well, to one of them at least. It's always nice to swim when the water's hotter than the outside air.
After the swim I dried off, packed my bags, listened to the end of the bedtime story (something very alliterative about foxes feasting on fondue) and made my goodbyes. The drive back was mostly uneventful although I took the wrong offramp and had to navigate by instinct for a bit. I'm getting rather better at finding my way around in general. At least I no longer panic when I discover that I'm lost. Of course, having a map helps, but I've been trying to rely on it as little as possible. When I eventually got back, I realised that I'd left all my toiletries in the bathroom, so I'd have to go back there again before the airport. Ah well, I still had a couple of hundred kilometers left on the rental. I also ran out of book just before I arrived, and for some reason the mp3 player wasn't seeing the other book I had on there. A few minutes reorganising the filesystem after all the kids had gone to bed sorted that out, though.
Tuesday morning was the usual chaos for that household, but they conveniently left at the same time I had to. I finally got to the other cousins (where I'd left my toiletries) without getting lost and got there just in time to wave to Dexter on his way to school. I grabbed my toiletries, declined another breakfast and watched cartoons with Little Dennis until it was time for him to go to school as well. All in all, a much more relaxed atmosphere than the other household. The drive to the airport was uneventful and free of wrong turns, as was the flight home.
Things got exciting again at Durban airport, though. They're currently renovating the parking, which involves ripping up the whole dropoff/pickup area and about half the parking lots. When my mother came to fetch me, she was told to drive to the end where there was a pickup zone. When she got to the end, she was told that there was no pickup zone and she would have to park. Except all the parking was full, even the parking way down at the other end of the runway which is a fifteen minute walk in the sun even when you don't have luggage. When she came around again and stopped in the middle of the road for me to get in with my bag, we were yelled at by the cop directing traffic. Despite the fact that the traffic wasn't actually moving at all. Bloody airport.
And that's it. Now I just have to wait for Amazon to get back to me and hopefully offer me a job.