The C word

Christmas is approaching at high speed and Peter and me are already getting ready to fly back to the UK next Sunday. It is unbelievable how fast the time goes!

There has been a gap in my blogging because actually not much has really been happening. We are spending all day in the office, coming home pretty tired and then crashing out. So it has been difficult to know what to write.

We were also in the office this afternoon, we did two interviews for senior Java developers to work with me on the mid-tier work on Khojle. The first guy that we saw today wasn't so great. His basic Java knowledge had some pretty big gaps (I have a pretty difficult set of test questions written down that I like to challenge the guys with), but I think he put the final nail in the coffin with the following exchange....

Peter: "So tell me about your favourite websites?"
Candidate: "Well I use google, and yahoo mail, but I don't use the web much as it is a waste of time!!"

I am not exactly sure what kind of job he was interviewing for, but describing the delivery mechanism of our project as a 'waste of time' was a sure fire way to avoid getting the job. Peter is quite an avid web user, and likes to play around with the latest trendy websites building up ideas for Khojle so I *knew* that this guy had just talked himself out a job at that point. Worked out quite well because I would have only given him about 6/10 for technical skills anyway.

The second guy we interviewed was much better, this was a telephone interview since he is not in the Delhi area at the moment. This guy nailed every question on my test which the exception of one (which only one candidate has gotten so far!), so high marks. Peter seemed to like him too so we will be meeting him in person in due course.

This morning I went out to the shopping centre and picked up a present for the 4 year old daughter of the couple that I used to live next door to in the UK. When her parents told her that I was going to India she became obsessed with India and told them she wanted to go to India as well, so I picked up an Indian doll for her. I am pretty sure the guy in the shop overcharged me. I am not sure if he was expecting me to barter but I wasn't fully paying attention and I haven't completely gotten to grips with the exchange rate so I just paid him what he asked for. Doesn't really matter, it would have been the same price in the UK.

I still need to get some things for my dad and sister, we are going tomorrow for this but neither of us are sure if the shops will be open on Sunday. I guess we will find out!!

We *still* don't have internet in our flat, I am still on the crappy data card. It seems that things just take ages to arrange here. Nobody is in any kind of rush to get anything sorted out, it is starting to get a little annoying, but it is cultural and you have to just deal with that.

Well, I will sign off now, I am catching up with a friend from back home that I haven't spoken to in a while.

I am still intending to get some pictures up soon, watch this space!