I met Steve last night. I'm rather heartened by our conversation about his 'between jobs' situation, I must say. It seems that he has several irons in the fire at the moment, so things are decidedly looking up.

Interestingly, all but one of these prospects have come through people who know Steve, and have worked with him. The other prospect is a friend-of-a-friend thing, with me being the friend. None of them have been put to him by a recruitment consultancy. Thing is, the Synon/2[1] market is a small one, and people know one another. Steve's reputation is good - very good - and it's now that this is paying off for him.

So, there are grounds for optimism here. Good luck, Steve!

[1] OK, OK, it's called Advantage 2E these days. But it will always be Synon/2 in my heart. Just as the AS/400 will always be the AS/400, though IBM have called it the iSeries for some time now...

BTW, The Stage Door turns out to be a lovely pub. First off, it really is a pub - rather than a bar - with a proper pub feel. Good, attentive staff, more interested in serving beer than chatting, unlike in many places I could mention. And not to pricey for a London pub, either. Recommended.

Not enough eye-candy for Steve, though, so at his suggestion we decamped to The Fire Station later on in the evening.