My Greek Olympics: Get a place to live and corporate problems

Fixed price review shits:

At this time, the company sent two shits from the Fixed Price Review Board to see what we were doing and get in our way. We had to demo ETEAM and other commercial software system to them and they would evaluate the risk. It was a joke, all they cared was risk and they saw risk everywhere. They even questioned the Windows 2000 operating system and said it was a risk to use it. Really an echo of things to come in the project and how the company viewed what we were doing, they actually didn't want us to do it as it turned out.

Eventually they turned in a report that said there was a lot of risk and the only way out was to bring in a whole bunch of engineers to work on the project. This is what they wanted to do from the beginning, the big dollars meant spread the money to other divisions. It was a cash-cow and they didn't care about how the project ended, just how much money can we get. The project was not supposed to need engineers, but the company sent a bunch anyway, what a waste.

Trip to Spetses:

We decided to do day trip to an island and on one Saturday, we decided to go to Spetses. David, Ron, Vic and I got tickets and took the high speed ferry to Spetses, basically went to the end of the line. Spetses is a small island off the south-east tip of the Peloponnese and is the last stop on the ferry line. The high speed hydrofoils would go out of the main harbor and stop at a few islands along a route. This ferry stopped at Poros and Hydra, then on the Spetses. The boats are fast and the trip took about an hour, plus we could see some of the coast and the weather was great. These boats go about 30 mph and zip along raised up above the water so it is kind of fun.

When we got there we walked around and decided to rent mopeds or scooters. We each got a small scoot and off we went, David in the lead and I was in the back, my scoot was shit. I couldn't keep up with the rest, my scoot was so under-powered and I could barely make it up the first hill. We went around the island stopping to look at the scenery and other things. Not a lot on the island except some big homes, but the town was nice. We went around one curve and David was all 'look at me' but he nearly crashed when there was a large rock in the road on the turn. After that he wasn't as cocky.  The island only has one main town and most of the buildings are on that side of the island, the rest is more open with homes, some large homes on the back side had docks.

We rented the bikes for several hours, but after going around the place and David not wanting to go anywhere else, we turned the bikes in to the shop. When we walked back to the center of town, we found a place to eat and had a few beers of course. They always have squid so we ordered fried squid and salads, some lamb stew and wine. It is a standard type food that you find all over Greece and we would eat it a lot at many places. We decided to head back and slept most of the way back, we could have stayed but we would have just eaten and drank more. Once back at the prot, we walked to the train for the ride into town, back to the annex and off to dinner to end the day. There are so many places to go that are close and we were happy to get out of town, a nice end to a nice day trip.

Routine:

The routine was simple, get up and go to Siemens, spend the morning going over the contract documents, then lunch at a nearby place, then back to the contract for more review. Once in a while I would go some where, but not to often. We would pack up and go out and find a taxi or get a car for the ride back to the center, at first it wasn't a problem to get a ride, but soon the vans and cars were used by the corporate managers and they had to be at their call. We would have to find other transport, stand on the street and hail a cab. The metro wasn't running that far out yet, so no train. The evenings were simple, drop everything at the hotel, then meet at the annex for drinks, dinner at Poliathina or Psara, maybe noodle shop or some other near by place. After a while we moved out a bit, but the old stand by's were convenient. After dinner out to a club maybe, if lucky we would be back by 2 or 3 am. 

Dealing with corporate:

One of the first real things we had to do was look for a place to live, since corporate had decided that we all had to be "expats", they were going to make us "move" to Greece and they would pay our expenses on a monthly basis. This turned out to be one big fuck up, we had envisioned being paid a per Diem and we would take care of the rest ourselves. The thought was that we would get about $6000 a month and with that we could rent an apartment, pay for food and transport, plus other costs. The company said no way and said instead that they would rent an apartment for us, plus pay the expenses, and add a cost of living to our pay.

What they added was shit and didn't cover our real expenses. So in the long run, it cost me money to be in Greece, since I was spending way more than the cost of living adjustment. In retaliation, I would make long distance calls to San Diego and run my heater/air conditioner at full the whole time, whether I was there or not. In addition, the company was forced to pay income tax on our wages, since they moved us to Greece and we qualified as residents, they made us get work permits which sealed it for them.

This was stupid on their part, since the tax was 40% of our income, this worked out to $45000 a year for me. Corporate ass-bits also made us go through an "agent" to get our places, she would have places that she worked out agreements with the owners and she would get a kick-back on the rent. I refused to look at anyplace she had, I found my own place and worked out an arrangement, I had her charge $1000 a month instead of $700 and I wanted the company to pay more to screw them. So my apartment was 26 Omirou Kolonaki, kind of on the edge of Kolonaki but near the old university, the anarchy area.

Apartment search with Yurgos:

We needed to find a place to live and David had been in contact with a guy who managed apartments. He was going to look at a place so I tagged along. Yurgos was a retired Air Force pilot and few F-4's. He was a wild guy and seemed like fun, I would get to know him more after the Olympics. We met at his office in the 'Hilton' area and we walked around the block to a place. I really didn't know what to expect and I though the places would be furnished more modern.

The first apartment was up on the 4th floor, it looked like an old woman lived there, it was furnished like any other house, pictures on the wall, etc. It was 1000 Euros a month, I wasn't sure about it, David said he was interested. We then went around the corner to another place that was on the top floor of a building. It was a smaller place and only one bedroom and a very small kitchen. It did have a great view of the Acropolis and Lykabettus. I wasn't sure about the place and George said it wasn't good to be on the top floor, I shouldn't have listened to him. It was also a 1000 Euros a month and I thought it was expensive and small.

We went across the park and up a street to see another place, it was nice and David immediately claimed it for himself. We went around the corner and stopped at a cafe for a drink, Yurgos was very animated and talked wildly and laughed a lot. We went to Mie Tie for a drink and David like the place as well. This was the first time to Mie Tie and it would soon take the place of the annex as the nightly hangout. Yurgos was OK, but I wasn't sure about the apartments. I told them I would keep looking.