My Greek Olympics: Getting close to the end..

Military parade:

In March, the annual military parade was put on to commemorate the over throw of the Turks. This is always a big deal and a parade is put on and televised throughout Greece. I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of load rumbling, I went on the patio and look down Omirou and could see vehicle going do Stadiou Street. I got dressed and walked down to Stadiou and say a line of military vehicle driving down the street. A line of tanks were going past and self-propelled artillery followed. I went to the office since I knew the parade would go by there and found the street filled with vehicles.

I met Rick there and we walked down the street looking at the missiles and tanks and all the other vehicles. A lot of troops were standing around, but they didn't care if we walked up to there vehicle and looked in. The line of vehicle stretched all the way down Sygrou street and up past the office. The parade would start at noon and we would get a good seat for the viewing. I went on the street to see what was happening and to watch.

Every agency was there, Police, Fire, Coast Guard, Army, and Navy. I walked down to look at the vehicles and saw that they had rocket launchers, jeeps towing cannons, radio and communications, tanks, artillery, radar, and all kinds of Police and Fire vehicles. Once the parade started, there were over flights of Air force planes. F16's and Mirage fighters, F4's and cargo planes, fire fighting aircraft, and helicopters as well all made several over flights. There were old women telling the solders to kill the Turks and there were little icons on each artillery piece of a religious figure.   

Stuck in the center:

Since I didn't have a car, I would rely on the bus, metro or taxi. I could have gone to some of the other places out side of Athens, but it was more of a pain to have to deal with getting the transport. So I stayed in town mostly. I kind of wished I could just take off and see more, but I didn't have the time, or was too tired to deal with it. In winter it just wasn't something to think about, it was cold and a lot of places were closed.

One day Stavroula said we should go out for a drink, and she said we could go to a place where a friend owned a club, I said sure. I would have gone anywhere with her and she told me it was south of town. It ended up being in Vouliagmeni at the beach I had been to before. The club was right over the beach on the cove side and it wasn't to full. Stavroula introduced me to her friend the owner and we talked a bit. Stavroula order some things to eat and we sat and talked for a while. It was a nice view and nice company. She was telling me of the problems with her boy friend, and they had split up. She wanted to get married and he wanted to play. I was hoping she would leave him and find someone nicer, she was being used a bit and I didn't like it. But I was so sick of the center of Athens, I wanted to get out and do something different. The stress was hard to control for so long and I felt trapped in town, I wanted out.

Drinks with Sissy:

As the weather got nicer, I would call Sissy and we would meet for a drink or something. One of the first places we went was very near my apartment on Skoufou Street and which was only a few blocks from the university. I wasn't sure of the street at first and Sissy said it was near Kolonaki square, so I said I would meet her at the square, but it was a waste because I just walked there and we had to walk back. We went to a small club type place, more like a pub. It was very near the university and it was like an American college bar with a lot of students. They played rock music and had a small bar. It was packed and we had to look for a place to sit. We sat and talked about music and other things. She told me of her trips and what she does when she goes to her village, a lot of hiking and stuff.

She was from a town call Kastoria in North West Greece, a mountainous area with the town on the shore of a large lake. She said she would take the train to Thessaloniki, then drive or take a bus west to the town. It took a long time since there wasn't a direct route. She showed me pictures of the place, nice tree covered mountains and a big lake. Sissy would go there once in a while, and suggested that if I would like, she could arrange a trip up there. I didn't think I had the time, but I could have gone if I wanted to.

On some occasions we would meet in Plaka, most Greeks don't like to hangout in Plaka. It is very touristy and always more expensive than other areas. We would go to a nice little place and sit outside if it was good weather and have a drink. Sissy would have chocolate and I would get a frappe or something. It was very relaxing and pleasant. A little work would make it into the conversation, but not too much. The place we would go wasn't actually in Plaka exactly, more like Monastiraki. If we would be in Plaka, we would go up the hill and hang out at a place with a view of the Agora just below the Acropolis. If the weather was nice it would be packed with people, it was closed in winter.

Psara:

One other restaurant we would go to but not as often was Psara, which was up on the hill in Plaka. It was partly owned by Leo and it was the fish place in Plaka. They had the best fish and it wasn't cheep. Besides the standard taverna food, they had really good fish. The fish would be mostly grilled or baked, they would bring a tray out with the fish on it and show you what was available. The large fish that could feed two or three people could cost up to 50 Euro or more, so the big ones would only be good to share wit a few people. The smaller ones cost around 25 to 30 Euro.

All the staff knew us and we would get great service or special attention. Always they would have a few people funning around us and we didn't have to wait for much. If Leo was there, he would make sure we got some extra stuff, we were get customers for him. Psara had a large deck area and a courtyard between the two buildings. It was just on the north side of the acropolis and you could see up the walls to the top. The view out over Plaka was one of the best and I like it a lot. We would stop there for lunch after the Aris tours most of the time.

Final stretch:

In the beginning of April, life started to change, more people came into my daily life as the project was winding down or more likely crashing down. We had been told that the final IET would be in the beginning of June and it would also have the acceptance test be part of it. This turned out not to happen, all the prep I was doing for the test was over shadowing the IET, then I was told that the IET was pushed back to the end of June. It was very frustrating to have to deal with all of the changes. I had to do some work with George and some new people from Virginia who were doing the acceptance test prep. It was like starting over, trying to explain everything to the new people. They used DOORS requirements to build the acceptance test, but the requirements were idiotic and did have a bearing on what should have been tested.

On the coast with Alex:

One Friday Alex called and wanted to know what I was doing over the weekend, no plans was my reply. He said we should go hang out at a place on the coast, so on Saturday afternoon I took the metro to Neo Cosmos and met him in front of the station. We drove down towards the coast along Odos Poseidonos in Neo Faliro and stopped at a place right on the water. It was one of the many cafeterias that dot the coast. If the place were here, it would coast a fortune to eat or drink there, but in Greece it was cheep. At least in my perspective it was cheep, a few Euros for a drink wasn't much.

We got a table and ordered Ouzo for me and a few munchies also. It was a nice area, the view was out over the gulf and Aigina was clearly visible. Not many people were there and the service was slow as always, but it was relaxing. We stayed for a few hours and then headed off to another place. We went to Mikro Limani (little harbor) and found a place for more drinks. Later we drove back to the center and Alex dropped me off at the metro in Syngrou Fix.   

Trip to Syros:

In early May, I went with Rick and Tryphon to Syros, which is Tryphon's home island. It is one of the islands in the area of Mykonos and is very similar in that it is dry and some what barren. We met at the port in the morning and bored the high speed ferry, it would be about 2 ½ hours to get there and the ferry was somewhat full. It was a gray morning and a little cool, the ride was boring and the only interesting thing was the islands we pasts though they were barren and a little distant.

We pulled into the harbor and I got a view of the city, Syros has an old town on the hills above the new town on the water. Syros was one of the islands that never were controlled by the Turks and it kept its Greek heritage. We got off the boat and the hotel that Tryphon found for us was right in front of the boat, we just crossed the street and we were there. We decided to drop our bags and we would meet Tryphon in and hour or so.

Tryphon drove up in his father's car and we piled in, he was taking us on an island tour, first up to the hill top town and look at the old stuff. The view was great, looking out over the town and seeing the water and the islands in the near distance. The town was built before cars, so we parked outside and walked in. the streets were made for mules and the buildings had an angled edge to allow the animals to make the turns more easily. The streets were mostly stairs and in some places it was steep, but there would be openings and great vistas over the town below.

We got back in the car and drove to the other side of the island, some small coves and beaches here and there, a small village on a hill. Syros is not a large island, but it is a nice size. We ended up at a little port town on the south west side and had lunch at a good local place. We had lobster spaghetti and it was good. Rick was tired after the food and we made it back to the hotel just before he fell asleep. We were going to take a break and then meet later for dinner.

We went to dinner at a nice place on the coast, good food as always and Tryphon was very happy. Later we went into town and found a place for drinks, Rick and Tryphon were having a good time and I was just hanging. Tryphon knew everyone on the island practically, everywhere we went people knew him. Rick and Tryphon decided to go to a Russian strip club near the hotel and they would be out all night of course.

The last day we went to Tryphon's parent's house for lunch. It was on the hill just out of town. A small modest house, but with a view of the port and islands, it would have been worth much more some where else. Tryphon's mother cooked a ton of food, but before we ate we saw his father's wood working shop. He does a lot of carving and furniture building.

We sat down for lunch and ate like crazy, all kinds of traditional dishes. Lots of home made wine and Raki, plus grilled lamb and rabbit. A wonderful lunch, I was happy to eat it all. Tryphon was so happy that Rick was there, it was like a little school girls crush. Kind of funny the way they would sit and look at each other.

We said our goodbyes and off to the port, the ride back to Athens seemed faster and once there said good bye to Tryphon and we went to the Metro station and rode the train back to the center. A nice weekend trip, I should have done more of them, it is to easy to just take off and have some fun. I would go back with David after I returned to Greece after the project and we had fun then as well.

Dealing with George:

Going out with George for any reason wasn't that great and I didn't see him to much or hang out with him either. I would see him once in a while or talk on the phone, but it was always a pain to go out with him. We went out one evening for dinner and George was tagging along. He would never like anyplace we wanted to go so finally we went to the Hermes just around the corner from the annex. We got a shitty table and I just didn't feel like eating, George complained the minute we sat down.

I didn't really want to eat there and my mood was pretty bad. I ordered stuffed squid Saganaki, which was made from Feta instead of the more mild cheese. It was so salty that I couldn't eat it. All I could taste was salt, I refused to eat it and I complained to the waiter. George said it should be salty but this was like pure salt. Rick tried some and he said it was really salty too.

 I was really pissed off and I didn't want to be there.  I didn't eat anything at that place and I ended up getting a kebab later. This was the last time I went out with George until his going away party. I would have preferred to have gone to a kabob stand and eaten on the cheep. It was costing me a lot to be there since the cost of living adjustment was a joke.

Day trip to Hydra:

The port of Hydra

I was getting really bored staying in the same area of town, so I decided to take a day trip to one of the islands. It was getting warm and I wanted to see the sea, so I asked Rick if he wanted to go to an island and hang out. Rick of course always is up for something to do and said yes. We met at the annex on Saturday morning and headed to the metro in Monastiraki. We jumped on the train for Piraeus and in a little while were at the port with tickets in hand. The next boat was to Hydra so that's where we were going.

The hydrofoil arrived and we hoped on, the boats are fast but really smelly and loud. We went to the back as we left the port, got a nice view of the water spray and the city as we pulled out into the Saronic Gulf. The trip was only about 45 minutes and soon we were in Hydra harbor. We jumped off and the first order of business was food. We walked around to a little taverna and ordered the usual food, eggs, yogurt and bread. A little while relaxing at the table, then off to find something to see.

Train station at the po

It ended up being more of an eating and drinking trip, since Rick wasn't that interested in much else. We spent some time drinking and eating, walking around and that's about it. I really wanted to go swimming and hangout at the beach, but it was hot and the water was cold and there were no conveniences like a shower to rinse off. Rick just sat and drank beer and chewed tobacco, spitting was his thing. We hoped on the ferry back and did the usual, sleep on the way home thing. Once back at the port, the train ride into town was short and it was back to the annex.

More food or lack there of:

I met Rick, David, Vic, Jay, Semos and Ari at a place in Plaka for dinner in early spring. One of the touristy places in the area I didn't go too often. Most of the restaurants were very touristy and I didn't think they were that great. I was really pissed off by something and I didn't want to deal with going to a place like that. I wanted to go to Poliathina, but I was voted down. This is the area where the hawkers always try to get the tourist to eat at 5 o'clock, I would tell them it is to early and just walk by.

The table was shitty, off to the side of the place with a big fan blowing hot oily air on us. The waiter didn't seem to care and I wasn't impressed with the wine. I went into the kitchen to see what they had and I didn't see anything I would eat. The place looked dirty and the food looked old. Semos was doing his usual loud talk and Jay was telling him to shut up. They were like a married couple the way they went on. When it came time to order, I passed. I wasn't going to stay and eat, I was pissed and I had no appetite. I threw a few Euros down for the wine I drank and I left, I wondered around and finally got some noodles.

My Greek Olympics: Easter again and more...

Going out with Rick and Tryphon:

One Saturday Rick said he was going out with Tryphon and if I wanted to come, I said OK though I knew what that meant. We had dinner with Tryphon and his wife, but soon Tryphon ditched his wife and we were off to Play Land. This was the club were Rick's stripper worked. We get there around 11:30 and as soon as we sit four African girls come by, do we want a dance is what they ask. We say no and they ask if we don't like African girls, well I wasn't interested but Tryphon gets rid of them. As we sit and drink our expensive beers, the girls slowly come by and ask for a drink or a dance.

Rick's stripper is there and soon he is off in the back with her. Tryphon's wife calls and he says he will have to leave in a while, well we lost track of time and she calls again. Tryphon says he has to go and Rick and I hangout for a while, Rick gets one more with his girl and I am sitting alone. A girl comes by and she is English or Scottish, but I say I will buy a drink for her. I just wanted someone to talk to and I would pay the 10 Euros to have a few minutes of conversation, besides it would keep the other girls away.

After a little while Rick is back and he says he is ready to go. We pay out the bill and we walk out. We open the door and it is bright sun light, the church bells are ringing and we see that it is 8:00 in the morning. We walk to the metro and I go my way and Rick goes his. I am home in 20 minutes and I go straight to bed, I stayed out way to long and I wasn't happy I did that.

Mia Tie:

The Mia Tie was a favorite place to hang out and it only being a block from David's place, he loved it. I would meet him there in the evening and have drinks and dinner. The Mie Tie had a restaurant one door down, but a tea shop was between. We knew the owners of the Mie Tie and the people how worked there. They had some nice girls, not to smart or caring of the job, but they were funny and we got along.

One time Jay and Semos came with us and were going to eat. They had a good steak there and Semos ordered one. In the typical Semos fashion, he raved about it and promptly ordered a second dinner. He would say in an astonished voice, "this is very good" and make each one of us eat a bit of his dinner. He never really ate more than a bit from the two dinners, but he just went totally over board. He ordered a third dinner and just cut the meet up and gave it to the rest of us. He was totally out of control and Jay was upset with him.

Mie Tie would be so busy on Friday nights that the people would be spilling into the streets. There was club across the street that was expensive and a constant line of taxis would come and be dropping off people, but Mie Tie was a more casual place. The women would wear slinky dresses and the guys looked like slobs, but they had money. It was a nice show and there were people from the embassies from down the street there as well. Up the street there were a few other restaurants and they had a crowd as well.

We would sit first in the drinking area on the sidewalk. There was a tea shop that had a set of tables and chairs, but only tea shop customers could sit there. Usually the tables were empty and we had to wait for the tea shop to close, at around 8 pm. Once they closed, the drinkers moved in and we had more space. We tried to get there early since the tables would be full by 8 or 9 pm. We would stay all night and drink lots of beer or at least David would, so we were like the kings of the place.

The girls working at the Grill served only the dinners and ran food to the drinkers. If you wanted to eat, you had to move to the eating tables or go inside. They also had nachos and they weren't bad. They were simpler than most places here, but there it was amazing that they would server such a thing. In the summer it wasn't very nice to be inside as it was hot and they had no AC. In winter it was nice and warm so we would enjoy a good dinner and the warmth. The food was continental and a good mix of pasta, salads, and steaks or chops. They had one of the best steaks in town or at least the ones we tried.

Still dealing with contract:

Winter was cold and rainy, not a lot going on and I just had to deal with all the shit that was happening. I would be called to a meeting here or there and would have to argue a point on the contract with the committee. I knew the contract inside and out and what was meant by the requirements, since I wrote a number of them. In one case no one knew what the requirement was and I had to explain it. Some of the shits talked back, but I just shut them up, it was easy, I would tell them I wrote the requirement and what I said was what it was. This was a regular occurrence when every Fene showed up. Then there was the Lesbos controversy. The Jesus wore a shirt that said, 'No knows I am a Lesbian'. A lot of noise was made about this and an apology was made for insensitivity. The shirt was a common tourist rag that in any other circumstance no one would care.

A routine:

I saw Ari and Jay once in a while and Vic here and there, they were doing their own thing and I was dealing with my stuff. I would go and hangout with Alex and Stavroula when I could, we would go down to Vouliagmeni or Verkiza for the afternoon or evening. We would go to dinner here or there, maybe a new place by the water or on the hill. I didn't want to get into a rut, but I was getting into a rhythm of burning through days, not to productive.  

I went on a few Ari tours and one in particular when Gous was getting involved. Ari and Semos thought he would be different and change how the project management was going. I was to be there and talk to him about some issues, one being the AVL system. We were on the Acropolis, not many people there as it was cold, windy and rainy. Gous started talking about cruise missiles and what is needed for them to hit there target. He was thinking that the AVL would be like a missile system, what a stupid shit.

I thought this was the guy that they thought would help us, he knew nothing of what we were doing. I just stood and looked out over Kallithea and to the Saronic Gulf and I knew at that point that the program was totally lost. We would never get it to work. Gous was just another idiot that corporate sent, the project was becoming a dumping ground for stupid shit heads and here was another one. Jay and Ari thought he would do some good, I didn't. I didn't know why they wasted their time with him.

All I could do was walk away and ignore this stupid person. Ari was talking about what a great person he was and he would do the right thing. I don't know if Ari was deluding himself or what, but Gous was a shit. I wanted to see Stavroula, but she was off with her family. I didn't want to do anything except go back to my apartment and sleep. I had a projector and would project movies onto the wall, like a movie theater. This was a means of escape. Eventually Ari and Jay can to the same conclusion that Gous was an idiot and he should just go home.

So at this time I spent my days traveling across town every day going to meetings or trying to put out fires that someone started. The government was at a point of giving up on the system and corporate was fighting over every little issue. The company was loyal to the US government, not their customer so what every the embassy wanted they did. The Greek government didn’t trust the company so they become distant and stopped cooperating.

A day in the life:

A standard day would be getting up at 7:30 am, coffee, showering and getting dressed. Out the door by 8:15 and do the 15 minute walk to the MOC. Down Omirou to Akademious, then to Likabettos and finally to Studio, which turns into Amalias. Past the Parliament and maybe stop at one of the shops to grab a spinach pie. To the MOC and up to my office, I would be first to arrive. Marcini would say good morning when she showed up and bring me my coffee and tell me of what ever new happened or who did what. The others if they were there yet would be sitting and drinking coffee and talking.

At 9:00 am we would have our daily telecom and I or someone else would call in. We would sit and listen to the news of the day or any meeting scheduled etc. I would have to listen to the corporate idiots say bad things about the Greeks, even though the Greeks could hear and I am sure some of them talked to the government. If I was lucky the call would be over in 20 minutes and I could then do what I had to do. I would do my morning emails and respond to a bunch of stupid questions by new people or try to put out a fire caused by one of the idiots. Then I would get to my calls, at least one to Dimitris and one to Tryphon or Sissy. They would tell me any news they would hear from their agency.  

By 10:30 I could be free to do my first trip. I would pack up my computer and tell Marcini I was off to the port or the Fire Brigade or DAOA. In most cases I would have to go to at least two places a day and it could mean crossing the city a couple of times. Out the door and down to Syntagma and catch the metro in whichever direction I had to go. This would also entail a short hop in a taxi since the metro didn't get me all the way to my destination. If I really felt like it I would walk some times, in most cases it was about a 15 minute walk to wherever I was going after the metro.

DAOA Complex

If I was at the MMM at the port it would be the hassle of going through the security check and then up to the 7th floor and spend time with Tryphon, which meant a trip to a cafe at some point. If I were going to the Fire Brigade, I would just walk in and wave to the guys on duty, they knew me and there was no problem getting in. I would spend time with the video wall guys or in the server room or talking to the fire guys as to how things would work. Lunch would be at the little taverna down the street.

If it was the police that meant I was actually close to my place. The main station was on a direct line to the other side of Likabettos, but I usually took the metro and then just walk the one block. The police was another place where I would have to go through the security line, but it was nothing, sometimes they waved me around the ropes. Lunch would be either the really cheep food at the station or go to the bakery around the corner and get a small pizza bread, really good and only a couple of Euros.

If I was off to DAOA it was a ride to Omonia to catch the Green line out to Neo Ionia, then the half mile walk to the complex. Again the security was nothing, you could show them a library card and they would let you in. There I would meet with the committee and have to go over contract points and procedures, lunch would be at the cafeteria at the complex. DAOA was where the main Olympic planning was carried out and it was staffed by a bunch of people from all over the world. The IOC would work out of DAOA.

After lunch it would be more meetings or continued system installs/tests/configuration. This would go on until at least 5:00 at which point most Greeks would leave, unless we were at the Fire Brigade. We would stay on and do anything that needed to be done; it could be an hour or 5 hours depending on the task. The Coast Guard would have a shift change and it mostly was a chance to meet more people as new people would come on duty.

There was a staff meeting at the MOC at 4:00 every day, but I would be gone most of the time and the meetings would be stupid anyway so there was no point in going. The only thing I would get out of it was to hear what the company was planning to do to screw the contractors or government. But since I was on site I didn't bother to rush back for any of those meetings.

Once I was finished on site, I would go out and try to get a taxi into town or at least to the metro. If it was hot and I had to take the Green Line it would mean standing for an hour shoulder to shoulder with sweaty smelly Greeks. I at least was taller and would be above the main arm pit in the face smell. I would make it back to the MOC by 6:00 or so if I were lucky and I would do my end of day emails and check what came in, maybe cruise the web for some news or check the surf report. I would be the last to leave the MOC and as I would go out I would set the alarm. With luck I would be gone by 7.

After work I would need a change of clothes and a shower so I would go home drop my stuff and take a quick rinse. Change clothes and make a call for the dinner plans. Maybe I would meet Jay and Semos, but it would most likely be to find out if David was at Mie Tie yet. Out the apartment by 7:30 or 8:00 and I would make the mile walk to Mie Tie in good time. The standard "beer me" text would go out when I past Kolonaki Square so that as I made the turn I would see my beer arrive to the table.

David would have had at least one before me and we would have a couple half liter Alphas. Dinner would be either at the Grill or we would venture up the hill to Tops. Sometimes David would just drink and I would have to find food later. Drinks went on until 10:00 then dinner was the plan. We would either pay out and take off or move over to the Grill tables and order. The girls loved David since he drank and ate so much, it would mean a nice big tip even though one would be added anyway.

If I was unlucky, I might have to go out with Tryphon. This meant a trip on the train to the port, then a ride out some place for some good food, but after dinner Tryphon would wanted to go out and play. Drinks at some club for hours, trying to understand Tryphon and explain things again and again. If Rick came along it would be better in that Rick would be the focus of Tryphon's conversation. These nights could last to 3 or 4 in the morning, if I were lucky.

Sometimes we would head back to Plaka and meet Jay, Semos, Vic and any others for dinner or just go to Poliathina or if we felt cheep the Souvlaki stands. Dinner went on till 11:30 or so and then a few drinks at the annex or some other watering hole to end the day. David could drink 7 or 8 beers in a night and I would do about 3. With luck I could be home by 12:00 or 1:00am on a good night and do some quick things around the place, then to bed and lights out till morning. A bad night would mean hearing church bells as we leave the strip club at 7 am….

Second Training Center:

The company rented another facility to do more training. It was one of the commercial office rentals and cost a fortune. Instead of buying a building and fixing it up, the company rented office space at a very high rate. For what they spent on rent on one office, they could have purchased a building, built the training facilities in it, plus have office space for all. The government would have seen it as the company putting down roots and staying for the long haul.

All the Greeks thought that SAIC was full of stupid people and they couldn't believe that they spent so much on rent. I would have to go the new place once in a while and this is where George and Chris worked. Stavroula worked out of that office also, so it was nice to get to see her once in a while. Chris was in charge of training, kind of funny since he never really seemed to do anything except go to clubs with Rick.

They had three rooms to do the training in, but they were not laid out well. The rooms all had strange angles and the seating was not good, plus it was hot. The main computers were in a server room that was locked by the building managers. When I needed access, I would have to find someone and have them open the door. Then they would stay and wait for me to do what I had to do then lock up after. No one very seemed interested in the training, they just sat and talked and drank coffee. The timing was bad, the training had to be done for thousands of people and to do in time they had to start early. This meant that if you were trained first, it would be months until you ever saw the system again. We had hoped that the project would have started six months sooner, but with all the delays we were on a tight time schedule.

Second Easter:

Easter was coming up and all of Greece would shut down for a week. Most people would go back to their village to celebrate. There wasn't much to do and most people who could were going somewhere, I didn't have any plans and would just stay in Athens. I could have flown to Italy or Germany or somewhere. I could have asked David if he wanted to go and I am sure he would have, but I didn't. David could be very lazy if he wanted to be and to make the effort to travel somewhere might be too much for him.

On the road north.

Chris had nothing planned and said we should go drive somewhere, so we decided to take a drive out of town. I hadn't been north much and I suggested to drive up the east side of Attica. We ended up heading towards Volos and just went looking at the country. A few wrong turns and driving around a steel mill, plus stopping at a little town and port were in order. A drink here or there was not out of the question and it was actually hard to find a place open.

We ended up in Agos Konstantinos which is just south of Thermopile on the Eastern coast. It turned out to be where Stellio was from. Since it was Easter, not much was open and we were hard pressed to find a place that was decent to eat. We stopped at a place on the water and had a drink, not many people there and I think the waiters were surprised to see anyone. As we sat, cars would drive by with whole lambs with a spit sticking out of the head would drive by. The smell of BBQ was everywhere and I wish I could stop and get some. It was only about a 2 ½ hour drive and we had no real idea of what to do.

We eventually drove back to Athens and ate at one of the places by the annex, nothing special at all. To bad that we couldn't have had a BBQ ourselves, I should have bought a BBQ and cook something on the balcony of my place. I saw many people cooking in the street so I don't think it would have been an issue. I didn't have time during the week to go to the central market and get some lamb or chicken, could have been fun. After the fact, I thought I could have flown to Italy for a few days, call up a relative and seen them. A wasted opportunity, it is only an hour and a half to Italy and flights were cheep.

In the doldrums:

In February, I spent a lot of time with Rick and the Chris. David was off doing things and I was told that I wasn't supposed to have contact with "those people", namely Jay and Vic. But of course I would see David a lot and I would talk to Vic and Jay all the time. Rick and I would go out with Silvia and Roula, hang out at the clubs or just the annex. It was cold and there wasn't not much else to do so most people would just did the basic daily things and not go out. I am sure we kept many businesses a float that winter.

I would walk around on the weekends, do the Lykabettus climb or walk around the area. Saturday was market day and Sunday was just hangout at the annex in the morning, and then read at my place. Once in a while Alex would call and we would meet for drinks. The IET was coming and the date was always in flux. I took a quick trip to Italy to see my cousin in Milano, just a few days, but at least it was different.

During Carnival, it is kind of like Halloween here. People dress up in costumes and go out and party. I wasn't going to do quite that and I would go out and drink anyway so it wasn't too different. I went to Psiri and found a place to hangout at. Rick and the gang from Metropol came with me. We got a table and ordered lots of drinks and food, the music was loud and people were dancing. This was the first time I saw people on the tables dancing. It was fun and we all had a good time. As I was heading home, I saw some of the people in costume in the street, kind of strange looking.

Mexican with Stavroula and Alex:

One night Rick and I took Stavroula, Alex and Sophia out for Mexican food. There was a place in Glifadha called the Three Amigos. We met and drove down, found the place and went in, not many people. I don't think most Greeks like Mexican food, Greeks don't eat spicy stuff. We got a table and ordered a round of Margaritas and some chips. The drinks were expensive and not very strong. Since they don't use limes, they used lemon juice in the drinks and it makes a difference. We were going to get fajitas, since Stavroula was so excited about them.

They were all right, can't screw them up to bad, but the tortillas and salsa were a bit lacking. The salsa was like catsup. We ate up and Stavroula was so excited, we ordered a second round of drinks, but Alex and Sophia said no, they were to expensive. We said no problem they were on us. The bill was a lot, but we paid for it all. This would have been an extremely expensive dinner for them, but for Rick and I it was a normal thing, spending 100 or so Euros wasn't as big deal to us as to them.

MyGreek Olympics: More failures.

Trip to Volos:

After IET2, I needed to start installing CATS and the GIS software at the command centers around Greece. Originally I was going to do it all, but Fene screwed that up, but I did the first set. I had to do the installs at the regional Olympic cities of Patras, Thessaloniki, Volos, and Iraklion on Crete. I decided to do Volos over a weekend and I took the inter-city bus and would meet the SAIC guy there.

Volos harbor.

I went to the bus station and was able to get a ticket even though I couldn’t speak much Greek and the guy at the counter didn’t speak English. I waited then got on the bus with the other people, it was a standard bus with just locals. It took about three hours to get to Volos, which is about half way to Thessaloniki. I met the SAIC guy at the station and he drove to the command post at the Fire Station.

It was simple to do the install and get the software to run and I knew all the problems that I could expect, since I had done it so many times already. One of the fire guys was there and I tried to explain what I was installing. It only took about one hour to get everything up and running. After I finished, we drove back to town and I was dropped off at the bus station. It was downtown and close to the water, so I walked over and had a look at the town. Typical Greek sea port, ferries going in and out, lots of small fishing boats and the like. I got something to eat and relaxed for a bit.

It was about a 3 hour ride on the bus so I wasn't too pressed for time. This turned out to be the only install of CATS outside of Athens and the other locations were never installed, because Fene got his fingers into the process. He said that an engineer should do the installs and talked Jesus into assigning the job to Elvis. Elvis wasn't happy about it and basically nothing was installed anywhere since he didn’t have the time to go to all those cities.  

On the bus ride back, I stopped in a town on the cost for a break. I would get the next bus a couple of hours later but I needed to relax a little. Typical Greek town and I found the bar for some food and a drink. The bus station was near and when I saw the Athens bus I hopped on. Back in Athens I went to the Annex for a drink and met the lads. A long trip and little to show for it and I am sure none of the software was ever used and the whole process was a waste. I wanted to do the installs at the other sites, especially Crete, but with Fene interfering, it was never done.

IET3, CPX2 and COMX:

The IET3 went off in late February and like all the others it was a joke. We put together another stupid scenario and then tried to carry it out. Most of the shit heads couldn't understand what we were doing, most just stood around talking about where they were going after. I was at the Ministry of Public Order command center and had to deal with poor communication equipment. I had wanted to be at the Police or Port, but the shits sent me there. I was with Ron and some other guys I didn't know. There were only about 15 people there and the computers didn't work well and the video conference never really worked. The CPX (Command Post Exercise) was rolled into the IET3 (Integration Exercise Test) and the COMX (Command Exercise) was to be held the day after.

Near the police station were the IET was.

I kept getting call that the system wasn't working or there was a communication problem or something. The scenario wasn't being followed and the Greeks wanted to start the evaluation without going through the processes. I think they wanted to see how bad things were and didn't seem to care about the scenario. Tryphon called and kept asking me questions, I got a call from someone at the police station saying no one knew how to use the software, even though they had people we trained there. I wanted to leave, get out of the place and do anything but work on the IET. It was embarrassing.

Stavroula wasn't at my command center and I had no one to talk to. The scenario was to play out for most of the day but with all the problems we only actually worked for about 2 hours. Even though this was a more in-depth demo, I wasn't involved in it at the police center. They were to demo more of SS3 and 4 for the police and SS6 for fire, even though I was the main person responsible for these subsystems and the one person who the Greeks seemed to trust, I wasn't used for the demo. Of course the shits said it was a success. This lead to the follow on demo and of course I was involved with that again.

After IET3:

Again after the IET, I was dragged into two weeks of post IET meetings with the committee. This was the re-hashing of what was supposed to have happened during the exercise and try to resolve all the stuff that didn't work. I got to demo each component of the system and explain how and why it worked. Even though I wasn't the one who did it during the IET, I was the one who had to demo it to the committee during the redo. One thing was the Visual Site Imaging requirement that no one really knew what it was supposed to mean. What I proposed was that if we provided a 3D tool, then modeling and imaging of sites could be preformed. I got the committee to agree to this and got the Vampire to also go along, but Fene again caused problems and eventually the resolution to this was to basically ignore it. I showed what I did for Jimmy, but it didn't matter.

Two weeks of all day meetings and demo's of the software and explanations of what it does, how to use it and all the other stuff. Fene showed up and in a discussion with the committee he said that CATS does not show collateral damage. This lead to a two week fight the get everyone to understand what is meant by the output and trying to find an official definition of what collateral damage means, finally used a NATO definition. Plus I had to show the explosive blast model in 3D and show how it could be used to display potential damage. All this was to have been shown at the police command center during the IET, but it never was since the committee didn't want to have the demo.

I really hated to do the re-do demos, I would have to get the subcontractors to have someone available, maybe have someone we "trained" show up and try to demo the system to prove we trained the people properly, on and on. The other corporate idiots would come in and sit, they knew nothing of the system or why the components did what they did, but they would show up and I would have to argue with the government on why things did what they did. In the end it never really mattered, I would talk to the committee after and they would tell me what they thought, the meetings were a joke as was the whole process.

Low Profile:

Around the corner from my place there was a very small bar called the Low Profile. It was very, very small, just two tables and about ten seats in the whole place. They served Scotch and Whisky mostly, a nice hole in the wall type place. I went there a few times, but even being so close, I didn't make it there much. David had gone there in the beginning because it was so close to Trep's office and it was out of the way. We went once and had a few drinks when we wanted to go somewhere other than the annex or Mie Tie.

Corrine and the acceptance test:

So with IET3 over, we had only three months to deliver the final system. The contract was up on June 1st and the system was to go into acceptance testing. George was working with acceptance testing with Corrine, a SAIC Virginia laky. She was to make up the procedures to complete the test and develop the test itself. George was working with her, but he hated it, I also was working with Chris on training and dealing with the Coast Guard issues that seemed to never end. I really think Tryphon just wanted us to hangout with him.

Corrine was working in a closed world with no grip on the real world. She acted like she was still in DC and working with the Pentagon. This was Greece and things worked differently.  We would say, "Look out the window. That isn't Kansas!" You are in a foreign country and things are done differently, plus the customer is a foreign government no the good old boys in the DoD. The government never was going to accept the system and since it failed the two IETs and CPX already, there was no hope of getting the system to pass on the final test. There was talk of pushing the IET4 to after the Olympics.

No supervision:

I was bouncing around from place to place with little supervision and basically I did what I wanted. I would go out with Rick and David and drink, go to a Bouzouki or hangout at Mia Tie. Maybe a trip to Playland or Anatoly's for a night of fun, but not very often. Since it was still winter and it was cool, there wasn't a lot to do and the islands were quite.

One day I had to be at DAOA for some meeting and after the meeting I was hanging around the office we had. Some of the Greek committee members were there in their office across the hall. One of the guys waved me in to their office and I was talking to them, I liked these guys and they knew I was working for their side. One of the guys asked me to settle a question they had, they were trying to decide on what type of bullet to use to shoot Fene. I laughed at the idea.

One said to use high power bullets and just blow his head off, the others said to use small caliber and shoot him many times for a long drawn-out process. I said something slow like a spear in the gut, they all laughed.

Sushi with Stavroula:

I asked Stavroula if she would meet me for drinks one afternoon, she said she would be in Kolonaki and I could meet her there. So I went down to the square and I met Stavroula, she was all smiles and we walked around the square. There was a restaurant that I had walked past many times before and I though we could eat there, it turned out to be a very expensive and a popular place. Stavroula said they wanted to know if we had a reservation, I didn't think the place was so great or crowed to need a reservation, but no eating there that day.

So we walked out and I said there was a sushi place near by. We crossed the street and went up one of the walking streets, found the place and went in. It was a sushi place that had the little plates on a conveyer belt and you picked off what you wanted. We got a couple of seats and started in, Stavroula never had sushi or knew how to use chop sticks. It was fun to see her try and we both laughed at her antics. She said the sushi was good, but I new it wasn't the best. Anyway, we had a great time and I liked talking to her.

She had to go home for a dinner with her sister so I paid and we left. I walked her to the metro and said goodbye, she said she would like to have sushi again and I said we would go to a better place next time. I could always count on Stavroula to lift my spirits if I was in a bad mood, and at this time I was always pissed off.

Dinner with Dimitris:

I met Dimitris and his wife for dinner in Halandri one evening. I was at the Fire Brigade center and I would just have to walk a few blocks to the place. So at around 5:30 I left and I walked down and around the corner and up the street. I met Dimitris and we walked a short distance to a little place on the Halandri square. His wife soon came and we had ordered Ouzo and some small plates to start.

I didn't have to order anything, Dimitris did it all. He got a big plate of the little fried fish, dips and salad, grilled lamb chops, grilled fish, more Ouzo and on and on. We had a good time eating and talking. Dimitris' wife was working for the Olympic committee in the public transport department. We had a long talk on what was going on and how the project was going. Dimitris didn't think things would be finished, he said the government never gets things done and the sub-contractors don't seem to be doing their jobs, plus SAIC is doing stupid things. I agreed and pointed out a few other issues, but I still was going to try to get things working.

MyGreek Olympics: Problems continue and eating.

Plate of meat:

Another restaurant that we would go to once in a while was in the Plakia Palaias Agora. This was just around the corner from the Metropol and it was livelier than the Metropol Square, though it was a bit on the touristy side. There are a few good restaurants around the square and some shops selling different things. We went once and ate at a place that had what was called a mixed grill plate which we called the 'plate of meat'. 

It was way cheep, something like 15 Euro and it was enough to feed 4 people. Basically it was two each of chicken breasts, sausages, hamburgers, steaks, lamb chops, plus potatoes and onions. It was a massive pile of meat that taxed all who tried to eat it. I ordered it once and that was enough for me. Rob ordered it once and finished it all off, then complained that it wasn't that great.

The restaurant was kind of hip inside and the out door seating was in the square. Other places also had seating in the square so you had to know which seats belonged to which place. This restaurant had a disco inside and it would fill up with people on most nights. The other restaurants had similar food, but no the plate of meat or entertainment.

Dinner at Tryphon's and the rabbit:

David and I were invited to Tryphon's for dinner one night. We took the train to the port and Tryphon picked us up. We drove out of Piraeus and worked our way to his house. We each had a bottle of wine and Tryphon was so happy to have us coming to dinner. The route was through the shipping area and lots of ships were in different states of repair or construction, plus the shipping containers being loaded and off loaded. Tryphon's wife was happy to see us and we went in and had a few drinks.

Elena could speak very good English and we chatted for a while. She worked for the Commodore at the MMM and was well connected. She was almost as important as Tryphon, but he wouldn't admit it. We were having a big spread of food, lots of traditional food from Crete.

One main dish was stewed rabbit. It was made with tomatoes and olives, very good. Then we had salads and greens, plus some lamb. David talked on and on about how great everything was, I liked it as well. We had a good time and Tryphon was all smiles. After dinner we had a few more drinks and talked, but Tryphon wanted to go out so he said we had to go.

On the way back to town, we stopped at a Russian place and had a beer. It was pretty seedy and I really didn't want to stay there. David didn't seem to care. We left and drove back to town, Tryphon wanted to play and I think he was expecting to stay out all night. I wanted to sleep and wasn't into the all night party that Tryphon liked to do. He dropped us off and we walked to Mie Tie for one drink. It was fun and the food was good, but I just couldn't deal with Tryphon's urge to stay out all night.

CATS Install:

In addition to all the other stuff, I was going to install the CATS software at the regional command posts. I had to deal with Fene's bullshit and interference. He talked the Vampire and Jesus into have an "engineer" to do the install. They asked Elvis to do it, he wasn't happy and asked me why he had to do it, I said it was Fene's bullshit and I couldn't do anything to stop it. So I turned everything over to them to install, and they lost the stuff they needed to install everything, oh well.

I know for a fact that the only installs of CATS were the ones I did. No one used the software during the Olympics and as far as the Greeks were concerned, it never would be used because of the contract dispute. The C4I system was just collecting dust for the entire time it was there, half the time the system was shut off because of power and cooling issues. No one trained in the use of CATS knew anything about modeling or how to use it and when.

Data meeting with Siemens, Epsilon and SAIC:

I was having trouble with the quality of data from Siemens relating to the placement of the CCTV cameras. I was to get the plotted locations of the cameras and a list of their locations, but the locations were mostly wrong. I was trying to work this out, but I had Jesus and the Vampire, slack-jaw Kost and a few other shits get involved. I had been looking at the data and saw that some of the cameras that I would see in the street on the way to work were in the wrong place.

The Marousi area of Eastern Athens.

So Jesus came into my office one day and we talked about the CCTV issues. He said they were going to have a telecom with a SAIC division that had a system that we may use to deal with the position problem. He said I had to sit in on the call, so when the time came, I went out in the bull pen and the shits were all there. Kost and a couple other stupid's, the Vampire and Jesus rounded out the group. My perspective was that Siemens needed to give us better data and it wasn’t our responsibility to fix it.

So they called and they talked to some people in Virginia, I didn't know who they were at first. They introduced everyone and then the meat heads started to talk. This was the GeoRover group, I had seen the system and we even considered it at the start of the program, but I axed the idea since the system wasn't of use to us. GeoRover is basically a bunch of ESRI tools and capabilities that have been tied up into a ‘user friendly’ system and called it GeoRover. What it is for is collecting data as you move, like a GPS does, and showing it in the ESRI software.

This is a basic capability in the ESRI GIS software, but they just made it look like something new. So the call went on, the rover people said all these wonderful things about their system and it could do everything we needed. The problem was that we didn't need anything the system could do unless we were going to start from scratch and digitize everything ourselves. Since the sub-contractors were supposed to give us the data, we had no need for GeoRover. But the call went on and I had to sit there and listen to the crap that was spewing from the phone.

When it was over I pointed out the specifics of the problem, the locations we were given were not accurate, and that we didn't have the time or resources to deal with the problem in the way they were suggesting. Siemens was supposed to give us the data and they failed to deliver, it wasn't our responsibility to do it for them. Jesus and the Vampire decided to have me do a meeting with Siemens and work things out, I had the un-pleasure of having to preside over the meeting.

The meeting was at the Marousi office and I had Siemens, Epsilon, Wackenhut, the CCTV guys and the SAIC shits all in one room. I tried to keep it nice but some of the shit-heads said stupid things, it was like herding cats. In the first two minutes one SAIC guy accused Siemens of trying to steal data from one of the other subs, I was dismayed. I had prepared by going to a few of the CCTV location and collecting the GPS data with a hand-held GPS then I plotted it on the map and displayed it with the Epsilon data.

The locations matched up nice to Epsilon GIS data, but the Siemens data was really bad. I was able to show that the Epsilon data was a good match and that the data comparison to the Siemens locations was the problem. This shut everyone up and I was able to get Siemens to agree on correcting the location by working with Epsilon. Problem was basically resolved and I had made the Epsilon data look good and proved that Siemens didn't do their job. Kost slept through most of the meeting, which I was glad, but he did manage to get one of his ‘that dog don’t hunt’ remarks in.

In the end it didn’t even matter, the CCTV cameras were up and the government put restrictions on there use. Then they began to be damaged and stolen so the government lifted the restrictions. In reality, the cops used the cameras to look at girls walking down the street or try to look in people window, it was like second grade children playing with a toy.

Baby sitting:

One day I went to the annex and found Jay, Ari and Semos talking to some people. They introduced me and I really didn't think much of it. As I sat, Jay asked if I wouldn't mind taking their son out for an evening. I was kind of put off, but Jay said they wanted to entertain them so I said OK. I was going out with Rick, Roula and Silvia so I said to meet us at the annex at 10 pm. The parents were a little scared, but I told them it was very safe and the place was a traditional music club, kind of like country music. I said I would bring him back to their hotel and I wouldn't keep them out all night.

We met at the appointed time and we walk down the street to the clubs, it was only about a 5 minute walk. We went to a place Roula knew of and we got a table in the back. It was already getting crowded, but the table wasn't bad. The kid was about 17 and seemed interested at first. We ordered a round of drinks and the kid got a beer. I told him that he could have a beer, but not to go wild. He sucked that beer down in a minute, just like most American kids would. The thing is that the beers cost about 5 dollars each.

We sat and listened to the music and talked, the kid got bored and went walking around. He went to the bar and got another beer, then tried to talk to a few girls, got shot down every time. I watched him as he sucked down the second beer and then went for a third. I knew this would be a short night, we were there for only 20 minutes and he was on his fourth beer. I could tell he was getting buzzed already. We finished our drinks and I said we would have to take care of getting the kid back to the hotel.

Silvia had her car near so when the kid came back, I said that we would have to go because the girls were tired from working all day. We got to Silvia's car and drove the kid to the hotel and dropped him off. He seemed bummed, but he was already too buzzed to stay out any longer. We went to another place for a few drinks and called it a night. The next day I told Jay that we had to dump the kid because he was drinking too much, I wasn't going to be responsible for him. I didn't hear anything from Jay or Ari about the night so I guess the parents didn't know the kid had too much to drink. I wasn't going to do that again so I let Jay and Ari know that I wasn't too thrilled with that particular assignment.

Visiting Ari:

I was so fed up with the shit that was going on and stupidity of the corporate meat heads. Jay wanted to know what was going on in the meetings, so I would stop at the annex after work and have a drink, then on the way back stop at Ari's office and give him a memory stick with info or tell him. He was a contracted consultant and officially a part of our team, so I wasn't going against any company policy. This became a way to pass info to Jay and keep them up to date as to what is going on. Mostly it was daily or weekly status reports or info on some software they are developing, which was against the contract requirements.

Hanging at the MMM:

The harbor near the MMM.

Since I had to go to all the command centers, I had a few places that I would like to go to, but others were a pain. The MMM or Ministry of Mercantile Marine was where the Coast Guard had their command center. I would take the train to the port and walk the mile or so to the facility. I would call Tryphon and tell him I was close and he would come down and wait for me, it made it easy to get in and go through the security. Once in we would go up to the center and go over the never ending list of things they wanted, plus see what was going on with the system installs. Most of the time Tryphon would want to take off and go for drinks or lunch. I tried to keep the work going but it was hard sometimes. While at the center I would meet the Commodore and the other ministers, plus all the people passing through to see what we were doing. I would have to tell Tryphon that I had to go to another center so I could leave, if I didn't he would want me to stay, have dinner and of course that would mean going to one of the Russian clubs, very dangerous.

Utah jobs program:

We had so many FIFO’s coming and going it was a joke. People who had no idea of what to do or why they were there would come in and just have a paid vacation. We called it the Utah Jobs Program, there were to come for the exercises but since the exercises would be pushed they arrived and were told to go visit an island. The people in Utah at the Salt Lake games also didn’t do much, this was worse since they got a plane ticket as well as a check. Fly In and Fuck Off was right.

IET3 practice:

During the run up to the IET, we had to practice the demonstrations. It was decided that a Greek had to speak and Stavroula was chosen to be the speaker, she hated the idea. The exercise guys came and they worked up this big elaborate scenario and a script to go along with it. Stavroula would have to narrate the events and show the displays. It was decided that a rehearsal would be done and they picked a Saturday morning at the Fire Brigade Command Center.

Of course Stavroula hated it even more, since she was not paid to be there on a Saturday and she had plans. Reluctantly she came and was given the script which she hadn't seen and didn't understand parts of it. She would have to translate it into Greek as she spoke. She asked me about it and I told her to do the best she could. The shit-heads there kept giving her shit about the performance, I told her not to worry.

It started off bad and got worse, she complained the scenario wasn't workable and the wording was wrong. After a few run through and changes the training guys started to bitch that she was not working hard and was to nit-picky. I told them she was there on her own time and it wasn't fare since she never saw anything and had to do the translation on the fly. They shut up and she worked through it. It was decided that the scenario should be re-worked and we left a few hours later. Stavroula said she wouldn't do it again and would ask the company to transfer her to a different job.

My Greek Olympics: Six months to go...

DAOA:

I was going out to the DAOA center, which was the Olympic committee's organizational headquarters. It was out on the green metro line to Kifisia and almost to Halandri. We would get off at Neo Ionia and walk the half mile to the place. It was a pain to go out there, but I would have to meet with people and the committee had offices there. It had guards and gates, but like most of Greece, no one really cared who went in, just flash a badge and walk in. I would go and hangout at our office and talk to whom ever was around. Coast Guard Stavroula would be there sometimes and the Army and Police guys, maybe a fire person.

They had a large cafeteria that everyone ate at and we would go over for coffee once in a while. It was always crowded and people out front smoking constantly. Ron had an office there and I would stop and see him, some other SAIC shitheads would be there and I was always running into some fool who just arrived.

DAOA also was where the Intel people were and they had a special floor for their use.  It was a "secret" command center and it was restricted so getting in was actually hard. We had a server room and computers to deal with. I had to install software and maintain the server. This is where one of the computers was hacked or should I say allowed to be infiltrated by our government friends. We knew the CIA want to have access, but one day we found out that the system had an entry from an outside system. It appeared someone downloaded the entire database. The server’s hard drive was copied basically and all the data on it was taken. But since the Greeks never used the system, it only had the basic data set. I hardly ever went to this command center and I was glade, it was not part of my responsibility.

Collateral Damage:

As IET prep continued, I had to deal with Fene interference once again. We listed in the contract that CATS provides a means of assessing collateral damage from explosives. It wasn't a requirement, but when I wrote the description for CATS I wrote what was in the documentation for explaining the output. So when the shit heads put the contract in DOORS, it spit out a whole bunch of requirements that weren't requirements at all.

How it worked was the program DOORS would read the contract and extract parts that were a requirement, like ‘You will supply 20 computer’ becomes ‘requirement 1.1 – 20 computers. But the software was turning every thing into a requirement, things like the work ‘it’ became a requirement. So this caused requirement statements that could never be met to be added to the list which had to be tested for acceptance. How can you show that the system meets the requirement ‘it’??? One of these statements was collateral damage from the description in one of the sub-systems.

The description was something like this; ‘we will give you a tool to simulated explosions’. It shows damage from the blast and effects on people. The effects show damage over many types of possible damage from the blast. Collateral damage is damage that is not intentional, so if a window breaks that is collateral damage. The software shows the damage but it is not listed as collateral damage. But DOORS said we had to test for this requirement and show that it is met in the system. The committee didn’t seem to care but we had to address the issue.

So I had a talk with the Jesus and Vampire about it and I thought we had worked it out. Then Fene steps in and says that CATS doesn't show any collateral damage at all. This of course spins everyone out of control and we have to spend the next week dealing with this stupid issue. I even had to dig up the NATO terminology to prove my point along with telecoms with people in the defense department.

So I argued that this requirement of collateral damage was part of the output that CATS and provides a display of collateral damage in that it shows areas of potential damage from a blast. Finally after about 10 meetings and one hundred emails, talks with the committee and so on, I was able to have the 'requirement' removed and the issue was put to bed. This was a total waste of time and I think most finally realized Fene was a shit head.

Cameras and Hotels:

For the CDS system to work as planned, we had to have a lot of data on where things had been installed. One component was all the video cameras installed at the hotels. I was to be given the data by Siemens, but they screwed it up and I had to organize a survey of the all the hotels that would be used to host the Olympic families. This entailed sending people with diagrams to the hotels and mark where to cameras where located.

It was a little tricky to have the hotels let us come in and see where everything was mounted. Also the people who did the survey were mostly FIFO and they were stupid as hell. It really wasn't that complicated work, but it turned into a big mess. Half the info was worthless and I resorted to using images or diagrams that I got from DAOA.

IET3 run up:

IET3 was planned for the end of February and much was needed still. This is the time in which Fene made his presence known. Dumb shit came and tried to be a hero (in his mind) and did some really stupid things. He didn't know how to act and what to say, so he went to meetings and did his usual of promising all kinds of stuff and of course couldn't deliver. Also he force SAIC to buy a set of computers because of his stupid comments and cost the company two hundred thousand dollars. I could have laughed, but he was causing me all kinds of problems.



A set of servers and storage disks at the MOC



IET3 was going to fail and nothing was working properly, but the decision to go a head was made and the system would be shown as is. Of course it wasn't going to work and I felt as though it would be another fuck up. It would be the same thing, a demo and scenario run by Greek staff. This was the first time the Greeks would use the system and test how they do. The government was nervous and the people in charge didn’t want to use the system and fail so they kept saying they needed to use their old system and way of doing things. We were training people but no one had ever used the system and no one seemed to really care. The standard operating procedure was to use people, paper, and pencils. Lots of yelling and walking paper back and forth between desks, we were given them computers to take this away and track and store what was going on. In some cases the people we were training never used a computer, so this test would be a challenge.

When we planned the system, we expected to have it up and running six months before the games, but we were six months from the start and there was nothing in place working yet and the people were hardly trained. The IET was to be in February but it was really going to happen in April. That was how messed up the project was and the schedule. The final IET was to be at the end of May but we figured the way things were going the project would not be done till July, the contract ended in June.

Dinner with Tryphon:

In this time period, I was hanging around with Tryphon and Rick a lot. Tryphon invited me out to dinner, so I took the train to Piraeus and waited for Tryphon. He was getting off work and stopped at the train station on his way home. We went to Perama, which is a town to the northwest of Athens and near the ship yards. Not a very nice looking area, but like a working class area in other parts of town. We went to a small place in a small square, the restaurant had no inside seating, only tables outside on the sidewalk.

We got a table and soon a waitress came over, Tryphon started to order, there was no menu, just a note pad with what they had. Tryphon ordered almost half the menu. Soon wine arrives and some small plates and bread. In about five minutes the food starts to arrive, salads and cold items, them the cooked stuff. They had what Tryphon called "illegal" squid, small squid the size of your thumb nail, deep fried, they were the best I ever had, and we ordered more of those.

Then fried spicy shrimp and octopus, fried fish, grilled fish, crab, more salads, dips and on and on. The BBQ octopus tentacle was served with a shot of Raki, which you lit on fire. A Saganaki shrimp, with feta and tomato sauce was good, but the spicy shrimp was the best. They were dusted with flour after soaked is Raki and red pepper, then fried crisp. They were messy, but really good.

The crab was cooked in a green spicy sauce that was a little spicy. It was hard to eat because it was hot and messy, but it was good. The little fried fish were good as always and so was the grilled small fish. I don't know what they were, but they were silver and small. They would bring an octopus tentacle that had been grilled and Tryphon would cut it up and then pour vinegar on it, it was tasty.

This was one of the best dinners I ever had while I was there. I went back a few more time with Rick and David and I could eat there every night. The price was nothing, about 50 Euro for both, if would have been 50 dollars for just one plate here. The location was not that great, but the food more than made up for it.

Out with Silvia, George, Roula and Rick:

One night, I was going to go to a bouzouki with Rick, George, Silvia and Roula. George wanted to go and we decided that we would go to a place in Plaka on the hill. Roula knew a place and we met at the Metropol around 10 pm. We walked up the hill and none of the places were very lively,

George complained about the lack of music so we left. So we walked down to Psiri and found a place to go into, it was very crowded and there weren't many tables. George complained so we went out and found a different place. The music was going and the place was packed. We got a table in the back, but the music was still very loud. George complained about the noise and wined about the table and that the music was amplified. He wanted to go some where else, so we went out again and looked for a different place.

Rick was pissed off and Silvia didn't understand what the problem was. After we walked a bit we found another place. The music wasn't as good and the place was not that great. George still bitched, so we went out and said what you want to do. George said we should go back to Plaka, so we walked back and up the hill. The George says, "I am tired and I am going home". What a shit, he leaves and we decide to just go in one of the places in Plaka. The problem is they are very touristy and not as traditional or fake traditional. We end the night early and I go home, pissed at George for being such a whiner.

I started to go out on my own and walk the area. I didn't have much to do and David, Vic and Jay were out doing their own stuff. I would walk around Lykabettus or walk up Philoppapou hill, across from the Acropolis. I would just go and look out over the city or walk and look at shops. Maybe I would ride out to the port or just hang at the annex. If I could I would call Alex or Stavroula, but they were busy with work or their lives and I just would have no one to talk to. It was boring and I just didn't want to deal with all the shit at work all the time. The project had turned into one big mess and it wasn't ever getting better.

Mobile Command:

In March I had to deal with getting the mobile command posts operating. At first I was just going to install software and test it, but I soon got tied up in the satellite connection for the video and data transfer. I was working with Ron and dickhead on getting the sat set up. We had to install encoders and decoders for the signal, one on the buses and the other at the command centers. They went in OK, but configuring and getting the satellite connection to work was a bitch. We spent about two weeks dealing with all this, then finally we had it working and the video was OK, but the data transfer was way slow. We had to come up with a way to replicate the servers with only a part of the whole data set, this would make it faster, I don't know why I had to deal with it.

The four Fire Mobile Command buses 

Inside a mobile Command bus.

The biggest problem was that the buses were way out of town, near the airport actually. We had to take a taxi on most days and that meant we had to try to explain to the driver where we needed to go. Ron would always just give the name of the bus company, Evo-bus. I would try to tell them to go towards the airport and we would then tell them where to go, a lot of pointing and such, if we had a car I would have driven myself. Once there, it was really had to get a taxi to pick us up, in some cases, one of the Greek guys would give us a ride in far enough to get the Metro. The place was in a town called Koropi and was on the landing path of the airport.

The buses had been designed to be a mobile command post, but the requirements said they needed to house the people, which mean beds, toilet, food and water. This was in addition to the conference room and work areas. They tried to put too much in a small place, but that is what the contract called for and that is what they built. Vic and David came out once to see the system setup since ETeam was being installed. Vic thought they were good buses, but they were designed to do too much.



The Police bus.



The buses were divided into two sections, a front conference room with projector and table and chairs. The chairs were attached to the floor so they wouldn't move and it made it hard to get around the table and to sit. The back was the 4 work stations with two computers. A bathroom and a double bunk area in the way back. The generators were under the bus and they had a mast for lights and a mast for the video camera. With all of us in there it was crowded and I didn't know how it would operate when fully staffed.