Homeless ...again!

[pattycakes]

Indeed. Still does here. To a much lesser extent, but far from over on this side of the pond.

True, a Ukrainian dude I was hanging out with in LA is currently working in some Russian canteen under the table. I think it's different when you've got some kind of connection like that. But cold walking in and just saying gimme a job isn't gonna cut it, and unfortunately I don't have money to buy a drink and sit and chat. Although, maybe at a quieter point in the day when there's no one else around a little chat could be had

 

[shakahislop]

have really noticed this as well, the visa net tightening. every time i talk about the rules for getting even the spouse of a citizen into the UK people more or less don't believe me. not an expert but the US feels looser and easier to come to than europe does now. plenty of my afghan mates are in the US now, the UK was a total non-starter for them.

obviously if you're from the UK now you're in a notably limited position if you want to leave and work overseas, there are few easy options post-brexit. i always wonder about what that's going to do in the long run. to the uk DNA i mean. all these people that in the past would have left are piling up there now, year by year. we're five years into that process already.

 

[shakahislop]

Radiohead is a weird phenomenon. I think it's because they were reasonably mainstream-sounding at the start but then immediately started going a bit weird. The speed of the change, and the fact that under the weirdness were still to be found many catchy hooks, was enough to take their average Joe listeners with them.

yeah they occupy a really particular place i think. really walking that line. they were never that weird obviously, it's all still basically songs, they're not difficult to listen to, it's not the kind of thing that you need to put much work into. they had a thing going on for the first five albums where they were grid criticisers. they dropped all that for emotional capture and explication as time went on. turning inwards - auto-everything really. but for a while they sounded like they wanted out, or at least, that's what the music was heading towards.

 

[version]

there's this related thing of: what are we doing to our consiousnesses. the affects of what we spend our time doing. grid-life has to be very finely honed in most cases. getting the money and accommodation to line up, and organizing your life to be in a physical and mental state to perform at work.

one thing that's comprehensively happened in the last decade is a structure of ideas that is all about optimisation. protein being the archetypal example by this point. but also you know, make up tutorials and pick up artist advice. there's no room to slack. people used to complain about neoliberalism but the colonization of ideas at the moment is so much more intense than anything that happened in the 90s and 00s. the phones are so intimate and the platforms are so consolidated.

travel is one of the best examples i think in terms of how the ideas are organized now. you can take the piss out of people going backpacking to find themselves. but i haven't heard anyone say that in years. what i have heard and seen is people catching planes more or less to create photos and videos, mostly of themselves. the spiritual aspect has receded - ok whatever, it was always fake - but the adventure aspect even has receded.

There's a great and very sad bit at the start of Against the Day (Pynchon) where some of the characters fly over Chicago during the World's Fair in 1893 and observe this sort of process from above:

“Beneath the rubbernecking Chums of Chance wheeled streets and alleyways in a Cartesian grid, sketched in sepia, mile on mile. "The Great Bovine City of the World," breathed Lindsey in wonder. Indeed, the backs of cattle far outnumbered the tops of human hats. From this height it was as if the Chums, who, out on adventures past, had often witnessed the vast herds of cattle adrift in everchanging cloudlike patterns across the Western plains, here saw that unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor.”​

 

[GhostofKinski]

True, a Ukrainian dude I was hanging out with in LA is currently working in some Russian canteen under the table. I think it's different when you've got some kind of connection like that. But cold walking in and just saying gimme a job isn't gonna cut it, and unfortunately I don't have money to buy a drink and sit and chat. Although, maybe at a quieter point in the day when there's no one else around a little chat could be had

Only you yourself really knows.
Idk your nomenclature. You are correct though, It (the cash life) has steadily been more and more of a Slavic, Latin American, and has for centuries been a way of life in the Asian community (the invisible people). I don't pretend to know how things work over there. There are people though, that being a white (I'm assuming) English speaker is precisely what they need/are looking for for certain jobs. I am NOT talking about criminally illicit
work (though it is truly one of them). I mean more of being a face and/or voice of certain businesses. Credibility, if you get my meaning. But I am just spouting vague speculative generalizations & probably not being helpful at all. I guess this is more of a "Keep yer chin up" type talk.

Volunteering with non-profits is also an angle.
If you ever want to meet someone who is living well,...Talk to someone whose sole gig is raising funds ( I'm not talking street corner solicitors for Greenpeace), I'm talking about the SB's that put together fund raising events, you follow my meaning?

 

[pattycakes]

English speakers are absolutely in demand here, which is making all of this all the more tantalizing. If I could do it legit I'd prolly be able to get something really good really fast. Volunteering I'm up for but so far I only know the website portals that all ask for sign up fees. 50-60 bucks, which I just don't have rn

Let's see what tomorrow brings

 

[luka]

Had any good drugs over there?

 

[pattycakes]

Haven't touched a drug since Jan in LA and that was a short stint

Not looking either. Been pretty damn sober for ages now with a few blips here n there. Feels pretty good

 

[hmg]

Greece is by some way the least druggy country between the Adriatic and aegean

 

[pattycakes]

Oh there's drugs here.. but the laws are pretty strict. v low tolerance. Has to be kept on the low. A guy I was talking to in Nafplio was offering to hook me up with some powder to sell to make some money.. passed on that

 

[thirdform]

Haven't touched a drug since Jan in LA and that was a short stint

Not looking either. Been pretty damn sober for ages now with a few blips here n there. Feels pretty good

your vibes mean you are terrible at money management. if you make your funkiness more mathematic you will not run out of money by going to LA and Greece in the space of 4 months.

 

[pattycakes]

re: the walking in and getting a job like the old days. People just aren't as laid back about all that shit now. Amazing to think that back in the day people would gauge you based on vibes and you could be behind the bar within an hour

 

[Murphy]

Loads of UK travel companies in Greece, try a British employer based in Greece

 

[GhostofKinski]

re: the walking in and getting a job like the old days. People just aren't as laid back about all that shit now. Amazing to think that back in the day people would gauge you based on vibes and you could be behind the bar within an hour

Tell me about it. When you asked how/why I made the decision to an about face & work ‘for the man’, lol.
One of the several factors was seeing the writing on the wall. I was tending bar in Hell’s Kitchen & in walks this fella who asks to see the manager. I said something like “you’re looking him, what do you need” he says he’s looking for work as a bartender & proceeds to hand me a RESUME! That was unheard of in my life experience/world. We were still in a time when that sort of job had to be earned.
You had to be personally vetted so to speak.
Start as a bar back, fetching ice, changing barrels etc. after x amount of time, the owner might give you the nod to work a shift behind the stick. I could go on but I think you get my meaning.
So, I’m chatting with the guy and reading his resume (lol) This dude had graduated from Princeton Iniversity! I don’t remember the major but it wasn’t something useless.
I asked him why he was looking to bartend with that kind of education. He replied ‘Because I’m $120,000 in debt and non of the companies are hiring’. That was sort of a shot across the bow telling me a definite shift in the natural order was changing.

 

[pattycakes]

When was that @GhostofKinski ?

 

[pattycakes]

Man. The Lord works in mysterious ways peeps. The German govt has granted me salvation in the form of unemployment benefits. Applied a few weeks ago. The letter arrived today. Should be sorted in the next few days. Obv that doesn't mean a whole lot of money, but it does mean food. I'm down to my last euro rn. Kin ell, what a palava. Monday I'll look into Brit employers here and also try and speak with the consulate about applying for a work permit. Would def prefer to be here for the summer season to save a bunch of money and then figure out the next step around autumn

 

[GhostofKinski]

When was that @GhostofKinski ?

Early 2000's.

 

[GhostofKinski]

Man. The Lord works in mysterious ways peeps. The German govt has granted me salvation in the form of unemployment benefits. Applied a few weeks ago. The letter arrived today. Should be sorted in the next few days. Obv that doesn't mean a whole lot of money, but it does mean food. I'm down to my last euro rn. Kin ell, what a palava. Monday I'll look into Brit employers here and also try and speak with the consulate about applying for a work permit. Would def prefer to be here for the summer season to save a bunch of money and then figure out the next step around autumn

Great news! Keep your eyes on the horizon & nose toward the wind brother.

 

[moonsow]

Glad things are working out for you, it has been a rollercoaster reading this thread. Have you ever been to Mount Athos? Used to be pretty well known for hospitality, free food and bed if I’m not mistaken. Also sorry if this is a stupid question but is working online jobs a viable option for you?

 

[pattycakes]

Glad things are working out for you, it has been a rollercoaster reading this thread. Have you ever been to Mount Athos? Used to be pretty well known for hospitality, free food and bed if I’m not mistaken. Also sorry if this is a stupid question but is working online jobs a viable option for you?

Athos would be wonderful. I was at Meteora earlier in the trip and have a great fondness for those orthodox places. Even as a non subscriber to any religion it's hard not to be swept up by the vibes. Problem is you're only allowed 3-5 nights there only and it wouldn't be cheap to get there from here because its a boat ride and then the opposite end of the country from where I'm at rn in Crete

Under the table cash work is my only option if I want to stay here and work. But that's too risky. Could get deported. Have done a bit more reading on the visa stuff and it's too much of a pain for the employer to go through the process

The short version is it takes 3-6 months to even process the claim. There is no guarantee the claim will be accepted. There's a limited number of positions for each type of industry. The real clincher though is the employer needs to prove that there is no EU national who could do the role

Makes no sense to go through all that unless you're employing an elite specialist in their field

Outside of specialized jobs, loads of people want to come to Greece for seasonal work. Having said that there's a major shortage of workers here because a lot of Greeks refuse to work the long hours, unpaid overtime and general slave-like conditions a lot of the employers have going. There are laws to protect workers but they're rarely enforced. As a result I was reading there's like 80,000 vacancies that still need to be filled. If only they could strike up a deal with the UK

SERIOUSLY WANT TO BURN ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR BREXIT AT THE STAKE WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING ARGHHHH FUCK. ALSO VISAS IN GENERAL ARGGGHHHH

However, with the little bit of money I'll get from the Germans some other options are now opening up.
- Get a bike and turn this into an adventure holiday. Def my kinda bag.
- Reluctantly pay 60 bucks to sign up for one of the sites and do a work away/volunteer type thing. Prob gonna be the most rewarding esp if it's helping animals or whatev.
- Find a super cheap pad and do some private English tuition - takes a while to get a customer base built up, but can be fun and lucrative.
- Get a fishing rod and a tent and live wild.
- Work online in some form. Never tried it. Wouldn't know where to start. Only have a phone rn. Open to ideas tho for sure.

The lines are open for other suggestions..