The Romanian reply to "Mr Big"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe whole situation was leading to a dead end, as it usually happens when you mess with unserious intermediates. Until one day, when my telephone rang. "Mister Ilias, is it you?" I heard a voice from the past, waking up memories and experiences. My Romanian was not so good at that time, but I understood him saying: "Some birds sing. And they say that you are interested in the lands with view to The House of People. Why didn't you come to me from the very beginning?" The meeting was set for the day after, at my office.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tHe arrived together with someone else. My "sweet" Mr Big… I was so happy to talk again to one of the first unserious guys I met in Romania. My eyes explored him from his toes to his head. (I didn't need a lot of time for that, I guess he is not more than 1.55 meters tall). He was dressed in blue jeans and a fancy (but cheap) shirt, with his shoes having the unidentified color of… dirt. He shook my hand with all his power, as he used to and he smiled, allowing me to watch his "perfect" dentition (I guess it was brushed for the last time when ElenaCeausescu had received the award by the English Queen). But his characteristic was always his bald head and his sharp way of talking. This is why people were calling him "Mr Big". "Ilia, do you know why he is brave and talks like this? "Mr Big" used to work for the State, this is why he has the guts".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA surrealistic discussion and the "famous" owner<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe discussion with "Mr Big" was always surrealistic and there was no reason to change this nice habit. In the beginning he asked me to pay him money for consulting. "If not, I don't tell you anything at all". Then he tried to "sell to me information". After he pretended that he got upset because I spoke with so many intermediates, "all of them are unserious". (at that time I imagined me opening a dictionary, searching for the word "serious". And when I would have found it, to notice next to it the photo of "Mr Big", smiling with bald head and his brown teeth).\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"I will bring you in direct access with the owner". "Good, now we are talking. But I would prefer to see the papers firstly". "This is not possible. The owner is a very famous Romanian person. You will see the papers when you will meet him and you will understand". "Is there anything illegal into all these? If yes, please include me out". "Illegal, Oh my God, what are you talking about? Did I ever present to you something illegal?" "Almost always, this is why we didn't finalize any transaction together. Illegal or expensive". "You are the one who is not serious, but I will bypass this weakness of yours. So, do you want to meet the owner or not?" "Yes". "Ok, tomorrow".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe lawyer from Cluj…<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tOne day… two… one week… ten days… After a silent period, "Mr Big" appeared again. "As I promised to you, I call you in order to arrange the meeting with the owner. But because he is very important and famous, you have to be checked firstly by his lawyer. He will come directly from Cluj, to meet you tomorrow at 11.30, at Sofitel Hotel. He comes just for you, be there". (Hotel Pullman used to be branded as Sofitel at that time). "Tell him to come with the papers too". "Ok, of course".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThere was a Real Estate exhibition held in the same hotel. February 2007, five months after the initial information, I was drinking my fresh orange juice sitting at Sofitel's café, close to piano. I was talking over the phone and didn't notice that time had passed without the lawyer to appear. In the end, he came. Dressed in an expensive suit, with a yellow (!) tie. He barely told me his small name and asked for complete discretion. He was whispering to me, stating each word slowly and clear enough. "My client is not someone you meet every day. You should be ready for such a meeting". "Do you mean that I am fat and I have to lose weight before meeting him?" "You will be surprised. And now I have to run, because I will lose the next plane back to Cluj". (Did he really think that I believed this?)\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"Mister Big" takes the situation under control<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThen silence again. One week… two weeks… three weeks… (this is the catch, to make you run behind them). Several other intermediates appeared meanwhile, saying the same story regarding "a property" etc. So, after all, I got tempted and asked some people. The reality was exactly what I was sure of: There was nothing serious, plus there would be no chance for this land to receive an authorization to build. This is why I replied to the last 3 intermediates who offered me the plot "that I am not interested in fake properties". I guess this was the sign for "Mr Big" to appear again. He called me, really upset, and told me: "Ok, sneaky Greek" (the more someone tries to trick me, the more he calls me sneaky or he remembers I am Greek)… "you talk too much and a lot of people are upset. Today we have Tuesday. On Thursday we go to meet the owner. Are you ready?" "Always".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe "secret" meeting at Herastrau Park<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\t"You will not tell to anyone where you go and who you will meet. You will come to Soseaua Nordului and drive for some hundreds of meters"… having in mind his description, I was telling to my colleague how to reach the meeting point. I looked at myself and I started laughing: "As you don't believe them, why are you dressed so good?" I stopped before my colleague would consider that I lost even the small portion of brain left in my head…\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThursday afternoon, in the beginning of Spring. I entered in the restaurant, which was empty at that time. "Mr Big" was sitting on a table, having in front of him one beer. He was discussing with an ugly very fat lady. He stood up to welcome me, hugging me also. ("Am I videotaped?" I thought…) He introduced me to the lady. For a moment I stopped listening to him. She was wearing a simple grey t-shirt which struggled to keep inside all its content. Her long hair was "natural" (not brushed – not washed) and her hands showed someone who really worked in her life. "… the lady here is the administrator of the company to whom the lands belong" "Mr Big" concluded. "But I was supposed to meet the owner". "He is busy, you will speak with her".\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"Look, peasant, if you have money, you buy the lands. But you are a coward"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tI was asked to order something. "Still water", as usual. She started with some stories regarding how the Parliament Palace was built, I had to interrupt her so as to focus on our work. (Plus it was difficult for me to follow, with my poor Romanian). "This is a sketch, these are the properties. I have also a certificate of Urbanism. If you have money, you will build just across the House of People, how you call it, the Parliament Palace". "But the address is different; the papers don't refer to the lands we were talking about. Where is the owner?" She became red from anger… "Look, peasant, if you have money, you buy the lands. But you are a coward. There is no owner for you, nothing. I am the one who decides". I turned my head to "Mr Big", who had become "Mr Small" at that moment…\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"I was informed for completely different things". "Then go away and don't lose my time, I meet every day cowards like you". "Mr Small" was white and didn't spell one word. I looked at her eyes. She felt so proud for talking like this to a foreigner. I guess she had a mental orgasm doing it. I didn't reply. I stood up and walked to the door, but before to open it, a waiter ran behind me: "You didn't pay your water" he screamed for the bottle I didn't open. I gave him 5 ron and stepped out.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"You did not understand good"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tWhen someone tries to trick you and he does not succeed, he usually stops replying to your calls. So I didn't bother calling "Mr Small" anymore. He appeared in front of me after one year and when he realized that I was the one representing the buyer in a deal, he left immediately and spoke bad about me to the owner. It was 2009 when I met him somewhere by coincidence and he dared to tell me: "You know, back then you did not understand good". Yeah…\n<\/p>\n
\n\tPS.1. The reality<\/strong>: Someone was using all possible lies in order to find a victim and sell his land, located elsewhere. He promised 10% commission to all these intermediates and wanted to appear only during the final contract. Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for this country) he did not succeed.\n<\/p>\n\n\tPS.2. Not all "intermediates" are like this. I have also met a small minority of serious people. But if you meet 20 of this race, 17 – 18 will be similar or even worse. Don't wonder how they think they can trick you. They did it in the past, this is the only way of work they know.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part 2 (to read part 1, click here) The Romanian reply to "Mr Big" The whole situation was leading to a dead end, as it usually happens when you mess with unserious intermediates. Until one day, when my telephone rang. "Mister Ilias, is it you?" I heard a voice from the past, waking up memories […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[204],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}