What a Day

What a Day
19-Oct-05
6:38 PM

I’ve got almost 20 mins before I’m stuck in meetings for 4 hours from 7-11. Insane. I must have brought that shitty CT weather with me cause it’s projected to rain for the next 10 days. Glad I bought an umbrella. I tend to lose those things often so hopefully I don’t lose this one anytime soon. (Which I did later that day. Bought a bootleg one from some Asian guy in the city.)

The offices here at least have awnings set up through most of the walkways. I don’t spend much time outside the office anyways so it doesn’t really matter. Few comments on the facilities here:

Nuovo Pignone was established in 1842 as a cast iron foundry. It was bought by GE in 1994 and employs ~2500 people. It is the largest job provider in the city of Florence. Amazing how if you tell the taxi drivers “Nuovo Pignone.” They know exactly where to go. There are two main gates here. I went to the wrong one my first time and had to walk 7 mins around to the other side.

It’s a manufacturing facility that makes compressors and other machinery for oil drilling. We took a plant tour on my first day. Amazing what this place, this company, does. Each item is valued over $1MM and has a production life cycle of about 2 years. It’s a long-term business model with most of the highest profit margins coming from the servicing side, which we also own.

The room I work in is a small conference room set up with 6 tables; 4 in the middle and 2 on the side. I literally have someone in front of me, right of me, and behind me all working his or her ass off. At least I’m not the only one. They also have wireless in the building, and between 12 of us, we share 2 phones.

The cafeteria (or canteen) reminds me of a big high school cafeteria. My Florida friends would appreciate the seating color scheme: blue backs and seats with bright orange metal holding the swivel chairs to the table. They have 4 big setups for food: one for pizza, a pasta bar, a grille, and an ala carte. There’s olive oil, vinegar and salt at every table. Oil is like their ketchup: they put it on EVERYTHING. Food is decent but not what I would call pure Italian.

The bathroom I’ve already commented on twice. One other thing I noticed is that all the piping is audibly connected. When someone flushes a toilet, the water pressure from the sinks is reduced. There’s also a weird air freshener thing above the urinals. It’s in a purple plastic case and the thing itself looks like a piece of shit, literally. I’m not too interested in taking a closer whiff.
5 mins until my meeting. Will write more.