Lox - Archived Entries for 2006 / 1

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RPG Last Session?: [30 January 2005]

.... the tzymisce vampire runs towards the door, the corridor is covered in human skin, mouths and several arms are protruding from the walls and celling.
The whole structure seems to have a life of its own, a primordial form of search machine, moving and talking in a soft voice, words that you cannot understand, from an ancient civilization.

The bruja is on the ground embraced to the toreador in a dance of death and blood, careless of what is happening around them.

Suddenly your attention is drawn to the giovanni vampire, your ally in many battles, he smiles confidently at you, while holding a strange pose, with his right arm directed towards the vampire, the index stretched as if he was touching something in mid air.

You realize that he managed to touch the fleeing zimitsce with his dreadful powers, all of a sudden when your enemy has walked half of the corridor it falls on the ground motionless.

Time to act, a quick dash towards the vampire, arms opened like a falcon about to strike its prey, the talons coming out of the back side of your hands, like another set of steel and bone fingers.
A quick double swipe, coordinated, precise, like the scythe of the reaper cuts through the grain in the summer, the head of the vampire falls to the ground with a deaf sound that means that your groups fatigues are finally over.

Screams from the walls, screams from all over the castle salute the death of the master, the toreador lies dead at the feet of your bruja companion, it's time to take the bounty and go home, rewards and rest await you and your friends for many years to come....
Maybe centuries...

This is the end of the adventure that I have finished today. I joined in the group at the end and we managed to finish it off tonight.
I can't express how happy I am to have been able to play RPG after a long pause that lasted 5 years. I really miss playing these games, I really miss being with my friends. (starting from me, on the right there is Simone, Stefano, Massimiliano and Duccio on my left).

Needless to say that this is the last section of game for now, as I am going back on Saturday I will miss what is to come, but at least I managed to play for a considerable time (2 months) and I should consider myself lucky for that!

To the next time then, let us hope it will be soon in the future, maybe a little longer than 2 months, maybe because I am finally back here...
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Staying up Late: [28th January 2006]

Today was quite calm, didn't do much in the afternoon, save the usual rehabilitation, and I had bad feelings about the evening as a couple of people were away from Florence and I didn't hear anything from the usual group of friends that hang out with.
As a result I decided to call Simone, one of the friends with whom I shared a lot of Role Playing Games experiences, and arranged to go and see him for dinner.

We cooked a nice curry, and some Cajun style potatoes and broccoli, had a marvellous chat and played Playstation 2 for hours.

Eventually we also got talking about serious things too, as I said we have a very strong relationship even if we don't see each other a lot.
Unfortunately it's not a great period both for him and me, but it was good to talk about it, I find that it helps put things in prospective.

The funny side is that we started talking to stop only around 3,20 AM! Well, we had a lot of catch up to do...

I'll miss being able to stay up late talking about the world, feelings, happiness, sadness, and whatever else make us human. In 7 days I will be back up in Vedano, sometimes if feels like a time bomb that I am not able to stop...

Oh well, it won't be that tragic, but it won't be a healthy stroll in the park either.
[4 comments]
Staying up Late: [28th January 2006]

Today was quite calm, didn't do much in the afternoon, save the usual rehabilitation, and Ihad bad feelings about the evening as a couple of people were away from Florence and I didn't hear anything from the usual group of friends that hang out with.
As a result I decided to call Simone, one of the friends with whom I shared a lot of Role Playing Games experiences, and arranged to go and see him for dinner.

We cooked a nice curry, and some Cajun style potatoes and broccoli, had a marvellous chat and played Playstation 2 for hours.

Eventually we also got talking about serious things too, as I said we have a very strong relationship even if we don't see each other a lot.
Unfortuantely it's not a great period both for him and me, but it was good to talk about it, I find that it helps put things in prospective.

The funny side is that we started talking to stop only around 3,20 AM! Well, we had a lot of catch up to do...

I'll miss being able to stay up late talking about the world, feelings, happiness, sadness, and whatever else make us human. In 7 days I will be back up in Vedano, sometimes if feels like a time bomb that I am not able to stop...

Oh well, it won't be that tragic, but it won't be a healty stroll in the park either.
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Morpheus, Cats and Furniture: A night of thoughts and cats, are sleeping pills the solution?
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Dilemma: [19th January 2006]

I can say that today was a quite important day for my future decisions.

After the usual phisioteraphy I went to the Prato area (Prato is a city near Florence where there is one of the biggest textile districts in Italy), to meet a friend of mine who runs a company there.

This is a typical Prato company, no mill, only 7/8 people working there, where all the product is made by the owner and the whole business is family run. They create idea, get them made in external factories and then they sell it all over the globe.

This company is interested in having me working there, in my commercial field, as the owners cannot cope with the pace that this industry seems to have picked up.
I haven't got a final offer from them yet, but since they are quite small they said that they will not be able to meet the same wage (or eve go higher) than I am actually making up north.

Moreover this is the classical company that hasn't "got a name", meaning that under the company profile point of view I would be moving from Microsoft to "Mark and Mary Software House", all translated in the textile business of course.
Under the commercial point of view this means that it will be certainly much harder to "get in" some clients, as in the fashion industry a company "name" has still got quite a lot of power, even though you are showing the SAME article at a lower price.

This meeting got me thinking a lot.

In my life, working life to be precise, I have always moved for an improvement under the salary and/or responsibility point of view, as probably most of the people would do.

I am now presented with a quite difficult challenge, as my desire to go back to Florence has nothing to do with my wallet or professional profile, but rather with my "heart", as I am quite sure that the quality of life away from work that I can have here is by far much better than what I have in Vedano Olona (my town of residence at the moment).
In a way even the time that I have spent abroad had nothing to do with my heart, as I saw England and Japan as a chance to grow skills and experiences that could be useful later.

I have also thought about the fact that if a company outside the textile field offered me a job (at a lower wage) I would probably have less problems in accepting the position as I would see the change as an additional challenge.
In this case the 5 years experience baggage that I have seems "thrown to the nettles" as its not giving me any "premium" in the possible move.

On the other side there are all the chances of having a proper life here in Florence, and as many people close to me said, there is the possibility of looking for other positions for other companies, in Florence rather than 300 kilometers away (quite hard to do in a region where the vast majority of companies are family run and generally sending a CV is only good to increase the quantity of scrap paper).

Needless to say that under the financial point of view, a bad year for these small companies usually means either getting fired or closure. This scenario is harder to happen in a company like my present employer that is floated in the stock market.
Workwise I will have to work twice as hard, as usually in a small family run business you don't have a precise task like I have now, but you are expected to be available for anything that happens, from getting a product to the finishing mill to travel to Spain because the person that was meant to do it in busy somewhere else.

I am stuck. I have asked them to send me an offer and then we can talk about it, it's quite hard to take a decision without numbers to look at, but on the other side I feel that the decision to go ro stay comes even before the crude reality of numbers.

To make things worse is the fact that I will have to leave all my agents (especially the Japanese one who is a great friend on the top of a great business partner), this is expecially very hard for me to accept as I invested a lot of time to create something special with these people and starting all over again is a bit of a turn down, both for personal reasons but also for "results driven" reasons, as I know perfectly well that the job that these people do in their own countries is really important to achieve the good results that we have brought so far.

Any advice? I just wish that I got an offer from some electronics company or something different, it would take away a lot of uncertainties...
[14 comments]
RPG, Outlets and Soccer: [17th-19th January 2006]

Nothing much to report during these days, I have played yet another game at the usual RPG with my friends, which was pleasant.

I also went to see a very famous Outlet store near Florence, this time I was amazed to see that a very nice Luxury Brands Shopping Mall was created in the middle of nowhere 20 miles away from Florence.
I was particularly struck by the number of people that were there on a THURSDAY, most of them were foreigners of course (90% Asian), but still they must make a lot of money.
Unfortunately I didn't find anything that pleased me enough to force me into a buy.

Eventually on the 18th Fiorentina played again, this time I couldn't go with my mates to see the match as by the way the pay-tv system is here in Italy, there are some teams that are only shown on certain TV circuits, this means that usually people would get a connection with SKY (that has most of the teams) but the other channels are left untouched.
So we had nowhere to see the match and I had to use the radio.
The radio has proven quite unlucky, as in the only two occasions that I have used it (the last time was at the beginning of December after the surgery), Fiorentina has lost badly...

No more radio in Florence for the matches from now!

All in all I feel only now that I am partly on a big holiday, I still have to do rehab, but I am free to move now so life is going back to normal.

Finally, let's hope the leg improves more and more, I can't stand being half injured for much longer!

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The North: [15th January 2006]

I am being quite slack.

I was meant to look for a job, and I wasted last week doing fuck all, well, to be completely honest I did look for a job but not quite as strongly as I should.
I have tried to re-tie all the lost links that I had in Florence, as a matter of fact, in Italy, it's a lot easier to land on an offer because you were introduced by someone rather than by sending CVs.
It's quite sad, but it's the game that you have to play in Pizzaland.

On the other side doing PR is good because you meet new people and you see new faces. Roberto (for example), my brother in law, came for two days and introduced me to a very nice chap who might have the right channels that might be interested in my profile.
Even if nothing comes out at least I have spent a nice night and I have met someone different.

The knee is SLOWLY getting there, even though Roberto (who is a sport doctor) told me that the surgery wasn't all that "clean" and that great part of the suffering came from that. In any case the leg is fine now and I have to get all the muscles to work once more, so that the leg is more stable and the pain will finally go away.
I have also got to know that my sick-leave is not until the 10th of February as I first thought, but is instead until the 31st of January.
Needless to say that this was quite a big blow, as it fast forwarded the date of me leaving Florence, occurrence that I knew it was coming but that I have tried not to think about for as much as I could.

I have to see if I can get a further extension.

It's a funny feeling. I have now almost completely re-joined the Florentine way of life, the Florentine spirit, and now I have to leave.
Thinking of it it's not funny at all, it's actually quite shite, but I must concentrate on how much I like it here so that I will work harder to move from the North back to this area.
I tend to go back and "forget" how good is here, I think it's a sort of self-preservation instinct, in order to avoid a bullet in my head (RATM quote intended).

Fiorentina played a good (and lucky) match that I watched with my mates; the afternoon was quite nice as a result. Evening spent watching the last episode of "24", that I was meant to see with a friend of mine who stood me up instead!

Oh well it can't be all perfect, or can it?

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Check Up and Paris: [10th January 2005]

Today I have had the check up with the surgeon that operated me. Apparently everything is fine, though he had to draw yet more liquid from the knee.
This time instead of blood it was a clear "synovial" liquid, this is good of course, and all in all I think that the recovery, albeit slow, is going ok.

The syringe brought me back 1 month ago, when I was terribly in pain compared to now. It's funny how physical pain is something that one tends to forget (apart from remembering that you were in pain), I mean the precise extent of the pain that one suffered is forgotten pretty quickly. Maybe it's a self defence mechanism, to help a man go on with his/her life.

I have also received a nice relaxed phone call from my boss, asking how I was etcetera etcetera.
I managed to sneak in the fact that I most probably will not be featured in the next Textile Fair in February. Mostly because it's a very stressful time for us, and more than everything, you have to continuously stand up and sit down all day for 10 hours at least.
Not the best thing to do with the knee in this state.

He wasn't happy of course, but there is little that he can do, now I am waiting for a usual frontal attack where he'll try to coerce me to go, but that will have to wait until I am there, if I know my chickens (italian expression to say:if I know the people around me well enough).

We'll see. Of course I hope that I will not go to Paris because I moved back here with a new job, from tomorrow I will start calling a couple of old contacts that might help me, let's see, it's time to get lucky (or die trying), 2005 was quite shite for me under that point of view, I like thinking that fate owes me one!
[4 comments]
Sunday boring Sunday: [8th January 2006]

The title says it all. I have done practically nothing today, apart from being woken up quite early by my mother as she returned from her holidays in Sardinia.
The usual training, the usual computer games, I even tried to get some of my friends to go out a little, but to no avail.

The leg is ok, I guess, but I get tired of walking very quickly so even a stroll in the center of Florence (I love to go there and so far I didn't get a chance to go) can prove quite hard for me.

Oh well, tomorrow will be busier, more re-hab, the company will re-open and I will be stormed by phone calls and such, life will get slowly back to normal!

High spot of the day has been the present that I received from my sister, a mask made by an artist in Sardinia, quite nice, I need to find a place to hang it now!
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The night Ritual: [4th January 2006]

There isn't much that I have done today, I have seen Marta off to her home in Filottrano, she is going to spend there some time before going back to work in Varese.
Needless to say that neither of us were happy of parting again, but on the other side there is little that can be done, you need to work, so it was time for her to go.
More free space for me on the other side, though in the last month I have been unable to use all the time that I had, so it feels like if I arrived in Florence only recently.

Tonight I went out for a late show at the movies, watched an italian comedy with Francesco and Elisa, it was good, we had a lot of laughs and the evening went by quickly.

Back home I had to begin preparations for the usual "Night Ritual", I slowly got to call it like that because it feels like there are a certain sets of things that I need to do in order to go to bed.

Originally it was devised to get the clock at least at 2 AM, as I am not sleeping a lot it means that I wake up at 5ish, I can put the usual bag of ice on the knee, and get back to sleep until 9/10ish, as the pain seems to subside after 7am a little.
Now the knee is better, but the ritual is still there.

First of all I watch some tv, have a drink of water and start filling the bath.
Half way through the filling I add some bath salts and bath foam, get all the night clothes in the bathroom and turn on the electric heater for additional warmth.

In the meantime I check my mails, browse the Internet a little and start preparing the bed.

More Tv is required as the bath takes some time to fill up, I smoke a fag or two. It's strange, when I got here it was already 3 months that I quit on smoking, I seem to have picked it up again, bad habits are hard to die, but I am sure that when I am mentally stronger I will stop again.

Then it's bath time, after which I get to bed, read a little and start sleeping.
It's a strange feeling because there were nights where I could sleep more than the usual 3 hours, and the rest of the day was spent trying to remember what I have done exactly so that I could re-create the same conditions.
I know perfectly well that it's nothing to do with what I "do" but it's a mental attitude, there are nights when I am more sleep-prone and others when I am definitely more nervous, but in a way the little "Ritual" helps me in focusing on the task ahead, helps me relaxing, so I guess it's a good thing to do!

Now it's time to enter the bath!

Good night everyone!
[7 comments]
"Hippocamping" substitute for Walking?: [3rd January 2006]

The biggest piece of news today is that I managed to sleep 5 hours. Not the usual 3 crappy one, but a whole 5 hours where there for me. I cannot understand if that was part of the sleep that I didn't have in the last month catching back, or some sign of improvement, but I woke up mildly rested after a long time.

The bad news is what happened yesterday at the re-hab, where basically the physiotherapist told me that I have to stop walking without crutches, and that I still need to use at list one stick.
To be honest I vexed the knee during New Year's Eve, and that was the result of a whole night of foolishness I guess.

On the other side that was quite a big blow to my "mental" health, usually they say that you start feeling better from your mind, and now I feel as if I have taken a big step back in my recovery.
I have to face the fact that the knee is still swollen more or less the same since the blood was drained almost 1 month ago, so even if movement greatly improved the inflammation that is a result of the surgery doesn't seem to get better at all.

I feel as if I am walking backwards and not forward, like a sea horse (or Hippocampus as you prefer).

Today I went out with Marta at the biggest mall that we have here. I really wanted to go to the center of Florence but my conditions are not good enough to dare walking on a pavement, and in the end the choice was good because I didn't feel well at all and I had to stop several times to sit down on the benches at the mall.

We went there mostly to buy the Christmas presents that I didn't have a chance to buy her before, but unfortunately we didn't find anything, all my ideas turned out either too crap or nonexistent in the several shops there.
Gutted is an euphemism that I could use to describe my state at the end of the brief visit.

We then went back home to get ready for the dinner out with my father and Patrizia, his partner.
The venue was a typical Florentine "Trattoria", where we had a quite good meal, nothing special but nice. The high point of the evening was the "Fiorentina Steak" that we ordered, it was banned because of mad cow disease a long time ago, and it has been reestablished recently for the joy of many italians.
The Fiorentina Steak cut it's pretty much like a T-Bone.

Back home it was already time to go to bed, the trick is to see how many hours will I be able to put on tonight, tomorrow Marta will be back home, and yet again I am really upset because I think that I didn't show her a good time in Florence, as we hardly gone out at all...

Oh well, there will be other chances!
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New Year's Eve: The meal, the day, the people involved.

They think it's all over...

It is now!

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Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!: A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
Pictures: A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good!
History of this Blog: A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year.
The Maison Cookbook: Ranging from Indian to Japanese, Italian and African cusine I proudly present the collection of recipes uploaded by the "Usual Suspects".