Lox - Archived Entries for 2006 / 2

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Driving Lessons: [28 February 2006]

As I started my route to work today, I couldn't help but thinking about the fact that my morning life has changed recently. The move to a different place implies 20 kilometers of drive that we usually didn't have to do, not a major tragedy, but a new set of experiences altogether.

First of all I need to see the fuel station guy a lot more than usual. This is just a bad experience, expensive and unwelcome.

I get to listen to the radio a lot more than usual, though my car stereo doesn't properly qualify for the "stereo" medal (it's a second hand broken up stereo salvaged from Marta's car when she sent it to the junkyard), it does the job of picking some radio waves (or maybe microwave oven), and play some sound.
BONUS.
Yeah allright I am all stingy, but until 3 weeks ago I never needed a car stereo at all, as my usage of the car has been close to none.

I like driving, I like experimenting a variety of "shortcuts" that I think will get me there in no time, though seldom this seems to be the case.

I also get to unload a lot of bad feelings, tension and so on on the random cars that I encounter. That is the worse part.
Once I start the engine of my 106, I need to get to work as soon as possible. So far the record has been 23minutes CAR PARK ----> BADGE READER (or whatever you call it) for a whopping 20 Kilometers (+ 5 minutes walk from the car park to the badge reader).
Hardly a Ferrari speed, but considering rush hour traffic it has been the best so far (though I count to improve it further).

The classic stereotype of the Italian shouting at everything a tad slower than speed of light fits perfectly my case.
Paraphrasing Thomas Grey 's "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard", I could be considered as a Formula one driver that will never be...

Some mute inglorious Raikkonen here may rest,
Some Schumacher, guiltless of his country's blood.

Oh well, I have to admit an hidden pleasure at slagging off everyone that crosses my way, utter blasphemies in high pitched voices, gesture like a madman every time the car in front of me breaks for a curve or a roundabout.

The good side is that I arrive at work already "tired" of fighting, meaning that a lot of bullshite falls off me like water on the duck's back.

Tonight I am driving to Florence, three days of oxygen for my brain is what I needed before leaving for Japan!
[5 comments]
Another Lazy Weekend: [25-26 February 2006]

Yet again the weekend came knocking at my door, expecting to be entertained by me a way or another.

And yet again he slipped away on sunday night after I have managed to disappoint every hope of having fun and/or doing something different.

I could hear him singing along something like this (on the world famous Bangles tune):

It's just another boring Sunday
I wish it was Monday
'Cause that's more of a funday
My "at least I do something"
It's just another God damn Sunday

Of course I am exagerating... :P
Looking at the positive sides, on Saturday night we went out to see Paola, and have a nice dinner there. Marta brought back some extremely vicious cheese from France, so before he decided to kill us during the night (the main course "Mont' D'Or" I am sure it had a will of its own!!) we had to get over with them soon.

All in all the dinner was good, I have managed to see Fiorentina playing on Saturday night, though all the kids in the house didn't really let me watch anything of it. The important thing is that we won, and that the night passed quite quickly without any major incidents...

Sunday was a let down again. The sun did come out, but I don't feel very confident in walking around with the leg in thin conditions, so in the end I spent the whole day at home, day that was crowned by a dodgy quality DIVX of the latest Harry Potter movie.
I really don't see why anyone would spend his/her time downloading movies, all the time I have been given a divx et similaria, the quality is shite, audio is strange and all in all the movie suffers a lot from it...

Of course I am no download virgin, and maybe (like in this case) I can overlook poor quality if the movie that I watch is one on the "not so interesting/let's take a peek" list.

After the rowlingesque experience ended (by the way the movie is not THAT bad at all), the weekend said goodbye, I did tell him that next week I will be in Florence, so hopefully it will be different.

I am quite looking forward to see my friends and to the medical check up, then it will be the week before leaving to Japan, and when I am back here I will be one year older...

Scary!
[1 comment]
All by Myself: All by Myself

[21-23 February 2006]

This week all my colleagues went to the (in)famous fair in Paris, to the usual textile show that we attend twice every year. In the last five years I haven't missed this appointment, but this time, because of the knee I didn't go.
All in all I thought it was a good thing not to go, I don't like the place all that much and the work that we do there is quite heavy, long hours standing, talking, shaking hands and smiling tirelessly.

I was not prepared on the other side to deal with all the work that was kindly awaiting for me in the office, having to do the job that normally 4 people do (all the sales assistants), I can calmly say that if we put the two experiences on a weightscale there is little difference.

It has been incredible to have three phones ringing at the same time while speaking on another one to the people in Paris requesting information about this article or that client in real time.
At some points it has been quite heavy, also because the new way of dealing with internal procedures (after we moved away from the factory) is everything but working.

To increase the good feelings the weather helped a lot.

In the morning a nice blanket of fog have been unfolding over the quite boring surrounding that I have to pass by when going to work, I couldn't help feeling like when you go to bed and both the materass and the covers are cold as ice and you cringe when inserting your tired legs into the depths of the bed, looking for a warmer spot that only time (and blood pressure) is able to give you...

Cold weather aside I really worked my arse off, feeling very tired at night almost incapable of doing anything interesting.

What pissed me off most though is my knee. Unfortunately after a couple of days of relatively good responses from the injured limb, I started feeling pain again all around it, sign that there is still some principle of inflammation on the outer tendons and muscles.
This is definitely not good news, the doctor warned me against this problem, telling me that if the situation gets worse I might have to rest for another month.
Hardly something that I want to do, especially here.

Next week I'll be off to Florence again, to see the surgeon and physiotherapist, I hope that I can get a good check up and that my position might be clearer, the trip to Japan is getting close, three more weeks to wait, and I definitely do NOT want to miss on that.

In a way I am putting a lot of hopes into that, as if after that trip I will have a different life and so on. The sad truth is that I will not be any different when I come back (apart from being older), workwise all my endeavors in Florence have paid little close to nothing. In reality the trip to Japan is a way to escape this place.

Oh well, we'll see, Marta is of course leaving for the new company, this will be another source of stress and tension, but at least things for her are improving, so I guess I have to look at the bright side there...

When will it be my turn?
[No comments]
All by Myself: All by Myself

[21-23 February 2006]

This week all my colleagues went to the (in)famous fair in Paris, to the usual textile show that we attend twice every year. In the last five years I haven't missed this appointment, but this time, because of the knee I didn't go.
All in all I thought it was a good thing not to go, I don't like the place all that much and the work that we do there is quite heavy, long hours standing, talking, shaking hands and smiling tirelessly.

I was not prepared on the other side to deal with all the work that was kindly awaiting for me in the office, having to do the job that normally 4 people do (all the sales assistants), I can calmly say that if we put the two experiences on a weightscale there is little difference.

It has been incredible to have three phones ringing at the same time while speaking on another one to the people in Paris requesting information about this article or that client in real time.
At some points it has been quite heavy, also because the new way of dealing with internal procedures (after we moved away from the factory) is everything but working.

To increase the good feelings the weather helped a lot.

In the morning a nice blanket of fog have been unfolding over the quite boring surrounding that I have to pass by when going to work, I couldn't help feeling like when you go to bed and both the materass and the covers are cold as ice and you cringe when inserting your tired legs into the depths of the bed, looking for a warmer spot that only time (and blood pressure) is able to give you...

Cold weather aside I really worked my arse off, feeling very tired at night almost incapable of doing anything interesting.

What pissed me off most though is my knee. Unfortunately after a couple of days of relatively good responses from the injured limb, I started feeling pain again all around it, sign that there is still some principle of inflammation on the outer tendons and muscles.
This is definitely not good news, the doctor warned me against this problem, telling me that if the situation gets worse I might have to rest for another month.
Hardly something that I want to do, especially here.

Next week I'll be off to Florence again, to see the surgeon and physiotherapist, I hope that I can get a good check up and that my position might be clearer, the trip to Japan is getting close, three more weeks to wait, and I definitely do NOT want to miss on that.

In a way I am putting a lot of hopes into that, as if after that trip I will have a different life and so on. The sad truth is that I will not be any different when I come back (apart from being older), workwise all my endeavors in Florence have paid little close to nothing. In reality the trip to Japan is a way to escape this place.

Oh well, we'll see, Marta is of course leaving for the new company, this will be another source of stress and tension, but at least things for her are improving, so I guess I have to look at the bright side there...

When will it be my turn?
[3 comments]
Wolves and Owls: [20th February 2006]

In Italy we have a couple of saying that are quite common when describing very bad weather. "Tempo da Lupi" and "Tempo da Gufi" (although the latter is less common), is what you would say describing the atmospheric conditions that struck the Como and Varese provinces in the last two days.
"Tempo" means weather, while "Lupi" means wolves and "Gufi" means owls. Loosely translated we could say that it's a "Weather suited for wolves or owls".
Imagine rain, cold and fog, all together (hardly possible rain and fog are not exactly friends) from 5 in the morning till late at night. I guess that the expression comes from the fact that in a weather like this you can hardly see anything, and the only thing that you can hear are wolves and owls waiting to feast on your dead body (I know that owls are not cannibals, but it's a nice image), lost in the Blakeian reminiscence of the "forests of the night".

On Saturday and Sunday it has been raining continuously for 48 hours, good for my car as it needed a washing, very bad for any kind of activity that involved getting out of home.

Strong on the fact that Sunday marks the beginning of the week, Monday was even crapper (if possible) with a nice mist that doesn't allow to see further than 10 meters...
All in all a bad start.

Tomorrow all my colleagues are going to Paris for the usual fair that we have there.
This year on the top of skipping the presentation of the collection (good), I am also skipping the trip to Paris because of my leg (very good).
It's like if I am already out of this company (shame that it's not that way) though I know it has been just a twist of bad fortune (I don't consider the knee injury a good thing) that prevented me to go.
As a result I will be ALONE in the office for four days.
I still have to decide if it's good or bad, I will have to do all the things that the girls do (checking orders, shipping instructions, blah blah blah), but I also think that I will have quite a bit of free time all by myself... At least now I can speak to someone...

Oh well, I'll cross that bridge tomorrow!
[9 comments]
Lazy Saturday: [18th February 2006]

Nothing much to report today, I went to the swimming pool in the morning, having to take back the rehab session that I missed yesterday.
In the afternoon we went to the big department store that I hate, mostly because they had a 25% off on everything sale, so we bought some nice food and general supplies.
I also finished my Lord of the Rings jigsaws, so I took them to get framed, it's gonna cost a whopper but I hope that the final result will be nice.

In the evening we had a pizza, made some under-oil sundried tomatoes, and played computer till late at night.

It seems that all the going out that I did in Florence it's a pleasant memory of the past, life feels like stuck in quicksands, I am only looking forward to the trip to Japan in March, though I know it's a placebo, because I really need to get out of this place to make a difference to my existence.
[3 comments]
Late night at work: [17th February 2006]

In the last three days I have had quite a busy schedule, as the Japanese agent with a bunch of clients flocked the offices nonstop.
In a way it was a positive thing, it got me back into the working mentality, and got me out of a ultra boring presentation of the collection meeting. This time there were four different collections being presented and the fact that I managed to save 3 hours of boredom and bullshit is already a positive thing.
Negative was the attitude of our head designer and her attache, who sort of hinted that I should have come and that it was rather "convenient" that I had clients during the time allotted to the "show".
I wished I had a nasty sarcastic retort ready to fire, but I didn't have it and I kind of let it pass.

If this happened 2 years ago I would have probably started an argument or something similar, so in the end it was good not to reply to the stupid comments and to tell them that "yes it was convenient to have the clients around..".

Marta will leave rather soon, and YET I have not been told anything officially and we do not know who is going to replace her. I told the agent about it, of course he wasn't happy, but yet again I have to remember that she is leaving for a better opportunity, let's hope she manages to do good.

In the evening I had to stay with my boss in the office until 9 PM to do all the pricing of the articles. Had an interesting discussion with the mega-boss of the company about the way we calculate the price lists and everything, it was funny to see my boss trying to climb up a mirror defending the (completely irrational) way we calculate costs and margins...

Lat night meant no rehabilitation today...
[No comments]
On the erosion of Mountains: [13th February 2006]

I guess that before a landslide a mountain begins crumbling slowly and little by little, at first releasing a couple of rocks and then increasing the payload, everything falls to pieces and villages disappear together with careless mountaineers (caught while having sex), flora and fauna.

This is the closet image that I have in my mind when I think about the company where I am working, it didn't take long to understand that the move to the main offices of our division is just a way to cut jobs, get people to go and generally speaking closing the division altogether.
I would have never imagined how bad things are getting if I didn't come here. Mostly because the day to day management is now completely out of hand, and of course being in the commercial department means that all the crap ends up here.
I could brag about people not wanting to do any work, people answering in a rude manner and not giving the info needed, people refusing to do simple tasks because if they do so they might be asked in the future, but I will not deepen my analysis into these phenomenon.

Funny thing is that with Marta leaving us soon (no officiality has been given yet, though half of the company already knows about it), I am going to suffer immensely on my markets as the person that is going to replace her is (apparently) a lady from another division who doesn't know how we work, what difficulties we have in getting answers from our colleagues and most than anything knows (and "gives a") shit about this product and clients.
After 5 years where I put my endeavors to grow a team with Marta and our agents in a way that the daily work could be as easy and coordinated as possible (I have to say that we have been quite successful in doing it), starting again feels like having built nothing at all, and this time I am not prepared to give an extra effort, mostly due to the totally compromised relationships with this company, after all I am paid to sell, not to build a successful team (my boss should do it in my view, but he's just too crap at that).

Of course this is the negative thinking, I have to remind myself that Marta is leaving the division for a better opportunity and that is also thanks to our work (and my teachings I hope).

On the other side there is a strange feeling on my side, I am very jealous of my Japanese Market, and even if Marta is not going to take anything from me, the idea of having her at the same time I am there is quite bothering.
Yes, though it might seem strange I am now used to travel alone.
I have been doing it for a long time, and though I like to spend time with friends and colleagues, my first reaction of having to see her in Japan is not a positive one (sort of "no, not here too!!").
I think that the fact that she was offered the position and I wasn't asked anything is also part of the story, but I think that it has to do more with the fact that so far all the Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese experiences have always been "my own" only, and I like them to stay that way.

There is also the fact (not a small one) that so far I have been the only salesperson in the Italian textile world, that could speak Japanese, and since I am a competitive bastard (and I am not able to simply switch off this feature), in my subconscious I feel threatened by this new mushroom that popped up in my garden.

Oh well, I hope that it will all wear off, as there is really no risk at all, actually, I hope that I can go away soon, so that I will be finally confronted with other issues and challenges.
[4 comments]
The ups and downs of an Italian weekend: [11/12th February 2006]

This was the first full weekend back in Vedano after the injury, and I was quite resolute to make the best of it, in a sort of refound spirit of making the best of these northen days.
[Click here to read more...]
[1 comment]
Day Two and a Gust of Change: [9th February 2006]

Today my boss was back at "home" so I was expecting the usual pressure and bullshit arguments that have characterized the relationship with the people in the office lately.
Luckily it wasn't this way, at least for today, so I have had a quite tranquil second session back at work.

Workwise there are a lot of things that I have to get back into, mostly all my statistics and numbers, as from home in Florence I was in contact every day with the office meaning that I was already aware of all the problems that occurred to the market and to the company.
The move to the new offices has created a lot of miscommunication with the factory, hence a lot of delays, quality issues and so on, but this time I have decided that I am not going to loose not 1 minute of sleep over these self inflicted crap
On the good side there is only the fact that we eat very well at lunch.

Late in the afternoon, a bit like outside where a very cold wind was blowing, a gust of change seemed to have slip through the huge open space where we work.
Marta will most probably leaving our division soon.

She's been offered an Area Manager position for another section of the company where we work, she'll be able to travel to Japan for the first time, an opportunity that she is longing since she came to the company 5 years ago.
Of course I am extremely happy about it, it's a very good chance for her, but I also told her that she has to be very careful, as she is on a low wage and she must do anything to get a raise soon.
The way this company seems to work is to leave these matters "for later".

So the bottom line is that she is leaving us, the office, and of course she will leave the customer care part of her job for the Japanese market, creating a huge amount of problems to me as apparently they will employ another lady to do her job (but this person will have to be instructed from start).

I am waiting for them to make it official, then I'll complain to my boss (once more), as he's saying that we all have to do "more", "better" and this and that, but the bottom line is that all the people who are extremely experienced in their work are leaving the office and I think it's impossible to replace them with newbies and hope to do better than before.

Fact is, apart from being happy for Marta, I don't give a flying fuck about it, I just hate people telling me that 2+2 equals 5, this is something that I cannot stand.

Anyways until she signs something there is no officiality, let's hope that the new customer care is a nice lady, maybe even good looking! :)
[3 comments]
The first day of Work: [8th February 2006]

Finally after 2 months I have decided to go back at work today, although my sick leave would cover until the 13th. Probably the fact that I already moved up North played a strong role in this decision, here I really have nothing to do and spending idle days at home is quite pointless.
So back to work in the new offices.

Of course coming back is always nice; you have to tell a gazillion people what you have done, when, how and so on. You feel at the center of the attention for a small spell, all in all a good experience.
Work wise it's a rather bad period for the company, meaning that as a result there is little to do here in the office, which means a lot of free time to play with.

Another piece of good news is the fact that today the boss is out in Germany, so it has been a very "nice soft landing".

In the evening I went to see Bogio and Paola. They have Sky in their house so I could watch Fiorentina winning a very important match against Inter Milan, I think I came close to a heart attack at least 4 times but we managed to get the result that I hoped.

In the end it was a good day, not so eventful but rather nice nonetheless, surely I was expecting a much nastier return to work..
[2 comments]
Marta's Birthday: [4-5th February 2006]

On Saturday I packed up everything and moved back to Vedano, time had come to get closer to my life and to Marta as she had planned a party on Saturday night to celebrate the event (though she was born on the 5th).

I arrived late in the afternoon, unpacked everything and our guests came right on time.
The dinner was great, as it was great to see all the friends that I have here, Marta made some excellent home made lasagne, a great apple roast and all in all the evening flew by and it was time to go to bed.

On Sunday I proposed to go to Andeer, that town in Switzerland where we went more or less one year ago. Andeer is a small town on the Alps, with a great spa center.
As my knee is playing tricks on me (is getting worse apparently, but I won't talk about it today), I thought that it might have been good to couple a nice day out in a relaxing place and some water therapy for my articulation.

The day was really great, we had a very nice time in Andeer and then we moved to a nice restaurant near our house. Once again we were lucky as we showed up without reservation, but we managed to get a seat with the promise to finish off in a couple of hours as the table was reserved.
We were seated in a private room, served with exceptional speed and of course the restaurant did the rest as the quality is really really high.
A great dinner.

To finish off a good day there was Fiorentina's result who won its match today. Of course I didn't follow the match as today was really Marta's day so I didn't want to take time away from her.

All in all a great day and a very good reunion with Vedano and the North of Italy. Of course this doesn't take away the fact that I want to go back to Florence, but at least I have got a good start, which is welcome of course.

Let's see what the future holds for me, in the meantime I savour these two days as I prepare my return to working life...
[2 comments]
Baugigi, Vaso di Caccole e Stranguglione: [3 February 2006]

This was the last day of my Florentine period due to the surgery that I had to do on my right knee.
A grand total of 62 days spent in the place where I'd like to be, most of them were rather nasty because the recovery from the operation was not a walk in the Park, but I want to force myself to remember the nice points, all the nights out with my friends, the new year party, the Christmas family reunions, RPGs, nights spent playing Playstation and so on...

The last day was very full for me, last rehab session, packing up the car, saying goodbye to all the relatives and organizing the last dinner with as many people as possible.

Finally I managed to gather a bunch of people, namely: Francesco, Elisa, Stefano, Rita (in the picture above showing her tongue!), Federico, Simone, Gianfranco and myself.

We set up to go to the "Luxurious Chinese Restaurant", as I call it, basically an above standard chinese restaurant, where you can eat a variety of food that is a bit different from the usual Cino-Italian version that is so popular over here.

The restaurant is furbished in a very Chinese way, red lacquered walls alive with several figures (dragons, lotus flowers, chinese ideograms), fake jade vases and chinese pictures scattered all over the place.
We managed to scrounge a table for 8, as we didn't book at all, and the dinner started. Rivers of Xintao Beer started flowing together with a very good selections of starters, meat, tofu dishes and so all. The dinner was good, all in all.

What was absolutely great is, yet again the people.

Apart from disrupting the dinner of everyone else in the place (we have been quite loud at times) we started spouting the usual hideous amount of bullshite, laughing most of the time (we have self-appointed our group with the name of : "The forge of bullshit").
Among the things that is worth remembering are the three words that make the title, I ll try to give a brief explanation:

Baugigi
This is not a Florentine word, it comes from another Tuscan city, Livorno. To make long things short, it means ASS. I dug this word from somewhere into my brain and among great fits of laughter we decided to have a round of drinks to the "baugigi".

Vaso di Caccole
This time it was Rita who came out with this other pearl. I think that we were having a massive go at the furniture of the restaurant, when her eyes fell on the fake jade vase that was encrusted into the wall.
Literally translated Vaso di Caccole means "Boogers Vase".
I didn't get a picture at the vase, but to give a brief description you should try to imagine a light green vase, around 1,5mts tall, with two small arms from which there are a lot of fake jade rings and strings dangling down.
Yes it looked like some very patient chinese took all the nasal excrements that he could get his hands on and created thin nice work of art...
We could not avoid drinking to the vase too... (in the meantime 10 people already left in disgust...)

Stranguglione
Another typical Tuscan word, it has several meanings, but we can restrict the field to a couple only.
The first one is basically a very strong and unexpected attack of diarrhea, with all the nasty consequences that usually are linked to these events.
The other one, and this is the case, is a sudden attack of hiccup or laughter that strikes when someone is either drinking or eating.
Federico suffered a very strong STRANGUGLIONE when drinking beer, you can imagine the scene of this poor guy producing masses of white foam from the nose and mouth in response to a punch-line said by Simone a second earlier...
The Stranguglione was added on the list of things that we had to drink to.

A great night that we finished off at Stefano's place playing card games and generally having a great time.

So that was it. 2 months at home, probably the best time that I have had in the last 2/3 years.
I say that with sadness, because at the time of me writing this piece I am back home in Varese, about to start the week that'll take me back to work in a tragicomic environment as my colleagues have depicted the new company setting.

On the other side I have to report the words of wisdom of my father, as usually fathers do, he managed to bring me back on earth with a simple phrase:

"You know Lorenzo, you lived these 2 months as a student, but your life in no more like that."

I think that we were talking about the fact that I am unhappy up north, and he was spot on. Florence has a strong advantage over Varese, I only go there when I am on holiday. I guess that it would be different if I move back as I will have to work there and have a lot of problems that so far (in the last 5 years) I have never had.
On the other side the nice evenings are all linked to my friends, they work of course, so I guess that maybe during the week I would be busier and I would have to go to bed earlier, but during the weekend and some other nights I should be free to do other things...

My father helped me in looking at the situation in a less idyllic way, but I still think that going back will improve my life, so I am going to fight for it in the coming period, and if Lady Luck will help me (I have some credit with her from last year!) I hope that I can go back for good soon...

[6 comments]

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.