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Hectic Week: [Friday 26th February 2009]

I woke up this morning, thinking that there are still 7 days till I leave for Asia, soon to realize that February is a strange month and that instead I have little more than the weekend. Have you ever had the feeling that time is not enough?

I'd say that all in all is a positive thing, mostly because it means that there are a lot of things to do and this is much better than biding one's time waiting for things to happen.

Me and Chiara are looking for a house, I hate looking for places to live in, mostly because I feel that it's a huge waste of time, and in the end I would settle for anything that strikes my imagination without thinking too much. Chiara is exactly the opposite, she has a vague idea of what she wants, but she is very quick to spot all those bits and pieces that she doesn't like in this place or this other place. To me most of the time it seems that they are very little and pointless things, but on the other side I am the one that doesn't care too much as long as there is a nice kitchen and the place is not a dump.

Result, no house so far, notice already handed in means that we have to stop looking for a house to buy and we have to start looking for a place to rent, another thing that given the present economic situation I quite hate because keeping savings in the bank is not a great investment at the moment.

Work has been pretty hectic, after the three fairs (Milan, Paris and Frankfurt) we have had little time to regroup and debrief (well 2 weeks), and I feel that a lot of the work is concentrated in this period for my markets, because it's when we build up the strategy for 2009, after all in September it's already too late to change things. So I find myself really doing a lot of work, planning trips that will take me around Asia for ONE MONTH, and generally starting to produce as I probably did a long time ago when I was in the fashion industry. Of course it's a positive feeling let's hope it lasts, on the other side I am often quite tired.

Take the last week, between appointments, emails, preparations, houses to be see and the normal life (adding the fact that I am trying to book this surgery for my knee), I feel as 5 days have passed really quickly.

Oh well, an hectic week prelude to a VERY LONG trip. March is going to be interesting for sure!

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Frankfurt: [12th - 17th February 2008]

I think that I have lost count of the times that I actually landed in Frankfurt airport. It must be more than 100 for sure.

The funny thing is that I have never set foot into the CITY of Frankfurt, until this time when I finally managed to see the place because we have had a major fair there.

Actually the city itself is pretty dire. I cannot sweeten the blow, it's really nasty, but after all we have to remember that Frankfurt has been rebuilt recently after the war, since the allies completely flattened it with boms.

So it's pretty new, modern buildings scattered all over the place, but generally I managed to see only a lot of traffic, a gloomy athmosphere and a lot of grey.
At night the place is a bit more lively and restaurants and pubs are certainly interesting, but I could never live there I think.

The fair itself was rather good, we worked like madmen, but when we came back to the company the news that the owner asked the workers to start some sort of mobility that we call "cassa integrazione" in Italy was a bit disappointing. They didn't even wait for the fair to finish...
Oh well I guess that the rest of the world is shedding jobs and so we are no different from them, but it's a bit of a turndown when something like this happens because it brings you back to the sad reality, I could loose my job no matter how well I do it.

The present situation is really shite, it's so bloody hard to make big decisions in a normal period, but now it's even harder. Me and Chiara are looking for a house, but when you go back home and start thinking about the fact that you might not be able to repay the mortgage it makes you want to reschedule all decisions taken previously.

We'll see where this world will bring us to, in the meantime I am already planning my next trip, Asia for almost 30 days, and then after it I need to get the knee surgery to see if things start working a little bit better with it.

Busy busy busy... at least I don't get bored!
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Fed Up: [Saturday 7th February 2009]

This Saturday like it happened many times in the past, Chiara had to wake quite early to go to work. So far no big deal because she work in an hotel and that's always open also at the weekends.

We decided to go out for lunch, and giving that her shifts finishes at 1.30 PM that's almost a borderline time as around 2.30 the restaurant where we normally go (let's say the one I like called BORDINO), doesn't serve food anymore.

So I went for an haircut and went back at the hotel playing around with the computers while Chiara is busy.

Then around 1.20 Chiara comes along and tells me that the person that was meant to arrive at 1.30 to change shift is at some course and is going to be late, meaning that no restaurant is going to be possible.

Unfortunately this keeps happening all the bloody time, there is always something that prevents her to go out at the right time. Chiara doesn't seems to mind this issue all that much, after all work is work, for me it's a bit more complicated to get to terms with this constant delays and last minute rescheduling.

It's something that I really hate, probably because if I knew it before I could have done other things, rather than waste my time at the hotel checking mails and the latest news...

So that's it, I am officially fed up!
[4 comments]
The thing that should not be: [Tuesday 3rd February 2009]

It might be because I am coming up with some strange bug, it might be because I feel a bit tired and because the weekend was a bit boring, but today, my colleagues doom predictions regarding the place where I am working finally managed to scratch the barrier that I have put up so far.

The situation is old, the crisis is killing markets, Italy exports more than 70% of its production, so in return the situation is quite dire even if the bank sector here in Pizzaland looks pretty stable.

Our company is in a bad condition, saved two years ago by a new entrepreneur, but money are running out and we are at the point where we need an injection of cash to hope to keep going one more year waiting for the markets to pick up again.

So far I never really bothered about the situation, in the past probably I would loose sleep over it, but now that I am a little bit more wise I understood that it's pointless to worry about things that I cannot control. Of course this is a bit the story of the ostrich that hides his head under the sand while outside is raining fire and death, but on the other side what more can I do?

Unfortunately looking for another job is out of the question, there is still a lot to do at the present situation and moreover I just joined the company and it would be hard to explain a potential employer why I changed job three times in the last three years. In Italy at least doesn't look all that good.

So that's it, "the thing that should not be", in other terms I really hope that I do not have to face a company going burst with me inside, it would be quite a bad experience and given the present situation...
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A long Weekend: [Friday 30th January - Sunday 1st February]

Finally after the two weeks of straight work around Europe I managed to get a day off on Friday, an occasion that I was quite looking forward to.

Since Chiara was away in Spain for some work related matters, I had a couple of days "off" where I could do whatever I wanted, to be more precise I just bummed around the house playing computer games (Football Manager 2009), cooking and watching the day go by very slowly.
I have tried to go out on Friday night, but all my friends were engaged in different activities, so we went out on Saturday instead. We planned to go to Cibreo, a place where the cuisine is really top notch and after the meal you get to watch a theatre play (or small concert) for free. But, since the place is so good, then there is a long queue to get a place and this time we were not lucky.

We decided to go to a Napoli' style pizzeria instead, which was too noisy to talk and too normal for my taste, but it was go to be out with all the friends.

Sunday was really boring. Chiara had to hop on a train to go to the airport in Pisa as she was going to Paris for 3 days with some friends. I was meant to watch the usual football but the match was postponed to Monday because of the snow.
So once again cooking and playing computer at home, but after 3 days the novelty was already finished and I couldn't really enjoy my Sunday at home.

More discussion to be reported about the house situation, we are meant to change the place at the end of April, but it seems that me and Chiara have a very different ideas on what we want and that it's quite a stress for me to cope with. Let's see what the new visits will bring, hopefully we will find a suitable place...
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