Lox - Archived Entries for 2006 / 5

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Back to Work: [29th-30th May 2006]

Going back to work was relatively painless this time. There is a great ferment here in the company, mostly because there are so many problems that the fact that I was holding my position at my usual desk almost fell unnoticed.
Nothing to sweat about it really, it gave me time to sort out all the expense claims and all the work done in Japan. In the late afternoon I had a quick chat with my boss, basically he told me that he was very close to handing in his notice, because he had a massive argument with the president of the company. Basically he was forbidden to look into product development in the future.
I feel quite sorry for him now, he doesn't see that he put himself in this position but now he is suffering from it.

This opens a new chapter of my book "What NOT to do in a company", basically the president hires this guy, he's got the highest wage in our company, something I dare think around 15.000/20.000 Euro per month (net), gives him the complete power of deciding everything, and then after 2 years she decides that he doesn't have to do the product development anymore (a key part in our business).
Now, why don't you get rid of him altogehter then?!

To add more stupidity to the whole thing we have this system of reviewing the delays and problems with production. Basically one of our sales assistants must go the the weaving factory and have a half day long meeting with production reviewing every single line of order.
Then the day after she comes back and has to talk with each one of us about the delays and a lot of complaints from the production side.

The whole thing is very tense and it ends up in a pointless bickering with her about all the points that we discuss. Pointless I say, mostly because she cannot do anything about it, but in a way she feels that she has to defend the position of the factory...

In any case it takes half of the day to get this thing done, ALL the production people must be there (so for half day you cannot get answers), the person from our office cannot do her proper job and she's a part timer, meaning that after the meeting she doesn't come back, then we must loose a couple of hours getting upset between each other about things that are not working.

It's a very clumsy procedure, and I don't understand the role of a person from our office, after all production has to tell us about deliveries and the likes... Oh well, talk about stupid procedures...

In all of this I have managed to create my own little oasis, where I manage to control everything about our market. I cannot avoid but thinking that a bit of proper organization efforts could be extended to the rest of the office, and maybe things might be better, but since I am good at what I do there is no way for me to get an higher position, after all they'd need to replace me if I was given more responsibilities in a different field...

Flattered about it ? Mmmmmm, not really...
[3 comments]
Back to Pizzaland: [26th May 2006]

Second trips in the season mean a lot of travel for me, having to visit several countries and cities. All in all during this trip I have unpacked and re-packed my bags a grand total of 8 times, almost once every two days (well not quite...).

Generally speaking as the trip moves along its programmed path I tend to accumulate a lot of dirty clothes, presents and useless work material that our agents give us back, this time I had so much stuff that I had to throw away quite a lot of things (all work related, I wouldn't dream to loose anything that belonged to me!).

At the time of writing I am on the plane that is getting us back to Frankfurt, from there we'll be on the plane to Milan. The flight was quite shite, mostly because the movies are the same as the other trip I had in Asia 3 months ago. Considering that I can hardly sleep, not having anything to do is a bit of a bugger...

Giovanna has proven to be a very good travel companion, if she could endure my terrible sexist jokes it means that she's got nerve!
Still I hope that she had a good time, I certainly liked having someone around from the company, to whom I can explain all I know about Japan.
I should have been a guide probably...

Back in Italy I am going to have a MASSIVE rest for the weekend, and then next week I will quite surely go to Florence for some holidays.
As a matter of fact I have so many holidays that the company is kindly asking me to take them in order to decrease the total amount... Oh well, I'll see what I can do. If I was single I'd probably go to one of these seaside holiday villages, all inclusive, on the pull.
But attempting to make a move like that in my present situation MIGHT be seen by my partner as a bit out of order (though I did propose it, nonetheless), so I'll see what I can organize later.
[6 comments]
Ole Guiness and Dr.Hawkins: [22nd - 23rd May 2006]

Tokyo is always Tokyo, I like this place too. Work is always work, Giovanna is starting to show signs of jet lag mixed with being tired of such a long trip (by her standards), but she is great and though it shows she is putting up with it quite well.
On Tuesday I managed to meet Johnny-boy for a quick drink at an Irish pub in Shinjuku. I won't go through the usual great feeling of being with him, it's a shame that he couldn't make it to Kyoto on Sunday, but we spent some quality time together talking about work and life in general. I really enjoyed the evening, on Thursday I will see him again for dinner to close off this trip in a great way!

Back to the hotel I was swamped by mails from my boss and problems from the factory. Unfortunately there are massive delays in our productions and this is affecting quite negatively the results here. I am trying my hardest to get the boat safe to the harbor before it sinks, but this whole situation is quite a strain to me, mostly because I feel a lot of responsibility towards my agent Kutsunugi san and the clients with whom I am on very friendly terms now.

We'll see what happens next....
[4 comments]
Kyoto and Nara: [21st May 2006]

It was more or less nine years ago when I last went to see Kyoto and Nara. I was with Darrick then, an American friend of mine, with whom I travelled all around Easter Japan for two weeks.
My memories of Kyoto were quite vivid though, I still love this city, it reminds me of Florence all the way and I could happily live here if I had a chance to...

We set up pretty early from Osaka, got the right train to Kyoto and went to see Kinkaku-Ji and Ryonan-Ji, unfortunately we didn't have much time and we had to leave it there to move to Nara for more sightseeing.
This time it was time to see Todai-Ji and the Daibutsu (big wooden Buddha 16mts tall), plus a bunch of nice pagoda buildings and some more temples.
I will post the pictures separately later, but all in all it was a great day, surely Giovanna got a great taste of how Japan is and was, she was well impressed.
To me, though I had seen all these places before, the visit was simply great, the views are still amazing even though they were crawling with people from all over the world.

My ego was quite flattered to see that I could happily go thought the process of choosing the right trains, the right buses, the right directions, interfacing with the locals and generally using my orientation sense.
I thought that it would have been harder to go in so many different places in a day, but it all worked out pretty well in the end.

In the evening we had some Okonomiaki and then off to bed early as we were completely knackered
[10 comments]
Japan Times: [19th - 20th May 2006]

Well I finally arrived in Japan to go to the airport in the morning to meet Giovanna who was coming all the way from Italy for a brief stay here to do some designer research in the market. We met with some difficulty, as the mobile phone wasn't working well, but she managed to clear all checks and customs without major problems.
The fact that she cannot speak a good English was a bit of a concern to me, but she came through this first test unscathed.

Nothing to report apart from the usual client's visits and some nasty jokes that I played on her, especially while eating.

Everything is new to her and she is certainly amazed by the way Japan is, and how Japanese people are in their own turf.
[1 comment]
Leaving Taipei: [18th May 2006]

I am knackered. My back hurts, I have still problems sleeping, I really need a rest. The past 3 months have been quite full (as usual) for me, and now I really feel that I need a rest.

The last part of the trip will see me landing in Osaka, then Tokyo early next week.

As a matter of fact it's not a great idea to leave Japan for last, especially now that Giovanna (my designer) is coming for the first time to the land of the rising sun.

I really wanted her to come for at least two years, finally my bosses were convinced and here she is, so on that side it's good feelings only.

Her presence though means that we'll need to see DOUBLE the amount of clients that we usually do, even the useless ones, because we need her to get as many info as possible on the way Japan is.

Giovanna is the type of person that when I first met told me that she would never get on a plane. Since then a lot of progress has been done, mostly by working on the mind part trying to get her interested not in the job, but in the culture of the markets that she's following. Now she will come to Japan, at the moment she's flying to Frankfurt I suspect.

Of course my bosses are quick to take the merit of her coming, but my policy of "let them be, shut your cake hole!" means that I need to show my 36 teeth smile to such allegations...

So heavy work for the reminder of the trip, I am sure that everything will be totally mind blowing to her, as it was for me the first time I set foot on the island. I need to remember about it because I give a MILLION things for granted, while for her even the simplest thing (vending machines for example) will be new.

In Taipei things were quite good in the end, yesterday I even managed to find time to buy a new pair of Timberland shoes. I love this brand, their new casual line really suits me perfectly, and of course they are not as expensive as if I bought them in Italy, which is good. I didn't use to be so "fashion conscious" before, this is the work of Marta of course, she completely changed my mind during these years, but the results are quite pleasing, yesterday one of our clients asked me if I was a MODEL!!! :D

The evening was boring, and more and more I realize that if I didn't have my computer and an Internet connection I would probably be dead of boredom by now. During the business trips my old equipment helps me endlessly to fight jet lag, dead times and airport waitings.

In Japan I am meant to buy my new camera this time, let's hope that I won't have any second thoughts about it at the last minute!
[6 comments]
Street Talks: [16th - 17th May 2006]

Yesterday we had the usual working day, going around the city meeting clients and so on. The weather is completely crap, the typhoon that was meant to pass Taiwan to head over to Shanghai decided at he last minute that it might have been better to stop over for some HOTTARA action (see previous post), and is coming here.
This means that there are 30 degrees Celsius with heavy rain, hardly a weather that makes you feel like going around carrying a suitcase weighting more than 40 kilograms...

ANYWAYS, such is the life of the jet-set dishcloth fabric salesman for you...

In the evening we went to the most peculiar restaurant I have ever been to.
Basically after much walking we stopped in front of this convenience store, where a couple of people were setting up their little stall with ice and fish for display.
Strong of yesterday's experience I selected the fish and to my surprise Richard and Jimmy pointed me a dirty, chipped, crappy white table behind the stall... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAVEMENT, in front of the convenience store.
Yes, dear reader, we had dinner right next to the street, I have taken some pictures that I'll upload soon, if I thought that health regulations were a problem here in Taipei I was sadly brought to a reassessment of my ideas...

The food was not bad, but seeing the lady cleaning the fish in the GUTTER, or having a kid stopping in front of our table to take a SLASH (towards the gutter it has to be said), was quite an experience, though I managed to dissimulate my surprise putting my best poker face to both incidents.

Well, I managed to get away when all the usual "friends" were coming to join us, to engage in the usual talks (street talks this time) that I always seem to witness...
All in all I can say that I cannot get a more "real" taste of the Taiwanese ways after this... (or at least I hope)

Today I didn't do much, some work, finished early and moved to the hotel to have a bit of a rest. I did go to see the electronic town again, wanting to buy my ADSLwirelessmodemrouter MONSTER, but I wasn't convinced and I left it there. Later after checking the model at home on the Internet I have seen that it was not a modem, so in the end it was a good thing that I didn't buy it.

That's it really, the rain has now intensified, meaning that the storm is coming, but I still want to get out of here to grab a bite, we'll see if I manage!

Ciao ciao...
[5 comments]
Acorns: [15th May 2006]

Taiwan was a bit of a Dejavu this time. Last year I was here for the last match of the football season, like this year.
I was here during a typhoon, like this year.
Something extremely unpredictable and quite "new" happened to me, and so this time.....

[Click here to read more...]
[8 comments]
On the road again: [14th May 2006]

(the pictue above are the nice pieces of hardware that I have bought yesterday)...

I guess that I should say "on the AIR" again, rather than road! At the time of me writing I am sitting before the gate 41 at Incheon airport, this time I sadly regret that I didn't managed to get a lounge (AHA! Retribution for me there!), also because I decided to get a rather terrible sandwitch at Subway.

I didn't want to get the nast McDonalds or Burgher King, so I opted for the "healty looking" alternative that Subway offered.

Well it was healty looking until they decided to add 3 different types of strange substances (I haven't quite managed to define them yet, I am afraid that my stomach will have the same troubles though)... Oh well, nothing to worry about I guess apart from the fact that I am fat, every time I come to Asia I gain nothing less than 4/5 kilograms in a very short time, and when I go back, in a matter of 1 weeks these kilos are lost.

This is not meant to be all that good, but it proves the point that when I travel even eating in good restaurants, I still get lower quality food than Italy. I also think that it has to do with the air and stress though...

It just occurred to me that in the next two weeks I will be moving a grand total of three times, four including this trip. Not bad.

Well, actually, quite bad for my back, today it started hurting again, I am sure that tonight I'll be getting some sleeping tablets to get a good night sleep that I didn't managed to even come close to last night...

If everything goes according to plan, I might be able to be in my room around 3ish this afternoon. This should leave me enough time to go to the electronics town in Taipei to look for the Netgear broadband Router that I am resolute to buy. I looked for it in Korea but they didn't have it.

The traveller: Here is a picture of a typical korean man travelling. I think that the image talks by itself, on the top of the awful combination of clothes what really stands out, a bit of a sore in the eye, is the Croccodile Dundee style hat. Ok I have one too, but I use it only when I am out adventuring, either in the countryside or desert or similar places... I mean we are in the airport for God'sake!
[9 comments]
On the road again: [14th May 2006]

(the pictue above are the nice pieces of hardware that I have bought yesterday)...

I guess that I should say "on the AIR" again, rather than road! At the time of me writing I am sitting before the gate 41 at Incheon airport, this time I sadly regret that I didn't managed to get a lounge (AHA! Retribution for me there!), also because I decided to get a rather terrible sandwitch at Subway.

I didn't want to get the nast McDonalds or Burgher King, so I opted for the "healty looking" alternative that Subway offered.

Well it was healty looking until they decided to add 3 different types of strange substances (I haven't quite managed to define them yet, I am afraid that my stomach will have the same troubles though)... Oh well, nothing to worry about I guess apart from the fact that I am fat, every time I come to Asia I gain nothing less than 4/5 kilograms in a very short time, and when I go back, in a matter of 1 weeks these kilos are lost.

This is not meant to be all that good, but it proves the point that when I travel even eating in good restaurants, I still get lower quality food than Italy. I also think that it has to do with the air and stress though...

It just occurred to me that in the next two weeks I will be moving a grand total of three times, four including this trip. Not bad.

Well, actually, quite bad for my back, today it started hurting again, I am sure that tonight I'll be getting some sleeping tablets to get a good night sleep that I didn't managed to even come close to last night...

If everything goes according to plan, I might be able to be in my room around 3ish this afternoon. This should leave me enough time to go to the electronics town in Taipei to look for the Netgear broadband Router that I am resolute to buy. I looked for it in Korea but they didn't have it.

The traveller: Here is a picture of a typical korean man travelling. I think that the image talks by itself, on the top of the awful combination of clothes what really stands out, a bit of a sore in the eye, is the Croccodile Dundee style hat. Ok I have one too, but I use it only when I am out adventuring, either in the countryside or desert or similar places... I mean we are in the airport for God'sake
[No comments]
Sleepless Night: [13th May 2006]

Today I haven't done much. I woke up quite early, for a Saturday that's it, I have pissed around with the computer a bit and then moved towards Yangsun market, the biggest electronic place here in Korea.

In a typical Korean way there is a huge shopping mall, all spanky and new, full of Digital Cameras and anything an IT/Electronics "Otaku" (in Japanese an Otaku is a maniac for a certain thing, usually it is Mangas, the comics that they have but it can be used for other things as well).

But the real maniac (such as me) is not easily fooled by the shiny things, I have been here many times and there is a "side market" near the main place that is dirty, rugged, and smelly, but inevitably is where the REAL goodies are.

I said "in a typical Korean way" before. The impression that I get from Seoul is a city pretty much like any other metropolis, that hasn't quite grown up to the European/Japanese standard of other metropolis.
There are still areas that are really nasty to be seen, right in the middle of town. Not that I mind them, I actually think it's more "real", it's how Seoul used to be, but my agent (for example) is very critic about these places and always wants me to see the nice parts, because he has to prove me that Korea is number one in the world.
Fortunately the other people in the staff are not so strict..

Anyways, I have bought some HD coolers, case coolers, memory heat sinks, a joypad and 10 blank DVD DL, all for the modest sum of 35 Euros. Quite a bargain.
I wish I could have bought the real deal memories, CPUs and graphic adapters, but I don't trust buying such products if I cannot test them right away.

Back at the hotel I have had a great sauna (the hotel has got one of the best facility that I have ever been into), and dinner.

Nothing more to report, Fiorentina my favourite football team, seems to be involved in a scandal that broke off 4 days ago. It's all to do with phone tapping and stuff like that, apparently the major clubs in Italy and a lot of people are involved.
Need less to say that this fact put me down quite a lot. It was one year ago that I was in Taipei, on a Sunday, last match of the season.
Fiorentina battles to avoid relegation and eventually manages to do so, I remember jumping on the bed like a kid.
I listened to the match through my computer, found an Italian radio netcasting the match and a Chinese TV netcasting the images. It was a very heavy day for me, I remember suffering a lot for those 90 minutes...

Tomorrow we'll play the last match of the season, high stakes on the table as we might make it to the Champions league if we win. But this time I don't know if I'll jump on the bed or sweat 3 kilograms in the proceeding of listening to a football match...

Next one from Taipei!
[1 comment]
To give a dog a... chance!: [12th May 2006]

Yep, the dog that was scheduled for the night had to be postponed indefinitely as the plan changed abruptly in the late afternoon.

The whole day has been pretty mild, a couple of clients here and there, and a lot of time in the office doing nothing really.

As I said before the dog had to be cancelled as some designers decided to join us and they don't quite like dog, so we went to another place that makes grilled pork.

Pretty much in the Japanese "Yakiniku" style (actually this type of restaurant is KOREAN), you get to cook the meat by yourself.
The food was great and the company quite good as two of the designers could speak Japanese, so I actually managed to exchange a couple of words with someone.

Point of interest was certainly Mr.Hwang (the agent) that got into a conversation with one of the girls, I think it was something about her personality, but in any case she started crying at the table.
I felt really sorry for her, but Mr.Hwang has a very strong relationship with our customers, I think that they were together at school or something, so I guess that I won't see the collapse of the market tomorrow (I hope).
I just hope that she is not hurt too much, I hate seeing women crying it's just a total weak spot for me!!

Still it was a bit strange...
[7 comments]
OB Brew: [11th May 2006]

Today it was the first working day in Korea, and as a matter of fact I bursted my ass together with Mr.Pyun around Seoul visiting clients.
We actually did quite a lot of them, as usual around 3is in the afternoon I have had a massive jet lag attack, but apart from that nothing interesting to report.

In the evening we went to this alleged Korean brewery, named "OB". It was a nice place, sort of german looking, serving an interesting mixture of Germakorean food. Lots of young people there watching the baseball (eventually there was a big fist fight in the stadium, meaning that hooliganism is something that we managed to export to these places too), but the evening was quite nice.

Same thing cannot be said for the beer. I mean, the larger was good, but as I don't really like larger anymore (I am more of a Caffreys/Guiness type), I felt really bloated and a bit unsatisfied.
Got drunk (of course) and then off to bed quite late (around 1ish), not before the routine call to the company to see that 2 major clients shipments have been fucked up again... Oh well, good thing that I wasn't in Italy to vent my rage.

Ohhhhhh well..

Nighty night!
[3 comments]
Business Lounge: [A random day in life]

I wrote this piece some time ago, picked it up again before leaving for Korea and decided finally to post it.

[Click here to read more...]
[3 comments]
Contrappasso (Matching Retribution): [9th May 2006]

Today should have been quite an ordinary day. Around 2ish PM I am scheduled for the usual flight to Frankfurt and from there bound to Korea for yet another quite usual 12 hours flight.

It had become sooooooo normal for me to travel long distances that I don't even feel a trip under 4 hours. So far so good.

What wasn't good was the start of the day. I went to work, for a couple of hours before getting on the transfer to the airport, and right at the beginning of the day my boss came to see me, asking a comment on the fact that Marta spoke to the megaboss the day before telling them that she was about to hand in her resignation to move to another company.

I told him that all in all it was good for her and that the change was for the better, both under the money and career aspects, and while talking the name of the new company where Marta will go came out. Don't really know why, though I know that I shouldn't have ventured myself all that far.

Marta will sign the usual pre-contract next tomorrow, then she will send the resignation letter to our present employer. Hopefully everything will go smooth, but I can't take out of my mind the bad feeling of having snitched on her.

Needless to say that she wasn't all that happy about it, in a way is the same situation when she was telling my boss things that I didn't want her to say...
"Contrappasso" Dante used to say, the matching retaliation. I was so critic at her during the past that well suits me to have fallen by the same sword.
Now that I am in the hot seat I can clearly say that I am an idiot (of course), I hope that it will teach me a lesson for future occasions.

The weather is quite crap here in Italy, going to the airport I managed to take a peek at the distant mountains, still full of snow. There are some low clouds embracing them, makes them quite frightening and intriguing at the same time, made me want to be there, away from all of this.

Now in my posh business lounge I am writing, eating things that I should not eat (I have had a quite strong diarrhea in the past few days), thinking about the fact that I'll have a 2 hours drive in Seoul from the airport to the hotel, having to hope that the "Stranguglione" (a fast and sudden attack of defecating instinct) will not hit me there!! :)
[2 comments]
Luca and Laura Wedding: [6th May 2006]

I have been quite unlucky with weddings. Mostly because they always seem to clash with my work schedule or because they are usually organized in a hurry and that doesn't leave me any chance to rearrange trips.
I have missed Chiara and Christian, Ivan and Angela, Robe an Kate wedding because of that!
With Luca things went differently.....

[Click here to read more...]
[2 comments]
Fit of Rage: [2nd - 4th May 2006]

Nothing much to report, apart from a general foul mood that I have had in the past days. I cannot put my finger on what it is, but I get extremely pissed off for very small things.

For example I set off on Tuesday to make some potatoes and fish fried balls. I have been craving for this special recipe since Saturday, but since we didn't have the potatoes we couldn't make anything at the weekend and we had to wait for the shops to be open to buy the materials.
So I started cooking with Marta until I went to the bathroom before frying.
Marta decided to undergo the task, shame that she put the oil on a medium sized cooker, meaning that the oil didn't get as hot as it should have done and completely ruining all the food (basically they got shallow fried, totally sucking in all the crapy oil).
I was so upset that while stabbing the fishballs with a fork I bent it almost at 45 degrees... needless to say that I stormed out in a fit of rage and didn't have anything for dinner.

Same story at work, where my new assistant had to go to the hospital, fortunately nothing serious, but she has to stay there for some more tests. So I have to do her part of the job too, not a big problem, but I so easily get pissed off by little things that I start uttering blasphemies and throwing punches at the table.

Not a good period huh?!

This coming weekend I am going to Follonica (near Florence) for a wedding party, then I will have Monday to sort out things before my coming trip to Asia. Hopefully that will calm me down a bit.

Still I haven't figured out what's wrong, why I am acting in such a way. I can't help the feeling of being "forced" to do something that I really don't want to do, but what this thing is remains unknown at the moment...
[7 comments]
Morningstar: [02/05/06]

Morningstar is one of those words that has different meanings. It is a weapon from the middle ages, it's a famous mutual fund rating company and it can be related to Venus when it's visible in the morning.

Today there was no Venus for me to be seen, mostly because the weather decided to become shite again, bringing us back of at least a month and half, it's cold and gray, promising rain.

Moreover it was my comeback at work after almost 2 weeks, between holidays and Istanbul I didn't set foot in the office for quite some time.
Not that I mind being back, it gives me time to do other things (among which update the blog), after all I have few days till my next business trip to Asia, so I have things to prepare and sort out before leaving.
This week is Golden Week in Japan (and I expect Koreans to have a similar holiday), so there will not be a huge amount of work to be done in the next days.

Yesterday it marked my fifth year since I left Florence and I have realized that I have been neglecting the general unsatisfaction that comes from this job.
It's a bit like the tax return forms. You leave them there on the desk, you know perfectly well that you will have to dedicate some time to them, but you leave them there as if they didn't exists, hoping that they will fill up by themselves.
The fact is that when I am travelling I don't feel quite as bad, and this both a good and bad thing.
Good because I don't feel unhappy (I am travelling after all), bad because I don't get interviews or attempt to send more CVs randomly around the country.

I did get an offer recently but it's so crap that it's not worth writing anything about it, while on the other side Marta might get a good offer from another company here up north, to sell final products in a textile company who started a new housewares line (table cloths, napkins, tents etc etc).
She says that it's really good stuff and that these people are doing a very good job and the company is doing real good, it might be a good chance to get out of textile and to go in a fast paced company.

Though I am happy for her I cannot hide the feeling of jealousy that lurks at the back of my mind, but in any case I should force myself to think that it could happen to me too in the future... It has to happen to me too, else I'll die of boredom and stress!!!!
[3 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.