Lox - Archived Entries for 2006 / 7

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End of an Era: [31st July 2006]

And so it is.

Today I technically end my life as an employee and move onto the unexplored depth of the self-employed jungle.

Well, the first thing that springs to my mind is the fact that I am TOTALLY calm and easy, as if I was leaving for the holidays to come back at the end of August as usual.
The fact is that I am NOT coming back, at the end of August I will be moving all my stuff back to Florence.

This calm and easy feeling must mean only one thing, that basically my time here was really at an end, and that there is nothing left into this working relationship.

The general mood that I am having at the moment is pretty much like I felt when I moved away from Florence the first time, to go to England. At that time all I could think was about the impending move, sparing little thoughts for what I was leaving.
Now I feel the same, all my energies are devoted to what it "will be" and how I "will have" to cope with the new situation, I have already archived living up north by the looks of it.

I think it is another proof of the self preservations instinct that we all have. If I really stopped examining what I am leaving and what have I done in these five years, I'd probably give me a very hard time, much harder than what lies ahead of me.

On the other side, as widely discussed before, this move is for the best, or it should be, I hope to be happier in my private life and maybe if I am lucky also under the work environment side.

Going back at not caring too much about leaving the premises of my present company, my attention lately has been drawn quite completely by the move to Florence and the trip to Guadaloupe, to be honest the first is keeping my mind busy at least 80% of the time leaving the rest for the latter.

Yesterday I started packing, it was not easy as it seems that there are loads of things that need to be placed in the boxes. It turned out that my estimates were quite conservative, as I forecasted a grand total of eight boxes, but after yesterday, having packed only the cutlery, crockery and kitchen stuff we are already at six units.

The new prediction is therefore set at ten.

It's going to be a pain to move everything, today I will try to scrounge the truck from the company, otherwise I'll have to rent one, and move everything in one day.

Anyways, today it should be dedicated to leaving this company, and, as a matter of fact, a part of my life that has been very important to me.

-------

The burden on his shoulders is quite heavy, but he was leaving for good, and the village could not be a warehouse for most of his personal effects.

It is time to move on, the forest that lies ahead draws closer, darker and scray, but the decision is taken and without thinking much the mage left the known road to enter the strange cluttered path.

There is no time to look back, to think about times past, he knows he's carrying them within his heart and soul, they will surely come to his aid in the future.

Now is time to face the new challenge, and he can't wait for it to begin...
[5 comments]
The Goodbye trip begins...: [26th July 2006]

The title says it all.

My days up north are drawing slowly to an end, next Monday it will be my last day at work here, and I'll start packing up goods and things before leaving for the holidays. When I am back at the end of August I will be moving physically all the packs and I'll be in Florence, hopefully with a clearer idea of what I am going to do in the near future.

As it is custom here in Italy, we had to throw in a goodbye party both for me and Stefania, a designer who's leaving as well.

We decided to invite everyone in this pizza place, we were quite happy to see that a whopping twenty-eight people answered the call and came to have a night out with us, drinking, eating and forgetting about work.

This company was a "diamond" when I joined. In five years, bad management and wrong decisions have reduced it to a sieve, it leaks water everywhere, and it is a dead crying shame.
Fortunately the "family run" feeling is still there, I can say without fear of being contradicted that the group of people is really a good one, and that we have very good relationships with each other, starting from the commercial department and ending up to the weaving sections.

This is what made this company strong in the past, unfortunately now, as they moved us to a different place, this link has been severed a bit.

Anyways, going back to the pizza, the dinner was great, not extremely good, after all a pizza is a pizza, but the atmosphere was sizzling hot with jokes and laughter.
I couldn't imagine a better goodbye dinner, we ended up talking about anecdotes that we have lived in these five years and around midnight we went all back home, happy and drunk as it is meant to be!

---

The road to the forest was where the choice fell. He started walking towards it, slowly.
When he left the village there was a nice party at the local inn, many friendly faces, many memories dancing in the room.

A fire, music, talks and cold drinks make the soul sing, in anticipation of the trip that lead to the crossroad.
The choice was made, the dice was cast. He still couldn't see clearly ahead of him, apart from a distinctive feeling that it was the right thing to do.

A risk, a gamble. He had many in his previous experiences and he wasn't afraid of it, he had to go.
Instinctively he started to mutter the words of the Fireball spell. As a reminder of what he could do, as a reminder that the fight was ahead and he had to get ready.

Thinking of the ales and roasted mutton that night at the inn, he moved the first steps towards the forest, on the path that was scattered with rocks and clutter.

A difficult way, with a potential high reward...

Or so he hoped.
[1 comment]
And did those feet in modern time....: [25th July 2006]

William Blake and the rest of the British population will forgive me for having paraphrased the beginning of Jerusalem, poem (and later song), that I much admire and appreciate.

I used it to say that I went to England yesterday, that's all, but I liked the quote, and I hope you too... :)

Anyways, London was quite hot, as I have never seen it, very busy and bustling with people, as usual. I liked being back there even for just one day, I really miss England and the day was quite glorious making it all better.

I went there with Cristiano, the new salesman, to say goodbye to a couple of clients. I was amazed by the way the news were taken. All the clients were shocked and very sad at the news that I was leaving, once again I had proof that the job that I have done was quite good, especially on the personal relationship side.

Anyways we went around some shops and had a marvelous Steak and Ale pie with a pint of Bombardier Bitter (quite great), and then we came back home.

Luvely!
[5 comments]
A long weekend in Florence: [20th-24th July 2006]

In my endeavour of writing off as many leftover holidays as possible I decided to go to Florence for a long weekend.

As a matter of fact, I did choose the WORST weekend possible, the heatwave that is on Europe at the moment struck Italy at its highest during the last weekend, meaning that in Florence, which is particularly bad under the weather conditions point of view, had a whopping 39 degrees celsius all over the period that I spent there..

On the top of that the city is almost empty, there are only tourists milling around the city, and the atmosphere is not all that great.

Still, I decided to take a stroll in the center during Friday afternoon in a vain attempt to buy a Thirt that would go with my white short trousers, and the rest of the holiday was spent mostly at home doing nothing, as the heat was really unbearable.

In the evening I managed to hook up with my father, who recently moved to a new house and needed to be cheered up a little. I managed to sort out a date for my next move too, it's going to be around the 25th of August, and I'll be staying in the same place where I was before moving up north, a little depandance of my mother's house.

On Friday night, me, Gianfranco and Federico went to the Indian restaurant in Fiesole (extremely nice and quite cheap), and later we moved to the Festa dell'Unità in the center of Florence. Unfortunately the place was massively crowded and quite uneventful, but I managed to find a T-Shirt that I liked and we had a few "home brews" in a stand that makes its own beer.
It was a really great beer, especially the honey-beer, a place to go back in the future for sure.

We ended up Friday at a local pub for a brick of Guinness, and then off to bed.

Saturday was pretty much uneventful, in the evening we decided to go to yet another "Festa dell'Unità", but not in the center, on the hills around Florence.
The atmosphere and scope of the event was much lower than the previous day, but the temperature was not as bad as in Florence and we had some fun watching a sort of cabaret show that was talking about the recent World Cup.

That's it really, on Sunday I was on my way back to Milan, met a guy who works at Universal Music, chatted about a new Sting album coming out in October that is meant to be great (of course he's already listened to it), but apart from that it was an early night (after eating with Marta at Paola's place).

This week I hope to have some final responses from Japan, so that I can leave with my mind at ease, in any case I'll have to do some packing too, heavy packing this time!
[4 comments]
You what! ??!: [19th July 2006]

Apart from being moderately busy at work today (a pleasant change), I am pressing on with the "open my own business" story. There is so much information that I have to collect and to understand, even if I haven't got a contract in my hands I must start this kind of work.

One of the things that I had to do today is to understand what happens with the pension scheme. Normally you would have to queue ages at the pension office to ask (and probably NOT to get a decent reply), but I was lucky and thanks to some connections of mine I spoke directly with a director of the agency.

The good news are that ....

well...

Ok, there are no good news.

Basically since I will work by myself I will have to pay something like 20% of what I INVOICE for the pension scheme. After that I will have to pay taxes, basically if I am lucky if I earn 100 I will pay more or less 65 in taxes+pension and the rest will be my "wage".
As if this was not enough, the pension scheme of a self employed person is the most expensive, but is also the one that yields the smallest pension when (if) you get it...

Basically it's just another tax, and even though I haven't started working by myself, I already hate the "thief" state...

Oh well, this aside the day has been pretty uneventful, the new salesman that came yesterday is away, which is good as I don't have to attend to him directly, and weather is turning rotten again.

I will be off to Florence tomorrow for the weekend, let's hope is a good resting holiday!
[3 comments]
Little Pig: [18th July 2006]

It was a moonlight night, the soft glow embracing the city, houses and streets.

Apart from the usual random noise, caused by some daring and darting rat through the garbage, the night was a perfect night.

The Big Bad Wolf decided that it was time to make a move, fangs sharpened and hair combed, he looked more like a proto-Banderas wolf than a merciless predator, but that didn't matter to him, in the black and white world where he happened to lurk this feature was cool and he liked it.

Every night for the past year he has been moving in the suburbs, prying informations out of unfriendly mouths, beating each low class scummy bar looking for that missing piece of information, or that glimmer of hope that would get him the strength to continue his existence.

His black mac scuffled around his body, the wind was mounting up, tomorrow it would be rainy, that white rain that he couldn't stand, a white rain that washed the blackness of the streets, of the houses, almost as if the heavens decided to purify something that didn't come out just right.

"Funny" he thought, "blood has the same colour as the rain in this place", raining blood... cleansing rain...
"You gotta do what you've gotta do!" used to say his granny, elderly wisdom was always appropriate in these moments...

No time to loose.
The moonlight made it easier to spot the track, the way was set, in order to know where the First one was, he had to torture the last informer, Mr. Sharptooth Squirrel, he had to remove the excess muscle off his right leg before he could be conducted to "reason".

A grin, eyes focusing on the path, the wolf was running again...

An hour later, the city was left behind, on the top of the hill he could see the grey and black countryside unfolding before his sight, and yet, in the midst of a grain field, the little hut was standing, as the dying rodent told him before.
A quick thought at the body of the informer, thrown at the ravaging rats, and then it was time to go.

The hut was quite small, dark grey, made of straws and shit, the moonlight got it to cast a long shadow over the field, although the clouds started to arrive from the usual unknown place.

Wolf got close to the door, two hard knocks on the wooden door (that almost fell on the floor), straws falling from the roof...

"Little Pig, Little Pig. Let me in!" said in a slow deep voice, he practiced it after watching "Il Padrino" at the movies. He lived the last five years in impatient anticipation of this moment.

A blast, splinters of wood cutting through the flesh and injuring the eyes, mouth, body.

A searing pain right at the stomach level, the body out of control rattled on the ground by a superior force.

Lying on the dirty soil, black mac opened, clutching the waist and feeling the hot sticky blood pouring off a huge set of wounds.
The wolf raised the head, looked at the injury, but didn't have to wonder what it was, a little black pig was standing in the hallway, wearing a white suit, black shades.

The shotgun in his hands told the whole story, slowly but yet quickly the hog was staring down at the wolf, frozen in pain and shock.

"Not for the fucking hair of my chinny chin chin! You wanker!", those where the words that he heard before -- BANG ! --

Then it was all black.

Forever.
[10 comments]
A different Weekend: [15th-16th July 2006]

Partly because I have had plenty of rest of Friday and Thursday (as the company is forcing me to take holidays) we decided to to something different on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday me and Marta set off quite late to go to Milan. Main target was a spot of shopping in the center of the city, and a nice dinner with a friend of Marta (Tanya) and her boyfriend.
The shopping was quite shite, I did go without a real item that I wanted to buy, so eventually the shopping translated to a senseless zombielike crawling from a designer shop to another.

Marta seems always quite keen in trying a LOT of clothes that she is never going to buy, I can't stand it, as I would only try something that I am inclined to take already. I did buy a cotton jumper, mustard colour, something that I had been looking for a long time, so I guess that in the end the trip was positive for me.

The scary side is that I am getting more and more fed up with those shops where I used to go and buy a lot of clothes. Now I really feel "excited" about buying some clothes only if I go to some decent designer store, but of course I cannot afford the motherfucker, so I end up just bitter about it all.

Oh well, maybe another time.

The dinner was quite great actually, Tanya and Massimo made a great salad with Mango, Avocado and Shrimps plus a nice seafood pasta. A good white Vermentino was selected for the occasion and though I have little love for white wines I still recognize their greatness with fish.

We got back home quite late, around two-ish, ready to go to bed as we had to wake up quite early the morning after.

On Sunday the plan was to go and see Giovanna and Marco in Brunate.
Brunate is a great place up one of the hills that surround lake Como, marvellous view and great temperature in this season. The plan was to go to eat some specialties in this refuge on one of the paths that we had planned to walk, but the weather seemed a bit rotten so we stopped at Gio and Marco's place.

Eventually the weather got back in shape (full sun), and we went for the walk, just what I needed, to get away from the city and get a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the day out (which was closed with an home made pie bought at the refuge where we were meant to have lunch).

Back home we ordered some pizza and watched a DVD at Paola's place and went to bed quite late.

All in all a very good weekend, away from my preoccupations about the new job and all things related...
[3 comments]
Doing the Right Thing: [13th July 2006]

And so it was time to make some decisions, the Japanese company wrote me a nice letter saying that they'll be shortening the process as much as possible, and basically promising me that the contract will be offered.

To quote the mail he wrote that "I can not say we can guarantee officially, but you can believe and trust us 100% that we will work together from 1st Sept. There is no one reason, no one possibility somebody says not to make contract with you. We really wish to start to work with you form 1st of Sept. immediately after you finish your contract with XXXXX (present employer)."

Based on this intelligence I was then confronted by the usual ethical problem that I have been wrestling with in the past weeks:

Shall I tell the Prato company or not?

Not telling is good for me, keeps my options opened till the last point, if by any chance the offer from Japan doesn't arrive I still have the other company waiting for me.
Telling, on the other side, is the good thing to do, because if I tell these people too late they are going to have all sorts of troubles, many more than if I tell them now.

After a Machiavellian inspiration I have decided to opt for the soft approach; telling with a twist.
Basically in order not to compromise relationship with these people (it's never good to have enemies especially in a small field like this one), I thought that it would have been far better if they were to make the decision of not employing me, rather than me telling them that I am not coming.

I then wrote a nice letter, saying that I had just got news from Japan of a POSSIBLE offer, and saying that it meant that I might consider that option if it was good. In the meantime I wrote that I felt correct to tell them, and that if THEY wanted to look for some other salesman I would have certainly stepped aside, although the offer from Japan is not confirmed.

In this way, it's up to them to make the move. They have very little time to find a substitute, and they seemed quite in "love" with me, so there might be the chance that the option with them might be still open. I can always say that they didn't offer anything in the end so no problems in joining their company.
On the contrary if they find someone I can hardly complain but at least my image will not be compromised (I did act correctly after all).

As for the risk factor I did not make a great decision. I am aware of that and I cannot say that I am not scared.
If the Prato company lets me go or doesn't want me anymore, I might be left with no options if the Japanese side doesn't offer anything or comes back at me with a shite contract (although we have already discussed the details).
As they say, "nothing ventured, nothing gained", and I could not live easily knowing that I was deliberately putting a company in troubles by witholding informations that were important to them, so that why I decided to take the risk.

I hope that it all works out for the better and that I can start the job with the Japanese company, at the time of writing the Prato company did not reply to my mail or even called me, that puts me off a little, but on the other side I couldn't think that the news were going to be taken easily...

I have taken yet the hardest route to walk on, I have acted yet again following moral values and not so much personal interests, let's hope I don't live to regret it, it would shatter my beliefs in one shot (and will destroy my career and prospects of going back to Florence)...
[4 comments]
Walking on Eggs: [11th July 2006]

During the middle ages, kings and queens used to be entertained not so much by the World Cup, but by jesters and jugglers. They used to tell poetry, play practical jokes and perform acts of dexterity, like walking blindfolded on a table full of eggs, trying to avoid them and reach the other side.

Yesterday I discussed with my boss about the prospect of setting up my own business with this Japanese client, and he told me that I have to be careful on how I move in Prato because it is a small world and if some company starts to say something wrong about you then it's going to be hard to work there, even if I become a potential client.

Bottom line, I write a mail to the Japanese company, explaining that I really need a reply from them, or even a letter saying that they are going to offer me the job, details to be finalized later.
In this way I can tell the Prato company that I am not going, and they can look for someone else in July and beginning of September.
If I tell them at the beginning of September it's going to be a tragedy for them, and surely my image will take quite a blow...

In doing this I have tried my hardest not to write "strong" concepts, trying to use the easiest english that I could put together, asking for opinions rather than telling what I want to do...

Well, the result is quite disappointing.

My agent calls me in the morning saying that he read the mail and he thought that it was really BAD, as if I don't want to go anymore, also his wife thought the same thing... So I decided to call the person that I usually speak to in this new company, and I explained my points, he said that he understood and that they were going to try to get acceptance to write this famous letter within two or three days...

Let's say that in the end I did get what I wanted, though the offer will be finalized in August (and it might change a little from what we discussed), I will be sure that something IS coming... At that point I can tell the Prato people hoping that it will not be too much of a tragedy for them...

I am feeling like walking blindfolded on the table that I was talking about before. There are several scenarios that might unfold for me, ranging from loosing all the jobs to getting the deal that I want with these Japanese company. I must move carefully, today I touched one of the eggs with the foot, even though I thought I took all the precautions possible.

Even though it's five years that I work with Japanese people, even though I have studied the language and everything, I still make mistakes by the look of it, there is still so much to learn...

I really need an holiday...
[7 comments]
CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!: [9th July 2006]

I slept 3 hours during the night, before leaving the Tokyo Century Hyatt, the hotel that I have been using for the last five years.

Tonight it was the last night, in any scenario (self employed of with the Prato company) I will not come here again, save it for holidays and the likes.

Italy was playing today the final of the world championship, against France.

The flights didn't have any major delays, so I arrived at home just in time to unpack and go at Alessandro's place to watch the match, there were fifteen of us (kids included). At first I didn't want to go, mostly because all the matches that I have watched together with other people went badly (USA-ITALY) and I am a VERY scaramantic person...

Still I decided not to believe at these pagan myths (YEAH, as if....), and went to see the match at Ale's place.

The game was quite bad for Italy, we did play quite well until the final it seemed, and although France got the lead on a penalty (a blatant dive, so much for the "Italian" game), we managed to equalize soon after.
Italy got a crossbard and a disallowed goal, France had a couple of dangerous shots and (this time) a penalty not awarded, but the 1-1 score hold until the penalties.

Here Treseguet, the guy who nailed Italy on a golden goal in Euro 2000, missed the penalty (payback?) and Italy won the title.
You cannot imagine what happened in Italy, people have been on the street partying until sunrise, we had our share of celebrations, shooting some of the fireworks that I had leftover from Nwe Year's Eve, and going around Vedano Olona screaming and waiving flags.

Interestingly, Vedano in five years has never looked so lively like tonight.

Then it was time to go to bed, the adrenaline rush was over and my body have been really put to test with the flight and subsequent match.
So it was immediate sleeping for me, one of the happiest evening in the latest years.

CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!

CAMPIONI DEL MONDO!
[3 comments]
Golden Turd and Karaoke: [8th July 2006]

Today I made plans with John to see each other for a some wandering around Tokyo. We met around lunchtime in Shinjuku, but we had to stop again at my hotel as I had a problem with my shoes that needed to be solved.

We then ate some spaghetti at "Al Dente" my favourite spaghetti place, and we moved quickly towards the Edo museum, which is situated on the other side of the circle line from Shinjuku.

The museum was allright I guess, nothing majorly mind blowing, but nice.

We then decided that it was time to move towards the Golden Turd.
Apparently the history of this infamous and quite unlucky sculpture (if we can call it this way), is that it was meant to be a flame, blazing its way towards the sky.
As it happens though, the sismic problems that afflict Japan meant that the sculpture had to be laid on the top of the building rather than have it erected as it was probably meant to be.

Bottom line: it IS a golden turd, probably among the worst pieces of art that I have even seen.

Anyways, the Golden Turd was good to get some beer at the Asahi headquartes (the building behind the turd looks like a beer glass, incredible!) after which we popped in to see Asakusa like every other gaijin that gets near that place.

We then quickly moved towards our restaurant of choice, a total vegetarian place around 10 minuets away from Asakusa.
The food was quite surprisingly great, it's the second time that I go to such a restaurant with John, and although the two places kind of resembled each other, the quality and taste of that stuff is quite surprising.

After the veggie food it was time for the very first session of Karaoke I have even had with John. We started off with a classic (Lithium - Nirvana) and we sang for an hour like madmen, an experience to be repeated for sure in the future.

It was then time to say goodbye, next time I meet them I will be either self employed or in another company, but I don't think that seeing them will be different at all...
[8 comments]
Lost in Translation: [7th July 2006]

Never a title will be more fitting for the account of the day that I am about to unveil.
[8 comments]
Crossroad: [6th July 2006]

Here I am.

Walking slowly towards a crossroad, no signals are to be seen, there are three paths that I can choose.
[7 comments]
World Cup Final: [5th July 2006]

I have recently arrived in Japan with my boss, I wanted to write something about the experiences of the recent days but it has not been possible.

Incidentally the fact that the World Cup Semifinals are broadcasted at 4:00 AM here, meant that I could work on some catch up that was badly needed.

The arrival in Japan was quite bumpy, not a good flight. On Sunday we met Kutsunugi san to discuss about the fact that I resigned. Of course he knew about it already, but he had to talk with my boss on what to do next and what kind of person to look for next.
Nothing definite came from the meeting of course, it is clear that the fact that I am leaving is creating a lot of problems that my boss doesn't know where to start to solve.

The morning after saw the beginning of this "sayonara trip", going to see all the best clients to tell that I am leaving. We decided that in order to be "polite" we wouldn't say what I was going to do next, but rather that I might start a private company, but in any case we didn't say that I have already an offer in my hands.

It is totally weird to go to see these people, with whom I am totally in friendly relationships, to say that I am done, finished, will go away.
It is even more weird to realize that I will not work with Kutsunugi san anymore, a tragic loss both for the work point of view and personal point. He is really like another family for me, and knowing that by leaving I will leave him in not so good conditions it's quite an hard thing to swallow for me.

We also discussed about the agency contract, I would like to be able to have him as an agent in my next adventure, but my boss has strange ideas and I suspect that they'd rather die before allowing me to work with him again.

The more clients I saw the uglier my mood become. Little by little I was realizing that I am infact leaving after five years of tears and joy, and it's starting to take a mental toll on me, also because I yet don't know what I am going to do next.

Tomorrow (the 6th) I will meet the Japanese company that would like to employ me, let's see what is their proposal, though I can say that I am scared as hell at the prospect of stating my own business.
In the meantime my boss continues to be amazed at how many friends I have among the customers, he said more that once that he can't believe something like that, and that he's happy for me as these friendships might come in hand later...
We'll see, on Friday I'll probably know where my feet have to take me next, and then the real trip back home will start.
With a lot of difficulties, it will be hard to say goodbye to Kutsunugi san this time (though I know I will see him again), it will be even harder to move away from my house and Marta later...

The World Cup Final is drawing closer, let's hope that I'll honour the match if I can't win it...
[6 comments]

Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!: A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
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