Lox - Archived Entries for 2008 / 10

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Back in Business (Class): [Tuesday 21st - Saturday 25th October 2008]

I think that some time ago I had a go at the business lounges in international airports... Well after 2 years of Economy purgatory (or shall we say hell), crammed like a beast carried in those trucks that we see on the highway, finally I make my way back to the business class and enter the new season of travels with the new company in a completely different way. I missed it after all, and I think that whomever works as an employee and is required to travel long distances like I do, should at least fly business on the way in and out of the trip...

First leg of the trip was the mandatory Frankfurt, and then Hong Kong. We stopped a couple of days there, and then moved to Zhongshen. Zhongshen is a new entry for me, an industrial city that here is classified as "second tier city", although it nets a staggering 1 million residents... The place left me a sense of desolation, huge streets (9 lanes sometimes) with no cars, lots of factories, and the usual Chiese madness (like 3 people riding improbable bikes, mopeds and strange means of transportation).

Then it was the day of Guanzhoug, another new entry, the third city in China. Here we went to the exhibition center, absolutely the biggest that I have ever seen in my life. Apparently due to my "being handsome" a lot of Chinese ladies that were taking care registration asked me to take a picture with them... Oh well...

After we moved to Shangai... the city has changed so much after I saw it 3 years ago, it's now like New York or Tokyo, traffic, people, pollution and a crappy weather are not making the first day very nice, but I quite like it. We managed to visit the usual fake goods market, a very interesting CD and DVD shop (all copies) and some restaurants and general shops.

All in all the trip has been very demanding so far, we had so many appointments and at night I get to work until 3 AM to reply to all the mails coming from all the other countries that I am following... This trip is going to be a whopper, in terms of physical and mental strain, but it's necessary because I need to be introduced to all the clients.

My boss is with me, he's a great person (for a change, my other bosses were all quite bad if you remember), and I feel that I am learning a lot from him, which is good of course...

I wanted to post pictures, but I really haven't taken any interesting shots so far.

In Hong Kong I also lost my mobile phone, it was my personal one. So now I have lost also ALL bloody numbers and contacts. This is quite a pain in the arse and will teach me to backup those numbers when I get the chance... :P

Oh well it was old so it's just the inconvenience of having to get a new card and re-establish the numbers directory... But still if I hadn't lost it would have been better... :P
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Preparations to a big Trip: [Saturday 18th October 2008]

The first business trip at the new company is about to get underway. I will be traveling with my direct superior for a massive introduction of all the clients that we have in Asia, part of the trip will be done by myself, but I am not too concerned about it. I think I got to the point where these sorts of trips cannot bear any serious novelty, ok the product that I sell is different but the "system" is always the same.

Recently I have concentrated much of my action towards the setup and opening of a store in Beijing, the creation of some tools that should help me presenting the goods that we have in stock and that we want to sell out, and of course trying to understand as much as possible what is going on in my markets. It is going to be an interesting trip that should give me more insight about the new job, so I am looking forward to it.

I will also be visiting some new places such as Canton in China and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Apart from that it will be a 3 weeks trip (extremely tough trust me) that will see me going to (in the order):

Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur...

And still there are some places that I should have gone but that is phisically impossible for me to do... An even longer trip would be really devastating...

So in the next few weeks I hope to post pictures from all over Asia!!!

The rest of life is ok I guess. I am happy abut the job, so far, and we have told our landlady that we want to leave the house. Of course she said that we have to pay for all the notice period (6 months), so technically we are not in a rush to change house, I can see that happening next March, more or less...
My knee is still playing funny, I just hope that I can get down with this surgery story quickly and painlessly, but I have to organize this thing with the people at work too, so I think I have to wait at least until I go back.

That's it really, let's hope that the trip ahead is not too hard and is positive under the job point of view! :P
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Weekend in Rome: Friday 10th October - Sunday 12th October 2008]

It must have been at least 4 years since I last set my foot in Rome, on that occasion there was my favourite cousin's wedding, this time it was for a "normal" weekend off. We organized the whole thing quickly, and the plan was to stop at Cristina and Federico's house, and then see one of my best friends ever, Tito.

Tito deserves a special note. It must have been more than 10 years since I last met him, we spent so much time together when we were younger, during the summer holidays in Alghero. The holidays back when we were students were quite long, and Alghero is a very busy place in the summer, but I didn't have anyone to hang around with. I think that with Tito everything started in a great way from the beginning, we had the same interests and problems. We soon built up a great friendship, that has not decreased ever since. Even after not hearing from each other in a long time, seeing him again was like if we never really parted.

Anyways the weekend saw us arriving quite late in Rome, driving through the streets of the city is quite difficult if you don't know where you are going and both me and Chiara did not think about bringing some maps with us. Eventually we arrived to Cristina's palce and we had a lovely dinner, after which we went to bed quite quickly.

The morning after, we arrived in the centre of Rome, truly beautiful city, for lunch. After meeting Tito we stopped at a place that he knows, where the owners are from Sardinia (the island where Alghero is set). Tito seems to know all the "useful" Sardinians in Rome, the meal was quite great as a matter of fact!

After the meal we moved to Tito's mother home, a beautiful place right in the nice part of the city! Some drinks, some rest and then once again we were strolling around the squares and historic buildings that I haven't seen in ages. The last time I went there was probably something line 20 years ago!!!

The evening finished at Cristina's place, where my other cousin Riccardo, joined us for a great barbecue and some more drinking, pool tournament and of course mandatory chatting!

I think that we called it a night around 3 AM, when Riccardo and Tito went back home.

The day after saw a marvellous meal at my aunt's place with Cristina, Federico and Riccardo. We used to go to that house every New Year's Eve, me and my family together, so it's a place that holds quite a lot of memories!

All in all a great weekend, seeing people that I really care for and that I'd love to have closer to me. But I guess that this is the destiny of a family that lives all around the Italian peninsula, probably if we were living all together in a place we would be arguing or something. And as for Tito, I really hope to see more of him, now that we hooked up again...

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Camilla's Birthday: [Saturday 4th October 2008]

The whole day was quite uneventful, also because I had a splitting headache and slept most of the afternoon. In the morning we went to see a house that Chiara branded as "simply perfect" but that in reality had a couple of major issues that were too much for us to tackle. The fact that it overlooked Florence from the most important hill that surrounds the city did make an impact, but not a major one as I am much more pragmatic and the scenario didn't make me sway. The search continues....

In the evening it was time to go and see Camilla and Fabio as it was Camilla's 33rd birthday and I think that Chiara and Fabio tried to plan some sort of surprise party. I said tried, because it seems that Camilla understood (or maybe even knew) about it because I couldn't hear or see much surprise when walking in the restaurant she saw 14 people waiting for her.

Anyways the dinner was held at "Cantina Barbagianni" a very good restaurant where I will certainly go again in the future, and it was very nice.

We finished quite late after the second round of "grappa"s and "amaro"s (both liqueurs that we normally drink after the meal as digestives), the weather has turned quite cold these days and we soon went back home.

I even lost a glove (that we use to drive the scooter), which is a bit of bummer!
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Sparks: [Saturday 4th October 2008]

September went by at ludicrous speed, I feel as if it even did not exist this year. Wow, the new job is really keeping me busy by the looks of things!

In the meantime the world as we know it is crumbling a little, economic downturns are getting quite serious, but I am not surprised at all.

The system that it's in place is clearly faulted. It will collapse massively sooner of later, it's a matter of time. It's based on incremental growth, on consuming more and more, it's selfish and doesn't give a shit at what's around us.

In Italy we have had a massive decrease in bees population, something around 40%. It's because of the pesticides and electric pollution (as in too many waves flying around). Einstein predicted the end of the world in 5 years if bees were to die altogether...

Going back on track, all the efforts that I am putting into the new job are preventing me from writing, it seems as I have lost my "spark", although probably it's just lack of time and general tiredness..

Oh well, I hope I will get back writing soon! Surely at the end of the month an epic tale on the first business trip for the new company will begin... 9 Asian cities in 3 weeks, with the new addition of Malaysia in the list of countries that I have set my foot onto... :D
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Lox, Lorenzo... ME!!: A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know!
Pictures: A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good!
History of this Blog: A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year.