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Phase 2: [Sunday 8th August 2010]

It's early, bloody early. This Sunday started in a bad way, mostly because I was forced to do two things that I really did not want to do.

First and foremost, had to say goodbye to Katia, my colleague from work who accompanied me during the last 10 days of this business trip. I won't give too much space to tales and details because there would be too much to write, but she is really great and it was nice to be with her and share the time together.

It was also nice not to be by myself as usual, that is a bonus as a matter of fact, and now I know that I really dislike travelling alone.

Secondly I had to wake up at 5.20 AM in order to take her to the bus stop here in Kyoto. Seeing her off was quite painful but if there is a thing that I have learnt in this trip is to be able to look at things not only in the usual negative crappy way, but trying to find positive sides.
There are many actually, and I can't wait for half of them to actually "happen" (future trips, dinners with friends, recipes exchanges etc etc).

I have realized that my last years have been spent living under the continuous spell of "I need to prepare for the worst", and when the "worst" arrived I was never ready. I think that you cannot be ready anyway, but this means that I have forsaken a lot of good moments because I was already thinking at the evil that could possibly arrive.
This has to stop, at least for my life. In the business it's different, planning and preparing for the future actually pays.

So in a way seeing her off WAS hard, but it was GOOD at the same time, I know she wanted to go back to her family and boyfriend, and I am sure that she enjoyed the "Japan through Lorenzo's eyes" that she saw.

Now I am here, writing, today I am moving from Kyoto to Osaka. Soon the business trip will be over and "PHASE 2" of this huge abroad stroll will begin, the dreaded arrival of the 26 screaming Italians that I will have to take around Japan.

Note to the reader: it seems that the spell of bad luck did not end though. Now my company credit card doesn't work anymore. Actually it's not correct to say that, the magnetic band is gone, but the microchip is working. Shame that not everyone has a microchip card reader here in Japan, so I had to come out with a lot or very inventive systems to get some cash to continue the business trip.

Oh well, no big deal, an inconvenience that I would have rather avoid though...
[3 comments]
Let there be light!: [Saturday 31st August 2010]

I am in Singapore, leaving tomorrow morning at 4 AM to Japan. Together with me there is a colleague of mine, Katia, who works in the Design/Marketing department, more Design oriented as she makes all the "visual products" that we make.

It's great to be with someone, but it's doubly great to be with someone that is actually really nice and we can laugh and chat in a very "easy" way. Before any of you perverts think of it, she is happily engaged with a Fire-fighter so let's stop all the wanderings there...

Going back to this part of the trip, spirits are certainly on the rise, and also the hardest part of the business (China) is over, so despite being stressed for the things that don't work in our company, at least the heart is not as heavy as before.

Talking tonight with Katia she told me that she couldn't find the way to switch off the air conditioning last night... The switch was on the night-stand and any experienced traveller, I mean "experienced of business trip travel", will find it our immediately... She didn't, poor thing, and kept waking up to put up the temperature or to put it down if it was too hot!! I still can't stop laughing thinking about the scene...

Apparently she couldn't find a way to switch off the lights either! But I was too busy laughing to ask her how she eventually did it...

So in a way all these trips ARE giving me "something". I guess that I could probably live without all the little tricks that I use when I am in these kind of hotels, but I guess that it makes my life a lot easier and better when I am trapped in these 4/5 stars prisons.

Tomorrow Japan, and still 4 weeks to go till the end of the trip. I want to be back soon, I want to take care of my life, but now it feels like I need to go through more pondering and more reflections before I am ready to start something new... Let's hope this trip will help me in finding "me" again, like it happened a long time ago, when Claire decided to dump me and I spent a considerable time with John going around England...

[6 comments]
Wrapping things up in China: [Tuesday 2th July 2010]

Sitting here in front of my mac, at 8.30 AM, already had a spot of breakfast, waiting to go to work again.
Fortunately we arrived at the end of the trip in China, so this is the last day where I will have to get drunk at night, I am a bit empty. Or better, I feel a bit empty.

Maybe is because the company where I work is in a bad condition and all the efforts that I am doing seem a bit pointless. Maybe is because I am tired of this life, and after only 1 week of work I am already letting things go. Maybe is that I didn't sleep properly, as usual, though I suspect that after 1 week jetlag is going to be sorted soon.

The good news is that my bag is back, which means that now I have all my clothes, plus some extra, that I have bought along the way. In the end it was quite hard to manage all the shopping and meeting clients, but at least my old stuff is still there, which is important!

Then tomorrow I am going to meet Katia, my colleague from marketing in Hong Kong, she's travelling to Asia together with me because we have a project to develop for the point of sale development, which is going to be interesting to do of course.

Apart from that I am already looking forward to the end of this trip, I want to be able to do sport, I want to be able to sleep in my bed, I want to be able to be with the people I really want to be with.

I have been brought up burdened of responsibilities that probably I shouldn't have had for my age, not that this is a problem mind you, but this story that "acceptance and deprivation" is synonymous of "grown up, responsible" doesn't stick to me anymore.
This seems more and more a story that people tell themselves to sweeten a pill that otherwise would be quite bitter.

So in the end we accept not being happy with things because "that's the way grown ups should do, or accept or whatever". And we don't change.

Rebellion for rebellion' sake is pointless, there is a certain degree of acceptance that needs to be considered if you want to live into society, but it cannot be 100% from one side. I want to try to change how things are, maybe I will fail miserably, but at least I want to give it a shot.

Shame that I have to wait till I get back, in the meantime I'll work on my mind!

Now time to go, work awaits me.
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Clearly, I am under some sort of test: [Wednesday 21st July 2010]

Fourth day of this huge business trip, probably the longest that I have ever made, and guess what? the deity of Business Trips "BUSINNUSS" has decided to test my resolve and strength by getting my bag completely lost.

Yes the "initial delay" turned out to be a very serious full fledged "LOST CASE", where no matter who I speak to or call, nobody can give me answers. Well, unofficially Lufthansa told me that they don't have a clue where it is and that it might well happen that the bag shows up in Beijing where it was meant to arrive without notice.

As if it will walk there by itself.

I am quite upset, to say it in mild words, all the stuff for 6 weeks of trip is in there, all my clothes for summer are in that bag, and now I am really screwed also because it seems that despite a delay that is now going into the fourth day, nobody know about compensation or what I should do.
My company allowed me to buy "some stuff" for the next 3 days, and then keep doing it until the bag is found, but quickly they also started to tell me that I should spend as little as possible etc etc etc... Spending "as little as possible" is easy in China, you go and buy local stuff, but frankly speaking since I am here for work and I must try to look respectable, I went on "mid level brands" that unfortunately are rather expensive. So now I have to deal with the guilt as well...

Difficult trip.

Regarding my bag the thing that really upsets me the most is the fact that I have lost a lot of items that I really liked, not just clothes but also my rucksack, lucky holiday hat, bags, shoes and so on...
I guess that it's very stupid to grow attached to a "thing", but I have so little of them that the few I have I really like..
Still, "things" are just "things" I cannot cry over loosing them, there is much worse in the world, and in any case I am resolute to make Lufthansa pay for this blunder, because it's all their fault. Shame they have been a very good partner for travel all through the years...

As to the trip itself it's really a pain in the ass, the meetings with the sub-distributors happen in the afternoon, then dinner with mandatory heavy drinking, some sleep and then move to a different city, half drunk and half asleep.
Yesterday in Beijing I had to force myself to throw up because I knew that keeping the alcohol inside would have meant a terrible day after, which I cannot afford.

I am sure that people think that my job is much nicer than this!! It isn't it's really crap having to stay 3 hours at dinner with people speaking Chinese all the time, then every now and then they stand up and drink with you bottoms up whatever alcoholic drink they find.

today we are moving to another 2nd tier city, Shenyang, 4 hours on the train, it will be the first experience in China.

The positive side? I do not have a huge suitcase to carry around.... though I wish I had it...
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Intercontinental Travel: [Monday 19th July 2010]

Not a good start for this business trip. For the SECOND time this year Lufthansa managed to loose my bag, I really hope I can get it by tomorrow as they tell me because otherwise I am royally screwed.

To top it off the insurance coverage that the company was meant to have is not "sure" anymore, meaning that I cannot spend a lot of money to buy other stuff, and all the Beijing shopping centres are quite far from where we are so it makes our situation much worse as I have to revert to brands that normally I would not buy.

Meetings with the clients were ok I guess, but the whole situation is only reinforcing the feelings that I have had enough of this kind of life.

On the 21st moving to Harbin, never been there, bound to be interesting (I hope). I have been already promised a night drinking Harbin Beer which is apparently as good and famous as Tsingtao, the most popular brand of Chinese Beer around the world.

I wish John was with me to really enjoy the night, but alas it's not going to be like that...
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Another spin of the wheel: [Saturday 17th July 2010]

Sometimes I stop and think.

I used to do it a lot, then I realized that I was hurting myself far too much with all those nice "movies" that my head managed to think up, and thanks to a lot of efforts I managed to let it slide a little.

Not that I have anything against daydreaming, I love to do it, it's just that I used to feel like when you are actually having a great dream, that seems reality, and all of a sudden your mum comes into the room and the last things you hear before seeing the dream slipping out of sight are "TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL! WAKE UP!"...

I mean, imagine this: you having a great dream, where you are a superhero, where your smarts saved the day, the world, the company, whatever. The mandatory Hollywood babe is there begging for that little "sumthing sumthing" (or even more if you are already into the more hardcore version of the dream), and all of a sudden when you look down at her (she is kneeling), her face quickly looks at you like the kid in the Exorcist, and that beautiful face grimaces in an expression mixed between annoyance and sleep and tells you "Time to go to school, get up!!".

Ok I probably took the long path to describe why limiting pointless thinking is good for you. In the end you always end up disappointed.

Going back to the main topic, yesterday I was thinking.

I looked at my life in the past 11 years, always on the move travelling, and that nasty pang of dissatisfaction hit me straight in the face.
I guess that after the recent events a lot of certainties have fallen apart and I have a strong desire to start living my life again here in Florence. But the reality of things is that I am trapped in this line of business where I get to travel a lot in places that after so many years are a bit dry for me, I have seen them all, "..been there, bought the T-shirt..." feeling.

And now that things were kind of picking up a little with new friends, new sports, new things to do, I have to leave. Mind you not for 2 weeks and be happy with it, for SIX BLEEDING WEEKS... All Summer gone, I will not have any holidays this round, mostly because I will be taking a group of 24 people around Japan as a sort of tour leader of a trip that I organized for a friend that has a travel agency.

It's not the holidays that I will miss, I will miss the opportunities of meeting people, chill out, maybe even find some woman, who knows!

I travel far too much and it's starting to affect my life as a whole and I am not happy. I hope that I can pick it up from where I left it in September, and I hope that I can actually bring it forward despite all the hurdles, I hope that the friends will still be there, that those honeys I saw at the bar yesterday will still be there, I hope that Florence will decide to stand still for a month and half.

But the reality is that she won't, so I am daydreaming again... :(

What am I going to be in the future if I keep living on a plane?

In the end the feeling that I have, and the "movie" that I made yesterday was of me playing at the famous "wheel of Fortune", and always getting "skip one turn"... :(

Another spin of the wheel....

Off we go!
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For what is worth: [Sunday 27th June 2010]

I have spent the last weekend together with Gianfranco, Federico and Simone at the seaside, to be more precise we slept at Federico's place Livorno and we just chilled out for a couple of days.

The little break was quite great, mostly because the events of the last month have drained a lot of energies from me and it was nice to unplug for a little.

So the weekend was good, guys and girls take note, I repeat the weekend was good.

On Saturday we got talking at dinner about several things, among which the most important was the view that we have on the Role Playing Games nights that every now and then we still manage to have.
To be honest the scope of the discussion in my opinion was a little larger, and here is what got me thinking for quite a bit of time...

How do you rate yourself as a friend? How important is friendship for you?

Ok, far shot here, but this is my take on things:

I always viewed friendship as a very important thing, and by that I mean that I put certain aspects of friendship at the same level as I put the relationship with a partner, who technically is also a friend.

At the same time, since we are not at university anymore, those few times when I make an appointment with some friends, I try not to postpone or cancel unless something major occurs. It doesn't matter what you do, it matters that you see those people.

Well, the whole discussion revolved around the fact that in Simone's view it's ok to ditch an appointment with some friends if there is "something better" to do (from girls, to whatever else is deemed as "better"), and to me that is something that I wouldn't dream of doing in the first place, but it's also a sign of disrespect towards the fact that other people did allot some of their time to be together and cancelling everything because "there is better to do" is not very nice...

I think that the fact that we were talking about RPGs probably created some confusion, as for some strange reason that activity is considered "B" class, but it's not what you do is who you see that drives me to play these games at the green age of 35.

In short, I realized that the efforts that I put in relationships (outside from the couple environment), are probably too many and probably badly addressed.
Sometimes I wish I could be that selfish, I guess that I used to be like that but my parents were very strict on this point and gave me a different education.

I am not saying that I am right or wrong, because there IS no universal approved way of living one's life so I cannot criticize anyone for being different, it's just a different way of attaching value to certain relationships, but it's clear that id doesn't "pay" because I seem to be always disappointed by the way some people behave towards me.

Expectations, that's what ruined my life so far.

I have managed to change a lot and almost nullify the amount of sadness that I get every time someone close turns me down, but still I have not learnt to be totally unaffected by it.

So the question is:

How do you rate yourself as a friend? How important is friendship for you?

[6 comments]
Tired and Pizza: [Wednesday 16th June 2010]

Three or four days after I came back to Italy I have started to feel incredibly tired. It might be the weather that does not help, surely the lack of sleep at night also doesn't help too.
Now I am trying with drinking camomile it helps a little.

I guess that there are far too many things going around my head, and a lot of things need to be sorted out quickly, so I am on the "roll" under several points of view, not just the sentimental side.

If all goes to plan this week I might land the new car that I was meant to buy, it will be a used car, as I have to minimize costs.
At the same time the house situation might clear up a little, and there might be the case that I have to plan a quick exit from the present apartment to rent somewhere-else.

The main idea on the house situation is to find some place to actually buy, but I have no clue whatsoever at the moment of what and where I want to buy a house, and that makes things undoubtedly difficult, I guess I need to start seeing something...

At the same time things at work are on the move, I am already planning the trip in July which will be quite long, and as if things were not enough like that the friend with the travel agency that I am helping for the Japanese tours is also in need of much more support on my side as the holidays are drawing closer.

Yesterday I went out with Francesco, after a million years that we didn't go out together for dinner, just the two of us. I guess, well I know, that he read the blog so he wanted to see how I was doing... Nice dinner, nice chat, he also agrees that I need to clear out the clutter that I have in front of me, and by clutter I mean all those practical things that need to be sorted to start over again.

But the bottom line is that I am tired, and I hate being like this... Maybe I should start using those "power drinks" that I bough in Japan?

[2 comments]
Bangladesh and yet another business trip: [Sunday 13th June 2010]

I went to Asia again in May, for a "short" 2 weeks trip.

Finally I got around the editing and uploading of all the pictures that are worth publishing in the blog!

This was an hard task because in Bangladesh I really never got the chance to walk down the streets by myself, and most of the pictures were taken from the car. You might ask yourself why didn't I walk the streets of Dhaka, well, hotel staff and my clients kind of told me that is fine if I am not by myself, but as into venturing all alone even in the nice part of Dhaka can be dangerous (and there is nothing to see).

Yes, Bangladesh being one of the poorest countries in the world and doesn't do anything to make things appearing different. Not yet at least.

I did my fair share of travelling, and I have seen things that are quite "harsh" for us European, but Bangladesh set a new standard, with the beggars, with the debris, with the absent public illumination at night, and all the rest.

But still I liked it. You might think of me as a masochist probably, but it's not like that, there is a lot of potential in a place that is underdeveloped and I think that given some time also Dhaka will rise to better standards.
Moreover all the people that I have met have been totally great.

Under the culinary and cultural point of view I have also quite liked the place. Indian/Bangladeshi cuisine is simply great, and I will not add more to that concept.

Culture is something that an Islamic country has by bucket loads, I remember that one night a friend of my distributor (two actually) sang for us some typical Bangladeshi folk songs. There are a lot of mosques of course, but I did not have enough time to see the "nice" areas apparently, so will have to leave it until next time.

So all in all it was an harsh experience, but one of those experiences that leaves a mark, and to be frank I want to go back again, to see more.

Inevitably this also refreshed my interest in India, which is a country where I only briefly stopped in Deli for a flight connection...
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Caught between swords and thoughts...: [somewhere in between Sunday 6th and Monday 7th June 2010]

Sunday was quite a decent day, after sleeping a LOT MORE than I usually do had some lunch and planned to go in the afternoon with Simone and Federico to a place called Malmantide where they were going to have a sort of medieval parade/festival in the old city. Here are some pics of the day.

The whole thing went down pretty easily, and in the later afternoon we were joined by some other friends (incidentally the ones that were at the "dinner with murder" event some months before).

We even did some archery, and I am proud to say that I managed to win a prize for having hit a very small target, but I'd say that it was fluke rather than skills.

Had some pizza in the night and then back home.

Home...

I guess I left the most important part for last...

As partly announced in the previous posts, things are indeed changing in Florence for me. I longed for change to happen and as usual, when it takes place, it unbalances everything.

Me and Chiara do not live together anymore.

I won't get into too many details on the hows and whys, is not fair. Suffice to say that neither of us did "anything" wrong to the other, an that we certainly have strong feelings for each other.

I realize that it might not be a final decision, but at the moment it is THE decision.

So where does it all leaves me?

I guess that I am in that phase where too many things are rushing to get sorted and I feel I want to sort none of them!

I need to buy a new car (now I am using my grandmother one), I need to move house (maybe I'll buy one, maybe I'll rent it closer to work?), I need to go back to the company after the business trip and must already organize the new one in July, I need to get my bike back from the mechanic (this one not so hard!), mum is going to have a major surgery soon, I help a friend with a tour of Japan and this thing is becoming more like a secondary job that takes a lot of my free time, I need to come to terms with the fact that Chiara is surely hurting and it is me causing the pain (this really drives me crazy) and last but not least:

I am 35, an history of failed relationships and mistakes at my back and looking at the mirror there isn't exactly a youngster anymore (the prospect of spending my life alone is something terrible to just envisage, makes me want to throw up).

It seems that there is a lot going on and so little time to get things done, and I'd really need a real break.
One of those things where you recharge completely. This summer I am going to work instead of actually having holidays so rest will be postponed...

Surely I am tired after this business trip, surely sleep will sort things out.

Surely tomorrow will be a better day,

It has to...
[4 comments]
Four AM and countiung...: [Thursday 3rd June 2010]

Tokyo, 5:27 AM.

From the hotel window I can see that the sun has already decided to take his daily stroll on this part of the terraqueous hemisphere, and as a matter of fact is doesn't seem that it's so early, judging from the light.

An hint on how early it is could be the fact that the moon is still pretty visible, a white dot in the clear blue sky of Japan.

At least the weather did support me in coming here, Singapore and Bangladesh where quite hot and rainy. Jet lag on the contrary made the trip a little harder than normal, but I guess it's something I have learnt to live with when travelling on a business trip.

Many things are about to change especially when I get back to Florence, so this time my coming back (which will happen tomorrow by the way) is something that I both look forward to but also makes me uneasy.

I won't get into many details right now, maybe later, but suffice to say that change albeit difficult to enforce and accept means also that we are ready to step up and try to get life to improve.

So in a way, even if I fail, at least I have tried.

Going back to the trip, Bangladesh was a nice addition to the "carnet" of countries that I have visited, Dhaka is a very harsh place, so I wonder how the rest of Bangladesh must be. There is more than a fair share of poor people, beggars and generally human beings that could do with life giving them a little bit more, but remember that we are talking about one of the poorest countries in the world.
Of course I relate to the high end part of the population that can afford our products, so my time in Bangladesh was actually great, apart from the work activity that was good, my client is very young and we hanged around the Shisha bars of Dhaka and other places at night with his friends.
Everyone speaks English and I loved to be immersed in a different culture where I could ask all the questions that sprang into my mind. Definitely got to come back there!

Singapore was Singapore, and I really stayed only 1 day, and after that on the plane again to Japan, where I managed to meet Kutsunugi san and then now attending the fair at Tokyo Big Site (Interior Lifestyle). One good thing of the new hotel where I am staying is that there is a public bath (大浴場) and I love the bath culture in Japan so I spent there a bit of time boiling myself in the hot water and resting my mind...

Ok that's it! Time to start preparing for today's challenges!
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The car that was never meant to be: [Thursday 29th April 2010]

After two years of my car being stolen I have finally got my act together to look for a new vehicle. After all I am monopolising Chiara's car and that is not fair, despite my monthly payments to her as a sort of a "rental fee".

So I started looking around and I thought I had found a car, the cousin of one of my friends was selling a 2005 Opel Corsa 1.3 Diesel. Not a new car by all means but it seemed fit to the job and the price tag was apparently "negotiable".

So I set up an appointment, tried the car, and found out that there was a strange noise, the owner said that was the alternator's belt that needed to be changed. After the trial I was quite happy with the car itself, so I started the negotiations, but my spirits were suddenly cooled by the fact that the lady did not want to drop the price by a penny, and the sum that was asking was more or less 1000 euro higher than what I started with.

I was expecting a little more flexibility, also considering that the car needed some repair (albeit minor, listening to her), so I did something that I would have never done, and that I have to do again in the future for sure. I did not trust the potential buy and asked her to take the car together to the mechanic to have it checked.

Well it turns out yesterday that the problem is not the belt but a pulley inside the alternator, there is a faint thudding sound on the right hand side of the car (shock absorbers maybe?) and the mechanic told me that the car is worth AT BEST 4000 euro (what I was prepared to pay), and not 5000 as she was asking.

Of course the situation was pretty "awkward" at times, especially when the mechanic told her about these points in front of me, which resulted in a bare faced lie ("the dealer gives me 4500 euro") and a quick retreat with the promise of "calling each other in the future days".

In the end, not trusting 100% someone resulted in me not being forced to buy something overpriced and faulty. I have to say that the lady is a very nice person and she did not seem like the one that was trying to dump some junk onto me, but her way of dealing was a bit too strange for me, and that rung a bell in my head.

Now I have to look again, maybe I will spend more and get a used car from a dealer, at lest I can get 1 year warranty that is not too bad in these cases.

[6 comments]
Moving on?: [Sunday 25th April 2010]

The occasion of me posting is related mostly to the LONG DUE publishing of my latest set of picture here on The Maison, pictures that you can find HERE.

Almost twenty days have passed since I come back to Italy, and fortunately I managed to re-adapt pretty quickly from the long business trip that I made. The funny side was that as soon as I hit the office I had to start planning another business trip at the end of May, but that's another story.

Coming back to Italy was no easy task, I was greeted by a series of bills and a quite boring rent increase, and getting back into the routine took longer than expected.

I am planning to buy a used car, well actually I have almost did, let's hope it's going to be luckier than the previous one, although I do not think that someone will want to steal an old Opel Corsa from 2005.

A sign of "movement"? Some indications that I want to start to change how things are in my life? I hope so, I hope that I can muster the strengths to do what is right.

Anyways, the post was meant for pictures so do take a look at them, comments can be done here as usual...

[6 comments]
The long way home: [Saturday 3rd April 2010]

The celebrations for my birthday yesterday were quite in a low key, mostly because the work day was rather heavy so the real "day off" was this Saturday that I had been planning since February.

Why the planning? Well, the answer is in one word "hanami", which means basically "watching the flowers" referred to the cherry blossoms that are a prominent feature here in Japan.

Since February I started studying all the average dates when the blossoms reached 100% bloom (in Japan is a rather big thing and there are a lot of sites with historical data that can be checked), and my calculations told me that this was meant to be the best weekend to get the best view of the cherry blossoms.

Well... I was BLOODY RIGHT!! :D I am actually quite impressed that I managed to get it spot on, and if we skip on the weather that has been quite cold the rest was almost perfect.

I say almost because my session of "Yozakura" (hanami done by night) was ruined by rain...

Today, de facto, was the very last day of this business trip, far too long as 25days are really too many, although as usual the prospect of going back home is quite scary on one side (bills, office work, coming to terms that I cannot play football anymore, etc etc) and something I looked forward to as I will be able finally to sleep in my bed.

But the trip is not that quick as I wish it to be, a good day separate me from leaving here and finally close the bag after having unpacked it (that's when I REALLY feel at home)...

Then it will be time to think about the next trip already, again Japan in June and then maybe some other places such as Bangladesh and Singapore... I have to see at the moment the prospect of another business trip is like having a nightmare when awake!
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35: [Friday 2nd of April 2010]

Thirty-five, that's more or less how old I am today. It's really true, you arrive at certain points in life turn back and think "how the hell did I turn thirty-five I didn't even realize it!". So true.

Anyways that's it, another birthday away from home (but where is home really?), devoted to work, but in a way it's a good thing that it's the very last on this never-ending trip around Asia. I am tired as a mule that drag a cart for 3 weeks in a row, today I will drink some of these Japanese inventions, the "power drink", a sort of extra powerful redbull but with many more things inside, that should grant me a safe heaven of strength at least until noon...

I am quite indecisive regarding the presents, people have been asking me but I really cannot think of anything that I'd REALLY like to have. There are a lot of "I'd like to have" items, but nothing that strikes my fantasy in a special way, we'll see...

As to the rest I'll try to make some changes in life, they are badly needed.

Ok then, happy birthday to me! This is the fourth birthday that I have spent in Tokyo, though I lived here only one year, they should give me honorary citizenship!
[9 comments]
Quiet Saturday: [Saturday 20th March 2010]

One week into the business trip I still have 2 full weeks to tackle before I can board the plane that will get me back to Italy.

Life when you are on a business trip is quite strange because there is never really time to "unplug" and relax. Today for example I had to go and check out some stores, although I told my agent that I did not want to do anything else because I feel that after the second pay-cut I am giving far too much to this company...

Normally relaxing even when I take the time to do it, is quite hard. Packing, replying to emails, catching up with the work that you could not do during the week, follow ups on clients demands and most importantly, preparing things for one of the frequent movements inside Asia (that anyway involve check-ins, waiting, body scans, airplane trips and all the stress related with these activities).

But today was different as I prepared everything is good time, few minor adjustments to be done but nothing major.

I managed to avoid any social engagement and I just relaxed, had a bath, played some music, watched a Family Guy movie that I downloaded (Star Wars parody, absolutely GREAT), had a simple burgher delivered to my room and just enjoyed the simplicity of it all!

Well, tomorrow I am bound to Taipei, but hopefully the day will be free for me to do whatever I like! :P

Maybe a sauna? Could be good before another stressful week opens up ahead!
[2 comments]
Fire walk with me: [Saturday 20th March 2010]

My stomach is on fire!

It must have been some food that I have had at the beginning of the week in Zhongshan, I think that it was some "not so fresh" abalone, because the other people ate the same stuff as I did and had no problems whatsoever.

Well, the bottom line is that food poisoning in Asia is not a good thing, especially when you are on a business trip and EVERYONE (I mean EVERYONE) invites you to dinner and lunch and expect you to eat everything.

Not that I do not like Chinese cuisine, it's actually pretty great and I can eat REALLY everything (snakes, scorpions and the likes included), but with this sense of constant mild nausea it's not easy.

So me and my boss, who came with me for the first time in his life to China, tried to escape all the invitations, to eat something simple at the hotel but we failed miserably. Apart from that the business trip is as usual, same problems, same faces, same complaints. There would be a solution to all of this, which involves me moving here, but at present state I cannot envisage it any time soon because the company I work for just simply do not have the money to afford a resident manager.

At the same time, after the second pay cut at the beginning of the year, I am thinking if I did a good thing at organizing such a long trip, my services and expertise is worth much more than what they are paying me, and still I cannot seem able to offer the company the services for what they are paying for.

Frustrating.
[3 comments]
It happens here: [Thursday 18th March 2010]

Life happens here, business happens here, new ideas happen here.

China is certainly a great place to be if you want to be involved into a business/money/sex spiral, it seems that everyone is happy, or at least looks at the future with such a positive outlook that every time I come here going back to Europe stinks like fish left out of the fridge for 3 days.

Not everything is golden though, we do know what are the issues involved with this country, but to be honest with them they are opening quite rapidly, in 4 months, since my last visit they started the 3G network on their mobiles, which apparently bypasses state censorship on internet sites (I can use Twitter from the phone but not from the mac!).

Little by little things are changing on that area as well.

Now bound to Shanghai, which is similar to Tokyo or New York, I wish that I could sleep better, the first leg of this trip has been a bit hard under that point of view!

[2 comments]
Fake Chinese Luck: [Saturday 13th March 2010]

The trip has begun, 25 days roaming around Asia is the next task in hand, fr those who follow my blog regularly there is a brief update on the situation described in the previous post.

Well, after much grieving and fighting the work related issue was "politically" resolved with my apologies to the top manager for my "not so professional behaviour" and an explanation on the "misunderstanding" (as bosses never make mistakes, they are misinterpreted at worst)that created the whole thing, and in effect the famous client that was taken off me should go back to my direct supervision...

Anyhow, with a lighter heart I set off to Asia thinking that MAYBE the spell of nasty luck was over, well, I was mistaken... Kind of.

After a SEVEN HOURS wait in Frankfurt to get my next plane to Hong Kong upon my arrival my bag was nowhere to be found.
Initially the staff said that they did not have a record on it being lost (which means that someone has stolen it!!), but eventually they found out that it was in ZURICH! Certainly a very bad start of the trip...

I am in HK with my boss, and I knew that the company has an insurance thing that covers up to 1500 Euro worth of shopping if the bag is delayed for more than 4 hours. After checking with all my colleagues I set off and went shopping for the grand sum of 700 Euro, buying designer clothes and stuff like that.

Eventually my bag was found and arrived after 7 hours to my hotel, so the insurance thing is covered (or at least it should be) and I am left with new items!! While I will not rejoice (I want to make sure 100% when I go back that the company is not going to charge me 700 euro and that the insurance really exists), the prospect that I might have gotten a free ride is quite nice! :D

Spirits rising a little!
[1 comment]
Black Tuesday: [Tuesday 9th March 2010]

I do not know if today is going to be the lower point of my year (already), but I would quite love it to be so because at the time of writing the day it's almost finished.

The day started in a terrible way, I have been summoned by my directors and basically the told me that my biggest client, and one of the best of the company, will be given to a different person.

I spat blood to get this account, it was terribly hard work for 1 and half years, and now that the orders are coming they simply take it away from me to give it to this shithead director that was just waiting for it to boast how good he is.

Professionally I think that has to be one of the worst days of my life.

The funny point is that this client has been managed in a great way, even the people that decided to take it away from me told me so. I was furious of course and I vented my rage at a staff meeting in a very non-political way that got me "if someone doesn't believe in this group then I do not want to see him or her at this table during next meeting" (clearly addressed to me).

Then it started snowing massively, and I had to leave the office immediately, risked a couple of accidents during the way but manage to get home alive.

In the evening we had the tickets to go to see Fiorentina versus Bayern Munchen, during the first leg the Germs won 2 to 1 with a goal that was scored massively offside (3/4 meters), but of course since football is a third world sport there is no technology allowed to rectify these blunders. Still with a match to go some hope was still there.

Well the match was brilliant and Fiorentina won 3 to 2 but that is not enough to go through the quarter finals, because of the away goal rule. This of course made the evening totally bitter, as if the day was not bitter enough.

Now I am at home, pondering.

Of course the football match is just the icing on the cake, but the major analysis goes to the work itself.
Once again I have been professionally killed when things are going great (my results are honestly pretty good at the moment), I put so much effort in this job after so many bad experiences that I thought that things were starting to get stable a little.

Well, of course it is not the case, clearly.

I feel really empty. I got nothing, I didn't build up anything, I am left prey of these people that earn huge amount of money and that take decisions that affect my life.

I rest my case, I really threw away 35 years of my life and I feel like at a party when everyone leaves and you are left in an empty room with no friends.
[4 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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