Category Archives: Work

A Subheading only, really

It should be good but isn’t really

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Sorry I haven’t been posting or visiting your blogs but I am incredibly busy right now.

In the meantime, I SHOULD HAVE been delighted to receive the following message from LinkedIn:

Andrew, congratulations!

You have one of the top 10% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012 in Italy.
LinkedIn now has 200 million members. Thanks for
playing a unique part in our community!

Except, in my opinion, I don’t get that many viewers of my profile (like 9 in the last 90 days)! And so, if I’m in the top 10% for views, it doesn’t really say much for LinkedIn in Italy.

Hmph!

Oh yes, and Porca Vacca (one of the restaurants I have listed on the right) has changed hands. We shan’t be going back and I’ve downgraded it. It’s a shame.

Living in Italy has distinct advantages.

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It was whilst talking with a colleague, the other day, that I realised how very lucky I am in this one respect.

A couple of days before, I’d read, in one of the British papers online, about a man of about 56. He had been made redundant a year or two before and had applied for over 3,000 (yes, three thousand) jobs in the time since his redundancy. He’d had one interview and hadn’t got the job.

And, whilst talking to this colleague, I realised that, actually, by living here, in Italy, I was, in fact, always employable.

Obviously, going back to teaching is not something I crave on the basis that the work pays very badly and the hours can be crap AND, there is little or no work for about 4 months of the year (meaning also no pay).

But, if needs must, I could go back to it tomorrow. What with that, editing work and website stuff, I may, even, be able to make more or less the same money as I do now – in any event, I would be earning something.

Compared, say, to the person I was talking to, who is slightly younger than I am but, if made redundant, would be less likely to be able to find employment.

And, as I talked to him, I realised that, if I were still in the UK, I would, actually, be less employable there, at my age, than I am here! So, by coming here, I have actually increased my chances for work in the future.

Now that’s something I had never thought of before. But, I have to admit, it’s a rather nice thought, isn’t it?

Some new things are just W O N D E R F U L!

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To be honest, new technology generally leaves me cold. The latest gadgets include things like a fork that helps you diet, a flexible phone, etc. But I’m really not interested.

I do have to consider getting a new phone. I have a Blackberry and it’s about 4 years old now. What I WOULD like is another Blackberry but with RIM pulling out of the personal market (from what I’ve read), I have to change.

I don’t want an iPhone but I do quite like the look of the Samsung S3 – so, maybe I’ll get one of those.

But that’s not really the point of this post.

There are certain things that really do ‘get me’ when it comes to new technology.

Recently, there was a thing about getting a model of yourself printed on a 3D printer (in Tokyo, from what I remember). Now, should I go to Japan, that would be a “must”.

And then there’s this company that will take a child’s drawing, say this:

and turn it into a proper 3D model via a 3D printer so that it becomes this:

Now, this, to me, would be wonderful.

If only I had a child. Anyone fancy lending me one – just to get a drawing so I can do this thing?

Back to the grind

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Monday morning.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s the first Monday after over two weeks not at work.

Already, I wish it were Friday afternoon.

And, yesterday, I thought it would be quite a good idea to just start the car, which had been unused since the 21st December. Of course, it didn’t start. The battery was dead. I got a nearby garage to restart it (for a whopping €20) – but, at least I did get it started and this morning it was fine.

But, work is work and, unusually, I do feel that 2 weeks holiday is not really enough after all.

Still, one must look on the bright side. I have F, two dogs, a nice flat, I live in Italy and I have a job to come to and which pays me, enabling me to enjoy these things. There are many people who are in a far worse place than me.

We had a glorious Christmas/New Year break and, for that, I am very grateful.

And, who knows what this new year may bring?

It may be marvellous.

I hope it is for you too.

As you were.

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We’re back in business.

The tree is up and decorated. Not the tree I bought. That is on the balcony. It’s a new tree. And now he is happy.

And, so, with the exception of the cleaning, Christmas can commence.

In addition, I am so happy because, unusually, at work, instead of spending the last hour standing around at what is known as (but in reality is nothing like) “THE PARTY”, we shall be going home an hour early. I’ve always hated this so-called party thing. I’m sure that everyone is just waiting for the opportunity to get out of there. Instead we stand around, trying to be pleasant with a glass of prosecco and a piece of cake. Every year, I promise (to myself) to be the second person out of there but never make it. This year, at 3.15, I shall be leaving and going home.

And I might make mince pies :-)

And that will certainly make it the start of Christmas.

I’m iller than you are!

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Of course, there is one downside to being a gay man.

This is that your partner is a man.

Men are notoriously bad when it comes to being ill. Italian men worse (imho).

So, here I am, suffering with “man flu” (i.e. a slight cold) and, instead of being able to really suffer, I find myself in a situation where F is “worse” than me.

I have this cold (as it was formally known before all illnesses had to be “the worst thing that has ever happened to you so far”) and F has stomach ache.

Of course, his is worse than mine.

So, he is at home and I am at work because, of course, if one is to suffer, one has to suffer properley. Suffering properley means that one must “soldier on” making sure that everyone knows that you are being a hero whilst, at the same time, trying to hide it. This doesn’t mean hiding it but rather, being subtle about making sure that your partner (and, in my case, colleagues) know that you are being a hero and passing it off as “nothing really”. By being the hero, in the normal course of events, it would illicit messages of sympathy and care but, in this case, I get nothing because he is feeling worse than me and my Italian colleagues have absolutely no concept of this “soldiering on” thing. Bloody Italians.

Bah, bloody humbug.

Of course, my cold is because I went out on Friday night without a hat or umbrella. And it was raining cold rain. So, Sunday morning I woke up with this bloody thing that I now have

On the bright side, it should mean that it is all cleared up by Friday and that I won’t be coming down with any other lurgy for Christmas.

Still, it’s a bit of a bugger that, on one of the very rare occasions that I AM actually a little ill, I can’t exploit it for all it’s worth!

Piero is nearly as big as Dino!

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Piero has grown.

In fact, everyone who hasn’t seen him for more than about a week comments on how fast he has grown.

And he has. His shoulders are now just a few inches below Dino’s. He hasn’t got Dino’s bulk (not that Dino is fat, jut muscled) nor power but he’s working on it. The games of ‘tug’ that they have every night prove this.

Piero is still very ‘cute’ though, even if he is nearly the same size.

And it got me to thinking about whether Dino was this big when he was seven months old. I thought I might have commented on it in the blog so went back a way to see if I could find out. I didn’t find it. Instead, what I found was the end of V and I (Dino was just about 10 months old at the time). I should go back, from time to time, to see what was happening then.

For example, I found the post where I had been to see the flat that I am now living in.

I found some posts that were quite well written. But then, a tortured mind seems to a requisite for good writing. Perhaps I should randomly go back and have a look at some posts I wrote? It’s interesting to see the change from a different year. After all, this blog has been going for nearly 7 years now and a lot of things have changed in those seven years.

Anyway, back to Piero.

He is cute, he is much bigger, he is more affectionate, he is very, very playful and he is a right little bastard.

But wonderful too.

However, Dino is still the best dog ever.

But I love them both, just the same. And, as my friend C, from London, wrote recently, F REALLY loves the dogs. So all is well.

Be careful what you wish for ……………..

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There’s a lot going on at the moment in the British press about the BBC.

It’s almost like there’s some sort of witch-hunt and it seems as if some newspapers won’t be happy until the BBC is disbanded.

But, in my opinion, that would be a huge mistake.

If it were to be broken up, there would be nothing to stop Mr Murdoch and, as well, the ‘dumbing down’ of TV that is usually blamed on the BBC, would accelerate to, well, the standard of most Italian TV.

I always think ‘be careful what you wish for as it might come true’.

There do seem to be a few voices trying to make themselves heard amongst this clamour for the destruction of the BBC – but they seem to be fighting an uphill battle.

In any event, Joni seemed to sum it up quite well ……


Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Some short stories to bring a smile to your face for a Friday

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David Sedaris is a very funny man.

Someone (AfC, I think) lent me one of his books. They are ordinary stories of him and his family but always funny.

Anyway, you can enjoy some of these short stories here.

But the bit that had me really laughing was:

A week after putting her to sleep, I received Neil’s ashes in a forest-green can. She’d never expressed any great interest in the outdoors, so I scattered her remains on the carpet and then vacuumed them up.

Enjoy.

25 Years Ago

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25 years ago tomorrow morning, England was closed. Or, at least it seemed like it was closed to us.

It was during my year-long or so stint in Germany. Every week I would travel there (usually on a Sunday or Monday evening), travelling back three or four days later. It was exhausting.

My job was as a consultant to Ford and we were introducing a new system to one of their suppliers. Sometimes I would be alone but this particular time, I was with some other people from Ford – or at least one person, AA.

When we got into work on the 16th, we, as normal, tried to contact colleagues. The phones rang out but no one answered.

We joked that England was closed.

What we didn’t know was that, for the South East at least, it almost was.

The great storm of 1987 meant that many people didn’t get into work and many had no electricity.

Was it really 25 years ago? Half a lifetime (more or less)!