Perpetual Change

La mia banca suona il Rock

So my mother asked me the other day, now that I am back with Backroads, what do I do on my days off. I said, not much, but decided to describe one. It is more or less typical in its randomness, but there is probably a pattern somewhere.

I got up and spent 3 hours cathching up on the emails that I have read but not replied to in the last 6 months (I am still a good bit behind).

Then I decided to go into the office in the neighboring town, so that I could check out one of our bicycles. While I was there, I prepped some of the documents for the trip I will start on Sunday. We have a work day on Saturday to do all the documents, confirmations, food and bike prep, but since you are paid for the work and not the hours, sometimes I start mid week. It is quieter than on Saturday when EVERYONE is prepping their trips and it makes for a lighter day then.

Then I saw the Economist on the table in the lounge. So I sat and read the whole thing. That would normally take me a week, but I was so news starved. When I had finished, I felt quite satisfied, like I had just finished a delicious and filling meal. I felt rather accomplished for the day already too.

So then I went to lunch with my bosses and another collegue. We went to a little "hot table" pizzeria place that many Italians frequent for lunch. I had gnocchi al pesto and read wine. Excellent.

My bosses offered me some work, so I worked 2.5 hours at the office after lunch, and then road home to do another hour of email catch up. Our home, in San Giovanni Valdarno, is two apartments, one over the other, with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen in each. It is very much like living in a dorm. It is at the edge of a small Tuscan town on the main train route from Florence to Rome. It is the birthplace of Masaccio, a famous renaissaince artist.

Then one my flat-mates cooked dinner, fresh pasta that had just come up with some colleagues from Puglia and salad - arugula, spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella.

Then we hurried downtown to watch the semifinals of the Europe Cup over a couple of beers. It has been going big for the last 4 weeks. The quarter finals were really interesting with big upsets. I watched most of them in Slovakia with no problem. In Italy, the satellite kept going out at the national station and we didn't see probably 20 minutes including the end, but Germany beat Turkey 3-2. It was a good game. Tonight is Russia and Spain. Germany will play the winner on Sunday.

Besides the satellite, I missed a good bit of the game, because the two guys I was with got me talking about adoption, orphanages and Ukraine. Difficult subjects that I am passionate about. Most of my colleagues are rather well educated and world savy (last night one was a Spaniard and the other was a South African). I often find books that I have been wanting to read on our shelves at the house.

On our way home after 11 on a wednesday night, there was a concert in the main square; mostly middle-aged Italians were neatly seated in plastic chairs watching belly dancers and a rock band sponsored by the municipal bank. The title of this blog, and that show, translates as "My bank plays rock music".

Then I went home and wrote this, and took a cold shower so I could fall asleep in the Tuscan summer heat.

Labels: average day

posted by jjs @ 5:55 PM