Tuesday, August 07, 2007

News, news and more news

As it is happening more and more often lately, news keep coming and sometimes I don't seem to be able to keep up with them. Surely I'm not able to keep up with my blogging, at least. The strange thing is that everything should be slowing down for the summer and while apparently it is so all around me (for instance, there's almost no one on the street when I get to the office, which is currently half empty itself), still, things seem to happen faster than I can fully grasp.

So, news:

a) while my talk with the HR manager at work had more than suggested that I would had never got the leave of absence that I needed for the Master (the sentence "I expect the resignation letter to be presented within the contract terms, if you decide so" didn't leave much maneuvering space), a subsequent intervention by the labor unions, supported by my own boss (not really by my own manager, which came as a bitter surprise) turned the tide. Effective from the 1st of October and for 16 months, I'm on an authorized (unpaid) leave, to resume work as of 1st February 2009.

b) still at work, the absurd pace that had characterized the last week of July had just got worse in august (and it's only too ironic that I'm making myself a name around here barely weeks before moving away). That was also coupled with a revolution of the firm's organization announced last Friday in which 6 out of 8 of the top manager lost their place. Among the casualties, my own manager, the one who had facilitate my moving to my new department and with whom I used to play football once in a while. Despite his lack of intervention on my behalf in the leave of absence's deal (which, thinking of it, might had been caused by his already fragile position), that was still a sad thing. The 50 or so second-line managers are now expecting to see what it's in store for them.

c) finally, I managed to get to the seaside, for a weekend. The result was another decent burn on my back, the second this year (I'm either getting too careless or too old, I used to spend hours in the sun without consequences once upon a time), when I suddenly fell asleep under the son at noon, waking up about one hour later. Besides that, I met some friends I hadn't seen in years, given that the past summers my visits at the sea have been sporadic, at best.

d) I found out that in my planning of the summer and allotment of my off-days I had totally forgot 3 days I had in store. Now, since I do have to use it within the 15th of September or lose them without compensation, I have to decide what to do. Obviously, I'd like to spend them with Susanne, but she might be busy with a stage and I will know only at the very last moment, so the second best option would be to gather Alessandro, Sergio and Francesco and do as we once used to, travelling around. Problem is, Francesco will be in Argentina until the end of September so he has to be ruled out and Alessandro will be back from US only at the beginning of the month and will probably be unable to take more days away from his law firm. Besides, where to? I'd love to go to the Baltic, Tallinn, Stockholm or Helsinki being the places coming first to mind, but.. who knows?

e) there's a new born in the family, the first of the new generation. My mom's junior sister's daughter (my cousin, my mom's niece) finally (she's 38) gave birth to a baby girl called Elisa, an event that was met with all the joy that can be expected and by my mother not even so hidden jealousy. We tried to explain her that, yes, it's her younger sister who became a grand mom, but she even had the brilliant idea of becoming mom at 18, rather than waiting, as my mom did, to be 30 to give birth to her first son, but apparently the argument isn't too effective with her. Considering my own position at the moment, she will have to place her hopes on my brother. Anyway, I just hope Elisa will not be baptized when I'll already be abroad, I'd hate to miss the ceremony, even considering that her grandparents are my godparents.

f) finally, I managed to read a book again, which might sound strange, but was indeed becoming painful. So it happens that in a matter of days I devoured the whole Chronicles of Narnia cycle (which was definitely in a different style than I expected, but immensely enjoyable anyway) and then I started my summer reading with a Stephen King book, the Regulators, which was kind of disappointing and barely decent. Now, I had sent the books on top of my "to read" list to the seaside with my parents as I was expected to be there as well the last week-end, a plan that crumbled under the forced staying at my office till very late on Friday so: what to read now?

And that's about it for now... back to work!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

si, sono stata latitante, anche fuorviata dal pop-up che non si aggiorna.
Un besito, prima della partenza (mia) che sto completamente fuori fase.