On Protest - II

On Protest - I

Time is up. A new rally for protest against our company intentions and support to our unions representatives is ahead. Few days ago we've crossed Milan downtown to get to the place where the discussion about our future and the way out they would like to arrange for us took place. In few more days the second act, the start of real dealings will be staged. I fear I won't be able to attend the event as I've already planned a trip (could be my last one) in Goteborg. I decided that during my stay up there I'll wear a badge, something to show my "state of agitation" to my northern peers. It's the least thing I can do.

And flowers were ...

Exceptionally for this blog, I haven't had the courage to process these pictures and turn them to B&W. All my buddies have grown and turned to red in a matter of days. Few days more and they will be all dead petals laying down on the floor of my terrace. The cycle has passed its climax and slowly turns to the end.

I'm thinking about my job ... and what will happen to me in the coming weeks.

I already wrote this would have been a red month, a month of passion, a bloody month. The fight I'm carrying on together with my colleagues is harsh and is distracting me too much, more than expected.

The March

Dealings and discussions between our Unions' representatives and the two Companies' management have started. Next stage is set for Wednesday 28. Our "march" from the old to the unknown has started. Who can tell where we're heading to?

Bloody Days

Red flags waving, red whistles blowing, red flowers blooming ...

Flowers to be

Few more days and the picture will be complete. Spots of colors will embroider my balcony again. Many little buddies are ready to bloom. In some extent it's some kind of revenge that Mother Nature is taking against me.

Beginning of this year, perhaps some time before, I nearly thought to give up the idea of growing plants on my balcony. I had fell in a state of mind where the little effort I could dedicate to my hobbies seemed almost useless. There were so many things that I couldn't follow as I wanted while I had too keep myself focused on work activities: so much that I barely could find the time to stay home.

So on a Sunday I decided to prune everything possible and leave the pots to their destiny, without protecting them as usual in the small glass-house. Ice and snow were allowed to do the rest of the job.

Facts are that we have had the warmest winter in the last fifteen years, with abundant rains and all my plant survived without my cares. Therefore, now that I have again some time to spend for them I can only celebrate the revenge that's going to happen.

I'll post the flower to be in colors. It's their right!

Unexpected gardens

A new storm approaches

After a few years of moderate tranquility, the engineering community to which I belong is again under threat of closure of the site. The big difference, compared to previous times, is that we are no longer to simple intentions but the idea has already moved to facts, taking contact with an Indian company that wants to buy us. Like all the other colleagues I am experiencing a time of anxious waiting for the necessary clarifications be provided by one of the two companies. And so even at home someone starts to get worried. 

Unfortunately, summer storms pass by, whereas a tempest leaves its marks.

Tuscania - II

Tuscania - I

Believe it or not. I've been living thirty years not far from Tuscania but I first discovered it (or "her", as in Italy we're used to treat cities as the were persons) no more than a year ago, after watching a masterpiece of PierPaolo Pasolini's film directions: "Uccellacci e Uccellini". Upon digging around the 1966 film places and metaphors, I discovered that some of the scenes were shot in open fields just out of the tufa Etruscan walls of this small pre-roman town in the province of Viterbo, not far from the outer ring of today's Rome.

I soon got engaged and promised myself to make a tour on my first visit to my parents, in Tivoli. What I could not know on my arrival is that the emotions felt by standing in front of "her" archeological treasures could be much stronger than expected.

I hope this pictures spur a bit of desire in some of you to take a break and spend some time around this province.

...

I haven't written a single word on this pages for a while. I realise now it's been almost a month. Several happenings and impediments have prevented me from doing it. Above all, as it usually happens, an excessive workload. Once again, I've been distracted by a huge and extenuating activity, carried on in the gloomy and hazy atmosphere of a lab, that ended just before this year's long Italian Easter break. After that, I haven't opened my laptop until this morning, when I entered the walls of my open space.
It's been a meantime of travels, parental visits, endless lunches, long walks in the narrow streets of some Etruscan towns, aimless wandering through monumental gardens, archeological sites and museums.

I've got now plenty of pictures waiting to be downloaded, selected and processed. I'll have to balance my spare time between my family, cycling (the Giro is about to start) and photographs. No problems: looks like I'm going to have much more time in the coming months. I'll write about this in the coming days.