The Boy and The Coconut Tree

Sitting in my hotel room looking at the Duomo in Florence and packing for my flight later today.  It is a wonderfully sunny warm day here and though there was a brief thunderstorm last night, it has blown through now and the city is still as stunning, and the air is a little fresher. I seriously love Florence, it isn't just a living museum with art and history everywhere, it is a living, working city and there is something interesting going on in every street and the smaller crowds of tourists this summer made it feel far more Italian and human and that was lovely, here are some pictures of Florence (River Arno, Duomo, Santa Croce, Room Mate Hotel Luca). First let us get down to Tripe, something I never liked but my grandparents and many of their generation loved. It is big in Florence; people eat it as a snack, and it can be found in the high-end restaurants as well as cheap cafes. I ended up eating it by accident last week in a lovely Osteria near th

Today is my official first day of gardening leave, a funny expression as I have no garden and I am sure many people who are on gardening leave also lack a garden or even a few plants to care for as the days pass by. So, all firms, and departments within them need to restructure, it would make no sense to not adapt but to do so behind the mask of #Covid19 seems excessively underhand. When loyal workers are helping a firm stay afloat during the crisis, when employees are isolated from their colleagues and often isolated from their friends and family it is a hammer blow to find yourself, in the space of 3 weeks, on gardening leave and looking for a new role in the worst recession in centuries. Some people are well equipped for his new normal, some are not. But never underestimate what betraying loyalty can do to a reputation. #redundancy #pensions #unemployed #openforwork I found out about my redundancy on July 16th, today is August 5th, it happened so fast my feet barely touched the