I feel like I have a lot of things to write but in the future I’ll post when I’ll feel like without any commitment, experimenting writing and sharing when loneliness will comes.

Anyway, I decided to disclose one of the things that had keep me busy lately.

When I embraced the path of fixing my knee,  that will keep me away from Salsa dancing for months, I realized I HAD to find something alternative to keep me busy and avoid depression…

So I decided to invest some time and money on websites, something I always been passionate about.

It’s an old passion of mine, since the time back to 2001 my ITVC.net project, an online community for Italian IT freak I created, developed and then closedt without realizing his potential.

The other year I tried instead with an online business experiment, PercussionConga, a niche blog dedicated to my favorite percussion instrument used in Latin music, that is still providing me with a luxurious passive income of 5$ a month…

This time I wanted to scale up, investing my non-Salsa nights and IT-money in something already up and running, because in fact as you can buy a bar, a candle shop, an apartment to rent, you can buy an online business too.

Took me over a month and a half checking what’s on the market, screening hundreds of websites on sale.
99% of them were bad, ranging from pure scam to completely rubbish, and with time I learn how to spot them.
The 1% left deserved accurate checks, understanding the market, digging into Google memory, discussing with the seller and being extremely suspicious: “Trust no one“, as Fox Molder use to say in X-Files (the last TV series I saw in my life).

At the end of this funnel, I was left with a website I really liked (I don’t mean for the graphic, as you can see on the right!).
Or better, 3 websites packed in a single sale.

They are job boards, website where employers post their vacancies and candidates look for a job.
Do you know Monster.com? Same concept, another scale.

And the best thing is: they operate in Latin America……México, Colombia and Perú.
Do you think is another coincidence?

Since the moment I signed the deal I had a pornhorror feeling: a mix of excitement (something new!) and fear (I’ve been f#ck@d).

Then I felt like new parents when they arrive home from the hospital with their newborn baby: what to do now? what does he want? why he’s crying?

The baby doesn’t come with instructions, so my websites.

The technical aspects weren’t a problem, I have plenty of experience, but had no idea how users were using my websites, what they wanted and the business logic behind.
Every change could bring unpredictable effects. What if I change the home page? What if I move that banner? What if I send the newsletter at another time of the day? what if…?
I felt paralyzed, thinking over and over zillions time before changing anything, and then observing the results.

Plus, another funny detail is that my websites are in Spanish, a language I learn from the street and in the Salsa clubs… replying a formal e-mail from a company or someone looking for a job with a song from El Gran Combo doesn’t really work.
Luckily I have friends in Cali and I got my super-assistant Dilia lined up to save my days

It’s not a get-rich-quick thing. I have to work hard to learn the game and getting things under my understanding: traffic statistics, advertising models, media marketing.

I had some freaky days and nights, up to the point that I would have stay till 2am at the PC in a very excited state of mind, then move to bed but unable to switch off the mind till 3am. And then at 7am waking up with the Blackberry in my hand checking e-mails.

At least my websites don’t poop as babies do!

Now is over a month I’m owning my websites, as well as over a month I’m not dancing, I can see some results and I feel more relaxed.

I love my websites.

I love that in an online world full of people trying to make quick money out of Google (tricking the system to be on top of search results) or out of people (tricking users to buy something they probably won’t need) here I stand with websites that offer a FREE service for people looking for a job, and companies looking for workers.

I love that I’m helping people of México, Colombia and Perú getting a JOB, something pretty low in Maslow pyramid of needs.

I love that my websites are more than cashing in the Internet business – there’s a social purpose in them.

I love that I feel excited and enthusiastic about it, and may I loose all my money then FUCK IT, it will mean that I paid for the emotions I care the most.

I love that I feel genuine, this is Daniele investing his life and taking responsibility for doing things his way. Not serving any corporate business “ethic”.

I love that I’m full of ideas about making my websites work better, finally busy with a creative process.

And finally I love the technical aspects I’m so comfy with.

My babies are:

www.puesto.com.mx

www.puesto.com.co

www.puesto.com.pe

No poop, no crying at night.

Greetings from London, where I’m writing from a Starbucks instead of visiting the city.

Castle of Nantes

Greetings from Nantes – beautiful city in Brittany, crossed by the Loira river, French country.

I missed a lot travelling, being grounded in Amsterdam for more than 3 weeks recovering from the knee “let me check” surgery I had.

Full of joy and excitement, I stepped into another taxi to reach the beloved Schiphol airport, starting point for a business trip to Milano, Italy and then here in Nantes.

The driver looked like an improved version of Mullah Omar, and I found it amusing.

We started the usual small talk:

“Going back home?” asked me. Being a Saturday afternoon, it was a happy idea.

“Yes, kind of, going there for work but I’ll also visit my family…”

“Where?”

“Milano, Italy”

Milano triggers in taxi drivers always the same football reaction about Internazionale, AC Milan, and which one I support, and this or that coach I don’t know, and that I couldn’t care less about following a match and what they do.
I normally try to came out of this corner asking something back:

“Where are YOU from?”

“Pakistan.”

I guess too many times this is the end of the small talk, unless this guy is giving a ride to a cricket fan.
But after a little silence, by the time we were crossing Surinameplein reaching the A10 highway, I resumed the chat:

“Do you speak urdu?”

“Yes, I speak urdu!” – short silence – “Oh, you know, you know” – short silence - “how come that you know?”

My memory went back to my trips to middle-east, and all the people from Pakistan I met there. I didn’t know that urdu is only 5th in the rank of languages spoken in Pakistan, then I say:

“I’ve been to middle East. United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia…”

“…yes, there are many Pakistani, over there” he concluded quickly, no need to add details. We both know that Pakistani goes there to do the hard work, far away from their families, often exploited, sacrificing some years in the hope of a better future back home.

“I spoke with many of them” – mainly taxi drivers, but I didn’t tell him that – “and I’ve learn about urdu. They also told me there’s an area in Pakistan called the Switzerland of Pakistan, or something like that…”

“That’s the area we call the paradise on Earth…” – pretty self-explanatory as a name! - “It’s called Swat Valley, it’s beautiful. Very green, with mountains, rivers, lakes, flowers. You can even ski there, ski in Pakistan!”

River in Swat Valley - Pakistan

Lake in Swat Valley - Pakistan

Swat Valley Pakistan - Malam Jabba Ski Resort

I then learnt that Swat Valley is so rich of minerals that the water sometime has a yellowish color. And that because o the minerals, people are really healthy, strong and live long lives.

“When you eat a meal, it goes away very fast” - said gesturing with his hand an up-down movement - “then you need to eat again. But not 2 slices of bread! A full 3-courses meal.”

I think about my Austrian friend Geg, that needs to eat every 2.5 hours, and that maybe he has some strange mineral retention issue. I also think he would love this place, with lakes and snow. With enough wind Geg could be happy all-year around.

“People there eat 4-5 times a day, full meals, and they are healthy and strong”.

We just passed the Tutor speed cameras on the A10, monitoring that nobody runs faster then 80Km/h, but the driver is still driving slowly and peacefully in 1st lane.

It’s fascinating to hear people talking about their motherland with such an enthusiasm, or telling something so strange that you want to laugh but they are too convincing to let you do so.

I wonder if he learnt to speak such a good English over there, as Pakistan was a British colony.

“Do people know English over there?”

“Just a bit, an in Italy?”

“Pretty much the same…” then I explained him the usual story – that I had to learn a lot of English once arrived in Netherlands even if I though I knew enough from school and bla bla bla…. then I moved on with “but I can’t learn proper Dutch. I just can’t motivate myself”.

Then a different side of this man came out – a wise, paternal, philosophical side maybe more developed in Eastern culture:

“It’s because you don’t need it. If you will need it, you’ll learn in 6 months, studying 2-3 hours a day”.

I wonder if that’s how he had learn Dutch, but didn’t ask.
We are almost at the Departure area of Schiphol airport, and I still have to run to an cash-machine as I have no money with me to pay the ride… while I’m thinking this, he asks:

“So you’ve wife and kids in Milano?”

This is not an inappropriate question. Most of the Pakistani I met in my trips were living far away from their wife and kids, not seeing them for years. So he must be thinking how lucky I am, going back to my family that is living so close by.

“No…my parents and my brother live there”

“So you’ve wife and kids here?”

“No… I don’t have wife and kids”

“WHAAAAT? You’re alone?!?” – he burst laughing aloud – “A man needs a woman!”.

I’m laughing as well: “You talk like my father!”

“Oh, sorry sorry” says apologetically but knowing I’m not offended.

“No problem. When I’ll need a wife, I’ll find one – same as learning Dutch”

I’m off to Schiphol. I get money from a cash machine, I greet the man and we wish each other an happy day.

Then I check the monitors: where to check-in for the first flight to Swat Valley?

As usual comments are appreciated. Don’t leave me alone now that I’m almost at the end of my personal blog personal challenge

I think everyone has some places that trigger curiosity, excitement, interest. Places we want to visit, we fantasize about, without really a reason behind it.

One of this places for me was Lisbon, Portugal.
After my brother showed me the movie Lisbon Story, by Wim Wenders, I got fascinated by the simplicity of the city and in summertime 2004 I did managed to go there to eat some bacalau.

Another place I always felt attracted is Israel.
It’s one of those places mistreated by the media, one of those places we tend to think that only bad things happen.
The proof was that when I told people that I was going to Tel Aviv for business, the most common comment I got was a sad “don’t take the bus!”.

I was there exactly, more or less, one year ago for the last of three visits I had chance to do there. Runnng on the beach at sunset with 15C while Amsterdam was frozen.

Tel Aviv sunset

Here are two or three things about Tel Aviv, or T.A. for the friends.

Get ready to get there

The most daunting task going to Tel Aviv is passing the security checks, that are equally intense on the way to and out the country.

On my first trip there I received a call the moment I entered Amsterdam Schiphol Airport:
“Mr Besana? This is El Al, are you flying with us today? We’re waiting you at the security checks”.
There’s a gate dedicated to security checks to passengers going to Israel.
I have been left in underwear – literally! – apparently because “Besana” doesn’t really sounds Italian to them, or maybe as I discovered last week because is a word similar to “tits” in Arabic language (thanks Mouw), or most likely because of the wild beard, or again because I have stamps from United Emirates, Morocco and Egypt on my passport.

Not for nothing is called the promise land.

Sleep is overrated

My first night in Tel Aviv was a Monday.
I went out alone looking for food and having a salade in the central Dizengoff street.
Mondays are quite everywhere, I concluded, but on the way back to the hotel, around midnight, I could not believe the amount of young people walking in the street in clubbing dresses… what the heck??

Welcome to TA. The New York of the Mediterranean sea, the city that never sleeps.

In Israel is normal going out at midnight, partying and going home around 5am – on a weekday!
Then going to work the day after like nothing happened.

Nobody could explain me how they do it. Not the people there, not the (many) Israelis I’ve met backpacking in Latin America. They all replied with a laugh.

Does anyone of my 7.5 readers know?

Salsa is in Tel Aviv too

I quickly found myself dragged in the same lifestyle, staying out till indecent hours in the morning, mostly swallowed by a vibrant Salsa scene where was easy to made connections and Facebook-friends, taking advantage of the “news effect” that a visitor always has.

Best place was the Havana Club, 5 minutes walking from my hotel (by pure coincidence!).

Friday night fever

My new friend Efrat invited me to a Salsa party in Ramat Gan, on Friday night.
Friday is not only weekend time in Israel, but also the beginning of Sabbath, the Jewish weekly celebration. 

What did I know about Ramat Gan? Only that is a place close by Tel Aviv, obviously.

But Ramat Gan is not Tel Aviv, and being on a Sabbath in the dead center of a town very much into Jewish religion ain’t fun!

Without options for diner, I could only find a fancy seafood restaurant with a group of people celebrating something, a singer with a cowboy hat, and 20 minutes left before closing time.

Just enough to get an amazing tuna steak with sesame seeds served on lettuce, a glass of white wine and a private restaurant with a private singer that chatted me up curious to know what the hell a tourist was doing in Ramat Gan on a Sabbath, when Tel Aviv is in full party mood 15 minutes away.

He then sung for me “Tu Vuò Fa’ L’Americano” from Renato Carosone in an impressively good Napolitano dialect, asking for a feedback but refusing my offer to buy him a drink.

Soon after a very skeptical taxi driver took me to an area where, I was swearing, there was a Latin club.

Yessss, Salsa is in Ramat Gan on a Sabbath too.

Drum Circle at Banana Beach

The one thing I wanted to experience in Tel Aviv was the Friday night drum circle on the beach, even if the beach is called Banana Beach.

Imagine the sun settling down over the Mediterranean sea on one side, and dozens of people playing percussion on the other side.

That was pure magic – the strong rhythms carrying everyone in trance, the beauty of the nature, the happiness and connected-ness of the people playing and listening.
Impossible to stand still, after some time I felt the urge of being part of it…. beating (or playing?) an empty Gold Star bottle (the Israeli beer) with a 1 Euro coin for couple of hours

It was well after down when the energy of the group went down, people started passing away and I left.

This is the video I took, but it doesn’t get even close to the sensation of being there when they play!

Forever Hummus

I think the real reason of the tensions in middle-East has to do with the origin of Hummus.
Seems that Lebanon won a trial over the invention of this delicious dip, made with chickpeas, lemon and tahini, but the dispute is still ON and in Israeli is considered traditional food.

I had the best hummus in Ali Caravan, in the Arab part of Tel Aviv called Yafo (actually the full name of the city is Tel Aviv-Yafo), where I was accommodated on a table with a couple of friendly locals and served with a plate of hummus with onions.

The onions are used as bread to scoop the hummus – really lovely till your digestion doesn’t kick in.

hummus with pitta and onions

P.S. Sorry if any wrong information is reported in this post, but today (18 Jan 2012) Wikipedia is blacked out to protest against an act that is under discussion by the US Congress so I had to wild guess most of the factual data.

I suspect they must be confused since over a decade, when the year 2001 kicked in, but I didn´t even speak English back then, so I would not have understood either way.

I would personally stick to twenty-twelve, because seems cool and after all, 13th years ago we were living year 1999 and I seriously doubt that when you read 1999 you´re reading ¨a thousand nine hundreds nineteen nine¨, no?

And it´s encouraging to find out that someone already had this doubt last year, and promptly asked to the Yahoo! Answers community:

How should 2011 be pronounced? two thousand eleven or twenty eleven?

The best answer, chosen by the confused that posted the question, shows that this debate was still considered a taboo less than 24 months ago, and taking position could have cost social problems in some parts of the World:

¨I pronounced 2010 as twenty ten all last year and people thought I was nuts.¨

Now things have changed and in 5th Avenue as well as The Village people are open to discuss about it and comfortable to express their opinion in front of the camera of a national TV channel.

One of the my favorite quotes from Mahatma Gandhi well explain this situation: ¨First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win¨ – the charismatic Indian leader said, maybe forecasting the massive growth of the IT customer care business in his country.

So twenty-twelve will be.

But aren´t bloggers supposed to talk about new year resolutions, spreading all over the blogosphere their wishes for change?

Am I somehow different, not looking for changing my life, the pursuit of happiness, or at least have some personal growth here and there?

The truth is quite frustrating, actually.
The truth is that I made this blog, and started my personal blog personal challenge to share my life happenings and my thoughts, but I´m not free to talk openly about my personal plans at the moment.

Too many readers may find inspirations that I´m not ready to provide.
Please keep thinking that for upcoming months I´ll be very busy with my knee, physiotherapy and lonely evenings in my apartment 63 steps up from the street.

So, after thinking for days and days I decided to share what I will NOT do in 2012 (twenty-twelve, remember) instead of having a list of plans or resolutions.

In 2012 I will:

• NOT change my relation status on Facebook (don´t worry, it´s undeclared anyway)
• NOT get a dog, a cat, a baby, a red fish or any other domestic animal
• NOT dance Salsa 3 times a week (but this is because of my knee, shaize!!)
• NOT waste my time with people I don´t like
• NOT compromise my freedom with anything, especially money
• NOT take any Dutch class
• NOT put weight
• NOT sell my motorbike
• NOT buy a TV, and most likely a couch
• NOT cut my hair 

Anyway, this is post #11.

In post-operation recovery I finished reading a self-help book that I really enjoyed: “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World”, a classic written in 1973 by Harry Browne.

Harry Browne was an American and run twice for the Presidential campaign for the Libertarian Party…. yes, a self-help book written by a politician!?

I was indeed skeptical, but soon I realized why this book has nothing to do with other self-help texts I previously read.

This is not about positive thinking or practicing acceptance, but it’s rather sending a strong message that I can summarize in this sentence: your life is yours to spend as you choose, don’t let anyone tell you how to live and freedom involves taking responsibility for your actions.

There are concepts that I don’t agree with, for example I don’t believe in his cynical view that single individuals can’t do anything in fighting for a cause, but there are many ideas about genuine selfishness, sovereignty and freedom that I found very very veeeery interesting.

Here I collect the (long) list of most inspiring quotes from this book:

• Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.
• To be free in an unfree world isn’t nearly as unrealistic as it might seem at first glance. After all, it’s commonly assumed that there can be free nations in a world that contains enslaved nations.
• Your knowledge is the result of your experiences
• No one else (including me) is qualified to tell you how to live.
• When you’re exposed to the ideas of someone who has apparently done well with his own life, it’s easy to conclude that he has all the final answers. His reasoning makes sense to you; he has results to show for his ideas. What further proof could you need to demonstrate that he knows how to live? He probably does know how to live — his life.
• if an individual is required to give up his own happiness for society, of what value is society to him?
• An efficiently selfish person is sensitive to the needs and desires of others. But he doesn’t consider those desires to be demands upon him. Rather, he sees them as opportunities — potential exchanges that might be beneficial to him
• when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.
• It’s just as foolish to feel that you must make everyone understand that you’re right, that your desires are legitimate, that you should be able to do as you want. You don’t have to. Just concentrate your attention on finding those people who are appropriate for you. You can ignore the others
• Little souls wish you to be unhappy. It aggravates them to have you joyous, efficient and free. They like to feel that fate is disciplining you. It gives their egos wings if yours are clipped. You can ruin your life in an hour by listening to their puerile opinions
• You have so much control over your life, it would be a shame to throw it away.
• A free person uses his tremendous power of choice to make a comfortable life for himself. The power of choice. You have it. But you forfeit it when you imagine that you can choose for others. You can’t.
• “I can’t do that,” she said. “I have a $150 tied up in it; I have to see it through.” She was saying, in effect, “Since I’ve already wasted my money on this, I’m now going to waste my time, too.”
• I’ve never found an exception to the rule that the sooner you pay a price, the less it costs you.
• What could you do today that would give you more freedom tomorrow morning?
• Every day outside a box is another day added to your free life.
• Taking risks is an inherent part of life; it’s only dangerous when you act as though you’re not taking a risk.
• When you accept the presence of uncertainty, you can usually relax and enjoy life more.
• You are the sovereign authority for your life. You are the ruler who makes the decisions regarding how you will act, what information you will accept. You do it anyway — but if you recognize that you do it, you can gain much greater control over your future
• When you no longer count on other people to be “right,” to be certain, to be moral, to be intelligent, you’ll turn to the one source of genuine power that exists for you — yourself.
• Your life is all you have. What could possibly be important enough to warrant throwing that life away? Of what value is society if you must give up your happiness for it? Of what value is your country if you must sacrifice your life to protect it from its problems? Of what value is anything if to preserve it you must bend your identity?
• By bending yourself to fit the institutions, you turn things inside out. The institutions must be created and utilized as they serve you — not vice versa.
• freedom is more often lost by false assumptions than by the power of one’s enemies
• “society” is a nonentity. It has no mind, no interests, no motivations. It is simply a collection of many different individuals who have different minds, interests, and motivations. So “society” can’t restrain you.
• If you want to find someone who is much like yourself in attitude, tastes, and interests, you have to look where such a person is likely to be found. And you can’t expect him to recognize you if you hide your identity behind a mask in order to get along with the people you’re with.
• if you make your own actions consistent with the standards you really admire, you’ll know which people are compatible — just by their reactions to you. Those who disapprove will seek someone different to be with, and those who have standards similar to yours will react favorably toward you. In effect, you let others tell you about themselves through their reactions to what you are.
• I think that many people hide their identity, tolerate restrictions, and remain in bad relationships because they’re afraid of being lonely. But I wonder what they mean by “lonely.” Aren’t they very lonely when they deal with people who don’t understand and appreciate them? I know I’d be lonely in such a situation.
• You’re bound to be disappointed when you apply labels to people and relationships and then expect them to live up to the labels. Your definition of a “friend” may be considerably different from the one your friend has.
• Life is to be lived, not sacrificed
• To be genuine and profound, love depends upon freedom.
• Love is too valuable to allow it to be killed by marriage, social pressures, or any other restriction
• Envy is simply an intellectual recognition of what you’d like to have.
• you should feel a great sense of self-esteem when you know that your lover wants you more than anyone else in the world. He genuinely wants you — not because you’ve limited his alternatives, but because he’s seen the competition and he prefers you.
• The three forms of security most often sought are financial security (the assurance that one will never be poor), intellectual security (the assurance that one is right in his beliefs), and emotional security (the assurance that one will always be loved)
• Security comes from your ability to deal with the world, not from a guarantee by someone else. When you know you’re capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.
• when you recognize that you have the power to deal with anything that lies ahead, an uncertain future can be a source of adventure rather than a fearful liability.
• I haven’t the faintest idea what I’ll be doing five years from now. I may be writing books; I may be doing something else that I can’t even conceive of now. I don’t know where I’ll be living. I know only one thing — that life will continue to be as exciting and as full of happy surprises as it is now.
• the individual who recognizes his own sovereignty considers the consequences of his actions to be the only standard of right and wrong.
• If you’re loved now, you’ll continue to be loved only if you continue to satisfy the values of the person who loves you.
• The insecure person hangs on desperately to whatever exists in the present. The secure person accepts and enjoys whatever he has in the present, but as change occurs he feels no fear of the future.
• Your life is yours to spend as you choose. You don’t have to be wealthy; you don’t have to be involved in a family; you don’t have to be successful. If any of those things are a part of your life, it should be only because you choose them. 
• It’s essential to realize that you can’t have everything, you can’t do everything. There’s always a price — and the price can be expressed in the alternatives that must be given up for something.
• lying is an attempt to get something for nothing
• When you tell the truth, you may be surprised to discover that it projects a more attractive image of yourself than one you might have fabricated
• I’ve often found that others would reveal their feelings only after I’d revealed mine frankly. When they saw that someone was willing to admit the truth about himself, they felt free to follow suit.
• Integrity is knowing yourself well enough to be able to mean what you say.
• You need time alone to act completely on your own desires — to discover the kinds of entertainment that please you, to realize such things as what color you’d most like your living room to be, to daydream and discover what you’re now missing. 
• Do novel things. You may react in novel ways. Pay very serious attention to those reactions — they’re telling you who you are. 
• Realize that what they do is up to them. What you do is up to you
• As I lie on my couch by the fireplace, looking out from my hillside home at the snow leading down to the ocean, with the right woman in my arms, a glass of Bordeaux beside me and a Puccini opera on the stereo system, knowing that I’ve earned the pleasure I feel, I’m so glad I didn’t let someone else decide what’s best for me.
• what could be more stimulating than thinking about your own life?
• Don’t allow the standards of others to influence you. Different people, with different views of life, have different ideas about what is possible. 
• A free person has no one to blame. He has no boxes, no restrictions, no enemies to take the responsibility for his actions
• The future has an annoying habit of forgetting its appointments — or arriving too late for them
• I’ve always found it hard to understand why so many people live so much for the future — especially when the present is such a lovely place.
• Things will get better only when you make the changes that are necessary to make them better.
• Don’t be so afraid of sudden, sharp discomfort that you willingly tolerate chronic, continual, deadening pain the rest of your life. If you refuse to undergo temporary discomfort, you’re resigning yourself to a lifetime with little happiness. The chronic pain can deaden your senses, destroy your love of life, and make you bitter.
• if you have to compromise your desires, if you can’t use your wealth to live your life as you want to, why hang onto it so intensely?
• The important thing is that you take yourself more seriously, that you respect your own view of the world and make sure that it really is your view, not something you’ve been told.
• I’ve enjoyed relationships with wonderful women who have added to my life. None of those situations has evolved into a lifetime relationship — but none of them had to in order to be of value. Each has provided a positive benefit, filling me with rich emotions and a sense of excitement about life.
• one day you may discover that you’ve achieved a new freedom, an emotional freedom that’s greater than any you’ve known before — freedom from the urge to control others.
• I don’t think you can really be free until you’re willing to let others be free.
• I enjoy my life because I refuse to model it after the life of anyone else. I refuse to accept a way of doing things simply because it seems to work for someone else. I refuse to assume that what has made others happy is certain to make me happy.
• To have made so many mistakes, and yet to have had so much. It proves that you don’t have to be perfect to succeed.
• You will never be perfect. But you can be free and happy.

But truth to be told – I spent a fair amount of time already during the year thinking over what I’m doing, where I stand, what I want, how to get it etc. etc.
I even read a book called “What Should I do with my Life“!

All the time spent traveling alone, for business or pleasure, was a wonderful opportunity for reflection and I’m really glad I could do it because, to quote Hanry Browne, what could be more stimulating than thinking about your own life? 

Don’t worry about Harry Browne, now. I don’t even link his name. A post dedicated to one of his opera will follow very soon, to make up with the fact that last week I didn’t publish any blog (and Lindo Boludo didn’t even complain) with the lame excuse that, being the 26th December, I had to overfeed myself with all the leftovers from Christmas, not to offend the poor people starving in countries that have no problem with the spread with the bund, but instead lack of panetun and crema di mascarpone.

Never the less, I took some time reading my personal diaries (I jotted down 2 full notebooks this last year!) bringing back to memory all the moments I lived.
Those are the moments I’m glad I wrote so much this year, because the diaries compensate greatly my funny memory – that for destiny forgets everything but passwords…

Here are the 11 mainly good with few bad experiences that have made ’11 the truly special and intense year that has been for me…

1. Sailing in the Caribbean Sea
   
2. Hiking 5 days in the jungle to Ciudad Perdida
    
3. Being in the Amazon
   
   
4. The month and a half I lived in Cali, the Capital of Salsa
   
5. Learning Spanish (working on the accents once I’ll find them on the US keyboard)
6. Visiting Ryadh, Saudi Arabia
   
   
7. Visiting Sennelager, where my grandfather was held prisoner during WW2
   
   
8. Breaking an already damaged knee ligament (mine)
9. Finishing a very important sentimental relation
10. Loosing 3 KG in 3 months
11. Learning how to cook peperonata (don’t miss this blog about it)

It must have been the cycling in Amsterdam and the walking in Utrecht I did yesterday – to be honest I don’t think it was playing congas
Or maybe the posture. “Posture is very important” said the police officer inspecting the home of Eduard Norton in The 25^th Hour, a great scene in the video here.

If you haven’t clicked away yet, I can tell you that this light pain is actually a good news at the perfect timing.

Flashback to 11 years ago, to my previous motocross life (I don’t know why I keep  mentioning this on the blog, after I haven’t spoke about it with anyone for ages!).
Even if I was driving extremely safe, constantly in the last raws of the races, leaving everyone else fighting in the mud, crashing motorbikes, breaking bones and hospitalizing themselves every Sunday, I could not avoid to collect an physical heritage from those years.
A little gift to keep as a memory, to remember me that yes, I did it, I was a cool kid racing motocross bikes before becoming an IT consultant!

My heritage is a damaged anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on my left knee, caused by a stupid accident loosing control of the bike.

Damaging a ligament goes like this: a terrible pain makes you scream for a while, pretty quickly (luckily) it fades away, then the idea you can soon walk again cross your mind but soon after the knee swells so much that for few days there’s no mobility.
Till the swell is over nothing can be done or checked.

So when I had this first accident, I waited diligently over a month, a month in which Mario – my close friend back then colleague – acted as my personal chauffeur. We were the diabolic duo – the crippled cat and the limping fox of the local IT scene.

Back functioning, I visited multiple physiotherapists, orthopedics and surgeons that all told me the same:

ACL tear

“your ligament is damaged, won’t recover, you’re young, let us cut your flesh, down to your broken ligament, replace it with a piece of muscle taken somewhere else, rehabilitate you for months. And in exchange of this, you’ll avoid to have some problems maybe one day.”

Not really appealing.

So, age 21, I (well, “the family”) decided against Doctors advise to take the risk and carry on.

I just adapted not to trust my left knee. Not landing a jump on him. Not overextending him.

It all worked out on a deeper and deeper unconscious level.
Till I forgot about it.

I then started skiing, skating, and then running. And running. And running. Till I run a full marathon. And then kite surfing.
And sometime I was thinking “and they wanted to operate me! Ah!”.

I could not imagine that one day, after walking in the Colombian jungle of Sierra Nevada for 5 days, 100% humidity and 30+ Celsius, the Doctors would prove themselves right.

There I was, after jumping a log on the way and landing on my left leg, screaming and telling everyone “don’t worry I know the problem!”.

And now the physiotherapists, orthopedics and surgeons are here again, after 11 years, telling me the same:

“your ligament is broken, won’t recover, you’re young, let us cut your flesh, down to your broken ligament, replace it with a piece of muscle taken somewhere else, rehabilitate you for months. And in exchange of this, you’ll avoid to have some problems maybe one day.”

Only 2 differences are that the ligament is now broken instead of damaged, and the Doctors are Dutch instead of Italians.

Even if I had tragicomic experiences with Dutch health care system, this time I surrender, I abandon myself to their plans.

The first step, in little more than a week, will be an arthroscopic surgery to “have a look” (in Dutch “even kijken” reason why they call it “kijkoperatie”) inside the knee.
Just in time to be crippled for New Years Eve, but I don’t like New Years Eve anyway, and then I’ll start with the physiotherapy.
If everything is confirmed, I’ll have in few months the ACL reconstruction and the physiotherapist will become my best friend in 2012.

So why is a good news that today my knee hurts?

Because even with the broken ligament I had no problem, so I was really doubting if it all made sense.

I was thinking to cancel everything and wait another 11 years…. to see from witch country the next Doctors will be

My motorcycle diary

4 May 2007: Amsterdam-Bern

6:00am: woke up, after a very anxious night because of the excitement of the long trip ahead

7:30am: leaving Amsterdam

7:33am: after 1Km already the first problem: I almost loose the bag on the passenger seat entering the Amsterdam ring

7:48am – I’m terrified by the idea that I may loose the bad along the way, I already stopped 4 times checking the bag

7:56am – Finally reached a big gas station where I can buy a special rope that I use to properly fix the bag. Problem solved, I feel better and I start again driving towards Germany.

8:45am – Before the border I stop in a gas station and I find the parking full of motorbikes.
Inside the bar there’s a group of people from a big motoclub that are celebrating the 45 years anniversary with a weekend in Germany.
They are concerned when I tell them that I’ve to reach Italy.

9:33am – I cross the border with a smile on my face and I carry on the autobahn checking the speed signs: sometimes 100, sometimes 130 and sometimes unlimited.

10:23am – For my silly habit of waiting the last moment to fill up the tank I almost run out of gas and I have to quit the highway looking for a gas station.

10:41am – Gas station found, but I mess up with the directions and I enter the highway in the direction of Amsterdam. Had to quit again, turn back, drive back, and I waste time.

11:12am – I find roadworks and, thinking about all the time I lost so far, I drive a bit too fast slaloming between cars and trucks, when suddenly a POLIZEI car appears on my side with the siren on.
They tell me that is illegal to overtake cars when there are roadworks, but that normally is tolerated… but I was going too fast: after the moral, they give me 70 EUR fine paid by credit card, Aufidersen Goodbye… but wait a moment, I can’t leave without a picture!

This photo was taken by the policeman, while cars and trucks drivers were slowly passing by laughing and honking.

11:53am - Again in a gas station (my motorbike is more thirsty than the Ugly after the Good had left him in the desert, I’m talking of course about the movie “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”).

I enter the shop to pay the fuel and when I’m out I find 2 big men in a green uniform standing close to my motorbike waiting for me… and this time what’s happening??

They are from the custom and they stop everyone that is coming from Holland to check if they have too many tulips.

Agent: “Do you have anything illegal?”
Daniele: “No”
Agent: “where are you coming from?”
Daniele: “Amsterdam!”
Agent: “ahhh and where you go?”
Daniele: “Milano!”
Agent: “ahhh OK, open everything!”

Because Amsterdam-Milano is as classic in the drug smuggling as Barca-Real is a classic in football, they open all the bags and check also the pockets of my jacket.

12:45pm – Driving across Germany, a very long way to go but weather is good and roads are great.

5:03pm - At the Swiss border there are 2 lines: “with stickers” and “without sticker”. Of course the sticker is required to drive on the Swiss highways, an invention to squeeze money out of people crossing the country once a year while keeping it very cheap for who takes the highway everyday.

I pay the 27 EUR and I get it, sure that the roads, in the country of the more sophisticated watches of the World, will be perfect.

5:06pm – Instead, after 1Km I’m in one of the worst queue I’ve seen in my life!
Even overtaking the cars was very difficult, as the road was very narrow  because of the roadworks on the sides.
Last thing I wanted to do after 700Km… are 10Km of queue under the sun with the wrists that started hurting…

7:23pm – I finally reach Bern when I check-in in a cheap hotel.

9:49pm – Off to Bern Salsa Festival. Why do you think I choose to stop in Bern?
Nothing better than going out dancing after a whole day bent over the motorbike.

3am – I’m too tired to even talk, so I’m off sleeping

5 MAY 2007: BERN-Albiate

10am - The hotel woke me up telling me it’s time to check-out

10:34am -I leave Bern under a very strong rain
Do you know the beautiful Switzerland roads in the valleys, the green hills contrasting a blue sky, cows calmly chowing grass…. I’ve drove on that road, but in an horribly dark sky pouring water all over me!

12:02pm – After the Gottardo pass the rain stops and, I can’t believe it, I reach Lugano and I start having that sensation of coming home: finally roads and places I knew!

12:45pm - I feel the chicks-pad inside the helmet pressing on my face, and I realize it’s because I’ve now a big smile on my face: I’m almost home!

1:12pm – After 1200Km I take the wrong direction in Como, a city where I’ve been with the motorbike a thousand times never learning my way around

2:22pm – I stop in a town called Meda for a quick greetings to my friend Alessando: he’s impressed

3:46pm – I reach my village, Albiate, where I stop in the main square where my friends were waiting… what an historical moment… it’s since the end of 2nd World War than nobody came back from that far!

4:22pm – Finally home with mam, dad and my bro!

14 MAY 2007: Albiate-KARLSRUHE

7am – leaving Albiate with terrible weather forecast over all Europe

My plan was to do as much Km as possible during the first day, maybe even driving all the way up to Amsterdam as there were no Salsa congresses to stop by.

Usually the trips back, everyone knows, are shorter some some strange mind game…. but this wasn’t the case!

8:38am - I leave Italy behind me at Chiasso, and I cross quickly the Gottardo tunnel and Switzerland where the weather is good.

11:22am - In Germany, I start feeling something quite not right with the front wheel… TAC… TAC… TAC… I stop to check but everything seems OK, so I think that maybe it was something with the asphalt creating that effect.

11:28am – After few Km, my confidence on the motorbike is back and I speed up, but suddenly again TAC… TAC…. and I feel a vibration on the handlebar that increases my white hair: the front wheel bearings are broken!

I slow down, trying to stay calm. If the bearings break completely the little balls they contain may come out and completely block the front wheel… sending me in another dimension.

I drive on the emergency line so slow that takes a long time to reach the gas station 1500M ahead. Then I stop thinking what I should do.

11:52am – In the restaurant eating some sausages and sauerkraut, so that I can calm down, then reasoning what to do: I’m somewhere in Germany with a motorbike too risky to drive, and 900Km still to do…

Luckily I joined the Dutch ANWB, that is the road assistance service in the Netherlands, with option for European coverage, so I check where I am on the restaurant bill and I call them requesting help.

1:24pm - An old man arrives with a car supposedly to support me. Indeed a car can’t transport a bike, and he can only confirm that nothing can be done after checking that the front wheel is still attached to the bike

1:48pm – A German troll arrives with a yellow track, so big he could fit 3 van in the back but not a motorbike, because he doesn’t have the tray where to place it

2:17pm – A German ogre arrives with the right truck.

The typical German man, that makes me think about beer and sauerkraut, loads the motorbike on the truck and drive us to a Suzuki dealer.

2:40pm - I discover I’m in Freiburg, 400km from my starting point and 800km from what I now call “home”.

2:53pm – The dealer tell me that they don’t have the bearings in stock but they could order them, so they could arrive in a couple of days

3:21pm – Thanks to the dealer, after many phone calls they found the part in another local shop.

At that point, as visible on the picture, the mechanic could fix my motorbike literally with the hammer

Time lost: 4 hours: from 1 to 5 in the afternoon!

5:00pm – With this inconvenient left behind I’m on the road again, a bit discomforted for my vehicle reliability, but it’s the weather now that is against me, throwing on my road an incredible amount of rain, amplified by tracks and cars that on a bad asphalt are raising all the water from the ground… zero visibility, I keep on driving with big effort and I frequently stop also for the cold.

7:03pm - I gave up and “the wisdom overtakes the craziness”, as Dr. Costa would say in a MotoGP race, so I stop in Karlsruhe in the first hotel I see.

I’m half way from Milano to Amsterdam, it’s cold and the forecast for next day is BAD.

9:22pm – The evening is a disaster, I’m really sad and I’m worried: technical problems, rain, what else could happen??

15 MAY 2007: KARLSRUHE-Amsterdam

6:30am – wake up and quick breakfast

7:00am - I hit the road, the moral is high because it is not raining but there are few clouds

The day is much better and as the road goes I feel better and the hope to reach home is back. In some parts I do find rain, but is not as strong as the day before and I can handle it.

10:25am – After the rain also the wind wants his share of the story, putting me in difficulties in a bridge over a valley where even if the road is perfectly straight I’m driving dangerously bending on a side…

11:28am – Km and gas stations are passing by, and finally around noon I reach the border with Netherlands, the country of… sun!

In the picture here on the side, by hair are so messed up that the tree behind my head seems belonging to my head.

12:02pm – Strolling across Holland, feeling somehow home.

12:55pm – Only 30Km away from Amsterdam and I feel safe and sound, but suddenly I’m overtaking a MILITARY TANK and I think I totally lost my mind

1:06pm – I stop at the fist gas station waiting and, I’m not crazy, here it is the military tank happily driving on the highway!

1:35pm – Back home! Tired by the many hours of driving as well as by all the intense moments along the way.

In the picture, me striving to find a relaxing posture.

After this experience I said to myself: never ever.
Especially alone, and with a motorbike that is 10 years old.

But of course, 2 years later, I was on the road to Italy again… But that’s another story.

With this week round-trip flight to Warsaw, Poland, I’m turning Gold.

Gold as the membership status of the frequent flyer program FlyingBlue, status that I’m reaching first time in my life after flight number 30 in an intense year of traveling, and also as you can imagine the only golden thing I could care about.

Not including the flights taken during my months of vagabonding – like the Amsterdam-Panama and Bogota’-Amsterdam paid with airmiles – those are the destinations I had flight into during 2011:

• Tel Aviv (Israel)
• Torino (Italy) – few times
• Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) – few times
• Munich (Germany)
• Milano (Italy) – many times
• Nantes (France)
• Tallinn (Estonia)
• Warsaw (Poland)

I really like flying.

Since the moment I reach the airport I feel a strange alternation of excitement and peace.
Excitement because is a prelude of a travel, an intense experience full of unknown situations, and often associated with something new.
Peace because of the waiting time at the gate, waiting time for the take off, waiting time on the flight. A lot of waiting that you can only accept and that gives me time to read, write, sort-of-sleep, think…. things normally I don’t obviously do

One of the highlight of my traveler career is surely the day when I’ve been in 5 countries – a personal record that it will be difficult to improve.
It happened when I had flight back to Netherlands (1) from Saudi Arabia (2) via France (3) and few hours later flew to Germany (4) and drove down to Austria (5) to ski with Geg.

If we look at it with from a temperatures point of view, it was a trip from the oven to the fridge… exactly what the statistical science would call “a perfect temperature, in average”.

So what’s gonna change now that I turn GOLD?

Here are the benefits I’ll enjoy the most:

• 75% more Miles for each flight you take – meaning more airmiles for me
• free Lounge access with possibility to bring along a guest. I didn’t even know what’s an airport lounge before Andy took me as guest to the one in Schiphol couple of years ago (and Gianluca repeated last week).
  

  KLM lounge at schiphol airport

  Free food and drinks, magazines and indeed Wi-Fi all delivered in embracing comfy chairs. In other words, the place where the riches go waiting for a plane.

• Did I mention the free Lounge access?
• How about free access to the Lounge?

Flying quite often had teach me nice lessons.

First one is surely how to travel light. I can’t remember last time I checked-in the luggage (actually it was when going to Austria for skiing) but even the backpack for 3 months on the road passed as “approved cabin size” hand luggage, so imagine the trolley for one week business trip.

My golden rule is: think positive and think what you’ll wear everyday. Forgot the rest.
The chances that you’ll drop your coffee on the jeans are too low (for me, but if you’re sloppy think it twice) to justify packing an additional one, plus the business hotels have very efficient laundry services,  plus buying what you may need is a valid last option.

But I could have never been able to travel light without my travel best friend, the travel jacket ScotteVest Revolution.
I’m not here to make advertisements of products but check this fantastic video to see what I’m talking about…

I don’t even have a quarter of the electronic gadgets this geek has, but imagine how much staff I can put in the jacket in a very organized way, reducing the weight of my hand luggage.
And nobody is checking the weight of a jacket!

Another thing I absolutely avoid is wearing any belt – a little difference that saves me time and annoyance at the security screen.

My favorite seats are on the aisle and as much as front as possible, so I can get in the plane as last passenger, get out soon, get the meal and drinks served early in the flight when all options are available and avoid some noise, much stronger in the seats behind the wings.
More folks now opt for the noise cancellation headset, I admit that they work great but I’m happy so far with earplugs that I use anyway only on the longer flights.

And I stay without shoes as much as I can, allowing the feet to enjoy the freedom I can’t enjoy being trapped by the seat belt.

“I don’t spend a nickel, if I can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account.” – from “Up in the Air”, my next movie in the list.

How you like flying?

Having a blog with no goal but sharing my life makes tempting to write lots of good things about me.
But if you know me you know I’ve my shares of humanity so this week I decided to talk about failures…

Failing at something is wrongly considered a shame, something to hide, something to avoid and something to never talk about.
But if we can put our ego out of the way we can see that it’s a pity because failing at something is the second worst thing that can happen – after succeeding indeed – and also a great indication that one’s striving to achieve something out of the comfort zone.
As I didn’t find any better learning method than experiencing reality, I can only accept failures and make treasure of them.

1998 - happy for the new motocross bike

Here are some failures along the way.
Sometimes I attempted things I’m not good at, like my motocross career during my teenagers years.
Despite lots of passion for the sport, time and money spent to practice every Sundays and prepare the motorbike during the weeks, I never had enough balls to jump high and through myself in the battle during the races… so I ended up feeling a failure and eventually stop once I found the first girlfriend.

It took years for me to realize that being moved by genuine passion was more important then the outcome.
It was a failure with no regrets, but when I started kite surfing few years ago, a sport that has some “extreme” characteristics similar to motocross, I told myself “you don’t need to be good at this” and it became a much more enjoyable experience playing with water, wind, waves & pain.

And talking about motorbikes, I failed lots of times in respecting the laws.

Big fine on the way

Just fined

I failed many times in relationships, doing a plethora of mistakes from being not honest to being too honest.
Failed thousands of approaches saying the wrongest thing.

Even failed in bed, once with a girl I was waiting since 2 years (!) and that never gave me a second chance. Oh, life!

Even failed the challenge to stop drinking alcohol for a month.

First exception was a prosecco to celebrate Berlusconi’s resignations, the 12th of November, that for me more than a political reaction was the celebration of a change, hoping that the Italians will do the best out of it.

Second and much more severe exception was this weekend as Gianluca and me went to Tallinn for the Salsa Festival and decided to add a new rule to our challenge, declaring that doesn’t apply in Estonia. (I’ll write more about both 25 days without alcohol and Tallinn in the future, Insh’Allah)

Anyway, I feel need to fail something new.
Maybe that’s why I’m writing

Here an inspirational video about failures:

And you, any failure you want to share?