When I was a little girl I couldn’t wait to be ten years old.
I can see myself walking with my head down, looking at my shoes, putting one foot in front of the other; I can see myself reading, watching my sister play with her dolls and thinking: who knows, when I’m ten, a one with a zero after it… I’ll be grown up.
The thing is, something is happening to me that happens to many people: I am different, taller and heavier, but I am the same. I can feel the thoughts I had before I was ten, and I can state with calm certainty: I am that girl.
The real difference between then and now is the speed at which time flows.
I was 51 when the school was launched.
Today I am 61.
What happened in between?
Certainly a lot of work, a lot of research, a lot of steps one after the other pushing trolleys full of groceries, a lot of effort, a lot of writing and a lot of reading, a lot of sleepless nights. Yes, because I started almost by magic, getting in 2009 what few people managed to get in such a deep crisis: a loan. I found the premises for the business and I acted with that strange confidence of mine that makes me set off the same way I dive headfirst off the round rock: without fearing there might be another rock underneath.
I dive. I go.
I know how to work, I don’t know how to sell. If you run a business, knowing how to sell is 50% of the job.
The beginnings were hard: I risked eviction for arrears (two months late on the rent and the lawyer’s injunction arrived) while carrying a very heavy loan that I would have had to pay off anyway for ten years. My life has run on clicks.
Decisions in a click.
Turning points in a click.
A click and something happened: a friend helped me and then the work came, slow and relentless, gradually uphill. First gear lasted a long time, it took years to shift into second. I think I’m now in third, but soon, with the help of my daughter Marta – who won’t admit it, but has so many skills and was the comet that lit up 2018 and keeps lighting the way ahead – we’ll shift into fourth. Even the verbs have changed: now it’s WE.
This is not the chronicle of ten years: part of it is …. in the flow of this blog. With this post I’m writing the chronicle of August 2019, so full of work and events. And of transformations, to celebrate:
Ten years of GiglioCooking.
Marta sprinkled a bit of shiny glitter here and there: a few anniversary photos on social media. Meanwhile she worked hard to start the real change of the school.
A nice makeover of the website, which is now indexed and works better.
A new logo, to remind us that ten years are already a first milestone.
Soon the first book published by the school will come out, and Marta has worked so hard to make it happen.
Meanwhile we’ve had a summer of really intense work: the daily rush of the high tourist season had to alternate with organising the renovation we decided to do at the school.
But…but…but…. ten years seem few when you look back, yet I’ve gone from sleepless nights because of worries to sleepless nights because of back pain.
At the end of June we started carrying one box at a time up to the office: first the books, then the jars, then the less used pots, the things from the storeroom, and finally plates and pans.
It took the whole of July, but the last days before the summer closure were really exhausting.
In July the tiles were chosen. They were stacked outside, in the little courtyard, and luckily the neighbours didn’t grumble. I thank them for putting up with a month of workers coming and going, dust and noise.
60 x 60 cm, white with grey veining, non-slip. I’m happy with the choice.
And with having called the company that did the work ten years ago. I can’t fail to mention GF Restauri from Figline Valdarno. Precise, punctual, skilled. And again, I can’t fail to mention Giuseppe Valentino Bruno, the owner, with a great sense of responsibility and organisation: he knew the first class would be on 28 August and he coordinated everyone, electrician, plumber, carpenter, painter, tiler, impeccably. You know how they say: you call the plumber and you never know when or if he’ll turn up. Not so with Giuseppe Valentino Bruno, whose first name and surname I have finally figured out after ten years.
At the end of July the carpenter comes to take down the wall bookcase. It matters because the electrician has to add more sockets at its base, and that must be done before the floor and before the painting.
5 August: last class and..
covering the hood with plastic sheeting and carrying things up to the office upstairs.
6 August:
The plumber disconnects the gas and the sinks. The carpenters also arrive to take off all the doors, which need to be shortened.
7 August: the movers arrive and take everything away to a storage warehouse. The expected return date is 22 August. Fingers crossed.
By late morning the school is empty: you can see the damage to the resin floor, laid – badly – ten years ago with a phone in one hand and a cigarette in the mouth.
On the afternoon of 7 August Giuseppe Valentino Bruno calls me and asks if everything is going according to plan. A small, pleasant surprise: they can start tiling right away instead of Monday the 12th. In the afternoon G V B arrives with the sander – I don’t know if that’s what it’s called – anyway, a machine to scrape the floor. The dust storm begins. Upstairs, in the office, all the boxes have been covered with plastic sheets.
8 August: the tiler arrives.
Marta and I go to Giglio for a few days of rest. And on the 10th ….
MOLETTO WINS! my yellow and light-blue district. Marta isn’t very happy, she supports Saraceno.
I go back to the school on 15 August – only a workaholic like me would do that – and I find this:
A perfect job. I can leave again. This time I go to Farneta, Under the Tuscan Sun, where pears, tomatoes and friends at the table are waiting for me….
On Sunday the 18th in the evening I’m back in Florence. On the morning of 19 August the painters are due. They arrive at 7.30 in the morning, right on time and…. so tall that I dare to ask them whether they really need the scaffolding to paint the ceiling.
To be honest, there was one hitch. The cleaning company, contacted on the 8th to come on the 21st, sends an email on the 19th to say they can’t. A few moments of panic, because the painters, who used to run a cleaning business too, have the equipment and can come to remove dust and stains and go over the floor with this machine:
21 August: here’s the cleaning job:
The carpenter also comes back to put the doors back on
22 August, early morning
The furniture is back!!!!!
Marta is back from Giglio too:
She paints the front door:
She paints the spiral staircase and does other “man’s jobs”.
The boxes also come back down from the office onto the tables. Another night of back pain awaits me.
23 August: the restoration work goes on. The plumber comes back to reconnect water and gas. Marta drills the bathroom wall to put the first-aid box back up. We carry boxes down, wash glasses, fill display cabinets and steel cupboards.
24 August: off again. A few days to catch our breath, surrounded by the sea of our Island.
27 August: I’m back in Florence, I do the shopping and fill the fridges. Just in time for the first class on 28 August. Thanks to everyone who helped us and worked hard and with care. We’ll see each other again to celebrate with a dinner here at GiglioCooking.
I know, I’m a lucky girl. Tired, but lucky. I’m grateful for this.
And it doesn’t end here….. the 10 YEARS celebrations aren’t over yet.