About
I might have an existential crisis telling you about who I am, so let me rephrase the page's name.
What will you find on this website?
Apparently
(or really)
un
connected
stories
for the mere purpose of:
- entertainment;
- admission of the undersigned’s limited ability to make my transit on this planet last as long as possible;
- recognition of occasional loss of the gray matter needed to make good decisions;
- exhibition of enviable strokes of luck.
The stories hereby narrated really happened.
Ok, but stories about what?
- Stories of adventures (and misadventures, mainly).
- Stories that have earned a place in the ranking “stories that most entertained/ amused/ left astonished/ dumbfounded/ appalled live listeners and the co-protagonists”.
Yes, this ranking is totally self-referential and the rigid and innovative tools and parameters used to draw it up are:
- a laughtometer of my invention;
- the number of “no, come on, shut up” and “noooway” I hear while telling the story;
- the number of requests from those who know the story to tell it to someone who doesn’t yet know it;
- the frequency with which my GIF-radar intercepts the following expressions among those listening.
Many stories take place in the Seychelles, on the island of Mahe where I lived for a year and a half, when I realized that city and office life were not for me.
That’s the short and official version of how I ended up there. Like every great turning point, there is a long, deeper story behind it, which maybe one day will make its way here too.
In movies, making a similar decision marks the beginning of a wonderful easy life, all downhill. Even if I get closer and closer to it, I will leave this idyllic evolution to Hollywood directors: here you will find the behind-the-scenes of lives evolving between epic moments and epic blunders.
You’ll read about:
- what does it mean to live in a remote paradise, in the middle of the jungle, in a non-Westernized country with new crazy friends;
- how this can change perspectives and priorities built over more than 20 years;
- how I met my best friend when I first arrived in the Seychelles (and discovered that 8 years earlier she had shared a house with my sister in Australia);
- how you can survive getting lost on a boat in the middle of the ocean (or how a green A-Style backpack managed to do it better than us all);
- how can you escape death from hypothermia at 3,700 meters above sea level;
- the many other times I thought “how did I put myself in this situation?” or “mmm, so this is how my journey ends”.
Who is in these stories?
I’m hardly alone, but you won’t find names and surnames of other protagonists (go ahead, breathe a sigh of relief if we’ve met and you were afraid of possible public shaming).
Except for my Seychellois best friend (spoiler, she’s very Italian), and which on this website will be called Cuqui.
Without her, 90% of my island adventures wouldn’t have happened. Censoring her would mean not being able to tell you anything at all.
Side note: stories are often told in the present tense, but they don’t coincide with the release date!I’m way wiser now…
Is there a common thread?
I have to inform you that you missed an outstanding wordplay just for reading the translated version of the website!
Anyway, I’m not aware of a common thread you might find. I did identify though 3 events that went a long way in guiding the decisions that gave rise to many of the stories.
- At 9 years old I lost the most important man in my life.
- At 17 I decided that I would not follow what back then was my dream of becoming a dancer.
- At 26 I had the most painful and revealing emotional disappointment I could imagine, and love stories had nothing to do with it.
It looks like there is a kind of misfortune per decade, so I cross my fingers hoping to get one piece to the next one. While at it, every time I feel like sharing a story, I’ll start pounding on the keyboard.
Why should you read the stories?
If you find out, hit me up and I’ll fill out this section.
In the meantime, enjoy your reading!
