16 May 2006 Mistaken New Farm Cafe
Gigi and I are spending so much time together that I’m starting to forget what it’s like to go to work, do AFS stuff, see friends & family, do house stuff and only spend a few hours with him each day. Despite living in the centre of one of the world’s most chaotic cities we have a completely different pace of life. And I kind of like it. I’m adjusting to not having a pile of tasks to accomplish each day, meetings to attend, deadlines to meet. I like being busy, productive, useful but sometimes I get caught up being busy for busyness sake, and forget to do the little things that make life’s journey sweet, something to be savoured.
I’m developing the habit of rising before Gigi to write in the mornings while he sleeps. He tends to read later into the night, so there is about a two hour time gap at opposite ends of the day when we each get to do our own thing. It’s funny, I must be getting older, but I never thought I’d enjoy writing in the mornings. I used to hate getting up in the mornings to study, often falling asleep again over the books. But then there are those of you that know me well and would be saying that I don’t like to anything much in the mornings, including speak.
Gi is incredibly supportive, giving me all the time and space I need to write. He is my editor, pulling out my grammatical errors (I hate it that he’s studied grammar and I don’t know a past participle from my left elbow) and generally reads everything I write. He’s funny though; this morning he had a brain wave, and suggested that I should keep writing, publishing the blogs and then in time pull them altogether and send them off as a book or something. Brilliant; wish I’d thought of it myself!
We have just returned from a walk around town having stumbled across an ‘Elettricita’, a shop of electrical items, where I finally found a lamp to hook onto the bookshelf above my desk (red to match the office rubbish bin and pencil holder!) and Gi found a matching red bedside lamps for his late night reading. Two happy campers!
The original purpose of this evening stroll was to locate a health clinic that one of our new neighbours advised is looking for practitioners. Unfortunately the directions provided were a little hazy, but as we were wandering back up Via Duomo, the road where you find the striking cathedral, all manner of wedding shops and bookshops for religious texts, I noticed a sign across the road inside the entrance to a building. I thought it read New Farm Café, and deciding it was too much of a sign crossed the road to investigate. For those of you playing at home New Farm is one of Brisbane’s oldest, and hippest, suburbs with a plethora of restaurants and cafes. Of course in Brisbane a café is somewhere to meet friends, have a coffee and sit and chat for as long as it takes. I’ve been quietly looking for an equivalent in Naples where it’s not going to cost me a bomb to order a coffee and sit down (in most of Italy you normally order a coffee at the bar, stand up, have a quick chat, throw down the coffee and head out the door), and where I can sit and write on my lap top safely without attracting unsavoury attention. A New Farm Café in Via Duomo, literally 5 minutes from our place, seemed like a miracle.
Entering the courtyard, ignoring the portiere standing bored by the huge doors I walked towards the sign to discover it actually ready ‘New Form Care’. The symbology on the sign and a peak inside looked like it might be a health centre. Returning to Gigi who was now asking the portiere what the business did I overhead him respond that it was a beauty clinic. Theoretically, a beauty clinic is not somewhere for Gigi to practice his Chinese medicine, but the billboard out front clearly indicated that it was more than a beauty clinic. I reckoned that the portiere had never even been inside, and following my intuition suggested we go inside.
A woman called Dora met us at reception; her colleague was mopping floors in the background. Assuming Gi was potentially a new client she asked him what services he was looking for. Explaining that he was indeed a practitioner of Chinese medicine and Tui Na massage, looking for a place to work having recently returned to Naples from Australia they spoke for some time about his treatments, study, and reasons for returning to Naples. Dora looked into Gi’s eyes, firm and steady on several occasions, initially suspicious and cautious, trying to determine if he was genuine. I watched as she began to relax, her colleague came over to join in the conversation, and while they remained professional some of her initial guard dropped.
Before I realised what was happening Dora was giving us a quick tour of the centre. As expected we entered a room segmented off with dark curtains, much like I’d seen in other local beauty clinics, with tables for beauty treatments, tanning under lights. We passed through a hallway, and a door that opened out to a garden area that was still under construction to another section with small private rooms for consultations, acupuncture and relaxation massage. By this time Gi and I were both very impressed with the layout, aesthetics, cleanliness and organised set up. To our surprise Dora then led us down some stairs carved out of the sandstone, into a cavern beneath the business. This was a room that they renovated themselves, and before us was a sauna, heated bed with ceramic tiles, Turkish bath and shower coming out of the pale rock face. It was a downstairs conversion to rival any basement bar & poolroom. Every aspect of the centre reflected tranquillity, innovation, dedication, and style.
A Doctor Renato runs the whole establishment and Gi has an appointment with him on Thursday, hopefully to discuss the possibility of working from the clinic.
The other encouraging thing is that this morning Gigi returned to Piazza Bellini, behind which is a small laneway of alternative shops, including a restaurant, bookshop, art space, shop to buy organic and anti allergy household items etc. There is also a ‘Centro Shen’ where they seem to hold evening seminars and practice some alternative therapies. Gi came bouncing home excited to have discovered that the whole place is set up as an association, run by a guy from Melbourne and his Neapolitan wife. They are currently in Australia, but there is the possibility of him using the facilities for treatments, giving seminars and instructions on Qi Gong.
After two months of being ‘stuck’ it seems that he’s now taking the first steps in the right direction. Now if only I could find a friendly sit down café to write…
Gigi and I are spending so much time together that I’m starting to forget what it’s like to go to work, do AFS stuff, see friends & family, do house stuff and only spend a few hours with him each day. Despite living in the centre of one of the world’s most chaotic cities we have a completely different pace of life. And I kind of like it. I’m adjusting to not having a pile of tasks to accomplish each day, meetings to attend, deadlines to meet. I like being busy, productive, useful but sometimes I get caught up being busy for busyness sake, and forget to do the little things that make life’s journey sweet, something to be savoured.
I’m developing the habit of rising before Gigi to write in the mornings while he sleeps. He tends to read later into the night, so there is about a two hour time gap at opposite ends of the day when we each get to do our own thing. It’s funny, I must be getting older, but I never thought I’d enjoy writing in the mornings. I used to hate getting up in the mornings to study, often falling asleep again over the books. But then there are those of you that know me well and would be saying that I don’t like to anything much in the mornings, including speak.
Gi is incredibly supportive, giving me all the time and space I need to write. He is my editor, pulling out my grammatical errors (I hate it that he’s studied grammar and I don’t know a past participle from my left elbow) and generally reads everything I write. He’s funny though; this morning he had a brain wave, and suggested that I should keep writing, publishing the blogs and then in time pull them altogether and send them off as a book or something. Brilliant; wish I’d thought of it myself!
We have just returned from a walk around town having stumbled across an ‘Elettricita’, a shop of electrical items, where I finally found a lamp to hook onto the bookshelf above my desk (red to match the office rubbish bin and pencil holder!) and Gi found a matching red bedside lamps for his late night reading. Two happy campers!
The original purpose of this evening stroll was to locate a health clinic that one of our new neighbours advised is looking for practitioners. Unfortunately the directions provided were a little hazy, but as we were wandering back up Via Duomo, the road where you find the striking cathedral, all manner of wedding shops and bookshops for religious texts, I noticed a sign across the road inside the entrance to a building. I thought it read New Farm Café, and deciding it was too much of a sign crossed the road to investigate. For those of you playing at home New Farm is one of Brisbane’s oldest, and hippest, suburbs with a plethora of restaurants and cafes. Of course in Brisbane a café is somewhere to meet friends, have a coffee and sit and chat for as long as it takes. I’ve been quietly looking for an equivalent in Naples where it’s not going to cost me a bomb to order a coffee and sit down (in most of Italy you normally order a coffee at the bar, stand up, have a quick chat, throw down the coffee and head out the door), and where I can sit and write on my lap top safely without attracting unsavoury attention. A New Farm Café in Via Duomo, literally 5 minutes from our place, seemed like a miracle.
Entering the courtyard, ignoring the portiere standing bored by the huge doors I walked towards the sign to discover it actually ready ‘New Form Care’. The symbology on the sign and a peak inside looked like it might be a health centre. Returning to Gigi who was now asking the portiere what the business did I overhead him respond that it was a beauty clinic. Theoretically, a beauty clinic is not somewhere for Gigi to practice his Chinese medicine, but the billboard out front clearly indicated that it was more than a beauty clinic. I reckoned that the portiere had never even been inside, and following my intuition suggested we go inside.
A woman called Dora met us at reception; her colleague was mopping floors in the background. Assuming Gi was potentially a new client she asked him what services he was looking for. Explaining that he was indeed a practitioner of Chinese medicine and Tui Na massage, looking for a place to work having recently returned to Naples from Australia they spoke for some time about his treatments, study, and reasons for returning to Naples. Dora looked into Gi’s eyes, firm and steady on several occasions, initially suspicious and cautious, trying to determine if he was genuine. I watched as she began to relax, her colleague came over to join in the conversation, and while they remained professional some of her initial guard dropped.
Before I realised what was happening Dora was giving us a quick tour of the centre. As expected we entered a room segmented off with dark curtains, much like I’d seen in other local beauty clinics, with tables for beauty treatments, tanning under lights. We passed through a hallway, and a door that opened out to a garden area that was still under construction to another section with small private rooms for consultations, acupuncture and relaxation massage. By this time Gi and I were both very impressed with the layout, aesthetics, cleanliness and organised set up. To our surprise Dora then led us down some stairs carved out of the sandstone, into a cavern beneath the business. This was a room that they renovated themselves, and before us was a sauna, heated bed with ceramic tiles, Turkish bath and shower coming out of the pale rock face. It was a downstairs conversion to rival any basement bar & poolroom. Every aspect of the centre reflected tranquillity, innovation, dedication, and style.
A Doctor Renato runs the whole establishment and Gi has an appointment with him on Thursday, hopefully to discuss the possibility of working from the clinic.
The other encouraging thing is that this morning Gigi returned to Piazza Bellini, behind which is a small laneway of alternative shops, including a restaurant, bookshop, art space, shop to buy organic and anti allergy household items etc. There is also a ‘Centro Shen’ where they seem to hold evening seminars and practice some alternative therapies. Gi came bouncing home excited to have discovered that the whole place is set up as an association, run by a guy from Melbourne and his Neapolitan wife. They are currently in Australia, but there is the possibility of him using the facilities for treatments, giving seminars and instructions on Qi Gong.
After two months of being ‘stuck’ it seems that he’s now taking the first steps in the right direction. Now if only I could find a friendly sit down café to write…
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