I can’t believe that all of South Asia is covered with advertising of Ronaldo endorsing KFC. He is an athlete, he should set the example for kids… KFC serves the most unhealthy food on this planet and I won’t go into how they are destroying the environment. I miss the old days of soccer when it was a sport and not a business…

There are many things that makes me happy tonight or maybe I should say that there is nothing making me sad. Either way is fine. The farewell party was fantastic. Teemu surprised me with a gift, he said “this is your baby”. He was right… The Lumia 720 was still in its original case, singed by everybody in the team. What a nice surprise! My thank you speech was good and I told them the truth, it was a pleasure working at Nokia. And the reasons why I am leaving has nothing to do with them or this company. It was strictly a personal choice, a change that I wanted to have in my life. Being a Nokian was an experience I will never forget because I learned a lot and in many ways. They made me feel valued, they respected me and I was proud and fought hard to be part of our come back. Now they are in good hands, at least financially… And then we shall see…

Another reason to be happy is my boss. After I signed all the termination papers we hopped in a taxi, we grabbed a few beers and went celebrating. We had a long talk, he is a really nice man. Too bad I didn’t realize we could have been good friends long time ago. But we decided to keep in touch as the night brought us closer.

And I could forget all the people, friends and family, all happy too for my decision. Including my sister and my dad, now that they lost the bet they will have to quit smoking…. But really, so many people told me I did the right thing.

Last but not least, I am truly happy because I realized there is still someone in my heart. And that person touched my heart deeply tonight. I don’t want to say anything else, just that I can’t wait to fly to Seattle….

Two years ago when I read about platelet-rich plasma therapy I was excited about the possibility of trying that for my soar knee that, due to many sport injuries, is suffering from osteoarthritis and extensive cartilage loss. It had become so bad that it was painful to walk, and at my young age it was hard to deal with the daily pain. Quite interesting I read that with a handful of stem cells it is possible to heal arthritis, get rid of the pain and almost feel like you have a brand new knee. The therapy is an outpatient procedure where blood is drawn from the bone marrow under local anesthesia. The blood is then immediately centrifuged so that the stem cells get separated from the rest of the blood. You get a blood derivative (MSC) that is injected into the joint cavity as a common infiltration. That is enough to activate the stem cells which are transformed in 20-30 days into cartilage cells and are able to repair the joint.

“The results,” assures Professor Ferdinando Priano, famous Orthopedic surgeon who teaches at the University of Genoa, and former president of the Italian Society of Arthroscopy, “are amazing. In 90-95% of cases, the pain decreases and improves joint mobility. There are no problems of rejection or adverse reactions. In reality,” explains Professor Priano, “the use of stem cells taken from the bone marrow has been around for thirty years. If it is used to accelerate the healing of fractures that are struggling to heal or to fill in loss of bone, or in the course of certain replacements of prosthetic joints. But it is only a few of years we are employing these cells to repair cartilage defects.” Basically the stem cells are like baby cells and not fully developed yet. As they grow they are able to multiply and transform in any kind of tissue. This will essentially facilitate the repair of the damaged bone or tissue in the body. Quite fascinating!!

When I read the article above I immediately went to visit Prof. Priano in Genova and when he looked at my knee I was told the bad news. “Your leg is not straight so even if we apply this therapy your knee is not likely to get any benefit from it.”. He suggested I had an Osteotomy to straighten the leg so that the body weight is off the damaged knee area and shifted to the other side of the knee, where the cartilage is still healthy. I have talked about this procedure in this post. So I decided to follow his advice and that’s why on December 2011 I was in Italy to undergo the Osteotomy performed by Prof. Priano.

Few months after the surgery the pain started to improve and I could finally walk with less pain. Although the situation was significantly better, recently I still had some discomfort. I knew I had to try the platelet-rich plasma therapy but I wasn’t too keen on undergoing another surgery. Finally last month I decided to gather all my courage and try. I was comforted by reading this article and find out that this therapy is now very popular among athletes with similar conditions.

I arrived in Italy during last weekend and Tuesday morning I was on my way to the city of Rapallo. There I checked into the private clinic Villa Azzurra, ready to undergo surgery number 9. The clinic is small but extremely nice, surrounded by a beautiful garden, sitting on the hills of the Italian riviera, not far from the sea. The very welcoming and serene atmosphere put me immediately at ease. The staff was very nice and courteous. I had to wait a few hours for my turn but finally at 3:30pm the nurse came to take me down to the operating room. “Here’s the Chinese guy” said Prof. Priano smiling at me. I was reassured to see him there. The procedure was quick, at first the blood was drawn from my arms and that was a little painful as they had to use long needles to go deep, near the bone marrow. I only had local anesthesia on the knee and Prof. Priano first cleaned the debris from the joint with a quick arthroscopy as the blood was centrifuged. Then he injected the blood derivative containing the stems cells into my knee.  The whole procedure all took about 20 minutes. Two hours later Prof. Priano came to room and said that I could walk on my own and return home. As he left I expressed my gratitude to him. “Thank you professor!”.

It’s too early to say what the outcome is going to be but 3 days after the procedure my knee feel much better already and I can walk around normally without problems, it’s just a little swollen. Overall I am amazed of how simple the procedure was and how I quickly I was able to be back on my feet.

Let’s hope for the best!

A dream is like a signature. It’s an indelible mark of one’s thoughts, desires and aspirations…

I have been waiting for this moment for such a long time. Today Nokia announced to the world the Lumia 720, the phone I have been working on since I started in the company last year. I was lucky that I was assigned to work on it and I realized from the beginning I was working on a really cool project. And I am not a guy who is afraid to take his stand, I was one of the few Nokians who, in the beginning, used go to work using an iPhone 4. It took courage. I always thought that if that if I could be convinced that I had a better product in my hand, I wouldn’t have any problems switching to a Windows Phone’s based device. And it’s not just that, I took my job very seriously and put all my effort and passion into it because I wanted Nokia to be successful.
Indeed the Nokia 720 is a cool phone, I love this review which says it all: “It’s what the 920 should’ve been”. I totally agree with that. The 720 is very slick and can take really amazing pictures, much better then my iPhone 4 which I don’t use anymore. I am really proud, not only to have been part of this team, a bunch of great people, but I am proud of what this company is accomplishing. I have to admit, I love Stephen Elop our CEO, his energy is always inspiring to me. I don’t understand why Wall Street, particularly guys like Jim Cramer, always throws shit at him for being a rookie. Mr. Elop has got talent, he is solid and he is delivering. In spite of all the headwinds, Nokia IS coming back and it’s great to be part of it. It is a hard battle everyday because this market is changing so quickly, but that’s why I love this job. I love challenges…
A special thanks goes to my mom and her support because when I was in Italy two weeks ago she organized an evening in a restaurant with some friends and family. She knew that February 25th was going to be an important day for me because of the Nokia 720 announcement in Barcelona. So for the event she ordered a special cake on which the chef created a cellphone made of marzipan… Lovely, as you can see in the picture. It touched my heart and my thoughts goes to her today for being so supportive… La Mamma e’ sempre la Mamma… as we Italians say…
Today the good news is also that I signed a contract with my landlord and I will move into my new house tomorrow. It is all so exciting… “New year, new start…” as Lin Lin said…
It’s a fantastic day…

As long as I can remember she was for everybody Zia Dina. In reality she is not my aunt but my grandmother’s older sister. She was born in 1921 but few people knew her age because she wouldn’t tell anyone. But in the family I was one of the few that knew because as a child I used to spend a lot of time with her mom, my great grandma Nonna Maria, and she told me Zia Dina’s secret year of birth. I’ve always told Zia Dina that she is going to reach 100 years old. She is getting closer to that and we will see if I am right.

She has never worked in her life. Her family was poor but she married a rich man, liutenant Gianni Garino who then became head of treasury office for the city of Genova. Zia Dina’s father was against their marriage because he thought it couldn’t last. “I didn’t listen to him” she told me, in those times it was brave not to listen but that’s in her DNA. Last summer I accompanied her to her husband’s grave which is in cimitery of Chiavari. He died about 20 years ago of cancer, but she still loves him and misses him. It was so emotional to watch her under the hot beating sun cleaning her husband’s tomb and talking to him like he still alive. I will never forget that moment. He wasn’t the perfect husband, he gave her so much troubles, he had a crazy lifestyle, indeed he also cheated on her, but they survived a war and stayed together a lifetime. Zia Dina’s memories are becoming more nostalgic and her strength are quickly dissipating. During my last visit, before I left for China I brought her some tiramisu. She usually has some Prosecco wine to offer me but this time I was in for a treat. “Take the bottle from the corner drawer” she said. I opened the door and there it was, a bottle of French champagne, a 1988 vintage reserve of Veuve Clicqout, a gift from Zio Gianni. I was so surprised: “Its probably worth a fortune, you should keep it for a good occasion” I said. “What’s a better occasion than this?” she replied. She really touched my heart. They carried around that bottle for years, saving it for a special moment. I felt privileged and honored to share that special bottle with her. Zia Dina always regrets now refusing to have a child when she was younger and often warns me not to do the same mistake. But like her I never listen to anybody either… It must run in the family… “It is so difficult to find a good woman these days, a woman I can trust”. But she doesn’t insists because she understands me. In today’s society love and marriages that last for a lifetime are becoming more and more rare. It’s a pity..