Daily Life

Gianfranco Chicco
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Moving at human speed

You can tell that September was the busiest time at work when all I could manage to write about was putting tomatoes on handmade ceramic plates and sharing daily Instagram Stories about preparing matcha (抹茶, Japanese powdered green tea) in a proper teabowl using a bamboo whisk. Truth is, these

Gianfranco Chicco
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Tea Ensō

This morning I did a sloppy job at transferring new matcha tea from its original container onto a tea caddy using a sift that was wider than the opening of the caddy.

Gianfranco Chicco
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WIP: new website

I moved my website gchicco.com (this one!) to a new platform (Ghost) and I’m in the process of transferring content from the old version. It contained articles, work news and photos spanning over 15 years… tempus fugit! Reviewing all that content is proving to be quite cathartic and

Gianfranco Chicco
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With my own two hands

Workweeks have been pretty intense so I spent the weekend recharging. I finally picked up the pots and cups I made over the last couple of months at Tokobo Pottery. They are raw and unrefined, even ugly. But you know what? Tea and coffee taste better in them just because

Gianfranco Chicco
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A box of wonders

I have a box full of postcards that I’ve collected over the years. The oldest are from 1992, from a Pink Floyd special edition boxset I loved. Many are from when I moved to Europe in the early 2000s. I’ve picked them up during work trips, holidays, and

Gianfranco Chicco
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A happy birthday in lockdown

For my birthdays, I like to bring together friends from different walks of (my) life to break bread (and drink wine!). This year eating together was not an option, as I found myself in lockdown like many, many others. I had been self-isolating for the previous two months without having

Gianfranco Chicco
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The Serendipity Engine

Earlier this year I left my job. I felt a strong urge to recharge physically and, more important, mentally. The role had created a series of positive connections and had me embark on an intense public speaking spree, but I was exhausted and creatively stuck. On top of that I

Gianfranco Chicco
Members Public

Taking it slowly: why I love to send (paper) postcards

uring a recent lunch with a good friend who works as a digital strategist, I casually mentioned that I like to send postcards, to which she commented quite baffled “you still send postcards?”. My natural reply was “dozens, probably hundreds, of them each year”.