The diary book, which consists entirely of seemingly random entries, minor revelations and slightly bashful confessions, is written in such a way that each of us can exclaim – “Yes, this is about me!” Before you are a few quotes, exactly found words to cheer yourself up, smile, be surprised, warm up …
“The rule of what to do when you are talking on the phone and the connection suddenly disappears should be brought to everyone’s attention. In my opinion, the one who called should call back. It would be nice for everyone to agree – once and for all. Because usually people in these cases begin to recruit each other at the same time or wait for another to recruit them. And then they say in one voice: he, probably, is calling. Or: I’ll try to call myself. In both cases, the minute you decide to call yourself, the number is busy because someone you haven’t talked to is trying to get through. A rule that would determine exactly how to behave in such circumstances would save many nerve cells.
“In the supermarket, I always study other people’s carts, trying to imagine what people eat for lunch, for dinner, what lifestyle they lead, what I have in common with them. Some people buy the same things that I would buy, so I have every reason to subscribe to their purchases.
“I go into a shoe store, in the window of which I saw the shoes I liked. I show them to the saleswoman, I call the number – forty-six. She leaves and, returning, says: unfortunately, your number is not available. And be sure to add: there are forty-one. And silently looks at me – waiting for my reaction. And I would be happy to say, at least once: okay, I’ll take the forty-first.
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“When the batteries in the remote control run out, I am ready to sit all day on the couch with the remote control in my hand extended to the full length towards the TV, and over and over again press the buttons of the channel I need, making the most incredible pirouettes with a brush in search of a position that would allow the remnants energy in the batteries meet with the infrared receiver in the TV. Sometimes, in order to revive the remote control, you have to hit it several times on the palm of your other hand or on some fairly hard surface. Strange, but it often helps. And if it helps, you will be the more furiously knocking with the remote control, the less battery it has left to live.
Tomorrow I will buy batteries, I promise myself. But tomorrow I will again sit on the couch, stubbornly banging the remote control on the table.
There are people who have zero patience: they immediately jump up from the sofa and run to the nearest shop for new batteries, taking the old one with them for a sample. At home, they put in new batteries and continue to watch TV as if nothing had happened. I don’t understand these people.”
* F. Piccolo “Minutes of everyday happiness” (Astrel, 2012).
Francesco Piccolo, Italian writer, laureate of the David di Donatello film award for the script for Paolo Virzi’s film The First Beautiful Thing (2010). He is the author of three novels, but it was Minutes of Everyday Happiness that made him truly famous.