In the last two years my trips to Italy have been more stressful than usual.
There are two main reasons for this: working on renovating the apartments in Chianciano and Chiusi, and dealing with my parents.
Project-managing the renovation of an apartment remotely is not easy at all.
For this reason, I have been to Italy more often than before and stayed longer than before.
No matter how long I stay (generally two weeks per visit), there is always an element of stress because things never go according to plan (= delays or problems).
I generally end up working against the clock, especially the last 2-3 days of my stay.
This makes me feel tired both physically and mentally.
Adding to my fatigued state of mind and body, dealing with my parents becomes a very difficult task.
We don’t really see eye to eye as far as business is concerned.
Plus my dad’s mental health has been deteriorating mostly due to his lack of mental or physical activity, along with barely having any social interaction besides my mum’s.
This has been generating a number of remarks on how things are being done and more generally on me not being able to manage things properly.
The atmosphere has been extremely negative in the last two years and it’s always a challenge for me to deal with this on top of the renovation project.
The result is generally a mild feeling of exhaustion and depression catching up with me as soon as I am back in Dublin and can relax.
This time it was even worse because I got physically sick with diarrhea 2-3 days before leaving for Ireland.
I don’t recall the last time I had diarrhea but it must have been some 10 years ago.
I pin this to my level of stress while in Italy, between work and my parents, the heat with temperature hitting 34 C and possibly something I ate, which didn’t agree with me.
This being said, I can’t wait to finish this project, sell all the apartments and stop talking business with my parents.
I think this will improve our relationship by at least decreasing the chances of conflict and arguments.