That ‘berretini’ thing…
Right, someone asked me about ‘berretini’. Wasn’t the tennis player, not directly anyway. It was this little project I got roped into. Like, ages ago now.
The idea was simple. Build a booking system for the local tennis courts. Old Henderson, the club guy, was obsessed with Berrettini, always talking about his serve. So, he called the project ‘berretini’. Seemed funny at the time.
So I started building it. Thought it’d be easy. Just a calendar, click a slot, book it. Done. But oh no. Then came the requests.
- Can it handle leagues?
- What about blocking times for coaching?
- Can members pay through it?
- Needs different access levels!
Suddenly, this simple thing got complicated. Like trying to manage a whole tournament with just a notepad. I was using some basic web builder tool, thought it was enough. It wasn’t. It choked on everything. Felt like I was trying to serve like Berrettini using a frying pan. Just flailing around.
Thing is, I remember that ‘berretini’ project so clearly, not ’cause of the code or the club politics. It all went down the drain anyway. I remember it because of Buster.
Buster was my old dog. Golden retriever. Great dog. And right when I was pulling my hair out over this ‘berretini’ mess, Buster got sick. Real sick. Suddenly, the booking system didn’t matter much. Spent my days shuttling him back and forth to the vet. Nights trying to figure out what was wrong with him, not the code.
Vet bills piled up. Stress went through the roof. I barely slept. Trying to fix bugs in ‘berretini’ between worrying about Buster felt ridiculous. One day Henderson called, asking about progress. I just told him straight, “Look, my dog’s sick, this thing isn’t happening right now.” He was alright about it, surprisingly. Guess even tennis fans have hearts.
Buster pulled through, thankfully. Took weeks. Slow recovery. By the time he was back on his paws, chasing squirrels again, the ‘berretini’ project was dead and buried. Someone else eventually bought some off-the-shelf software for the club.
So yeah, ‘berretini’. For me, it’s not about a powerful serve or Italian tennis stars. It’s about late nights, vet visits, and worrying about my old dog. Funny how names stick to memories, isn’t it?
