Year 2010 - Year of Travel & Fun

Year 2010 turned out to be a much more fun filled one, than what I would have thought in wildest of my dreams. I could easily name it 'Year of Travel and Fun'.

The start was not so great, with me seriously contemplating on switching to a different workplace. But, that confusion ended in a month and I was on next lap of my journey. A week gap before joining the new workplace gave me an opportunity to do a solo 2000 KM long ride (Bangalore -> Tirupathi -> Guntur -> Hyderabad -> Bangalore) on my Beastly Beauty: Enfield Classic-350, and keep me fresh for the new assignment.

The new workplace had a lot to offer, and soon packed me for my maiden overseas visit to Austin, Texas. Thanks to friendly colleagues and my friends, I could pack a lot of stuff in just 12 days that I spent in Austin. Got lost while cycling in Austin on the very first day, spent the only weekend I had there in the best possible way trekking, canoeing and camping.

Soon, I was asked to spend 3 months in California. And, I guess, I could make most of my time there. Started playing with a 4-wheeler, yet another first this year. Drove weekend after weekend, thousands of miles, visiting places and making every weekend a perfect break. Also got an opportunity to attend a couple of world class Information Security conferences (Black Hat and Def Con) at Las Vegas. And, nothing can be an exaggeration about those conferences and Vegas.

In the running front... Wow ! What an year !! I could realize my Athens Dream. Ran the 2500 years commemorative run, the Athens Classic Marathon and San Francisco Marathon, timed with my stay in California along with my domestic runs at Auroville, Pondicherry and Mumbai. Extended my Athens trip to visit Santorini (A Greek Island), Madrid, Barcelona, Zurich, Swiss Alps and Paris, which will remain a memorable one for a long time.

Cycling... Got hold of this sleek Trek 7.2 Fx in California and brought it back home (as I had to part ways with Merida SUB 40 MD). Retraced the Marathon route on cycle in San Francisco and did quite a few rides in the local parks there. Apart from cycle-to-work, Nandi Hills ride is the memorable one that I could do this year in Bangalore.

The year ended in the wilds, while I spent the last three days of the year in TopSlip and Parambikulam forests in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, spotting a lot of wild life and wandering lazily in the serene forests, with some of my friends.

That's quite a list. I definitely couldn't have asked for more.