Last year began with a party to end all New Years Eve parties, in a small bar in Yerevan, Armenia with good friends and visiting cyclists. It was well after sunrise before I found my way to bed in the flat that I was renting with my wife Tenny. After several weeks of hard home-office-bound work, it was just what I’d needed.
The slog of work continued well into spring. Those months spent in front of the screen were rewarded by enough savings being put away to quite literally take the rest of the year off work! Worth it? I think so. It meant I could spend April, May and June on the road, travelling overland to Mongolia for a few weeks of excellent off-road adventure bike touring, before returning via Armenia and spending a summer month in Iran with my extended family there.
A quick pop back in to Armenia and we were on the road once more, this time for two months of cycling back through Europe as a couple, arriving in England in late October with a fresh look at Western Europe after spending most of the previous three years away from the so-called developed world.
Spending five out of twelve months of the year travelling is not something I imagine I’ll be repeating in 2011! Instead, I’ve decided it’s time to build on past achievements. 2011 will be a year of putting previous adventures, stories and lessons back into society.
Today, the 1st of January 2011, I will write the first sentence of my book. I hope to have found a publisher by the end of the year. It’s all new territory — daunting yet exciting, as ever! And a video project that’s been simmering away for months has come to fruition, more of which very soon.
Something to add?