22 – Good memories from 2011

The year is coming to an end and it is time for a review. In this post I focus in what I will bring into 2012 as a good memories, what worked, while in the next I will cover what instead went wrong.

1) I have been out of home the whole year. (January-December)
And away from Italy too. I would have enjoyed some days with my relatives (who culpably never took the opportunity to meet me in some exotic country) and in my beloved Italy, anyway I spent the entire 2011, and if you add December 2010 and almost all January 2012 dar from home, make a total of 14 months, outside home. I’m less a “Mummy’s” boy, I guess.

2) I become a yoga teacher (May-July)
I never did the teacher training I applied more than two years ago, but I had anyway the chance to teach yoga with enough continuity to reach a level of confidence and enough positive feedback from my pupils. I know I can teach anyone, at least a basic level, now. Another skill to add to my resumé.

3) Dallas Mavs won NBA finals against Miami Heats (June)
The sport moment of the year. I admit I am a LeBron hater, but also a Cuban fan, and I rooted hardly for Dallas not just I wanted that coward of LeBron lose, but also I wished the best for Dirk Nowitzki and JJ Barea, Jason Kidd and coach Carlyle, really thrilled by the feats of the Mavs in the playoffs, where they won all the series as underdogs.

4) I opened my first company “Bella vita” (June)
“Bella vita” cost me about eighty euros and allowed me to get my business visa in Colombia, which cost me another 225 US$, plus the trip to Ecuador. revenue sales: 0. Even including revenues not declared I don’t cover the costs, nevertheless the experience of all the process I have been through I think has much more value.

5) I took my talents to the Amazon. (August)
Among the places I have travelled this year I pick the Amazon not because is the most beautiful or the one I have enjoyed more, but it was surely the more special, the one more far away from my comfort zone. More than extreme experiences in the jungle it turned in a great culinary tour, with the highlight the day I had breakfast in Colombia, lunch in Perù and dinner in Brazil. It was also one of the few trip I didn’t take alone and with I enjoyed the company of my travel mate more than I felt he was holding me back.

6) Amazon (Kindle) took his talents to me (September)
I began craving the Kindle in February, when a guy showed it to me in Playa Venao in Panama. Since I am not the geek I used to be, obsessed with the latest techno-toy, I waited until September, when I bought it as a present for my birthday. Time will tell, but maybe that wat the most important decision of the year. Not just because I came back to the old good habit of reading lots of books, I improved my English after many years it was in stall, but especially because…

7) I resume writing (October)
it is still early to tell it was not just a flash in the pan, but my passion for writing, which was gone years before quitting on my journalist job, seems like is back, thank especially to Kindle. And since now I write only for my self and not for my editor, I can do it just to express my self.

8 ) I have lived for more than six months in the same place (Cali, May to December)
Cali pachanguera. I came here just for few weeks to learn salsa dancing and take a break to my projects and it became the place where I spent more time since I have started my nomadic life.

9) I have been in the best shape of my life. (September)
That was a goal since I start realizing I was turning 40 soon. And when I came in Cali in May it looked like a wishful thinking. I was like a wreck: my respiratory system closed after a month of humidity and smog in Medellin, at least 3-4kg overweight and with really low vitality. Instead in just a couple of month of intense practice of yoga, dancing and self prepared good meals I had a great turnaround. I lost two sizes in my belly, my body became strong and flexible like it never was during my thirties. Maybe physical shape is too much, but psycho-physical, which is even better, is in the conversation. In October I start going downhill again, but in December I had recover and I am closing the year in very good shape and with ambitious plans for the 2012.