The last blog of 2018
It's been a really long time since I managed to pen something down. I have quite a few blog posts in my draft section which I haven't managed to finish. The reasons for this have varied from lack of time to lack of motivation. So, I decided to jot down a little life update and share it with you all as part of my year-end blog.
In July, I posted my personal mid-year review in which I compared myself to the goals I had set out at the beginning of the year. Recently, I had my year-end review with my manager at work. Additionally, I've also been contemplating how my year went and the things I plan to achieve over the next year. In this blog, I'm just going to talk about a few key things that have happened in the second half of the year. I'm briefly going to touch upon my plans for the next year but I'll probably dedicate another blog post for it. I've made a few big decisions that deserve a whole new discussion.
As I mentioned, I recently had my year-end review. Overall, I got positive feedback from my manager and peers. In addition, I also received pretty constructive feedback about the things I can do better in the future. If I had to give an overall rating of my performance in a number, it would be about 7/10. It was in line with what my manager thought of my performance as well.
Was this the level of performance that I planned to reach at the start of the year, no. I was aiming for an 8 and up at the start of the year. However, I do understand why it turned out to be this way. There were things I could've done better and there were things beyond my control that didn't turn out too well for me. I'm glad to have a manager that is very understanding of it all. Overall, the feedback was pretty positive and I'm going to work on improving and getting better over the next year.
In my mid-year review, I talked about getting a tennis elbow injury towards the end of the Spring Championship. Luckily, I was able to recover in time for the Autumn championship. In addition, I was promoted to the senior team of Simon Tenisz Klub and I went on to have another good season of Tennis.
A change of strings, as advised by my training partner helped a lot. Till the beginning of this year, I had been playing with my old Wilson rackets along with a set of strings with a higher stiffness rating, for more durability. Subsequently, I transitioned to Babolat Pure Drive rackets but continued using the same type of strings. This led to a lot of stress on my forearm, which eventually resulted in the injury. Transitioning to strings with a lower stiffness rating reduced the load on my forearm.
Since the end of the autumn championship, I haven't been regular with Tennis. One reason is the lack of availability of courts. It's very difficult to find a court to play after work in winters. In addition, with all the traveling, which I'll talk about in the next section, I've barely had any free weekends since the beginning of October. Hopefully, I'll get to be a bit more regular in 2019 with it.
I traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria in August and it has turned out to be the best trip of the year so far for me. The trip to Berlin was indeed a memorable one, owing to the city's vibe and interesting modern history. However, Sofia has it's own unique post-communistic cosmopolitan vibe to it. The city felt a lot more alive during the night than most European cities that I've been to in the past. I guess that's probably something that I really liked too. Bulgaria also has a lot of natural beauty to offer. I got the chance to go outside the city on a day trip to the Seven Rila Lakes. Words will never be enough to describe the beauty that my eyes soaked in that day. It is one of the most gorgeous places that I have ever been to. The combination of these two things made it an overall unique experience. I will advise everyone to explore Bulgaria at some point in their lives.
Towards the end of October, I went back home for a couple of weeks. During this time, I went to the city of Mangalore (no, it's not a typo, Bangalore and Mangalore are 2 different cities in India) for a couple of days. We held a small religious ceremony for my nephew, Vivaan. In an ancient riverside temple in Kollur, dating back to about 800 AD, we prayed to the goddess of knowledge. We sought her blessings so that Vivaan has a prosperous learning experience during his upcoming formative years. Enjoying the coastal cuisine of India was an added bonus.
In November, I went to Bergamo, a satellite town of Milan to meet one of my oldest friends. On one of the days, we took a day trip to 'Ponte Nel Cielo', the highest hanging bridge in Europe. A day out in the foothills of the Alps was just what I needed to recharge my batteries. In addition, ice-skating and a bit of Christmas shopping made it the perfect long weekend. I bought a really warm yellow sweater and I got about a dozen compliments when I wore it to work the first time!
For the advent weekend, I went to Vienna to meet up with my cousin who was in Europe for a work trip. We spent the weekend drinking mulled wine, eating waffle sticks with Nutella and enjoying the snow.
Towards the end of last year, I talked about 4 places that I planned to visit this year (see my Last Blog of 2017). I managed to visit 3 out of those 4 places. While I missed out on 1, life took me to a few unexpected places and I'm glad each of them happened. I'll close the year with a short trip to India for a really close friend's wedding, followed by a trip to Malaga, Spain for New Year's Eve.
Overall, it's been a pretty good year. I've traveled as much as I would've liked to. I've had a decent year at work, if not the best. I've enjoyed playing a lot of tennis. I have been making plans for the upcoming year as well, under 3 broad themes as above - work, play, travel. However, I'll probably add another theme to it - learn. I think it's important to keep learning new things. While work and learning go hand in hand, there are a few 'life skills' that I'd like to learn beyond that as well. Hence, I'll be making a few distinct goals about learning.
In July, I posted my personal mid-year review in which I compared myself to the goals I had set out at the beginning of the year. Recently, I had my year-end review with my manager at work. Additionally, I've also been contemplating how my year went and the things I plan to achieve over the next year. In this blog, I'm just going to talk about a few key things that have happened in the second half of the year. I'm briefly going to touch upon my plans for the next year but I'll probably dedicate another blog post for it. I've made a few big decisions that deserve a whole new discussion.
Update 1: Work
As I mentioned, I recently had my year-end review. Overall, I got positive feedback from my manager and peers. In addition, I also received pretty constructive feedback about the things I can do better in the future. If I had to give an overall rating of my performance in a number, it would be about 7/10. It was in line with what my manager thought of my performance as well.
Was this the level of performance that I planned to reach at the start of the year, no. I was aiming for an 8 and up at the start of the year. However, I do understand why it turned out to be this way. There were things I could've done better and there were things beyond my control that didn't turn out too well for me. I'm glad to have a manager that is very understanding of it all. Overall, the feedback was pretty positive and I'm going to work on improving and getting better over the next year.
Update 2: Tennis
In my mid-year review, I talked about getting a tennis elbow injury towards the end of the Spring Championship. Luckily, I was able to recover in time for the Autumn championship. In addition, I was promoted to the senior team of Simon Tenisz Klub and I went on to have another good season of Tennis.
Since the end of the autumn championship, I haven't been regular with Tennis. One reason is the lack of availability of courts. It's very difficult to find a court to play after work in winters. In addition, with all the traveling, which I'll talk about in the next section, I've barely had any free weekends since the beginning of October. Hopefully, I'll get to be a bit more regular in 2019 with it.
Update 3: Travel
I traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria in August and it has turned out to be the best trip of the year so far for me. The trip to Berlin was indeed a memorable one, owing to the city's vibe and interesting modern history. However, Sofia has it's own unique post-communistic cosmopolitan vibe to it. The city felt a lot more alive during the night than most European cities that I've been to in the past. I guess that's probably something that I really liked too. Bulgaria also has a lot of natural beauty to offer. I got the chance to go outside the city on a day trip to the Seven Rila Lakes. Words will never be enough to describe the beauty that my eyes soaked in that day. It is one of the most gorgeous places that I have ever been to. The combination of these two things made it an overall unique experience. I will advise everyone to explore Bulgaria at some point in their lives.
Towards the end of October, I went back home for a couple of weeks. During this time, I went to the city of Mangalore (no, it's not a typo, Bangalore and Mangalore are 2 different cities in India) for a couple of days. We held a small religious ceremony for my nephew, Vivaan. In an ancient riverside temple in Kollur, dating back to about 800 AD, we prayed to the goddess of knowledge. We sought her blessings so that Vivaan has a prosperous learning experience during his upcoming formative years. Enjoying the coastal cuisine of India was an added bonus.
In November, I went to Bergamo, a satellite town of Milan to meet one of my oldest friends. On one of the days, we took a day trip to 'Ponte Nel Cielo', the highest hanging bridge in Europe. A day out in the foothills of the Alps was just what I needed to recharge my batteries. In addition, ice-skating and a bit of Christmas shopping made it the perfect long weekend. I bought a really warm yellow sweater and I got about a dozen compliments when I wore it to work the first time!
For the advent weekend, I went to Vienna to meet up with my cousin who was in Europe for a work trip. We spent the weekend drinking mulled wine, eating waffle sticks with Nutella and enjoying the snow.
Towards the end of last year, I talked about 4 places that I planned to visit this year (see my Last Blog of 2017). I managed to visit 3 out of those 4 places. While I missed out on 1, life took me to a few unexpected places and I'm glad each of them happened. I'll close the year with a short trip to India for a really close friend's wedding, followed by a trip to Malaga, Spain for New Year's Eve.
Overall, it's been a pretty good year. I've traveled as much as I would've liked to. I've had a decent year at work, if not the best. I've enjoyed playing a lot of tennis. I have been making plans for the upcoming year as well, under 3 broad themes as above - work, play, travel. However, I'll probably add another theme to it - learn. I think it's important to keep learning new things. While work and learning go hand in hand, there are a few 'life skills' that I'd like to learn beyond that as well. Hence, I'll be making a few distinct goals about learning.
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