Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

I just sent Robin round – 2

Last year at around this time of year I wrote a Round Robin to explain what had been going on.

Looking back at that, it's quite amazing how much has changed. I didn't have a job then, and was about to start a job that I quickly abandoned due to one thing and another - largely, my inability to hunker down and do something I really don't want to do. Lucky me that I had that option, I think, on reflection. So many people just have to get on with it.

Anyway, soon after then I was accepted onto a primary PGCE course and I've been doing that since September. I love it. I think I'm getting better all the time, although I have still so much to learn. My only regret is that I didn't start doing it about 10 years ago, when I'd first realised that working in local newspapers was going to be a disappointing slide into oblivion. But I remember the first time I ever drove on snow; before you know what you're doing, you're moving, and it doesn't matter how hard you steer, you're going to go where gravity wants you to go.

Once you get back a bit of control you have to take it with both hands. And that's what I've been able to do. Journalism was the thing I had thought I would always do. It turns out it was just a way of making me a better literacy teacher. I don't believe in epiphanies or 'things happen for a reason' because horrible things happen to good people, and it's completely unfair; but I do think that I've ended up somewhere I was probably meant to be. It took a while to get here, but I'm here now, and I'm not looking back.

Another thing I did recently was quit Twitter. I did this as a self-confessed self-important bore, but also because I want to be a teacher and it's not a risk worth taking; also, looking back, I feel that Twitter had somehow been blunting everything else I was doing. You know how Peter Cook ended up ringing up LBC pretending to be a Swedish fisherman, it felt like a less talented version of that. Not being overly blessed with talent, people like me have to really work at things to make them any good. That's what I've always had to do with writing. It hasn't come easily, and it takes a lot of work to make it halfway decent. I wonder if one of the reasons why I couldn't get Book 2 off the ground was because I spent too much time entertaining myself on Twitter and elsewhere. Probably.

Which reminds me. Book 2 will probably be Book 3. There's another book I need to do in the meantime, before I do that one. That's kind of halfway finished, or maybe two-thirds finished. But I have something else to work on, when I get the time. Maybe I will have the time now. It needs to be done before I (all things permitting) head into my new career. I'll be saying more about that soonish, I hope. But it's something I really need to write, and I think it's going to be good. So, fingers crossed, and all of that.

In the meantime, thanks again for reading. Sorry I won't be around on Twitter but that's that, I'm afraid. You can always email me - antonvowl@live.co.uk - or just leave comments and stuff. It's been a good year, on the whole. A better year. Here's hoping for another one.

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Related posts:

1. I just sent Robin round
2. Red faces all round