A Bridge Ahead!!

As regular readers will know, I'm having a rough time in the workplace at the moment and although I would love to exorcise the demons by giving details of the issues here, I just don't think the blog is the place to do that at the present time. To illustrate the problem I used the metaphor of a muddy bog and the slow slog through it. Well, let's extend that analogy; there's a bridge up ahead that will lift me over the swampy mire - and I'm going to use it!

The bridge has come in the form of a little time off work. We all know that anger and hate leads to cynicism and bitterness - so positive thinking about the future is the only way forward.

Work

Despite working with a superb department I think I may need to organise an exit strategy - It's difficult, at the present time, to see my job lasting beyond the end of the academic year (end of August 2012) but the next few months will be crucial. Luckily, kids will always need educating and I'm sure they'll be jobs out there. I could stay in education and go where my teaching methods will be more appreciated by a less brutal senior management team but I certainly haven't discounted leaving the teaching profession altogether and starting something completely new - and something that MUST be less stressful than teaching.

Writing

I need something besides poker to keep me going, writing is the answer. Next year I plan to edit this blog and severely cut it down so that it'll be a less cumbersome read for the first-time reader who won't have to wade through all the fluff and nonsense. If for nothing else, it can be done for therapeutic reasons.

I also have a great idea for a book. This will combine two elements: (1) An idea I have used successfully for teaching kids vocabulary; (2) My daughter's talent as an illustrator. It's a project I will be working on in 2012 come what may.  It also has the full backing from the missus - and she wears the trousers, she knows.

Poker

Ok, inept senior management people may try to chip away at my confidence in teaching but my passion for poker will never die. I will continue to play cash game live poker next year and, with a half-decent track record over the last two years, will consider myself a semi-pro. (Ok, this may be dillusional but see below.)

By reflecting on my performance and results at the live game over the last two years, the ONLY thing I believe is holding me back from advancing into the next level are the calls from Bacchus. If I had ignored him this last year, I believe I easily could have matched the profits I attained in 2010. In 2012 there will be absolutely NO reason to allow Bacchus to disturb my game at all. I even think I should cut him out altogether and go for the alcohol-free approach completely.

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Ok, a rest on the bridge calls - therapy session over.