Great lengths to teach 'eyes' not 'I' lesson

By Virginia Winder
Spent this morning teaching about feature writing and realised what I find so weird about writing this blog.
It's written in the first person and is spattered with the "I" word.
"We are the 'eyes' not the 'I'," I always tell young journalists.
So, just for fun, I'm going to tell today's story in the third person.
This morning, Virginia literally creaked out of bed, feeling twinges in weird places - her right groin/hip, her left inner elbow, buttocks, and right shoulder blade.
It was an early morning for her because of a garden deadline and so she tapped away in her office watching the dawn slowly drench the day with colour.
Then it was a rush-here, meet-there, call-someone-then kinda day that left her feeling slightly frustrated at not being able to settle down and write, write, write.
But she still made connections, gave writing advice to a mate and landed a dream writing project.
"Gosh I love life and the amazing things that can happen in a day," she says.
On top of this, Virginia went swimming and clocked up 40 lengths of the indoor pool at the New Plymouth Aquatic Centre.
As she swam up and down, up and down, she brushed past a kindred spirit; a bloke she always sees bodysurfing at Fitzroy Beach during summer.
Catching waves is her greatest joy of all. "This coming season I'll be much fitter than ever before, so I'll be better at riding waves than I have been in years. Hopefully."
Virginia is now heading off to bed so she get can up at a ridiculously early hour to knock off a whole line-up of stories that have been niggling at her like unpaid bills.
She'll return to herself tomorrow because the 48-year-old now finds it even weirder to write about herself in the third person. "It sounds so pretentious," Virginia says, screwing up her face and shaking her head.
"So, in the words of Arnie... I'll be back!"

Today, she:
Swam 40 lengths of a 25-metre pool
Ate three healthy meals (but found it damn hard not to scoff down more enchillada!)
Drank 4 cups of coffee (2 too many)
Drank 2 cups of hot chocolate with low-fat milk (2 in a week would be more acceptable)
Drank more water!
Worked for 8.5 hours
Slept for 6 hours