When you reach a certain age — 19 nowadays — you’re allowed to reminisce a little about your past. Not that I’m anything like 19, but I’m going to do it anyway.

Here’s a picture of the first national (UK) magazine I edited : Network User, all about telecoms and aimed at IT managers of major players like the banks, the London Stock Exchange and others of similar corporate weight.

I developed Network User from a small newsletter called simply, Network. The ugly brute of a burglar on the cover was actually our esteemed designer, Richard Downer, whose previous work included the famous illustrations on the front of Post Office telephone directories.

While we were shooting that pic, he was terrified the police would arrest him for attempted robbery. We had our replies ready : “No officer, I’ve never seen that man in my life.” — at least, that’s what we told him afterwards.

Looking through the magazine now, I still feel almost the same rush of heady excitement as seeing it for the first time, hot off the presses. Maybe because I’m a bit older, but I don’t quite get that same thrill when I look at anything I’ve done online.

Why? It’s too easy.

We sweated blood over that first issue of Network User in a way internet folk can’t imagine unless they’ve done it themselves.

We had a huge budget, employed the best people in their fields, were paid large salaries and had the run of late 1980s London, a place literally sizzling with excitement — probably something like Silicon Valley in its heyday.

Those were the days. We were Monarchs of all we surveyed and drove all before us. Champions, indeed.

But even great decades run their course. The flashy 80s were replaced by the boring 90s, and I headed to an isolated farmhouse in southern Spain with a nice view of Gibraltar and the Med. There I spent my time writing philosophy and growing avocados, apricots and figs.

Returning to England seven years later and wondering what to do with myself, I fell into the Web and blogging and started doing much the same as I’d done before. That is, producing network magazines.

So events turn full circle in the end. What creatures of habit we are.