Back to blogging (and work)

You may have noticed a distinct lack of activity around here in the past week or three. I’ve been back home in the UK for Christmas, and as well as being denied easy internet access I’ve been enthusiastically indulging in the traditional festive pastimes of eating, watching TV and other forms of generalised indolence. Sorry about that.
It’s likely that posting is going to remain a little random until I fly back to Johannesburg next week. In the meantime I’m making up for missing AGU by attending, and giving a talk at, a UK palaeomagnetic conference up in Edinburgh. It’s not quite on the same scale, but it’s an excellent opportunity to find out what researchers in my home country is up to, and make sure that I stay on peoples’ radars. After all, I’m about to start the second (and almost certainly final) year of my post-doc in South Africa, meaning that I really need to start sorting out what comes next. There are some big question marks about my future career path that are likely to be a bit of a preoccupation in the next 12 months. Will I be able to get ahead in academia? Or will 2008 be the year in which I set out for pastures new? Given that many of the most exciting things about 2007, such as writing for Nature (my last, web-only, entry is now available) and being invited onto Scienceblogs, were beyond my wildest imaginings this time last year, I think I’ll hold off on any predictions for now.
Anyway, I’m back. Hopefully, you all had a fun festive season and have yet to break all of your New Year’s Resolutions…