My other excuse for not posting anything since mid-December is that I had the honour of being asked to participate in the judging for the OpenLab 2007 anthology. By the time nominations had closed there were almost 500 entries to get through, of which at best I managed to read 30-40% – needless to say, I am in serious awe of those who managed to get through and score the whole list. I was also very impressed by the high standards of writing and scientific nous on offer in the nominated posts.
I was even more proud to discover that one of my own posts, ‘Testability in Earth Sciences’, has made it into the final collection. And, as a further testament to the encouraging growth of the geoblogosphere last year, Kim’s lovely piece ‘The sound of Mylonites’ is also being included. There’s still some way to go to put those biologists in their proper place, though…
Reed Cartright is working tirelessly to get the whole thing publication ready by the end of January, when I will, of course, be plugging it shamelessly.

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…

As I’m going through a memetic phase, Julia tagged me with a 7 things meme last week (Update: through the magic of post scheduling, Bob also tagged me after I wrote this but before it appeared) . Here goes:

1. Despite being a fan of hills and mountains, I always manage to end up living in places which can only be describe as ‘topographically challenged’:East Anglia, Southampton, and now Johannesburg, which is parked smack in the middle of the Highveld (although admittedly, having to drive downhill to get to the mountains is a bit of a novelty).


2. I did at one stage flirt with the idea at taking A-levels in English, History, Latin and Greek rather than Sciences and Maths – partly encouraged by teachers who were seemingly horrified by the idea that I might become a scientist out of choice rather than necessity (i.e. you were no good at humanities). Needless to say, I have no regrets, but I do sometimes wonder where that path would have taken me.


3. Despite having held a UK driver’s license for 12 years, I have done far more driving in New Zealand and now South Africa than I have in the mother country.


4. My family has provided me with a lovely control experiment in the (non-)efficacy of astrology: my birthday is the day after my older brother’s. I love science, he hates it. I’m pretty indifferent to religion, he’s ordained in the church of England. I love travelling, he’s left the UK once on a day-trip to Belgium. He considers reading thrillers by John Grisham relaxation, I consider it to be torture. Case closed.


5. I can speak French and Spanish, but I wouldn’t claim great conversational powers in either, especially since I have a habit of mixing the two together into a strange hybrid. Last time I was in France, I was asked a couple of times if I was from Spain – given my complexion, quite an achievment in mistaken identity.


6. I have had the questionable honour of appearing in The Sun. On page 5, to be precise.


7. Cumulative equipment losses on geology field trips: 1 Mahindra, 1 hammer, 2 compass-clinometers, too many pens and pencils to count.

I now tag sciencewoman, Alessia, Kim, Brian, John, Katie, and Saxifraga. Any readers wanting to divest of dark secrets may also do so below.

I’m (probably) going to post some thoughts on the past year at some point before we lurch into 2008, but as everyone else is doing this ‘post the first sentence of each month’s first post’ exercise, I thought I might as well too:

• If I was asked to sum up my life last year, the phrase ‘treading water’ would seem appropriate. (Why 2007 might be better than 2006)


• In May 2006, an exploratory gas well being drilled in eastern Java hit a limestone aquifer. (Lusi, the man-made mud volcano)


• Hello everyone, and welcome to the new home of ‘Highly Allochthonous’! (Welcome to (even more) Highly Allochthonous)


• Technical mishaps delayed the publication of the latest edition of the physical sciences blog carnival over at {metadata}; technical problems have also delayed my plugging of it (my internet connection is currently flickering on and off like a faulty streetlamp). (Philosophia Naturalis #8)


• As I mentioned in my last post, a few boxes of my possessions are making their way out the South Africa the old-fashioned way, via cargo ship. (Where my stuff is at)


• In case you were wondering. (Still alive)


• Dear geology students everywhere.(A recommendation from your friendly neighbourhood field instructor)


• Regular readers of this blog should be aware of the mud volcano currently erupting in the Sidoarjo district in East Java, Indonesia, and the unsuccessful attempts to stem the flow by dropping concrete balls into the vent.(Lusi: not man-made after all?)


• It may surprise you to learn that I came late to the joys of Geology. (The accidental geologist)


• September is obviously an auspicious month for starting geology blogs.(Highly Allochthonous needs YOU!)


• I’m back, tired and a little sun-scorched, from my trip to Northern Cape (northwest South Africa). (Catching up)


• Philosophia Naturalis #15 is up over at Sorting Out Science. (Carnivalling)

I’m not really sure what this reveals, other than that I often seem to be in housekeeping mode (and/or returning from field trips) at the beginning of the month, and that I’m obsessed with Indonesian mud volcanoes…