At the moment, I am a week and a half into an 8-week break at home, before I go to University (again!) to do the PhD. It's both exciting and apprehension-inviting at the same time- I don't know what it will be like! However, since I'm going to be researching into the realms of meteorological statistics, the work is bound to be interesting regardless.

Other than that, relaxing. It's been a relaxing year out, but at the same time, I've been finding that with regards 'work-life balance', it's possible to have too much 'life' and not enough 'work'! I found doing my MRes at Leeds gave rise to a suitable work-life balance- hopefully the PhD will be similar.

Having read about a certain member of N-W's recurring job problems, ranging from 70-hour workweeks to emotion-sapping office dragfests, reminds me of what lots of people have preached to me over the years. "Your mentality of 'I want to pursue a career working in areas where I enjoy the work' will have to change." they say. "You'll learn that money has to be the top priority- the mentality should be 'I can put up with work I can't stand, as long as it pays well'. That's life- it's necessary because it's just the way it is."

There are plenty of social norms that I can't stand, and this is certainly one of them. I'm very used to being at odds with the social norm, and it can be a risky business (delving into the unknown, and if you encounter resultant troubles, it's seen to be your fault for being different.) However, so far, I've done a pretty good job at dodging this one, and it looks hopeful that I should be dodging it successfully for at least three more years.