… I’m back in the island. (I definitely should commit myself to improve the diversity of my blog post titles! 🙂 ) Actually, I’ve been back for a while now (couple of weeks) but things have been hectic (predictably…) and sitting here for 10 mins writing a blog post requires the right state of mind (I’m ditching my 10k-erg session for this, BTW… 😉 ).

Definitely missing Porto and everybody there, even though I have already bought my Easter flights and I should be back in a couple of months. It gets better as time goes by, but it always feels like I’m leaving everything there in “suspended animation” from my part, only to realise whenever I return that it wasn’t the case at all.

Anyway, enough with the sentimentalisms – progress, moving on. I finally finished my first batch of ~60-70 lab reports I had to mark (great Xmas present, I should say), went further regarding a few publications and experimental work we’ve been doing but I am no closer with regards to knowing what I want to do next. (well, I need to finish my PhD dissertation, but I knew that already 🙂 )

We had snow for a morning here – hooray! I’m still mesmerised with the sight of falling snow (being a southerner I had never seen snow falling until I came to the UK – in Porto it snows every 20-odd years or so), and the ground looked so white and pristine afterwards. Unfortunately the weather is still too warm (tell that to the people back home! 😛 ) for the snow to settle, and by the time I went home there was no more of it.

Apart from that, things have been quiet, just a succession of days where work is followed by a lovely bike commute home (even with these cold, dark days!). After spending 3 weeks home with my family I find it quite relaxing to have my own sorting out to do and my own meals to prepare – I would have found the sheer thought of that absolutely daunting three years ago!

Right, all done for now. Let’s see if I will be able to update this more frequently over the coming weeks, probably with smaller (and less introspective) posts. Although this has been one of those ‘politician-style’ promises…