h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a post-holiday slump at the moment. Sorry about the cliché, but life seems to be something of a roller-coaster lately, either I’m on a high because of Christmas or my skiing trip or I’m down in the dumps and ill. I still haven’t completely recovered from that cold I caught when I got back from France and it’s beginning to get me down.

Not much has been going on since I last wrote. The weekend was pretty quiet. My girlfriend had a couple of her best friends from home staying over so I was required to generally keep out of their way, show my face for a couple of hours and then disappear so that they could safely talk about me behind my back. So instead I usefully employed my time doing laundry and watching movies.

On Monday one of the old PhD students from our research group was in back in Bath. He’s currently living in America and working as a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign near Chicago. Apparently he’s doing okay, but they’re working him pretty hard. Anyway, we all went out for a few drinks in honour of his visit. It was really nice to catch up with him, but it was also nice to see everyone out together for a change. A year ago we didn’t need an excuse to go out drinking together, it was almost a regular Friday fixture. It seems that these days we need it to be Christmas or someone’s birthday or viva exam or something before we can all be bothered to socialise together.

Oh well, I did say I was on a bit of a downer at the moment. I think I’d better finish there before I start getting suicidal.