Well basically it’s not boredom per se, but more like having the general feeling of uselessness. The situation is as follows. After coming back from Perth and the conference I was pretty eager to get started on my new targets set forth after my mid-term assessment by my advisors.

Issue number 1 soon turned out to be a poor performing/ broken furnace in the deformation rig. So the furnace needs to be rebuilt again (this has been going on for at least 6 months now). Of course as it turns out, we don’t have a technician in the lab yet until September and our temporary one is / has been sick recently. So not much progress there.

Issue number 2 is that I had hoped to get busy creating new olivine powder material which I will compress into cylindrical samples of 3cm long. The material is not ready yet so that might take another week.

Issue number 3 is that I really want to get my Masters research published but that it needs to be expanded and looked at by my formed supervisor which last time took me at least 8 months to get through to him… The initial manuscript was unfortunately rejected.

My supervisor isn’t due to be back at RSES until the end of the month. Not that it really matters I suppose. Also im feeling rather sick. Must be a cold or a mild flu virus…

I will end the post on a lighter and more happier note though. Saturday night I had a most successful houseparty. I set up a BBQ and a fire in the backyard. I was at first a bit unhappy that my housemates did not join in (I guess they don’t really care what I do) but as soon as everyone started arriving there was a really good atmosphere. I suspect there were at least 20 people. Thanks guys! ^_^