A new beginning

I really that I seem to start every blog post here with an apology for not posting recently. The last 8 months at work hasn't been the most positive time of my life, and while I have written plenty posts, I haven't felt able to publish them.In short, things fell apart on a personal and professional level in the lab group where I work. That is a whole blog post on its own, but one that has to wait a month or so before I can make it public.

Then, my wife and I changed our living arrangements somewhat to try and stabilise our finances, with me living and working in Dundee through the week then going home to Paisley at the weekends where she was living full time. To go from living with someone for 7 years to sleeping in a single bed and only seeing them at the weekends is, to quote a friend of mine, a "shitty situation".

But, now, it's all over. Three weeks ago I was informed that I had been offered a Research Fellow position at the University of West of Scotland in Paisley. This means: I'm going home. I can live with my wife. I will only need to have one flat to pay for. I can see my close friends more often again. I can be closer to my sister, brother in law and nephew.

And, of relevance to this blog, I can do my own research. While I still have a boss to report to, the brief of the research position is so very wide/vague/general that I can explore things that interest me. Quantitative high frequency ultrasound for biomedical and life sciences applications, but over on the engineering/physics side of that interface. I'm returning to work that I did during my PhD in to teeth and tooth decay detection, but also expanding in to the world of breast cancer. Hell, it looks like I might even be setting up my own dictyostelium lab.

The group I'm moving to work with is the same group I started my ultrasound 'career' in for the first year of my Phd, before my supervisor left to go to Dundee. This means there's lots of friendly faces there for when I start in January.

I am currently equal parts excitement and sheer terror, but all in all, this is a good thing.