Sinking my teeth into a project

Finally, something I feel I can do. I feel that a lot of the content of this blog is filled with reflections on the differences between Earth and space and my … well, I suppose my dissatisfaction with returning home. It’s not that I’m not grateful. I am. I love my wife and our life is pretty incredible, but there’s it feels strangely dull to be back home. As though space was this grand, exciting adventure, except that it wasn’t. I know that, in space, a lot of my time was filled with just waiting around or just trying to get some sleep, but I miss the constant excitement of it all. You can’t imagine what it’s like to see the Earth from so far away. It’s simply breathtaking.

It’s the repetitiveness of being back, more than anything, that’s getting to me. I just need to be able to sink my teeth into a project and really put my all into it. Which is why the faculty coming to me with the task of setting up this conference in August is so welcome. It’s a task simply full to the brim with logistics of one kind or another, finding a suitable conference venue in Victoria that has accompanying accommodation that is large enough to be suitable for the long list of people potentially invited to the conference. So many intertwining elements and things to think about creating such a complex problem is just what the doctor ordered.

What’s more, it’s a wonderful opportunity for me to put my own, creative spin on things. I don’t want to be responsible for just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill function, I want to organise something truly special, a bit different. Instead of a conference in Melbourne, I’ve been looking at far more exotic locations, like the township of Lorne, Victoria. Accommodation should be reasonably priced and highly available at that time of year, so it would seem a perfect choice. I just hope my colleagues agree with me.