What the difference between a good day and a great one, academically speaking?

A good day is when you are notified that one of your scientific papers has been accepted for publication; a great day is when two are accepted. (At least, it is for someone at the stage I am at in my career. For someone more advanced and more prolific, it's probably just a moderately good day.)

Together with conferences in Chicago next week and Brisbane next month, at each of which I'll be presenting two abstracts, this ensures that my last few months in the United States will be extremely busy and productive. Anne's will be also: she is writing up her doctoral thesis. But as the date draws closer, so grows our enthusiasm to be back home.

A previous expectation that I'd be co-authoring a major invited review paper was dashed a few months ago when it was revealed that the senior author had forgotten to accept the invitation, which was then offered to someone else! Easy come, easy go - while this is disappointing (and indeed, I had already devoted a considerable amount of time to this manuscript), other opportunities will arise in future.