Just spent the last 2 days marking what must have been at least 100 Advanced Writing exam papers at the Moller Conference centre at Churchill College. Talk about a different world. While washing my hands in the gents, I wondered why the soap wasn't lathering, til I realised that, of the 2 dispensers, I had mistakenly pressed the one for handcream. I innocently asked my team leader on the phone on Friday if lunch was included. She wasn't exaggerating when she said it was the highlight of the day. Suffice to say I haven't had a meal like it since Christmas dinner. It made the grinding tedium of the work more tolerable.

The papers themselves were interesting. By far the best came from Romania- seemingly mostly by mature adult students, though some very bright younger-seeming ones. Some from Croatian youths who, like most young ex-Yugoslav students I've encountered, seemed (understandably)desperate to shake off preconceptions about the war years and prone to either melodrama, pessimism or good old-fashioned Balkan pomposity (having lived in Greece for 4 years, one of those in a flat shared with a Serb, I'm quite familiar with it).

It all comes in handy. Who knows, I might be able to afford a holiday this year after all.