Let's be honest. Marking is not hard work like building roads or digging ditches. But it's bloody hard work just the same - mind numbing, soul destroying type of hard work. The jacarandas are in bloom which everyone in my part of the world knows means is final exam time. Students and those who teach them are all feeling stuffed. By lunch time my sight was blurring and head throbbing. I suspected an impending migraine but a rest breaks and pain killers fixed it in a way that wouldn't happen with a migraine. I learned a lesson I had learned but forgotten before ... less can be more. If you don't take breaks you will suffer. It's a false economy and you will just end up stuffed. So what did I do about being stuffed? A somewhat bizarre two pronged approach. Step one involved fresh air, exercise and dog love. A walk around Roma Street Parklands was a good preamble. The main game was cooking - and eating. Every time we hit marking season I start to bake. Last night it was chocolate brownies. Tonight I decided to stuff mushrooms, something it had never occurred to me to do before. With my late father's words in my ears "life is to short to stuff a mushroom", I spread my wings and stuffed mushrooms. And then I ate them. Not bad either. But will I make them again? Who knows what I will do in a marking-induced delirium. I'd ponder the question further if I didn't have marking or baking or eating or procrastinating to do
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