There's a pile of marking to get through…

Hasn’t life become seriously grown-up these past few weeks? Global warming, elections and economic Armageddon. I’m sticking my head in the sand and thinking of dinner.

Monday is rump steak – with mashed potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and gravy. I’ll make a baked rice pudding with dried figs. It’s all a good reason to open a Central Otago merlot. There’s a pile of marking to get through after dinner so I’ll watch The Cider House Rules. It’s literary and intellectual so it’ll feel like school work.

Tuesday is chicken curry night. I cheat – by starting with a roasted chicken. But then I get real with a serious coconut cream based knock your socks off bright yellow curry sauce with dried apricots. And a K2-sized mountain of wild rice. I’ll get out my books on Pakistan and plan a trip into the north-west where the apricots grow and the naan is filled with dried fruit and life runs on tea. Have you all read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin? I bet the banking collapse hasn’t bothered them too much in Peshawar.

Wednesday – scallops fried in butter, served with a salad – probably lettuce with red onions and some pieces of orange. It’s good. And a good excuse for a chardonnay. Now – about that marking. I’ll shuffle it about, put it into a neat pile and stare at it. And then I think I’ll go for a walk – it’s what they invented summer for, evening walks.

Thursday – some may mock but to celebrate the near-end-of-the-week, I’ll have saveloys with tomato sauce and mashed kumara. And a movie – Apocalypse Now instead of the news which will be Armageddon Soon, again.

Friday – fish & chips from the shop on the way home from school. There’s a chardonnay in the fridge. The marking can wait til the weekend. To mark on Fridays is to bring the profession into disrepute.

Some friends will come for dinner on Saturday – beef casserole and roasted vegetables – pumpkins, onions, potatoes, kumara and garlic. And for pudding there’ll be an apple crumble with thick yellow custard and boysenberry ice cream. And we’ll play cards. The marking will get moved from the living room. It’s messy and has a bad aura. And it smells of school.

Sunday – is that marking not done yet? It’s like the economic recession that George W. Bush has been putting off for eight years. You can deny it exists, you can delay it by invading Iraq, or you can wait for someone else to deal with it.

Have you heard of peer-assessment? It’s when you get the kids to mark each other’s work. I like it.

— Peter Giddens