Vacations are for students, not for teachers

Today is the last day of my so-called off-term time, aka research period. Don't even try to call it a break or still less vacation. A friend of mine, a university teacher, used to quote her Head of Department: "Vacations are for students, not fore teachers", Indeed, off-term time is a busy period. Firstly, there are essays to mark, and as there are twice as many essays to mark as you supervise... well, that's the way it is. Then there are moderations, cross-moderations, super-moderations, hyper-moderations and all that. Just when you think it's all over, an email comes, marked URGENT, asking for additional reference letters for our students who are applying for doctoral studies. And then there are grant applications and tons of other routine work that you are trying to catch up with. So I haven't had much time for research. And tomorrow the pre-term week starts, meaning meetings, meetings and more meetings. So I am looking forward to summer vacations - sorry, research period.