Here is a fun game you can play while waiting for the bus you've just missed in the snow, it's called How Shit is YOUR Loft Insulation? To be fair, it's charm is fleeting, but it is nonetheless interesting to see one house in the middle of a terrace with no snow on the roof. The other side of the coin is perhaps Just How Stingy ARE you? - wherein one knocks on the door of the most snowy house and asks when the occupant last switched their heating on.

I decide to get the bus as it is apparently too dangerous to cycle on black ice, not because I am in danger of falling off, but that the sleepy fools behind me are more likely to squish me under a bus. Still, we have one day of snow, which is more than we get most years and it's wonderful to see how utterly rubbish we are at coping.

The latest member of my team of two lasts four days. FOUR DAYS!!! I mean, I realise that the job we have for her isn't that exciting, stuffing envelopes full of exams, but still, you'd expect a little more staying power than that. She has another better, more wonderful job, apparently. So much for record unemployment and job shortages in the current financial crisis.

The guy I have covering the job at the moment is, well - his mind isn't really IN this job, which has proved quite the demand on my patience as we have exams prepared without answer books, or question papers, or both. I have been quite clear about what is going wrong and why and hopefully it is sinking in.

I think it IS sinking in. Two weeks of saying oops and being made to run around campus seems to be doing the trick but the powers that be have been surprisingly efficient in re-advertising this time so hopefully things will settle down soon. I am waiting to hear when I have to do the interview for the job I've been doing this last year again. I'm tempted to repeatedly answer I refer you to my previous statement, although I am assured that this will not sit well with the panel.

The January exam chaos is now over, thankfully and there have been a few choice moments: one student is permitted to take in his detailed notes for a 'seen' exam (one where the questions are published before the event) and is accompanied by the module leader who sits with him and explains each question just to make sure he understands. Another exam is nearly cancelled because the questions do not match the site drawings provided (of course the module leader tries to blame this on us - as if we are architects too) and many, many young dreams are broken. I have people calling me all week, students who have only just realised they are dyslexic or have broken arms or been mauled by dogs or who think that I thought it was at 10 is a valid excuse.

There are many lecturers who like to blame us for simple errors too; the duration of the exam on the paper is wrong - Well YOU signed it; students ARE allowed to take maps in with them - Well YOU signed it; this question doesn't make sense - Well YOU signed it... You get the picture. The problem is that people would rather appear stupid than admit they made a mistake, a fact that I am only too happy to exploit. Politely, in a way that they will never know. Anyway, they are still congratulating me on my marriage - I'm sure the fallout will come soon enough.

We move onto the next stage, which is preparing both for the summer exams and the next year. I am currently embroiled in a battle over module choices, I need to know what is going to be offered next year in order to prepare the paperwork for the students. The paperwork is generated by our web site, which is updated when we are told what is running. The course leaders have asked for copies of the web pages so they can tell me what the choices are. I recommend that they switch their brains back on and at least pretend to be intelligent, they go and see my boss and ask for the same thing, she comes to see me to find out what is feasible... we laugh and retire to the padded room...

So the vicious circle continues. Meanwhile, the amazing snow has mostly melted and I still feel like I am on honeymoon inside.