Round-up of developments...

I have changed my comments so you can make comments now without having a blog. But they're open to my stern criticism so play nice!

Gavin had his first moot, unfortunately it did not quite go according to plan...

It took me an hour to complete a 15 minute underground journey due to severe delays. Fun - not!

Today we got an email inviting us to the "Official Christmas Party" - way to make it sound fun guys...

I got praise from one of our tutors for a good answer" in class today. I felt good about it and slightly less worried about failing... (please note all this talk about failing is just comical, I know I won't actually fail but I'm a tad dramatic!)

I learned today that it is possible to commit assault with Grievous Bodily Harm, on yourself. I doubt this gets enforced much... kinda like back in the day attempted suicide being a crime and the punishment being death... somewhat counterproductive methinks...

It's Christmas soon, I get to go Christmas shopping and go home and eat lots of food and hang out with my mum and dad lots! Yay! (no that is not sarcasm I'm actually really excited)!

On that note, I'm off to make a cup of tea and watch CSI!

The Road to Distinction...

... is paved with challenges.

Someone really has got it in for me and currently I am seriously thinking that getting a distinction (which is the only acceptable grade for me because I am a horrendous geek and perfectionist) is just not going to happen.

Ok, so first it was two weeks off with the infernal wisdom teeth, one of those weeks being reading week when I was supposed to catch up on all my reading.

Then, this weekend I was fully intending to do lots of work but got a visitor for the whole weekend so did nothing, and was so tired yesterday morning that I missed my first two lectures.

Today when I was fully intending on spending all day in the library - guess what happened?

Well I went in for one of the lectures I missed yesterday feeling a bit sniffly. This got progressively worse throughout the lecture and the two hours in the library that ensued. To the point that I have now had to leave the library in search of drugs and tea. This means I have to go home. This means I won't get as much work done as I should and yet another day is wasted by matters beyond my control!

Yesterday I found out about 4-5% of people get distinctions (i.e. average over 70%). Most people get Commendations which is the next grade down (Average 60-70%). 4% of 800 students - that's 32 students. THIRTY-TWO STUDENTS!!! THAT IS INSANE!!!!

I have no idea what the percentage was at University but THIRTY-TWO STUDENTS!!!

I want to be one of them, I must get to be one of them, but the way I'm going I'll be lucky if I pass... now I'm going to get drugs and hope it all goes away and the universe leaves me alone.

I've been tagged...

...by Rachel-Catherine...

I never say never but here goes, slightly modifiedly. 10 things I'm 99.9% sure I will not ever be likely to do. I imagine these should be in order of least likely as number one, but mine are just going to be random.

Voluntarily have children/give birth (you hear all kinds of horror stories though... yikes!)

Intentionally kill someone or commit a serious criminal offence

Vote Tory

Join the army or any similar fighting-related organisation

Stop liking pink, or shoes, or pink shoes or my mum and dad (I realise thats actually more than one thing but I'm trying to fit it all in!)

Date a chav or uber-religionite

Voluntarily hold a tarantula or other arachnid (although that kinda counts together with the above since holding one would probably constitute cruelty since I don't like them, but if they jump on me I don't really have much choice!)

Take drugs (apart from medication obviously, I'm referring here to like Heroin and things like that...)

Star in a reality show such as Big Brother or "I used to be a celebrity please watch me desperately plead I don't get sent out of here"

Marry someone I don't love for money or status. I'd rather have my own thanks.

I won't tag people because I don't know who would do this, but if you read my blog and do it, please link to me too!

Happy weekend!!

xx

Mooooooooooooooooot!

So, today I went to the first meeting of the Mooting Society and thus signed up for the mooting competition.

For those who can't be bothered to look at the link, mooting is basically a pretend law suit where both sides get the same problem and then argue its legal merits, one as the appellant and one as the respondent. You go off and research the law and then make a submission to the other side about your arguments, and then you argue in front of a fake judge. But if you get to the final, you'll argue in front of a real judge which is really exciting!

So I joined. Now I'm worried. What if I'm not any good at it? You get put into teams and the first round of the competition is before Xmas. So not much time to prepare. My friend, who got to the final of his law school mooting competition, has offered to train me up thankfully, which is nice. It's not the public speaking part that worries me, I'm good at that. It's actually knowing what on earth I'm talking about!

But the good thing is, now I have something else on top of my Law School work to do so I will have to get on with it and hopefully I will be much more productive. Hurrah!

Distinction, here I come!

Something about Susie...

This weekend I'm visiting Miss S at her house up North (ok, it's not really that far up but it's North of London therefore it counts as up North) and I'm being cooked for which is very nice. So to entertain myself, I've been looking at blogs and I found this and thought I would give it a go to give you some insight into Susie Law School.

150 things to do in your life - I don't know what it's for, maybe things you should do, things someone has done... but it looked like fun... oh and what I have done is in bold...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards) - obviously since I'm typing this
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper -eugh no!!!
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight -eugh no!!!
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb - I've held a piglet, does that count?
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run - by accident, mind you...
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day - not an entire day but a night out!
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states - no but I've visited 10 and will be visiting another 3 next summer with for a non-US person is quite good!
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe -eugh no!!! Me backpack? Are you crazy???
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Gone for a midnight walk on the beach - well on the way home from a night out, yes!
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - I broke theirs instead!
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight - what the hell is D&D??? Dungeons and Dragons? No... Final Fantasy YES!!!
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days - why would anyone voluntarily do this??? Would you even have survived to blog about it??
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo - no but this would be a great way to tell my mum if I had!
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas - next summer I will have!
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge - again, next summer...
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - air gun count?
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon - how many times... NEXT SUMMER!!!
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states - ironically the same number!
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office - does University count?
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream - right now I am! I'm gonna be a lawyer, woo hoo!!!
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Ok some of these are pretty lame... and I wouldn't do them in any case, but about 60 out of 150 ain't bad. Now I've bored you enough and will be off to have dinner... yum yum...

Toodles!

Old guys it's ok to fancy, Part 2

Yes, I'm still ill and not doing any work and depressed, so as a cheer-up tactic: second in my series of old guys its ok to fancy. Jason Isaacs. Need I say more?

And those of you who have no idea who he is - Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter. There's something about that hair!

Maybe I could be an air hostess...

... if I fail Law School.

It's reading week and I've been doing everything but, well reading. Now before you pigeonhole me as Procrastinator of the Year, it's not my fault. I was very much looking forward to Reading Week. I made a colour coded list of all my reading and lecture notes etc to get through during the week, and I couldn't wait to get stuck in on Monday.

Unfortunately it hasn't really worked out that way. Monday afternoon work had to be abandoned due to rising temperature. Not in the house. In me. Yes it's called a fever, kids. And it persisted all the way until Wednesday. Nothing else wrong with me, no cold, cough, headache or other accompanying ailments, just a fever.

So on Thursday I was slightly (to put it mildly) panicking about the fact that I had done no work yet, and although I had watched about 15 episodes of CSI:Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, I hadn't done anything productive legally. You can understand where the Horatio Caine thing came from now, can't you...? It all started very promisingly and I finished the lecture notes I had started on Monday before I got ill, and was thus up to date with all my lectures, but I still hadn't touched the reading or the (thankfully optional) assignment due on Monday. So I cracked on, found it hard to collect my thoughts to say the least, but punched in a good 900 words of the random thoughts in my head, thinking to return to them later in the weekend.

Now the next bit I put down to the remnants of the fever still. When I decided to stop writing to have lunch and clicked to shut down Word I, for some COMPLETELY UNKNOWN REASON, selected "no" when the PC asked if I wanted to save my work. I mean WHO DOES THAT!?!?!

(Don't answer that!)

So I got in a bad mood and went out to buy more CSI instead. I don't smoke or take drugs, CSI is my release. Deal with it.

Today I studied quite a bit but it still doesn't seem to have even made a miniscule dent to the reading material I wanted to cover this week. I worked out that I will need another 7 full days to get through it all. That would be nice if there was another reading week straight away but there isn't. So I'm officially behind. A lot. Well ok, most people would say I'm not because they don't bother to even DO the reading ever, but I am a geek and proud of it. And I will get a distinction and they won't. Ha. Although not at this rate because I'm probably going to FAIL because I've done no work.

A very dedicated student most of the time though.

So dedicated in fact that I saved getting ill until the week we don't have any scheduled classes. Go figure.

Old guys it's ok to fancy, Part 1

To begin this new series of posts is my number one favourite old-guy-to-fancy, Horatio Caine. He's so lovely... I think it's all in the voice! *



*Please note I don't really fancy David Caruso as such, just the character. There's something about him and those sunglasses!

New York New York

Stop press - Susie Law School has fallen in love. Oh yes, I have fallen in love with the gorgeous, exciting, beautiful, exhilarating and fabulous city that is New York. The Big Apple, the city that never sleeps. I am a City girl at heart, as those who know me will testify to. I love London, now I love New York.

So what's so good about it, and what's the difference? First of all, everything in NYC is high. Outside of the City and Canary Wharf, a few random buildings aside, London is essentially no more than six stories high. New York, in it's essence, is sixty. Less of Manhattan than of London seems old. I love little old houses in London, random mews cottages and Victorian townhouses, whereas Manhattan is more about the size, height and opulence. Condos replace townhouses, high-rise apartment buildings replace the cottages.

I like people. Lots of them. I like where I live because there are always people around. London has a lot of people, but they seem more concentrated to particular places. In New York, we didn't go anywhere that was even close to the exhilarating or suffocating (depending on your point of view and how much time you have to maneuvre through them) crowds of Covent Garden on a Friday night. People are everywhere but they are more evenly spaced out. In London you can turn a corner and find a completely deserted road right next to a busy area - in New York, everywhere you go there are people.

Central Park - the only thing that comes even close to this in London is Hampstead Heath and even that is forced to cough up the dust left behind by Central Park. It's like a nature reserve in the city. It has hills, little nooks and crannies, water, so many different beautiful places to see and you can truly get lost in it. Hyde Park is nice, it has pretty features and fountains and stuff but you can still essentially tell you are in the City because it is flat and there aren't that many trees. In Central Park you could just as well be in the forest miles from civilisation. The trees rise up to dizzying heights, hiding the surrounding buildings and keeping noise far away. Despite this the most spectacular views were those from the Jackie Onassis Reservoir and the meadows where park meets architecture, and the trees complement the rising Central Park Towers and Midtown skyscrapers. Gorgeous.

One thing we did miss in NYC though, were the men. I am forced to resign myself to the realisation that Americans do indeed work too hard - we did not see a single gorgeous Wall Street trader or high-flying lawyer so they must all be at work 24-7! Nor did we see any handsome specimen representing any other professions for that matter. This was a huge disappointment. London wins hands-down on this count. Ok, perhaps we just didn't know where to look but just walking down the street in London chances are you will bump into at least a few attractive males without really having to look. It's not hard work. In NYC specifically and USA generally, the talent was poor.


The Shopping!!! Shopping in New York is out of this world. Ok, so I didn't really get started until near the end, couldn't really find anything early on in the week (ok, read that as "couldn't find anything I could afford" as I found plenty of gorgeous things outside my budget) while the other two were racking up phenomenal withdrawals on their bank accounts. Even so, I stayed within budget but am still missing a few crucial items from my autumn wardrobe. However I did purchase Bruiser, a hangbag that is a chihuahua - yes I know, the Legally Blonde connection was too good to resist. In addition I bought a hat, boots, a pair of jeans, four pairs of trousers (oops, but I needed them and they fit so nicely!), a pair of trainers, three skirts, two jumpers, a cardigan, two belts, underwear, a top and two handbags. Wow is that all? The problem is though that in spite of all these trousers and skirts I still don't have tops to wear them with, or a winter coat. Which is kinda crucial. Oh dear... And what else did we do? I will not bore you to tears with a day-to-day description of what we did, if you want one of those you can ask me. Here are the main facts:

Our hotel was on W 25th and Broadway, which was an excellent location as it was bang on midtown and we had easy access to a number of subway lines. The subway was air-conditioned. That was a refreshing difference, although the stations were all truly grotty! But air-con made it seem all the more bearable! The room was about the size of a postage stamp and we had some amusing moments trying to navigate three girls getting ready in it but by the end we were champs! Breakfast was horrid and we stopped having that after about a day but generally we were happy with our little room.

We went to see Mets play Tampa Bay Mariners on the Tuesday night. The atmosphere was excellent although our seats weren't the best in the house. We had two hot dogs each and had our photo taken for the Mets website. Everything was orange and blue and what we didn't know was that that evening's game was a decider on Mets winning the series and heading up to the World Series (admittedly they got knocked out pretty sharpish but still...). So when the win was confirmed everyone went crazy! That was a nice experience and the hot dogs weren't too bad either...

The first day there (Sunday) we had a stroll around Brooklyn, then headed across Brooklyn Bridge to South Street Seaport. The weather was truly glorious, sunshine all the way, glimmering skyscrapers etc. A very good start to the week. The weather was a bit more hazy when we whizzed up 86 floors to the top of the Empire State Building. Views were still amazing though, and even though we couldn't see that far aclookross we certainly saw far down! People were so tiny! I am a great lover of heights because I like to be able to see far away and that was definitely top of the list!

The Sex and the City tour we did on Wednesday was fantastic. Abso-fucking-lutely! (For non-fans, thats from the show) The bus took us from outside the Plaza ("Your woman's so lovely, Hubble) to the Pleasure Dome to Greenwich Village. Here we stopped to have the most AMAZING CUPCAKES IN THE WORLD!!! It was from the small bakery outside which Carrie tells Miranda she has a crush on Aidan. From there we proceeded to Carrie's apartment stoop, which although located in Greenwich Village is actually portrayed to be on E 73rd in the show. We had photos taken on the steps and everything! Although apparently the woman living across the road gets really annoyed by people turning up twice a day to have photos taken! The journey continued to Aidan's bar for Cosmopolitans and concluded back at the Plaza, with lots of clips of SATC and quiz questions and all sorts! It turns out that the park where Elizabeth Taylor got gang-banged was the park across the road from our hotel, and when Carrie ran out of the taxi to get the subway to the Stock Exchange, it was the subway we would take from the end of our street!

Mostly we did lots of shopping. The only other sight-seeing thing we did was Ellis Island ferry. We went to see lots of various landmarks but didn't do any museums etc. We saw Hairspray on Broadway which was excellent - a musical just had to be done! We did no real going out apart from some cocktails at the W hotel on the last night. There were generally cocktails everywhere and they were huge! Love it!

So... in no particular order my ten best USA moments:

Having cocktails on the roof of the Market Pavilion Hotel in Charleston, SC

Riding the Gwazi rollercoaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL.

Eating gorgeous medium rare steak at Angelo & Maxi's on 23rd and Park in NYC.

Strolling down the beach at Daytona, FL

The gorgeous four-poster beds of East Bay Inn after a balmy Southern evening and dinner in Savannah, GA.

Driving on the highway with the roof down and Boys of Summer playing near Jamestown, VA.

Catching a first glimpse of the White House from the Washington Monument, DC.

Looking down from the Empire State Building and listening to the sounds of NYC.

Getting off the subway at Shea Stadium to the lights and noise from the game in Queens, NY

The Manhattan skyline from the Jackie O. Reservoir.