Legally Blonde in London

End of an Era

2008-07-30T17:30:00.002+01:00

This is my last post as Susie Law School. After this, there will be no more. Perhaps a direction to my new as yet unknown blog, but nothing substantive. After all, this blog was about law school and law school is over. *sniff*

I'm sorry to disappoint those who were looking for more, but at least until my training contract starts, I feel I'll be unable to offer any further wisdom to those who come after me.

But you never know. I might start blogging again soon about something else, and if you're lucky I might tell you where.

It's been fun. Thank you, dear readers.

Love, SLS

P.S. In response to those who asked - yes, I did get a Distinction :-)

The end of an era

2008-06-23T18:19:00.002+01:00

Law School is over. Finished. Done. No more.

This state of affairs probably hasn't hit home just yet as it really just feels like any old post-exam day and I will wake up tomorrow thinking it's time to head to the library again.

My exams went ok, I think. None were horrific, but I did remember a few things post-Equity Finance that I know I missed out, but generally speaking ok. The Debt Finance paper was a bit evil, and seems a lot of people missed out on the last two questions due to confusing layout of the paper.

I will get back to you when I've realised it's all over. Right now it just all feels a bit surreal...

Due to popular demand...

2008-06-14T21:28:00.002+01:00

... I am back again.

When I say 'popular' I mean that 100% of comments received since my last log-on asked me to return. There was one. And that one said 'come back'. So there you go.

The sad news is, there is only just over a week of law school left. I am mostly trying to pretend this isn't the case, and get all the joy I can out of it. Of course, soon I will have to face facts and come to terms with never being a student again. Any thoughts on how to cope with that?

Not that I'm not looking forward to going to Big Law Firm and being a lawyer. It's just that, well, I'm not good at many things but I am good at studying. When I no longer have that, I need to find something else to be good at. And there might be nothing...

Something weird is going on...

2008-05-31T23:06:00.001+01:00

... there appears to be some kind of bug attacking my blawg, normal service will resume ASAP when I find my most recent posts and comments!

Apologies!

That distant rumbling...

2008-04-24T17:35:00.003+01:00

.... it's the sound of DOOM!!!

Results on Monday.

The Dreams have started, varying from getting 20% for everything to the dreaded phone call from Big Law Firm telling me I can post my cheque for £31,000 any time I like.

I'm trying to proceed in denial at the moment. Unfortunately, flashbacks of the horror that was BLP just will not quit.

Therefore, doom.

You read it here first.

All drafted out

2008-04-07T15:33:00.003+01:00

I'm not very happy about this exam. I don't think I particularly did myself justice, but I also didn't really revise very hard either and the whole thing is making me feel a bit uneasy. The trouble is there is no right answer so there is no way of knowing whether you got the marks or not.

I added up my supposed marks and think I probably managed 26 out of 50 at least, which for me is shocking. But it is a pass. And I will never know. I would imagine drafting is so subjective they can't fail people on the basis that their answers are different to the exact wording in the solution.

I do feel a little ashamed at not revising a bit more and being a little complacent about the exam. I heard last year that very good students often fail drafting because it is commonsense and subjective. Maybe I will fail. I don't want to fail. But I've always had that fear after hearing that... However I answered all the questions, and for once had enough time to check through and add some extra stuff that I feel improved my answers so hopefully that is something.

In response to anonymous who stated left this comment:

Is this diligent student thing serious? Or are you just being funny? I cant work it out. If you really were hard-working and scarily obsessive I'm not sure you'd share that fact with everyone. Give us a clue?

I'm not very clear on where anonymous got 'obsessive' from, diligent for sure, obsessive I hope not! Might I suggest you read some of my older posts, they may give you a bit of insight. Yes, it is completely serious and I'm not sure on why I wouldn't share it with everyone. I hate those people who work their backsides off and then when someone else says "oh did you work really hard for that" they go "oh no, half an hour". I work hard and I'm not afraid to admit it (although the drafting exam is not an example of this as I didn't work very hard at all, shame on me!). Hopefully it will pay off.

Drafting exam

2008-04-06T13:58:00.003+01:00

This is tomorrow. I am having very mixed feelings about it.

This is an exam. Exams are supposed to require work. I had made no plans for the weekend and prepared to work.

However, I have found this entire subject very fluffy and difficult to revise. It all seems to obvious and I'm not really sure what I should be learning.

So I haven't done very much.

Which makes me feel guilty.

But then when I try to do some, I end up putting it all away again because it seems so easy and obvious and I feel like it really can't be that hard an exam.

This worries me. Drafting doesn't strike me as particularly difficult to pass, but I am a rather diligent student, so I can't help but feel guilty when I end up doing something else, and feel like maybe I should be afraid and should do more work and learn something else.

So I pick it up again and so the cycle continues.

Stupid.

Results Day I

2008-03-31T19:13:00.003+01:00

Accounts and interviewing results today. You will all be jumping for joy to hear that I am indeed competent. Of course I am disappointed not to have obtained 100% in my accounts assessments. Unsurprisingly, I was unwilling to put myself through the ordeal of physically walking up to the wall where the results were pinned up. Instead, I relied on my trusty friend, the computer. And it did not fail me.

The whole thing was somewhat of an anti-climax. Even though in true Susie Law School style I was somewhat nervous, I don't think I ever genuinely thought I had any real chance of failing either assessment. In fact, the absence of nerve-shredding dreams filled with NYCs (Not Yet Competent) and percentage values in the low twenties suggested to me that today would indeed pass without exam-induced hysterics. This was indeed the case.

I'm sure you are all very pleased for me ;-)

What's going on...?

2008-03-12T23:40:00.003+01:00

So, new term, new tricks, right?

When I say new term, I merely mean electives have started. Last week was the first week of lectures and this week SGSs have commenced. New subjects means new groups. I liked my old group. i made friends in it. Now I must go forth and associate with new people - what a bother!

That aside, electives are very exciting. I am particularly a big fan of Equity Finance (which is basically all about listed companies and the Stock Exchange and suchlike). This week we are doing floatation - my main gripe with it is that I don't understand why it is spelled flotation as opposed to floatation, like float. Bah.

Debt is almost as good but really pales in comparison to the interest I have towards Equity Finance. My other subject is nothing very exciting as I did not get to select it - Big Law Firm did the honours for me... Can't have everything I suppose, at least I have a job to go to so mustn't grumble!

More PLR (Research memo writing) fun is currently taking place. I think I have finished mine. But the usual PLR concern of "Do I have the right answer" is going on a bit. On the positive side, research memos are quite fun which I hope bodes well for my future career. Sadly I don't feel the same way about drafting...

Drafting exam in a few weeks - I actually feel like I know absolutely nothing about it. We had a few SGSs back before Christmas but the exam felt very distant then! I am sure I can pick up a few things but currently I feel like I am going into an exam on something I am having to learn completely from scratch!

Advocacy is also part of this term's fun. And it should actually be fun. Unlike interviewing. Yuck. I might actually be good at it. Unlike interviewing. Yuck. Which reminds me interviewing results are out in a couple of weeks. Yuck.

I should end on a pleasant note - it is light at six now! This makes me very pleased and puts a spring in my step - in addition to the spring I get from Equity Finance!

Life after Law School

2008-03-02T15:23:00.002+01:00

Medically Brunette asked me whether I would continute my Blawg once Law School is over. I have often thought about this myself. The answer is, I don't know. Writing about Law School is one thing but once work starts the stakes are higher and I wouldn't really be able to rant with freedom about life at Big Law Firm. You must have read all those horror stories about people being fired for blogging about their jobs...

So the options are

1. This blawg will end and there will be no more.
2. This blawg will end and Susie Law School will resurface with an alter ego in a different blawg
3. This blawg will continue but become fictional
4. This blawg will continue but stop being about my life in the law.

Call now, calls cost 88p per minute from landlines, mobile costs may be higher. Terms and conditions apply.

During recent upgrade work...

2008-02-29T23:28:00.002+01:00

There was a glitch. It seems my blogroll reverted back to an earlier form and is all out of whack. If you used to be on my blogroll and no longer are, please let me know. If you were never on it but would like to be, let me know and I will include you if you are worthy.

Barely Likely to Pass - otherwise known as Business Law and Practice

2008-02-26T18:28:00.003+01:00

Big Law Firm: hello

Susie Law School: hi, Susie Law School here. Reckon I failed BLP.

Big Law Firm: That'll be £13,000 please.

Susie Law School: OK, thanks a lot, bye bye.

Stripper-R-Us, here I come!

The Fear

2008-02-25T15:17:00.003+01:00

"An emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight). "

I am experiencing Business Law related fear.

It is immense.

It is not aided by the fact that I get to a point where I feel like I know things, only to find something else entirely that I have not even considered.

In 25.5 hours it will all be over. Sadly said time is not sufficient for me to actually learn everything I need to know.

Fear.

Immense fear.

Exam II... and III

2008-02-22T18:26:00.005+01:00

Big day today. Civil Litigation AND Criminal Litigation both in one day! Four and a half hours of flicking through statute books, writing like a small beast and pretending my arm did not ache and it is over.

This is how it went.

Civil Litigation

Some MCQs. Some were easy, some were difficult. Sadly, my two favourite topics, foreign jurisdiction and Part 36 t offers already appeared in MCQ so no long form questions to guarantee full marks from! Managed to do all of them fairly quickly and figured there would be plenty of time for Section B (80% of the paper). Turned over to Section B and found most of it was ok, but I would have preferred different questions. Compare arbitration and mediation. talk about Tomlin orders. Case law on Summary Judgment was v sketchy. Wasn't sure what part of Security for Costs was for what part of the question, put it all down but wasn't sure if it was in the right sections. Disclosure was a disaster. Thought it would be easy marks but managed to completely confuse myself. Also completely confused myself in Particulars of Claim. This should not happen!! I am clever, I work hard. I should be ble to get many many marks for this stuff! Goodbye 100%...

Criminal Litigation

This paper was a dream!!! No rush, got everything down I wanted to say, apart from think there was more to say about bail than I said but wouldn't be too many marks. Case study was almost identical for Formative Assessment!

At least the day ended on a high.

Business Law is on Tuesday. Another very long day and bound to be the toughest. Back to the library I go tomorrow...

Exam madness

2008-02-21T22:58:00.000+01:00

Enoug said

I really should check my emails...

2008-02-19T23:45:00.002+01:00

It seems I've been featured on LawCareers.net! It was very useful to me before I got a training contract and now I'm being featured! So exciting!

Thank you for the heads up those who told me, particularly Asp on comments, as I wouldn't have known otherwise and may have missed it altogether! And there was an email about it from LawCareers but silly me hadn't got to it yet. But yay!

Keep reading, kids!

Exam I

2008-02-19T17:01:00.007+01:00

Property Law and Practice was the longest exam I have ever done. And is likely to remain the longest until the New York Bar at least. I mean it actually WAS the longest, three hours and 15 minutes. I left 10 minutes before the end having finished my answers a good ten minutes earlier. This asn't happened to me since my undergraduate exams - I finished early! Oh except for Accounts but that wasn't a real exam...

That in itself is not however, an indication that the exam went well. I had high hopes for this one. I felt like I knew it.

Section A was multiple choice, not a big fan actually. They try to catch you out wit really tiny detail so youneed to be mega-careful to read the question exactly and not miss anything! I got lots of D's. There is of course no statistical probability involved so they could all be D's but it did not inspire confidence.

Section B was about registered land. It was fine, mostly, but I thought for a while I was running out of time and started rushing and possibly didn't answer the middle questions as well as I could have done. There was a professional conduct question which totally threw me and even though I think I got some of the points, I certainly missed out talking about the fact that it isn't in the client's best interest to lie to their mortgage lender... bah.

Section C was on leases, my least favourite topic area. Many were hoping for a big question on Security of Tenure but instead said topic was in MCQs. I hadn't looked at Landlords' Licences in enough detail so missed out a lot of points on section C. Not amused.

Next one is on Friday, litigation. Two papers, one in morning one in afternoon. Am hoping it will go better!

T minus 12 hours

2008-02-18T23:12:00.002+01:00

First exam tomorrow. Property Law and Practice.

You will pleased to know tat today I got to that point were you feel like you know a lot of stuff and just want to get to the exam and see what the questions will be like.

I did a past paper, timed, managed 88% which was nice, but this of course means nothing in real terms. It did reassure me that I do actually know quite a bit of stuff though! It also reassured me that there probably won't be such a godawful rush as last year, and I actually have a decent chance of finising the wole paper.

Watch this space! And wish me luck of course.

Last year...

2008-02-13T17:08:00.001+01:00

...someone apparently got 100% for Business Law and Practice.

Would be nice. Doable? Perhaps not...

2008-02-02T17:01:00.000+01:00

This week students at London Law School were invited to provide feedback on their experiences on the LPC. Despite the fact that the majority of my fellow students compare the LPC to the equally-pleasant experience of having one's eyelashes plucked off one at a time with sharp, heated tweezers, while a 2-tonne weight is balanced on their right foot, I have actually enjoyed it. A lot. I can't wait to be a lawyer.

But how do I know if I'll be any good? How does anyone?

One spends hours labouring over application forms, telling firms about excellent communication skills, team-work, attention for detail, commercial awareness... you get the idea. Then they invite you for interview and it is more of the same, with well-thought out illustrative examples from a previous life. However, that is just practice, learning what questions could come up and what answers make firms bend over backwards to offer you a position. So how is one supposed to know whether one will be a great lawyer - an Atticus Finch or Denny Crane? Or whether one will become a statistic, one of the 1.5 people in professional conduct class who apparently WILL be struck off.

For one, the LPC is very artificial in many ways, consider Practical Legal Research or Interviewing and Advising. Will any of the skills* learned actually translate themselves to being useful in practice? Short of "that guy paying your fees with a suitcase full of cash covered in white powder is not suffering from extensive dandruff, he is money-laundering" - how much of the LPC will actually be relevant to real life law? Will budding lawyers not just learn many things by Mr Supervisor barking at them how to do things when after an all-nighter in the office it turns out they got the whole task completely backwards?

It is a slight fear of mine that I will not be a good lawyer. I love it, I can't wait to do it, but what if it turns out I am genuinely completely abysmal at it? I am doing well on the LPC, I have good academics, I have work experience... but what if I'm simply missing the lawyer-gene which no amount of hard work can substitute? Then what?

*Of course the same applies much less to actual law, since obviously one will need to understand the ins and outs of share issue and conveyancing to be able to get started as a lawyer... but still?

Something wicked this way comes

2008-01-23T14:38:00.000+01:00

And I don't mean wicked as in evil. I mean wicked as in excellent.

Dear readers, you may be in shock if my blawg is a new feature of your daily life. But my more established readers will not be surprised.

EXAMS ARE COMING!!!

I like exams. I like revision, suffice to be said. I have been spending some time this week going over what needs to be done in terms of revision, and putting together a revision timetable. And I must say I'm very excited!

The pre-Christmas mock examinations went very well (78% upwards well, in fact some papers very much upwards!) and this has erased some of the horror from last year's exam hell of my first two papers.

In other news - someone suggested a money-making idea in the form of publishing my blawg as advice to budding lawyers. I always have fancied being a published author but I can't see who would want to a) publish something I wrote and pay me money or b) buy it!

But secretly I've already been designing the cover of course...

2008-01-10T19:13:00.000+01:00

Now that Law School is back in session and rapidly approaching its end, the time has come to consider my next steps. In other words, think of something respectable, yet fun to do before I start my surely-glittering career at Big Law Firm. I have some ideas, most of which take place outside the confines of the United Kingdom, however I have encountered the age old problem - somehow I will need to fund my escapades.

I have some money. Not very much. Big Law Firm has paid me a nice little grant for law school and Mr. Bank Manager has been kind enough to provide some extra. However, I now wish I had asked for a little MORE extra. I feel it may be too late and in any case I doubt that "I need to extend my loan by £4000 to fund jet-setting around the world for a few months after Law School" is simply not going to fly with him.

Obviously some of the time between Law School and Law Firm will need to be spent working. However, having carried out some preliminary calculations, I would have to earn a rather unlikely hourly wage to have sufficient capital to go securely from June to my start date in early 2009. This hourly wage could of course be obtained through somewhat underhand methods, but despite my career choice as a lawyer, I still have some morals left. And I would hate to be struck off before I even qualify for soliciting of a completely different kind.

The biggest problem is rent. Namely paying it. If I didn't have to pay rent all would be well. I have to manage 13 months rent until my first paycheck. I have enough money to do that at present, but once I've done it, there will not be a great deal left unless I cut out luxuries such as food, electricity and travelling to Law School. So subletting looks like the most viable option, which unfortunately cuts out a lot of my flexibility on how to spend my time.

The crux of this post is this. I need to make some money. A part-time job is of course the most likely option, but I would need to find one that earned me significantly more than the minimum wage in order to be able to spend the very small available part of my time at work. So I turn to you, dear readers. Any other ideas? LEGITIMATE ones only, please.

Susie's back... back again...

2008-01-05T21:21:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year, one and all! I hope you are all sufficiently well fed and rested, ready for new challenges.

My holiday at home with Mum and Dad Law School was lovely, thanks for asking.

This year has so far not started so well though. But here are some thoughts to get you going.

1. Isn't it amazing how failure in one sphere of your life can have a completely debilitating impact on your self-esteem in all other areas? As much as one tries to be rational about such things, it is sometimes quite hard to pigeonhole one area of life from others. Let us say, hypothetically, you failed your driving test. This could easily lead to some, albeit temporary, sentiment, that you are also stupid and will fail all your exams.* Currently I'm experiencing some self-doubt of this kind. I'm a rational person and I know it's not a permanent state of affairs, and I know that this said failure does not imply inadequacy in other areas but it SUCKS!

2. The above has led me to further consider the fact that I'm not really very good at anything. I'm above average in some things, but I'm not really great at anything. This probably is true of most people, but it is rather irritating. It would be nice to have something at which I am just really really good. I realise this is my competitive streak rearing its ugly head again but it's been so quiet recently!

3. This leads me to my final point which is to tell you that Competitive Susie lost out in the end, and Logical Susie powered through with the outlining. The mocks went somewhat ok, of course results will only arrive next week and at that point we shall see how well she fared.

Apologies for the somewhat negative and philosophical stance to this post, the year has started disappointingly thus I have decided to pass on the (lack of) joy to you, dear readers, and hope this will have a cathartic effect on the near future at least!

*FAOD I passed my driving test eight years ago, this is just an illustrative example.

Festive fun

2007-12-18T21:03:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays from Susie Law School

No animals or polar ice caps were hurt in te making of this game but it's great fun! Only managed a score of 312m so far... sure I can do better!

Mock examining

2007-12-10T22:38:00.000+01:00

Next week we have mock exams. Three of them to be exact - one for each compulsory subject.

The consensus in law school is that most people are anticipating abject failure. Apparently the average mark last year was an impressive 30%. Considering the mark required to pass the final exams is 50% I felt this fosters a great deal of confidence in the fact that since most people passed their final exams, there is enough time to do all the revision well between now and the end of February. As a result many of my peers are planning to carry out minimal revision and prepare to perform the happy dance if they succeed in obtaining over 30% in the mock exams (seeing as that would be deemed 'above average').

However, the situation has created within me considerable cognitive dissonance.

In one corner is the Logical Susie. She accepts there really is not enough time for the kind of decent revision between now and next week that would be required for say a 60-70% outcome. Therefore she has decided the best course of action is to instead focus on detailed consolidation and do what she can in the mocks, and not worry if the result is less than encouraging. It is all about experiencing what the exams will be constructed and suchlike.

In the other corner, however, is Competitive Susie. She is thinking that really it would not do to fail the mocks. This is despite the fact that they are entirely insignificant and most people improve greatly from their mock result when they sit the final exam. She is wanting to do all she can to maximise the points she can score, and see exactly how well she COULD do, to provide confidence for the impending final exam revision and at least a small smidgeon of self-satisfaction.

Currently Logical Susie is winning. She has convinced me to sit down and carry out very diligent consolidation activities which, although taking longer than superficial cramming, is providing me with a much better in-depth understanding of the topics and which should put me in good stead come exam-time.

However, notwithstanding this victorious outcome, I fear it is highly unlikely that Logical Susie will be able to convince Competitive Susie not to be too disappointed when she averages 29% in the mock exams...

Invaluable LPC advice

2007-12-04T22:37:00.000+01:00

Last year I reported my puzzlement with outlining.

In academic study this was never appealing to me in any other sense than revision notes. I still maintain it is just revision notes but I can see the as due to the different teaching styles across the pond where revision only becomes similar at a later stage in education when big nasty finals start to rear their ugly head.

In comparison to academic study the LPC is a whole different beast altogether. Gone are the days when you would have a lecture on a topic one week and then a seminar on the same topic the week after. Now everything is all over the place, information strewn across the curriculum left right and centre.

So, I have started outlining.

Ok when I say outlining I really mean that instead of making revision notes by hand I am doing them on my trusty PC. The significant benefit of this being that I can write down all the information from my lectures and seminars, combine pieces of law from enough pieces of paper to annihilate all the forests in Sweden, and then work out what is linked together and move it all around. Obviously with handwritten notes once you've written it down, the whole thing becomes much more confusing if you realised something else was relevant and you didn't put it in!

Potentially, dear readers, you may feel this is one of my less enticing topics. However, there is a point to it. The point is - consolidate. When they say this all the time on the LPC they are not kidding. The contents are bitty, you get lots of pieces of information and it is up to you to make sense of it.

So, boys and girls, do not leave it all until the last minute. No time like the present. You will thank me later.

Interviewing and failing...

2007-12-01T12:21:00.000+01:00

My interviewing and advising exam is in the near future*. I am concerned.

Let me give you a short explanation. You go into a room with a client. You have twenty minutes. They tell you their problem. You ask them questions about the bits they have missed out and you need to know. Then you give them some advice, a few options and advantages and disadvantages of each.

In usual LPC style the assessment is highly artificial. You have to say certain things in certain order in a certain way. You have to summarise what the client has said at particular times of the interview. There are about 6-7 points you can ask them questions on. Some of these are crucial - i.e. if you don't get that information, you will fail. This makes sense, as it is information that will change your advice. Others are less important.

As a great surprise to myself I was competent in my mock assessment. This was despite only asking two questions, and forgetting to set out my advantages and disadvantages of my options in the required way. In other words I told the client what they were but I didn't say stuff like "the advantages of Option 1 are..." etc.

I don't normally suffer from nerves. In my previous job I spent hours and hours talking to clients. Daily. A situation where they asked me something and I had to totally wing it is not unknown.

So why is it that this twenty-minute jumping-through-hoops exercise is so difficult to contend with? Bah!

*excessive detail could out me, so try to cope without knowing exactly when it is.

Work glorious work!

2007-11-15T19:05:00.001+01:00

Currently I have a surplus of it. I started consolidation this week and that was actually quite helpful, particularly for property which I was slightly despairing with originally but now am pretty confident it will be fine...

I've just completed a 'to-do'-list for the five remaining weeks of term and it is looking pretty full. To be honest, I prefer it that way as it will motivate to work hard.

Mock exams take place te last week of term - one in property, one in BLP (Business Law and Practice) and one in Civil Litigation. I mused briefly with the idea of just turning up and doing my best without any revision but that thought didn't last long - instead I've decided to attempt a reasonable amount of revision for two reasons:

1) I want to get an idea of what the exams will be like in a more realistic way - my downfall on the conversion was not knowing what to expect in exams!
2) There will be less work to do for the actual exams as I will have already gone through the topics in the mocks and can simply alter or supplement my revision notes.

Organising what work to do is such fun. Doing it is sometimes a rather different matter... wish me luck!

My Sunday Gripe

2007-11-11T13:19:00.001+01:00

Small children running amok in supermarkets.

Should not be allowed.

But it is a lovely sunny day so I will let it go for now.

LPC - preparing you for practice?

2007-11-07T12:43:00.000+01:00

In case anybody hadn't realised, the LPC is essentially pretty artificial. Makes sense really - I mean, you can't really simulate real law firm conditions all the time and by default some of it has to be adapted.

Let's take a Legal Research assessment. You get given a question, you go off an research it. In practice, this is something a trainee solicitor is very likely to do, so it makes perfect sense it is assessed on the LPC.

However, there is something inherently artificial about this situation. In practice, if you have any questions about what is required, you will trot off to your supervisor and ask them kindly to ring up the client for clarification. This is not an option in Law School.

So you could theoretically fail this skill that is required from a lawyer, not because you cannot do the research, but because you don't have a supervisor or client to tell you what it is they really want you to answer.

Way to teach real lawyering skills.

Roll Call

2007-11-01T20:26:00.000+01:00

Dear readers

You will be very pleased to hear this week I have been working very hard and am feeling much better about the lack of reading that took place during Reading Week.

Yesterday I spent five hours with Business Accounts and didn't even realise, because I was enjoying it so much! It is a special moment when your Assets minus Liabilities equals your Capital on a balance sheet.

Anyway, during a period of study I was contemplating my blawg. And I was wondering how many people actually read it.

So, here is your challenge dear reader. If you read this on a regular basis (yes, mum, that includes you!) please post a comment and say hi. As you know you can be anonymous. But I would like to know if I actually have any regular readers, or whether I'm just sitting here writing for the benefit of myself and various computer-generated adverts.

Oh and PS. there is a new blogger on my blogroll - the aptly named Law School Blogger.

Now it might just be me, but I think he looks oretty hot! Provided those are actual photos of him and not his better looking older brother.

A bit of fun waste of time...

2007-10-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

thanks to fellow legally blonde...

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night. Lady I live with.

2. What were you doing at 0800? Getting ready to go to school.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Probably facebook...

4. What happened to you in 2006? I went to Law School. Got a Training Contract. Started my blawg. And many other things you need not concern yourselves with.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? "Oh I don't like her either" to my housemate about the annoying lady in Spooks.

6. How many beverages did you have today? Bottle of water. Two cups of tea. Coke and glass of milk (not together).

7. What color is your hairbrush? Brown.

8. What was the last thing you paid for? Cup of tea this evening in the bar I went to. Yes tea in a bar. Get over it. It's very cosmopolitan.

9. Where were you last night? Dancing, then home.

10. What color is your front door? Brown?

11. Where do you keep your change? In my purse. Where else?

12. What’s the weather like today? Pretty crispy sunny autumn day! Although now it is dark, alas.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Just one? Phish Food. No Raspberry. No chocolate mint, no... yeah you get the picture....

14. What excites you? Many things. Exactly how lame would it be to say Law?

15. Do you want to cut your hair? No, I prefer someone else to do it... but I don't want it any shorter than it is.

16. Are you over the age of 25? Sadly, yes.

17. Do you talk a lot? Of course.

18. Do you watch the O.C.? Yes, but not anymore because they cancelled it... still haven't seen Season 4 though!

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? I know a Stephen. So technically I guess not.

20. Do you make up your own words? Probably. I tend to combine words a lot...

21. Are you a jealous person? Of men? No. Of people with Manolo Blahnik Mary Janes? Yes.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Abigail.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Katy.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? My Law School friend I went out with this evening.

25. What does the last text message you received say? "I don't really want to tell you that!!!

26. Do you chew on your straw? No.

27. Do you have curly hair? Not without copious amounts of styling.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? Probably to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. I realise this is making it sound like I drink a lot of tea, I don't actually, it's just been a tea day today.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Um... nobody I'm friends with...

30. What was the last thing you ate? Garlic Bread.

31. Will you get married in the future? I hope so but it's not a mandatory experience.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? I haven't seen many films recently. Particularly good ones. Probably Dirty Dancing the other weekend.

33. Is there anyone you like right now? I like lots of people, my friends, family... ok ok I realise I am being facetious and this means romantically... not really, there are some things in the pipeline but I'm too busy to care!

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? The dishwasher does the dishes.

35. Are you currently depressed? No. But asking "currently" sounds like it's a common everyday exper

36. Did you cry today? no.

37. Why did you answer and post this? I was bored waiting for CSI: New York to start.

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey. Na.

Back in action

2007-10-30T22:11:00.000+01:00

So Reading Week passed with little reading taking place. I pursued some Business Accounts related work on Saturday - so much fun, lots of maths involved! :) However I soon realised where I had gone wrong during Reading Week.

Here's the thing. I did actually do a fair bit of work over the week. I did everything I had to do and a bit extra. Not everything I wanted to do, but enough. Yet I was left feeling a smidgeon guilty about my failure to work hard during the week 'off'.

This was clearly because I had decided to do lots of work, then didn't feel like it and spent some of the time I had set aside to work doing other stuff. Of course relaxation is crucial. And I did have various pre-scheduled social engagements taking place. However this was not the problem.
What I should have done was set aside a couple of days when I wasn't going to do any work and spend those days specifically not doing any work. Scheduled chilling-out time so to speak. Then some other days would have been work days and my studying would have been more concentrated. I probably still would have got the exact same amount of work done, but felt less bad about my time spent not doing work.

So clearly, it's all about how you spin it. And in the spirit of this newfound wisdom, I spent Sunday doing absolutely nothing.

Susie Law School v The Library

2007-10-24T18:00:00.000+01:00

Staying at home didn't work out well on Monday. After typing up the first part of my research memo, I pretended to do research on the second part and spent most of the morning chatting to Mummy Law School and most of the afternoon talking to a boy. And then I went out for the evening.

I am in principle against studying at home, because home is for relaxing and I don't want to get it confused with work. The TV doesn't really distract me because I don't watch a lot of TV. The internet, however, does. And everything is fine as long as I don't have to do work on something online. Unfortunately my research had to be done online. You can see where it all went wrong...

Yesterday was better and I completed the research on the second part, decided it leave it in peace and think about it for a couple of days, and do some other work. But turns out stuff I needed was at school. So today I went to school. Only to find out that additional stuff I needed was at home! So I came home and have worked for a couple of hours.

Generally speaking, studying isn't going well at the moment but I have finally worked out the problem.

I don't like the library at this year's law school as much as the last one, or at University. Normally I have easily found a good spot to study, and stayed there like a happy little law student.

No such luck this year. The new library is dark and horrible, with stupid low ceilings. I like to be near a window but that doesn't seem to be an option unless I sit in one of those nasty little cubicle things, which just don't work for me. I need space. But you only get space in the middle where there is no natural light.

Ergo I blame the Law School for my lack of motivation and poor (current and hopefully temporary) work ethic! And will be staying home tomorrow. Sans turning on the computer.

Reading week

2007-10-22T09:48:00.000+01:00

It's Reading Week. Or what is otherwise known as "week off doing any work and then having a panic at the end when you realise you should have been doing work"

Of course none of my regular readers will be the bit least surprised that I actually plan on studying a lot this week. Today I will mostly be attacking my Legal Research coursework. Obviously I want it to be good but it seems somewhat frustrating to complete a piece of work and work hard at it, only to be assessed as "competent" or "not yet competent". That basically means that a person who got 90% is as good as a person who only got 51%. This does not bode well for my competitive streak!

However, for one day only I am conducting an experiment and staying home, instead of hitting the library - this may be a mistake.

The pros are that I only just got up, and feel rested and refreshed, there is no transport involved (well I am going out this evening but that's a whole different issue), and I will save money on lunch. The major con is that I am a library bunny at heart, and working at home sometimes poses distraction problems.

Best get on with it, wish me luck!

Unintentional Hiatus

2007-10-09T22:11:00.000+01:00

Hello children,

I have been very sparse in my posting recently, and I apologise. This has by no means been for any other reason that I haven't managed to think of anything of value to write about.

Unfortunately the case is still the same, and I feel bad about letting you down. I'm still enjoying Law School, as I'm sure you would expect. Although Iam still pretty convinced I will fail interviewing because I just cannot think of the right questions to ask quickly enough.

I started Tax Law over the weekend which was very enjoyable, and I'm quite looking forward to accounts which I will be starting in a couple of weeks. It will all be fine apart from interviewing. Hmpf.

I promise I will try my hardest to think of something fun and law school-related to post about soon. Honest.

What are they actually teaching us?

2007-09-15T09:35:00.001+01:00

Here is a little low-down on what I think so far...

Interviewing and advising

I am going to fail this. Ok, hopefully not, but I'm certainly not feeling particularly confident. Basically what happens is that you get a bit of law in advance. Then you go in, meet a "client" for the first time, and interview them and give them advice on a legal problem based on the bit of law.

I have no trouble with the "client rapport" bit. Eye-contact, sympathetic noises, politeness etc. That bit is fine. However - working out the correct questions to ask and giving the right advice is a whole different matter! I so far have managed to get this completely wrong every time, and missed out something important, or downright just got the facts entirely backwards. I don't really see how this will improve, seeing as the problem is different every time so can't exactly prepare that much in advance.

Mock assessments start in October. Watch this space.

Business Law and Practice

I like this so far. Many people don't. Mostly those are the people who don't understand it though I think. Ok, so there is quite of lot of statute which I'm not so keen on, but I have an interest in the subject area, so I am enjoying the course at least until now. I can't wait to get to the juicy bits like share issues and stuff (although possibly I need to wait until the electives to really get into that...)!

Legal Writing

I don't have much to say about this. It's basically learning to write in a lawyer-like way. Evidently that doesn't mean using lots of latin and complex constructions. It's all about brevity and Plain English. Common sense really. You might imagine most people reaching Law School would have some skill in writing, but apparently that would be an incorrect assessment.

Practical Legal Research

Using hardcopy sources in the library find out the name of the defendant's dog in the case involving a border dispute, taking place somewhere in Nottinghamshire between 1567 and 1701. Hours of fun.

Property Law and Practice

I know what you are thinking. And no, apparently it isn't Land Law. It's a whole different kettle of fish it would seem. The lecturer at least is very good, and when she asked how many people hated land law about 90% of arms went up in the air, including her own. Not mine, incidentally. I am ambivalent towards Land Law. We haven't had a Small Group Session yet so the jury's out. I don't think I will love this, I also don't think I will hate it. I imagine I will happily do the work like a good little law student, and mostly enjoy it. But not as much as BLP or some other subjects though.

Civil and Criminal Litigation

This sounds fun. I am not planning on becoming a litigator, but isn't every young to-be-lawyer's dream ultimately based on picturing themselves in a courtroom, cross-examining the hostile witness and making them break down in floods of tears to confess that, yes, in fact they DID kill their husband/wife/lover/annoying postman?

PCFS

That's Professional Conduct and Financial Services. Seems straightforward enough, there isn't much to it. However, I fear I won't spot the professional conduct issues as they will apparently come up in all the different exams secretly. And if you miss one out in interviewing, you will fail. Ugh.

Still to come

Business accounts and solicitors' accounts. These involve numbers. I like numbers. All is well.

Revenue law. Again, numbers. All good.

Probate and administration of estates. Death doesn't appeal to me but I suppose this is the closest I will come to using Equity and Trusts Law on the LPC so I shouldn't complain.

Advocacy. See "Civil and Criminal Litigation". It's all about courtroom etiquette, and conducting fake trials and stuff. Sounds like great fun!

Drafting. A bit like legal writing but not. It's actually writing specific legal documents. This could go either way. I guess it depends on whether I will be any good at it.

I think that is all. So far so good. I hear people aren't supposed to enjoy the LPC and it's supposed to be boring, but so far I don't think so. I guess we'll see in a few months and see if I was wrong...

2007-09-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

Whilst in my professional conduct class last week, I had a rather sobering, and terrifying, thought. I believe I have mused along these same lines earlier but it is becoming more and more real. I am actually going to be a lawyer. The professional conduct class in particular helped hammer this point home, as I really cannot imagine that I would have enough integrity to not accidentally reveal my client's secrets to someone or sleep with them by mistake... perhaps I should have gone for a less pressured career with less responsibility. Like a shelf stacker in Tesco's. Maybe they are still hiring.

Early observations

2007-09-05T20:52:00.000+01:00

The LPC is volume-wise very heavy. Apparently more so at the beginning, then the workload eases off. I would have to agree, on first look, that this is certainly the case. I have plenty of preparation to be getting on with already and my first lecture isn't until tomorrow! But I like stuyding and being busy so all is well.

You have to be VERY organised on the LPC. This is mostly because you don't get told anything. All the information you need is in the packs you are given and you are expected to know what to do with it. This is a huge difference to the GDL where everything was spoonfed from Day 1. I don't mind this, I like organising stuff, but I can imagine it could lead to confusion for some people who aren't prepared to take much responsibility for their own timekeeping.

"Constructive feedback" is just another word for "slagging off". For interviewing and advocacy we have to present to the class or to each other and then receive feedback from them. I can't imagine anything worse than standing up in front of other law students and having them tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'm not so keen on criticism per se, but at least when it is coming from a more senior person like a boss or tutor, I feel a bit more like it is justified. Coming from other students it just feels like plain old slagging off. Yuck.

I'm very excited about Accounts and Revenue Law. Perhaps Tax Law is where my future lies!

My last first day

2007-09-03T21:57:00.000+01:00

The first day on the LPC is really nothing to get too excited about, but I already knew that from last year. There is a pep-talk about taking responsibility for your own learning and suchlike (some poor girl in the back fainted, it wasn't THAT boring), a tour of the building, and a couple of hours with our personal tutor handing in various forms.

This afternoon I spent two hours going through the timetable, which is quite frankly insane. It isn't the same every week, and there is a whole lot of compulsory independent learning to be done, so I am currently trying to decide on the best way to organise my work... I feel it's more important I try to get on top of what I need to do and when first, before I actually start doing it tomorrow.

On that note, I am returning back to my insane timetable.

Preparations for my first day on the LPC

2007-09-02T15:59:00.001+01:00

So, tomorrow it begins. The Legal Practice Course, or what could be dubbed the Largely Pointless Course, if many more experienced legal minds are to be believed.

I have my multiple choice quiz answers, which I am not particularly convinced are correct, but I believe I've made a sufficiently good effort that they will not be showing me the door as soon as I arrive.

I have my multi-coloured forms, bearing my signature, as evidence that I agree to attend/to let them know if I cannot attend/to not look for porn on the Law School computers etc etc. (Somewhat disturbingly I have also agreed to follow the student regulations, but a copy will only be available after I've handed in the form... something fishy here... if only I knew anything about contract law ;)...)

I have my SRA (Solicitors' Regulation Authority) forms, to say I am enrolled as a student member and they are satisfied I am of good character and have not, in the past, been caught doing anything unsavoury. Such as looking for porn on the Law School computers.

I have my stationery all ready, apart from little page tags, which they didn't have in WHSmith, or Ryman, and a new pencil case and everything. I feel like it truly is, first day of school. Albeit this being my last EVER first day of school. Sniff.

I have my little airhostess suitcase ready to bring home yet another pile of law books, to take the spot of the ones from last year that I just about managed to fit under the bed, out of the way.

But most importantly - I have new shoes. They are possibly the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen, but to describe them to you lovely readers could reveal my secret identity. Suffice to say they are -for once- not pink!

Wish me luck!

Normal service resumes in 3...2...1...

2007-08-18T18:58:00.000+01:00

I do solemnly declare that I am finally back for good!

After my six-week shenanigans looking around the US of A, I then spent two weeks visiting Mum and Dad Law School, but now I am back.

So here is the update.

I have yet to receive any correspondence from London Law School regarding enrolment day. I wonder if I should be concerned that the Law Firm hasn't paid my fees, or if this is merely another prime example of the inherent poor administration and bureaucracy that the legal world is somewhat notorious for... I have, of course, received the inane and tedious multiple choice test on substantive law to be completed by the first day. And because I am a good little law student, I already picked up the pre-programme reading for Business Law and Practice. However I have yet to actually commence reading it... watch this space!

Many of you will be disappointed to find that I declined the PC's offer of a date. So, alas, there are no amusing anecdotes on that front. Of course I did later wish he had looked like David Boreanaz (or even David Caruso!) as the story of 'how did you guys meet' would have just been too juicy for words!

There is a new blawger on the block, Reggae Barrister who has just started an LLB via external learning... crazy fool some would say, but I say good luck!! And also, I am flattered to have been a small inspiration to a fellow blawger!

To the person who posted a comment which has not been published, I hope you know who you are, the reason I did not publish your comment was because it referred to you knowing me through an alter ego, and since Susie Law School is and will remain anonymous to most people, I have chosen to keep you kind comments to myself. But please keep reading and glad you like it!!

All hail Lucius Malfoy. Yum.

My brush with the law

2007-07-31T12:03:00.000+01:00

I'm a nice, law-abiding person. Clearly I have in the past crossed the road on a red light or driven slightly above the speed limit, but I would draw the line at saying that burglary or criminal damage are acceptable pastimes.

However, yesterday, I was stopped and searched by the BTP (British Transport Police for those who do not know). On my way to get the underground into town, I was stopped by a perfectly nice policeman who explained that they were doing "random" searches under the Terrorism Act, looking for suspicious materials such as newspaper cuttings, explosives etc. The reason why "random" is in quotemarks will become glaringly obvious shortly... the sharpest of you will have worked it out already, I'm sure.

So he looks in my bag - the most cursory of searches really, and we have a little chat about the Terrorism Act and he wrote down my details and suchlike. As a good little law student I obviously asked what the information was going to be used for and all the answers I received were satisfactory. I got to keep the little pink (yes, PINK!!!) piece of paper and everything, so this was all very exciting.

I can hear you ask - how likely is a little blonde twenty-something to be involved in terrorism? (If you've watched season 2 of 24 you may think it is actually pretty likely). You may think this incident inspires confidence in the police and is evidence that they are carrying out truly random searches where gender or ethnicity are irrelevant.

After the policeman had given me my little piece of paper, he asked me out on a date.

Random search or blatant abuse of power?

I'll let you decide.

Legally Blonde Returns

2007-07-27T17:52:00.000+01:00

So I have finally returned.

To the impatient person who asked why I hadn't posted my results, I suggest you read below where I stated I would be away for six weeks looking at the world. As much as I have a soft spot for my lovely readers, I hate to tell you that updating my blawg was not my top priority when the other choice was sightseeing and shopping.

I did get my results, they weren't as good as I would have liked, I only managed a Commendation which I am not happy about but seeing how badly I felt many of my exams went at the time, I suppose I can't really complain. However it is all over now so there is no need to discuss it any further.

I have just finished Harry Potter and cried. Now I must start actually organising my life having been away from it for so long. I will update you on my journey soon enough. Patience children.

San Francisco

2007-06-20T08:17:00.000+01:00

I will warn my more legally-minded readers that the next few weeks will be filled with musings of my trip around the States, because it must be documented and this is as good a place as any.

I still have vague memories of dragging myself out of bed at 3.45am to head off to the airport last year for the East Coast trip. This time, it was only a 6.15 wake-up call but I was anticipating a much more tired Susie at the end of the longest day ever, seeing as by the time we got to bed last night, it was 6am the next day in the UK and we had been awake for 24 hours. I should point out at this stage that upon return from New York last year I remained awake for 36 hours, and that longer periods are only to come once I start at The Law Firm so this really wasn’t so bad, but having only had 5 hours of sleep a night the three previous nights, this was somewhat more of an achievement.

Our journey half-way across the globe what mostly uneventful. Sitting on a plane is one of my least favourite activities along with dining on arsenic and bathing with tarantulas, but eleven hours passed surprisingly quickly watching quality cinematographic productions such as The Holiday and Music & Lyrics.

I actually really liked both. Sue me.

Miss B and her friend (who had no choice in the matter) came to collect us from the airport which was very nice. San Francisco welcomed us with a lovely sunny and clear day, and not a hint of the famous fog. Our hotel was rather well-chosen seeing as it is practically on Union Square, bang in the centre of all the shops and even on the same block as Macy’s! This was clearly a sign that it should be the destination of our first shopping trip, for me to purchase some MAC products… I’ve been scrimping along with the tiniest ions of eyeshadow as I knew I would be coming to the land of the free and the home of the cheaper brands!

The same afternoon we sampled the delights of the MUNI by getting two buses to the Golden Gate Bridge and walking half way along it. It was rather impressive and Miss B was correct when she said we would get cold in the wind (she cheated as she had already been to see the bridge earlier).

Views were very nice though.

There is only so much bridge a girl can walk along, thus we proceeded to get another bus back to the centre and after a brief interlude to get changed we headed for a 50s diner across the street – very all-American of us.

On Thursday our first stop was to be the pier to inquire about boats. Having spent the last two months firmly placed in my seat in the library, I was more than happy to do some walking when Miss B suggested it. We walked through North Beach – which was flagged out to us as a good area for bars and suchlike. However, all we managed to spot were rather seedy looking places and strip-joints. Perhaps we were looking in the wrong direction…

We tried to avoid the huge hills – obviously San Francisco is hilly, everyone who has seen a movie taking in the city that has a car chase scene will know this. Obviously people do not drive in such a haphazard manner on a daily basis. This is to our advantage as pedestrians though. Our walk took us down to Fisherman’s Wharf whereupon we were directed to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz boats. It baffles me why there are only odd-numbered piers, as pier 33 was preceded by Pier 31. Numerically bizarre, but distance-wise nice for our little feet.

Unsurprisingly, a few others wanted to go to Alcatraz as well, but we managed to get tickets for later the same afternoon. In the meantime we went in search of culinary genius – although what we actually found (gnocchi, lasagne and a ham and cheese sandwich) was adequate enough.

After lunch we took a stroll around Fisherman’s Wharf and visited the famous sea-lions. Personally I think all they do is make a lot of noise and attract a great deal of touristic interest but it was a sight to be seen. To use up the rest of the afternoon we walked up to check out Ghihardelli’s famous chocolate shop (although decided not to make any purchases to prevent melting) and photographed Lombard Street – the weird zigzaggy windy bit, not just the street in general.

Alcatraz was truly fantastic. The boat took about ten minutes to cross over to the island, where we climbed a good 15 minutes to reach the prison building, where we spent 45 minutes walking around guided by former guards and prisoners – an award-winning audio tour apparently, and I must say it was very impressive. I’m a big fan of audio tours, you never get to know as much otherwise. We learned about the big escape attempt where several people caused a shootout and held some guards hostage for three days, and the time three guys climbed up the air vents and made it onto a raft waiting outside, never to be seen again. Some believe they made it to South America.

Way home was by street-car (quite fun, especially as it was free) and dinner in Chinatown. Although we aren’t convinced that we found the absolute centre as everything appeared to close at 10 which for a significant metropolis I found to be rather early…

On Friday we decided to use our hooves again to walk up to Alamo Square – that’s where the pretty Victorian houses are that you see in pictures of San Francsico. We walked up Fulton Street which we thought seemed suitably harmless, and indeed it was very quiet and residential. Little did we know that in the previous few days there had been three shootings in the area and we had inadvertently walked across the scene of a gangfight. It all looked very nice and normal to us though!

Alamo Square was very pretty but very high up. So obviously the views were rather spectacular and we should have calves of steel by the end of our ‘leisurely stroll’ up the hill. We continued on to the Height which is apparently where the hippy movement started. Height Street houses several rather random shops with a distinct scent of insence, purveying tie-dye t-shirts and other hippie-related paraphernalia. We found it all very colourful and lovely and fun, and rather random. I even got some crackling candy and mad libs for our roadtrip.

We continued to Golden Gate Park and had a look around the Botanical Gardens (we saw a pink house – shotgun!) which was quite uneventful but pleasant. After getting a bus back to Fisherman’s Wharf we lunched in an Irish Pub and stocked up on chocolate (see above). Homeward-bound, we got the cable car which was so much fun, even though we were sitting inside and didn’t get as much of a view as we had thought. But we certainly got a good feel of the hills of San Francisco which are everywhere. It’s quite amazing as you can be walking down a perfectly flat street and turn a corner and be encountered with a perpendicular incline or a practical abyss. People even park their cars sideways to avoid runaways (and presumably save their poor handbrakes which are likely to fulfil a heavy daily duty).

We did some shopping in A&F – it smells so good… I didn’t buy anything this time but certainly eyed up a few things. It is definitely worth it seeing as everything costs the same in dollars as it costs in London in pounds. God bless the exchange rate (well I don’t believe in God but still very happy with it!).

Generally San Francisco was very nice, and we enjoyed ourselves. The three days we were there were very nice weatherwise and we didn’t see any of the famous fog surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course on the day we left to drive the Coastal Highway the weather turned cloudy but that is another story…

For someone coming from London though, where homeless people are par for the course, I definitely noticed the abundance of vagrants and suchlike – they are EVERYWHERE! I mean they are everywhere in London too but there seemed to be so many more of them and so much more visible. And more of them seemed downright crazy. Homeless people in London tend to be curled up in alleyways and things, whereas in San Francisco they stand at street corners and scream at people, which can be quite scary.

We left on Saturday to get the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) to the airport and pick up our car. There is no need to go into it in great detail since it was rather uneventful…

And so it ends...

2007-06-11T17:57:00.000+01:00

First year of Law School.

Finished. Complete. Done. Over.

EU Exam today a mere two hours, which felt positively short in comparison to the previous six. It was starting to feel like Groundhog Day. Everyday I would get up, go to the library, and study more. And everytime an exam was complete, there was another one waiting.

Not today.

What an anti-climax. It doesn't feel like it's over. I'm exhausted. Ready to go to sleep for five days.

However, alas, I must now go and make myself look all pretty for the Law School Ball tonight.

I'll get back to you when it actually has hit home that I have finished my exams. Now it just feels like any other day. But then this was how it was always going to be. I think the best thing to do now is to go and party my little socks off and it might feel more like it! ;-)

BREAKING NEWS: Three-hour crimewave sweeps over Southeast London

2007-06-08T16:16:00.000+01:00

LONDON - 8th June 2007

Today, between 10.35 and 1.35 Hall S5 of the ExCeL centre in London's Docklands gripped by a three-hour crime wave.

Two people were brutally murdered in the street by a male reported to be intoxicated, identified only as "John". Incenced by taunts by the first victim about his infertility, he proceeded to kick the first victim to death. The victim's pregnant wife, shocked by the events unfolding before her, attempted to stop the incident by throwing stones at the attacker, however this merely led to him stabbing her in the stomach with the keys he was carrying on his person. The first victim died en route to the hospital, his wife subsequently succumbed to her injuries after refusing treatment due to her distressed state following the tragedy.

It is reported that potentially over 1000 law students advised the offender to rely on intoxication, self-defence, provocation and dimished responsibility as defences, should he be charged.

In scandalous events elsewhere, three stars of a TV reality show, analogous to the X-factor were also found in a number of compromising situations, attempting to steal various objects
varying from airline tickets to a fellow star's guitar.

A lady walking her dog wreaked havoc at a local pub by going on a rampage resulting in criminal damage, burglary, aggravated burglary, robbery and blackmail. The landlord of the pub said "I am truly shocked. In all my years running a fictional public house in law exams have I seen such audacity."

------------

Yes you got it. Today was Criminal Law. It's not my favourite but it was ok. EU left on Monday but that isn't even like a proper exam - it's only two hours!

If I had my way...

2007-06-06T16:31:00.000+01:00

...every day would be equity day.

Well every exam would be an equity exam.

I love equity. It's my favourite topic.

Contract is my second favourite and it was a disaster so if that was anything to go by, I would be unpleasantly surprised today. But it was just lovely. The first time that I've finished and exam knowing that I put in every single case and every single principle that I wanted to, and used all the facts of the question and didn't feel like I was rushing majorly. A little bit but not hugely.

Whether the writing was of sufficient quality is a whole different matter but I'm actually satisfied with that for once.

I did almost nearly strangle a person sitting nearby my desk who was talking the whole time before the exam and started again as soon as it finished, and was talking to a girl they presumably knew but she could not get a word in edgeways. LEARN SOME SOCIAL SKILLS!!

Please.

I must admit though, I am very juvenile because it made me laugh that Aslan wanted to set up a trust for his beaver.

It was all kinds of fun for a couple of minutes.

I need to go now and get myself one of those life-thingies.

So Land Law

2007-06-04T21:50:00.000+01:00

Is mostly good.

That is all there is to be said about it.

I think I got a few things a bit wrong (mainly severance of co-ownership, I should have been more definite but I only found the 'trick' by reading the statute in great detail) but I actually finished a paper and got all the points down on paper that I wanted to.

And based on what I've heard there were several people very disappointed with the choice of questions.

So all is well.

Equity on Wednesday, it's my favourite topic on the course, so I hope I can perform to my required standard!

London Law School v Susie Law School [2007] HC

2007-05-28T20:27:00.000+01:00

Facts: The defendant [D] was a student at the Claimant's [C] educational institution [London Law School, 'The Law School']. D wished to study in the London Law School Library ['The Library'] on Sunday 27th May 2007 and Monday 28th May 2007. Counsel for C submitted that they did not want D to perform to her usual high standard and thus due to no sensible reason whatsoever it was necessary to close the Library on Monday 28th May 2007 in the middle of the examination period, despite the fact that this would cause significant hardship to not only D but several other students at the Law School. It was also submitted that closure of the Library on 27th May 2007 was due to 'essential building maintenance'. C sought a revision freezing order to prevent D studying on the above dates.

Counsel for the defence conceded that the Sunday closure was acceptable due to the reasons given above regarding maintenance but contested the closure on Monday 28th May 2007. In an affidavit to the court, D stated that she considers her residence to be restricted to relaxing, and due to rarely working at her residence, she finds it difficult to focus on studying therein. D works particularly well in a library-environment, and at home her concentration levels suffer significantly. Defence counsel submitted that the closure of the Library on the given dates would have a disastrous effect on D's revision plan and subsequently the maximum grades she was likely to obtain in the forthcoming examinations in Land Law, Equity and Trusts Law, Criminal Law and European Union Law. The freezing order on D's revision would be unreasonable, particularly in light of the £8000 annual tuition fee which would be more than sufficient to cover any costs of staffing on the above date.

Held: The court accepted the Claimant's argument and a revision freezing order was granted in the interim to freeze D's revision for the above dates.

Applying the test from Derby & Co v Weldon the court held that (1) Susie had revision to do within the jurisdiction [GDL Exams], (2) there was a good arguable case that if Susie is unable to do revision, her exams will not go very well and (3) keeping the Library open on Bank Holiday Monday would involve a real risk that some revision would actually get done.

The defendant has appealed to the Court of Appeal (Civil Division).

Susie Law School (Law Student)

This year's adventure

2007-05-27T14:07:00.001+01:00

Remember this?

Here's the sequel...

Shoulda woulda coulda

2007-05-26T14:35:00.000+01:00

A realisation dawned on me yesterday.

I should have gone to Oxford.

Ergo I would have realised I am only average among great minds, rather than going to a good university where I was one of fewer great minds among a greater number of average minds.*

Ergo I could have taken all this academic distress more in my stride and not felt so horrendously disappointed about failing to obtain the distinction that I should have got (and probably would have got had I gone to Oxford) and would have been content with the Pass or low Commendation I am destined for, and could have been happier, rather than feeling like I should have written more concisely so I would have done my knowledge justice so I could have got the elusive Distinction.

Q.E.D.

Now I've come to terms with that, all is well.

The latest installment in the exam saga was ok in comparison to the other two, although my defamation answer was truly shoddy, and I made a significant misstatement of fact in my Occupiers’ Liability question, thus leaving out a crucial chunk of discussion, so that wasn’t so good. But it's done, and Tort was always my worst subject, so as long as I pass I'm actually going to just accept that we were never a match made in heaven.

But tonight I’ll be seeing Jack Sparrow so all is well in the world!

*This is not intended to be in any way disparaging about my University, or the people who study there, it is a rather good University, particularly for my subjects and my friends are all very clever.

Sense of impending doom

2007-05-24T19:09:00.000+01:00

So far twice I have sat down at my desk at an exam and felt good because I know all the cases and understand the law and felt like as long as my questions come up, all will be well.

Only to have been proven wrong. Twice.

Tort is tomorrow.

As some of my more regular readers will probably recall, Tort is not good.

It is made slightly worse by the fact that I know all the cases and the structures, which gives me a distinct sense of... yes, you guessed it... impending doom. And general uneasiness. Because so far both exams that were supposed to go well have not. It will be no mean feat if I manage to actually write three complete answers at some point during the exam period!

Good luck to my fellow law-factory produce.

2007-05-23T17:43:00.000+01:00

The following takes place between 08:15 and 17:05 on the day of the London Law School Contract Law Exam. Events occur in real time.

08:15 Susie Law School leaves her abode
09:10 Susie arrives at the examination venue
09:15 Susie purchases a bagel, which is not of satisfactory quality as it has too much cheese and not enough sweet pepper
09:30 Susie feels quite confident, she likes contract, she knows it and it should all be ok
10:10 Susie and friends enter examination room (read 'huge aeroplane hangar with 1500 desks)
10:35 'God' (read head of law school type person on a scary PA system) announces that the exam begins
10:36 Susie is excited because the first two questions she wants to do look rather easy.
10:47 Susie debates whether to do the 'Remedies' question or the 'Frustration' question
10:48 Susie selects 'Remedies' and begins to read and highlight with various colours (green for parties, blue for losses, orange for dates and pink for everything else)
10:53 Susie commences her first answer, on 'Offer and Acceptance'
11:43 Susie completes a rather good answer on 'Offer and Acceptance', even though she says so herself, unless she messed up something about acceptance of a unilateral offer but chooses to ignore it
11:44 Susie begins to write about 'Terms and Exemption Clauses'
12:20 Susie is still writing about Terms and hasn't got on to exemption clauses yet
12:23 Susie asks for another answer book and manages to smile at the nice lady who gave her 90% for her mock and feels bad that she is really nowhere near tha
12:25 Susie realises she has not realised that the person in the question is acting 'in course of business' and has to write a whole bunch of stuff again
12:30 Susie finally starts writing about exemption clauses and forgets about Stewart Gill v Horatio Myer, which was such an easy brownie points case
12:45 Susie turns to remedies, slightly panicking that she only has 45 minutes left
12:50 Susie realises, having written half a page on remedies that she has no idea what the question is on about and 40 minutes is not enough to work it out
12:51 Susie crosses out 'Remedies' and turns to 'Frustration'
12:52 Susie starts writing about 'Frustration' having not read the question and having no idea who the parties are and making it up as she goes along.
13:33 Susie stops writing, because she is not adding anything of any value and has NOT applied the law sufficiently and there is no point.
13:34 Susie comforts herself with the thought that she has quoted 44 cases in her Offer and Acceptance answer
14:02 Susie and friends leave the examination hall
15:15 Susie departs the venue on the toy train (as JB calls it)
15:30 Susie decides there is no way in HELL she is getting a distinction
16:04 Susie arrives home
16:15 Susie decides there is no way she is even getting a commendation
16:35 Susie wonders if she will even make a mediocre lawyer since she clearly lacks the ability to write concisely enough
17:05 Susie wonders if she even passed the last question, and whether Strippers-R-Us are hiring.

Please note comments along the lines of "shut up you probably did fine" or "what are you complaining about I'll be happy if i pass" will NOT be published. Yes that refers to YOU Accidental Lawstudent!!! ;-)

1 down, 6 to go

2007-05-21T16:38:00.000+01:00

This morning - constitutional and administrative law.

Let me just immediately get it out of the way and tell you it did NOT GO WELL! And before some of the whingier lot attack me for having too high expectations, let me save you the trouble. I worked very hard for this. I knew what the essays were going to be, and I prepared them. I was SO on track for a distinction to attempt to compensate for my dire performance in the coursework.

Not so much now.

First question was good, I think, it was exactly the angle on Public Authorities I was hoping for, but it took me too long to answer, so I only had 45 minutes per question for the other two. Unreasonableness was a DISASTER, I got halfway through and realised I had taken slightly the wrong angle, and not answered the exact question posed, and I had no argument whatsoever keeping the whole thing together. So it was an unmitigated disaster.

By the time I got to Separation of Powers I had lost the will to live! it was a very very short essay and I missed out M v the Home Office, which was such a major case, and I can't believe I didn't include it! Again, I think I was far too narrow and didn't really have an argument.

26 sides and half of it was rubbish.

Contract on Wednesday.

13th July...

2007-05-20T12:57:00.000+01:00

... it's here. I can't wait. I've just watched the trailer and it's beyond exciting! Re-read the book, finished it last week, so it's all fresh in my memory.

And those of you heathens who have absolutely no idea what I am talking about - HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX!!!

It's out in the cinemas on 13th July and you know what that means?

Lucius Malfoy.

Oh yes.

In my revision haze...

2007-05-19T22:38:00.000+01:00

...I failed to notice that the other day I made my 100th post! Excellent!

I would like to thank the Academy and of course all my lovely readers, I wouldn't be here without you. Well I probably would but then it wouldn't be called a Blawg as much as just a diary...

Mwah!

Tort is evil

2007-05-18T08:16:00.000+01:00

This is a fact.

Next week's exams are Constitutional and Administrative Law on Monday (three essays, hopefully should be ok, as long as questions I like come up), Contract on Wednesday (ditto) and Tort on Friday.

Tort I am not looking forward to. If the first two go badly, I will be even less keen on it. An Occupiers' Liability question I can manage, Defamation I can hopefully manage, same for Nuisance. Not going to manage extraordinarily well, but manage all the same. But, if one of said topics is an essay I have to resort to my back-up - Clinical Negligence or Employers' Liability.

Me and negligence just don't mix. There is a mutual love-hate relationship going on, and it's not likely to improve if I have to answer a question on it in the exam.

Bah.

I'm currently doing ok with my revision though, you will be happy to hear, and I am firm believer in the "it will get done" philosophy. There is no problem in understanding the law, or knowing the law, it's just those pesky unseen problem questions that get me down! How dare they... ;-)

Travesty

2007-05-17T08:33:00.000+01:00

There are no hot men on the Underground? Why is this? I mean my journey to and from Law School is the only part of the day when I see people other than law students, and there are hundreds of commuters getting the Tube every day, yet I never ever see any hot men. It's just not fair.

The Universe is clearly against me on this.

5 days to go...

2007-05-16T09:01:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finished all my revision notes and sheets and diagrams and stuff and now all that is left is committing it all to memory and doing past questions. I started yesterday afternoon and last night was the first night I got home from the library and felt exhausted! I suppose this is what it will be like from now on until I finish...

But I was glad to notice that I knew a lot more than I thought I did and now need to just get on with the detail and the structures.

I haven't sat an exam in several years, and I don't really remember what it's like... I always liked them at University, so I hope it will be the same now, although perhaps not due to the excessive transport pressures (exam venue is not at the Law School and I am at the mercy of several unpredictable and capricious tubelines) and the fact that I really am not sure I will remember how to actually DO exams! He he...

But 5 days and counting before they start so I better get on with learning something about the law!

Facebook

2007-05-13T11:04:00.000+01:00

I thought it was about time I wrote about this phenomenon... the inspiration to this came from finding an ex-boyfriend on it today by doing one of those e-maill contact searches. I imagine he is married now and everything but it is still very bizarre.

I have encountered many a person on there whom I never thought would get roped into such a thing, but have also got in touch with many friends whom I never thought I would speak to again. The internet is bizarre - we cannot manage to keep in touch with people in more conventional ways but are quite happy to chat away on each others' walls and suchlike.

A shining example of the horrors of Facebook is the fact that a small rift erupted between some friends of mine, when one of them failed to invite the other to a social event, on the basis that an invite went out on Facebook and the other person is not a member.

Bring back carrier pigeons...

12 days to go...

2007-05-09T08:58:00.000+01:00

...until my first exam.

I don't feel even remotely like I will be ready, but I know it'll get done and it'll all be alright on the night... well morning. I've finished all my reading and notes, now I just have to learn it, which I thought wouldn't be too bad but I possibly may have underestimated quite how much detail there is to know.

Life is on hold now until the 11th of June. Heh!

Dear Law School

2007-05-05T13:33:00.000+01:00

Why do you feel the need to discourage students at such a vital time as in the middle of revision? Why was there any need to briefly destroy my self-confidence - could you not have waited until July when you could have done it in one go? In future please consider students' feeling, particularly geeky overachievers like me, when releasing coursework marks in the middle of the revision period.

Kind regards

Susie Law School.

Yes, the coursework marks came out yesterday. No mine was not good. In fact it was the lowest mark I have EVER EVER got in ANYTHING academic. This is highly upsetting since I know I can do better and my mock assessments prove it. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things and a distinction is still highly possible, however I am SO ANGRY at myself for doing such a bad job. Hmpf.

It's here!!!

2007-04-30T09:00:00.000+01:00

Enough said.

Panic setting in...

2007-04-28T15:35:00.000+01:00

... I don't tend to panic about exams. I like them. I like revision and knowing stuff.

But today I feel impending doom.

A little bit like maybe a distinction isn't going to come my way. I have no benchmark, no idea how good an answer will have to be, but until now I've at least felt like it was attainable.

Today I'm not so sure.

I'm hoping this is just a blip. Coursework marks are out on Friday, I guess I'll have a better idea then.

I'm going back to Employers' Liability now.

Ok, it's gone...

2007-04-28T10:16:00.000+01:00

...All I did was post what was on a number of other blawgs and people got so PISSY! I wasn't accusing anyone, just repeating what I heard, not saying it was fact, was I!?! Nobody else got abuse!*

So calm down people, it's gone. I can't be bothered with it anymore.

*Please note that some people did post politely that they thought I was wrong, this is not aimed at you, this is aimed at the people who were just unnecessarily mean and bitchy.

There's a new kid on the Blawg...

2007-04-18T08:40:00.000+01:00

*drumroll*

Welcome, Accidental Lawstudent a fellow Law Conversion enthusiast/victim (delete as appropriate) who by the looks of it discovered the joys of blawgging as a useful procrastination tool in the countdown to exams.

Speaking of which, I tend to link to people who comment on my blawg but if anyone would like their link to be added to my blawg please let me know as I'm always happy to oblige :)

I shall now return to learn about legal things. Toodles!

Dear presumptuous person...

2007-04-17T21:49:00.000+01:00

... who left a comment that I chose to delete because it upset me.

You don't know me, please don't pretend you do. You are more than welcome to have an opinion as after all, I don't write much about my personal life and this blawg is really only about Law School. But please do not make presumptions about the rest of my life based on it. My life is absolutely fine thank you very much. Just because I only write about studying does not mean I haven't got a perfectly vibrant social life, as many will testify.

I realise I do not have to justify myself to you, but people who make generalisations based on incomplete information annoy me.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to the world of revision

2007-04-09T19:29:00.000+01:00

So Mummy and Daddy Law School's visit is over and revision has officially started. My social life is officially on hold until the 11th of June, apart from a few carefully selected engagements to break up the studying. It's quite exciting, albeit a little bit stressful but I have never been one to shy away from a challenge. If I didn't thrive on a little stress there really wouldn't be any point in becoming a lawyer.

This week I will be mostly finishing off all the reading I should have done during the year but didn't have time to/couldn't be bothered to do and highlighting and tagging all the relevant provisions from my statute books, ready for the exam.

My carefully selected social engagements are drinks with the girls tomorrow and a friend's birthday on Friday. But there will be no excessive drinking or suchlike, as the rest of the time will involve military-style precision for getting to the library and taking regularly scheduled breaks.

I hear many of you saying that it all sounds a bit too structured and organised, but that's how I function. Deal with it. It works and who am I to mess with a working formula?

Oh and Legally Blonde is on TV on Wednesday so obviously I will be watching that!

Brief update

2007-04-03T21:18:00.000+01:00

Dear Readers

I am pleased so many of you have asked me where I've been recently. Mum and Dad Law School are visiting at the moment but regular service will resume next week!

Mwah!

xxx

Men vs Shopping

2007-03-22T01:11:00.000+01:00

Me and Miss S. had a discussion a while back about whether a person's attitude to shopping is in any way related to their attitude to men. We decided it is. Here are some examples to exemplify the theory...

(Please note me and Miss S reserve copyright or IP rights for this, or whatever... so if the theory becomes famous, you heard it here first!)

Miss Fussy

Although she loves shopping and buying new things, Miss Fussy goes to a shop and if she doesn't immediately see something that catches her eye, she will leave. She will go to expensive shops she can't afford, looking at gorgeous things she loves the look of but has no chance of buying. She doesn't really like a lot of the cheap stuff she sees either though and often ends up buying nothing. But once she finds something she likes she will wear it to death... until she gets bored of course.

Miss Diligent

She takes a more structured approach, searching through all the rails, trying on a variety of styles until she finds one that is just right. A little bit like Miss Fussy but more likely to give something an chance that doesn't look quite right straight away.

Miss Bargainhunter

She goes straight for the 'Sale' rack and either come out with something really cheap and tacky, or something you never thought would look good but somehow just fits. It's really a skill in itself and there is no method to her madness.

Miss 'Can't Be Bothered'

She hates shopping and really cannot be bothered with it. She will go into a shop, pick up the first thing that fits, and pay for it, just to have something to wear. More often than not, it really doesn't look very good or is completely out of fashion.

Miss Fashionista

She is obsessed with the current trends, and will buy anything as long as it was featured in this month's Vogue. Regardless of how badly it suits her, whatever is flavour of the month must be had. Unfortunately for her, it will go out of fashion in a few months and get discarded along with all the other old stuff...

Miss Designer

A bit like Miss Fashionista, but not one for trends as much as price and Big Names. She will buy gorgeous pieces from expensive stores and show them off to all her friends. Unfortunately many of her gorgeous, expensive pieces often lack personality and substance.

I will leave it to your imagination to make the connection to men... and work out which one I am!

Exams? What exams?

2007-03-17T16:40:00.001+01:00

Believe it or not, readers, my first year of Law School is starting to near an end. I know it feels like only yesterday when I first walked in through the doors of Law School to take the first steps in my future career.

I now have two weeks of proper Law School left and then revision leave. The last week I have spent writing an essay, which to some degree took over my life for a few days (apart from a LOT of procrastination... ahem...) so today I have put it to one side, to enable me to look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow. Instead I am going to organise myself for revision.

I love revision. I can hear many a groan coming from several of you, but I do love it. Knowing stuff is cool! So I have bought coloured tags for my statute books, another lot of coloured pens for my revision notes (yes, all my subjects are colour-coded) and I'm on the lookout for the perfect notebook to put my revision notes in.

Now I am about to start working out the topics I need to revise, the reading and consolidation I need to do, and putting together a revision timetable and I'm so excited I thought I should share it with you all...

I love The Lawyer...

2007-03-13T12:02:00.000+01:00

... and The Lawyer loves me! Yay!

As accurately pointed out by the anonymous "C"in their comment to my previous post, I was featured in The Lawyer AGAIN this week! TWICE!!!

I got home last night to my copy to check whether there was a one-liner correcting my URL and there was another quote from my blawg and some very kind words indeed from WebWeek. And THEN I was further mentioned by the honourable Tulkinghorn whom, I believe, actually quite likes my little blawg! And me it seems... yay!

It's all just too exciting for words, my blawg is my claim to fame.

*jumps up and down*

*stops jumping and goes off in search of topic for next witty post so as to not let the nice people at the Lawyer down*

I'm in the Lawyer!!!

2007-03-06T19:03:00.000+01:00

I have well and truly arrived.

This week, my blawg was featured in The Lawyer! There I was, about to launch into reading about proper legal news, and nearly fell out of my chair when I realised that Web Week, the bit that rates exciting blawgs, had me in it!

They particularly liked this post and compared me to James Joyce! Very exciting! Unfortunately the link was incorrect but I look forward to a correction in next week's issue... (although I doubt it because I can't imagine I am important enough :()

Although I must apologise to the Lawyer - they see a fine personal injury lawyer in me apparently, but this is an unlikely outcome. Hopefully my skills will not go unnoticed in something transactional, which is much more likely.

But yay!!! It's like I'm famous!!!

Another step along the way

2007-03-02T20:11:00.000+01:00

My letter from the Solicitors' Regulation Authority came yesterday to invite me to join as a student member. So I have to fill out the form and certify that I am not a criminal/drugaddict/prostitute/otherwise unworthy person to become a lawyer.

So another thing making me feel a bit more like it's all actually happening - I am not entirely convinced just yet. I mean being a lawyer is like a proper grown up job and I'm only little...

Random thoughts...

2007-02-27T18:28:00.000+01:00

... that I had on the way from the library to the PC.

1) It's 5.30 and it's still quasi-light. That means it's nearly summer. Hurrah!

2) My wisdom teeth are coming out a week tomorrow. I'm worried. And I'm going to miss lots of law school on account of it, as if I needed any more days of not doing work. And I'm going to miss the lecture on search dogs - which is monumentarily unfair since there will be an ACTUAL dog!! :(

3) You would think that a Law School would be on top of issues to do with Occupiers' Liability and would fix the dodgy piece of carpet sticking out in the library. I nearly tripped.

Chip Matthews - the update

2007-02-24T17:53:00.000+01:00

So, dear readers, I'm sure you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear how it worked out - well I must say, it wen't quite well!

He is very yummy and we actually got on pretty well, no arrogance of any of that which I was expecting.

So, disappointingly I have no amusing anecdotes to tell you about how he is a complete idiot and how I walked out after half an hour in shock that I had ever agreed to go out with him. Nope, none of that.

Might even be seeing him again... yummy...

The downside is that I did no work on Thursday (on account of staying in all day so I could get ready at the last possible minute before my seminars) and did no work yesterday morning (on account of feeling rather queasy all morning thanks to the mussels we had the night before) and hardly any work yesterday evening after lectures (on account of feeling very tired).

Men interfering with law school... not good...

Chip Matthews

2007-02-18T14:06:00.000+01:00

There is an episode in Friends where Monica goes out with Chip Matthews, the hot guy from High School who everyone fancied, but she never had a chance when she was at school.

This is happening to me. It's amazing how real life imitates television.

At University there was a very hot guy, let us call him Bob*. He had a friend, called Chip* who was also very fit. They never spoke to us. Ever. They were the cool guys.

So now, the amazingness that is Facebook, has led to Chip getting in touch with me. It is all very odd, and me and Miss B have had many a conversation about the hystericalness of it. Particularly as he contacted her ALSO. So there are many a conspiracy theory going around our house at the moment about what exactly he is after. Arguably that is pretty clear, although I don't know him well enough to judge.

He has now asked me to meet him for a drink. I can hear you all going "No, don't do it, he's only after one thing".

Well I'm gonna. He's hot. Major league hot. So I will go out with Chip Matthews, because I can. If he's only after one thing, so be it. At least I can say I went out with Chip Matthews...

*names have been changed to protect identities

Coursework is done!

2007-02-13T19:49:00.000+01:00

First piece of coursework handed in yesterday. Yay! Managed to get it down to 1489 words as well! Not sure if it's any good but at least it's over and done with.

Yesterday in particular the library was full of people doing the reading and trying to get the work done, I'm quite glad I did the reading before we got the question, less stress that way.

Now the next obstacle is the 4000 word essay due for April. 4000 words is nothing, my Master's thesis was 16000, but it feels like somewhat more of a difficulty. Probably because there is enough reading and work to be getting on with even without it, and I would love to just catch up on all my normal subjects.

Watch this space, there are bound to be dramas, but after today I feel quite good about it!

The art of procrastination

2007-02-11T13:38:00.000+01:00

I have my first assessed piece of work due on Wednesday. It's nothing serious, just a problem question requiring an answer of strictly 1500 words. It's worth a mere 5% of my final grade yet I'm getting a tad consumed with it.

Originally I wanted the whole thing written and over with by yesterday. As you can imagine, that did not happen. I'm still going. I have all the information down now, but I still have 1949 words. So I'm trying to clean it up, but I have developed an impressive skill for procrastination, something I never used to have before. The computer is a distraction - there's instant messenger, there are games... there's my blawg... it's all going very very wrong.

I blame the information age for my academic demise.

Legal Practice Course

2007-02-05T19:00:00.000+01:00

My letter came on Friday, acceptance onto the LPC. Not news in itself since my law school automatically accepts all GDL students onto their LPC. So that was nice.

I have to specify which electives I want to do next year - unfortunately my law firm want me to do Property which I am not keen on. However there is no compulsory seat in property so I'm not sure I get that really... but in any case I have no choice in the matter and have to do it. But all I can do is make the best of it and hope it will be interesting.

In addition I'm going to do M&A and equity finance, so those two at least I am very keen to do. Yay!

To the weird creep from last night

2007-01-28T20:09:00.000+01:00

Why did you think that the most effective way to get my attention would be to sit and stare at me constantly, and extremely intensely, for long periods of time. What were to achieve by watching my every move like a lovesick puppy, yet not actually coming over to talk to me? Did the fact that I was trying to avoid looking in your direction not suggest to you that you were being creepy and I was not interested?

All you managed to do was make me feel extremely uncomfortable. Congratulations, you have finally cracked the ultimate way to pull women.

Yuck.

2007-01-24T22:31:00.000+01:00

This came through the other blog I supposedly contribute to, although I have been mucho slack recently. But I shall give it a go... this is pretty tough though as many people who read this know things about me already, so apologies if this is nothing new!

1. I'm allergic to dogs. So I couldn't really have a Bruiser just yet. It would require significant injection type things, but one day!

2. I used to bite my nails but I no longer do and I am very very proud of it! They're growing now and are pretty and stuff! Yay!

3. I have never taken any illegal drugs nor been tempted. An achievement as such at my University among some people I know...

4. I have a doorstop called Jason. He is small, round, white and fluffy and he is highly cute and amusing.

5. I'm extremely judgmental and sarcastic. Not everyone knows that I should not be taken seriously most of the time. On the other side I'm also very tolerant and un-prejudiced so go figure. I'm odd.

Now you go.

Where are all the hot lawyers...?

2007-01-21T18:38:00.000+01:00

There are no hot men in Law School. Although my focus is of course heavily on my studies, some eye candy would be nice.

Unfortunately there isn't any. This has led me to the concern that if law students are hot, perhaps lawyers aren't either? From personal experience I'm inclined to believe this is in fact the case and my destiny lies in investment bankers. They tend to be hot. And stockbrokers. Lawyers not so much. Perhaps that is just an American thing. Or a TV thing.

A small post of self-appreciation

2007-01-19T11:24:00.000+01:00

So as many of you know, I am a bit of a geek. I love studying and I love law school. I'm also a bit of an over-achiever and slightly competitive, and am aiming for a distinction (average of 70%+) and thus the following news will come as no surprise to some.

Yesterday I got back my first practice assessment and found out that I got 90%!!! thats NINE-OH!!! Thats like 10% off 100%!!! Most of the time even the distinction marks are somewhere between 70-80%. The teacher said it's the highest mark she has ever given any student answer. Wow.

Go me.

Off to the library to write the next one now!

The upside of studying...

2007-01-15T22:43:00.000+01:00

... ok there really is NO excuse now.

My workload is beyond ridiculous. It is stressing me out, and I want to get on with it. Stupidly things just keep getting in the way! I like studying, it's fun, so I don't like the fact that I'm not studying as much as I should be and I hate not being on top of my work.

Today I went to M.A.C.
and purchased a few things I needed. Unfortunately M.A.C. probably wasn't the best place to make these purchases as they came to £62. I actually bought a makeup brush worth £25.00!!! It will be fantastic and I'm very excited about it and I've decided that it was a delayed Christmas present to me. So that's ok. And I have the money. So that's ok too.

Somehow though, I've been going out a lot since I came back from my visit to Mum and Dad Law School. And this has had an impact on my funds. There is also the fun visit to the dentist I have to look forward to, that was quoted to me at about £300. Plus the wisdom tooth surgery which is going to cost another £200.

Again, I have the money. It's ok. But I want to CONTINUE having the money in order to do something fantastic with my summer. Thus, my weekday social life is now officially on hold. I will be limiting my socialising to only the most necessary events, and everyone else will just have to deal with it. I have too much work to do and I want to save money. And the bonus is I'll get all my work done and feel better about being organised.

It's a totally brilliant plan.

The fun of essay writing

2007-01-14T18:09:00.000+01:00

So tomorrow I have a practice assessment due. Basically it's a practice exam question you can do in your own time, hand it in and your tutor will put big red marks all the way across it and tell you how much you suck.

I handed one in before the Christmas break that I haven't got back yet (it would have been nice to as then I could have perhaps avoided some of the red pen on the basis of the previous answer). I am starting to get the impression though that the marking criteria is pretty tough, as two people I thought were pretty clever, managed only 37%.

Friday night I set about writing my answer, thinking it wasn't likely to take that long and it seemed pretty straightforward as a problem question, but I fell into a trap.

The trap of over-thinking. Instead of being sensible, I started trying to pick out bits where they're trying to trick you and where it would be easy to talk about one piece of law when the answer is actually something different. So it all went downhill from there.

I thought I knew the law. I know I understand the law. I thought the question looked easy.

But now I'm convinced it's not a very good answer. Boo hiss.

Watch this space for my grade!!

Back to school

2007-01-09T23:17:00.000+01:00

So I'm back.

Home was lovely thank you very much, but a lot of time was spent eating, watching tv and generally vegging out. This may be an enjoyable activity but it certainly is not the most effective way to get any studying done, and thus is entirely unrelated to my mission to get a distinction.

Going back to school was an amusing experience. Clearly a somewhat significant number of students (read: the ones who don't bother to go to class normally) have decided as a New Year's Resolution to improve the attendance. Thus Monday morning was the first time since the first week that the lecture hall was actually busy! Also people usually quiet in tutorials have started to pipe out answers. Presumably because they have been really doing the work over the holidays.

It's a rather interesting phenomenon and I expect it to last about two weeks, max. I can next be witnessed around exam time when everyone freaks out.

Good thing I'm such a geek... ;)

Last post of the year...

2006-12-31T16:09:00.000+01:00

... so it's New Year's Eve and tomorrow is 2007. Scary. That means this time next year will be the start of the year when i start my training contract. Yikes.

In any case Christmas was good apart from the hysterics with the family car.

It hasn't been starting very well apparently. For about three weeks. But men are stubborn (wide generalisation I know but it is required). My dad is a man, and he is particularly stubborn. Thus he hasn't taken the car to the garage because it's "kinda" been starting.

However the other day, as we were about to set off for a trip to my two aunts' about an hour's drive away and the car wouldn't start at all. Usually it would start if you gave it a while but now it was making weird hissing sounds and just plainly refusing to budge. So it had to be pushed a bit to be started up at which point any sensible person would decide to either go home or go to a garage.

Not my dad. After a rather animated shouting match, he made the executive decision that we would carry on to my aunts', and my protests about the fact that we would not be able to get the car moving at Aunt No. 1's as there is no hill, fell to deaf ears. So off we went and as predicted the garage had to be called to tug the car along at my aunt's before we could move anywhere.

The car is now going to a garage. Thank god. Saga over. But I have been getting the bus for the first time in four years at home and thats been quite exciting!

Happy New Year everyone!!

S.

Holidays are coming...

2006-12-20T21:12:00.000+01:00

Oh yes you all know it, nearly Christmas!

Screw political correctness and screw Jesus, I love Christmas even with all its commercialised trimmings! I don't love it BECAUSE of the commercial trimmings, but in spite of them. So why do I?

For a start I'm at my parents'. And there is a never-ending supply of food in the house. It is perfectly acceptable to eat dinner three times a day and an oft-spoken phrase that passes between me and my mum is "what shall we eat next?". *

There is no reason whatsoever to leave the house, and if you do it's nice and quiet everywhere and no people and stuff for when we decide to take little walks and stuff. I also like to see my parents liking the presents I got them (hopefully). And we make puzzles. Everyone is merry and we sit at the table and eat dinner and my dad makes conversation (ok, so that's probably because we have guests) and doesn't get up until we've all finished. And the three of us all watch films together and stuff. There are lots of benign films on TV and me and mum can watch Disney films and Crime Dramas. While eating of course. Generally just nice family time.

Everywhere has pretty lights and plays Christmas music.

The Coca-Cola ad is on tv. Holidays are coming etc. With the big truck with pretty lights. Although they've changed it this year and I want to make an official complaint. But I saw the proper ad today and jumped up and down and my mum laughed at me.

*next week - New Year's resolution is to join the gym... although I don't make resolutions, but if I did!

Friends and family... and more law stuff

2006-12-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

I'm going home to Mum and Dad Law School this weekend. For three whole weeks.

I'm very excited - I love going home and hanging out with the parents, and it will also be Christmas which I love too. I guess I enjoy going home so much because I can revert straight back to being a teenager when life was but a daydream and there were no serious things such as careers and paying rent to worry about. But it will be Christmas and I'm going home so I'm mega-excited. Yes some more of the well known Susie Law School enthusiasm has been saved up for the holidays.

On another note - Law School Friends. I get on with people in my class, no problem. However I wonder how many of them hate me. It's already been well established that I work hard. It's already been well established that I 99% of the time know the answer. It's also been established that if I know the answer and nobody else is volunteering it, I will speak up. But I do wonder if they think I'm an annoying know-it-all. I occasionally find myself feeling guilty that I do always know the answer (not TOO guilty, after all I still want a distinction) and perhaps slightly resented by my fellow classmates. And it worries me a bit as after all, people potentially bitching about you isn't the nicest.

It doesn't worry me too much, after all I have my friends who I know like me and I like them, and I wouldn't change them for the world. But the whole thing made me think that possibly Law School friendships are a bit like those you have with your colleagues at work. Everyone gets on perfectly fine on a social level, but only very few spend time together outside of work. At work however, everyone is looking out for themselves and nobody likes other people to do well. It's a dog eat dog world.

Or Law Student eat Law Student.

On another note, I had a dream last night that I had my first moot and hadn't prepared at all and lost. Not good.

Why go to Law School...

2006-12-07T21:52:00.000+01:00

... if you don't like the law?

Now, my regular readers I am sure (all two of you... hi mum!) have noticed that I am a geek. This is a particularly geeky post.

I love studying, and more importantly I love studying law. So far I'm enjoying Law School more than pretty much anything else I've ever studied (bar parts of my masters which are about equal to it). I love going to class, there are some bits I find less interesting than others. Surprisingly Criminal is one of those, although I have studied it before and enjoyed it then, now I'm not finding it as exciting, but still interesting of course. Luckily, I love trust law and contract, the two I'm most likely to need in practice so that's handy!

Anyway, the point of this post is not how much I love Law School but how little other people do. I have encountered so many people who find it dull and can't be bothered etc and I can't help but wonder - why bother?

Money, career prospects... I can see the appeal, but why do something you really aren't that passionate about? I mean, forty years of your life, going to work every day, at least pick a job you LIKE! I find it all very odd but I suppose everyone has their reasons...

Personally - it's like reading a really good book. I can't wait to get to the end and be a lawyer, but I don't want Law School to finish either.

Oh joy!

A particular law student...

2006-12-01T22:59:00.000+01:00

... in continuation to this post, today I want to tell you about another type of law student.

This is "the annoying loser everybody hates".

Now you might think this is in response to a particular occurrence and you might be right, but obviously as a disclaimer and to avoid being sued, I must state that this is all pure conjecture and none of this really happened... ahem...

So it's the hypothetical guy (or girl, in these times of political correctness) who knows everything and feels that what he has to say is more important than what the lecturer has to say. He will interrupt with an entirely unrelated comment only to hear the sound of his own voice and refer to his previous career at another specialist field to undermine the lecturer, comment on his pronounciation of medic... I mean specialist field terms, and tell what he believes to be funny anecdotes that are received by other students with groans and laughter.

This person is not hugely popular, as you can imagine. Even with the lecturers. They have to actually tell him to stop talking. In a nice diplomatic way of course, but they must say they will only take questions at the end and continue the lecture. And then take questions from other people.

Hypothetically of course. This person doesn't really exist.

Round-up of developments...

2006-11-29T22:45:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-11-28T15:14:00.000+01:00

... 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...

2006-11-24T16:53:00.000+01:00

...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!

2006-11-22T21:58:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-11-18T19:10:00.000+01:00

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

2006-11-15T14:16:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-11-10T20:32:00.000+01:00

... 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.