Things & Photos...

Patience Rewarded

2008-04-23T14:28:00.004+01:00

Finally! Fairtrade Chocolate Spread exists!

http://www.essential-trading.co.uk

Some of you may know Matt and I gave up non-fairtrade chocolate last easter, having discovered exactly who might be growing all the rest. Initially there were only a few brands which were accredited traffik-free, and you could generally only buy a simple bar of chocolate. It's been getting easier, and now one can buy cake, fancy chocolates, truffle sauce etc.

Kudos to Matt for spotting this in the deli. I am eating it on toast and grinning like a 3-year old. Now we only have to track down chocolate ice-cream and we're sorted.

Trustworthy

2008-04-15T13:57:00.006+01:00

The last month has flown by, partly because our weekends have been packed with weddings and familial visits, and partly because my working week has been wonderfully busy, leaving me very little time to breathe and take stock before diving into the next case.

I say 'wonderfully' busy, because many people at the junior end of the bar are somewhat pessimistic about the amount of work available for young barristers, particularly in crime. There are many reasons for this concern: solicitors becoming more keen to do their own court work, the Crown Prosecution Service using its own employed lawyers to prosecute instead, legal aid being more difficult to obtain and so on. Many also object to the fees being so much lower than one might expect for a civil case.

Rumour has it, that many who wish to continue a criminal practice are abandoning the self-employed barrister's way of life, and taking up paid employment with solicitors, or the CPS. A lot of people ask me (after the inevitable: "you look too young to be a barrister! Don't you have to be a solicitor for 20 years first?") why we have this split system in the UK. Wouldn't it be easier if all the lawyers were, in effect, civil servants? Why instruct an independent barrister?

There are hundreds of articles on the subject, but one point that struck me recently was this:

A barrister has no long-term contract, no salary, no guarantee of work coming in. For this reason, we have to prove on every single occasion we take on a case for a solicitor (or a CPS lawyer) that we can be trusted to ensure that case goes as well as it can. This means we will work our butts off and examine every detail. And it isn't only the solicitor who needs to know this - it is the lay client too. They rely on their barrister getting it right because a mistake could cost them their liberty, livelihood, job, home, family. In the short time we have them, defendants, witnesses, police officers, accident victims or the family of the accused need to feel they can trust their barrister. And, however charming you are, that trust will melt away as soon as it appears you haven't cared enough to do everything you physically can. If the client doesn't trust the barrister, the solicitor will hear about it, and will understandably be concerned about giving them another case.

The need to prove yourself at every turn is what drives you to get up at 5am to check something in the small print. It is a motivator when tiredness, traffic, 5 hours sat in the corridor of a train and watery court coffee make a desk job seem very appealing. If you want to work tomorrow, you have to throw yourself into today - no matter how many hours you end up working or how much you get paid.

I think that makes us rather good value for money.

In essence, what makes this job worthwhile for me, is the privilege of being there for people in tough situations, of ensuring that all parties are treated fairly by the law, that nobody is forgotten and anonymous. It frequently frustrates me that I cannot play the role of lawyer, social worker, counsellor and doctor all at once - that I cannot 'fix' people, or make their difficulties melt away. That I cannot change what might have happened to them. But I'm using what skill and experience I have to do what I can. This is what keeps me going on the M25 at rush hour.

A (Slightly Cliquey) Christian Worship Music Comment

2008-03-22T15:24:00.005Z

2003 brought us: "I lay my life down" by Jonathon Douglas & Joel Houston
Otherwise known as

"ONE WAY! JESUS! You're the only one that I could live for"
Catchy. Rocky. Bounce-and-punch-the-air-worthy. The kids love it.
But, SHOCK! HORROR! It isn't totally original...

Observe possible chord/rhythm/tune similarity with Douggie Doug Doug's 1993 offering:

"WE WANNA SEE! WE WANNA SEE! WE WANNA SEE JESUS LIFTED HIIIGH!"
As can be observed in these poor quality video clips:

2003 Style Bouncing (from about 25 seconds in)
1993 Style Bouncing

The classic stuff doesn't go away. It just gets re-written ;)

Progress Report...

2008-03-21T11:52:00.005Z

I haven't posted anything for a month or so, as, though I've had lots of ideas and keep writing blog posts in my head whilst on the tube, I've been pretty shattered with work etc. It's been strange getting used to the barristering pattern again - get up early to get to whichever court I am at, without exception being surprised at what actually happens when I am there (client doesn't turn up, client DOES turn up, client is mad, opponent is mad, judge is mad... etc), phoning my solicitor to let them know how it worked out, write up notes to send solicitor and then head back again to find out where in the country I am the next day. Then the tricky bit - preparing for the next day, as by this time it'll be about 6 and my brain wishes to veg and watch bad TV. But I'm getting there, and it helps that I'm enjoying it - I have never really wanted a 9-5 job... though I appreciate it probably makes planning a social life a little easier!

Last night it became official that our friends Em and Mark are expecting another baby :) Matt and I have know for a while but now we can celebrate openly! If you would like to know exactly how often a pregnant lady has burp-attacks, Em is blogging the whole experience for your education and entertainment.

Goodlet 1:

Goodlet 2:

We have now arrived at my favourite weekend of the year - 4-day Easter! I intend to catch up on sleep, do some housewifely things, and then visit my long lost family.

Have a good one!

Week

2008-02-18T21:57:00.006Z

Well, within a week I have successfully gained, and started, a new job (woohoo!), had my phone number hijacked by (probably) an international drug smuggling ring (it had to be MY phone), completed uploading my Project365 photos (finally!), eaten half my bodyweight in pork (mmmmmm, pork) and developed an obsession with parentheses (brackets, particularly).

I am proud of all of these achievements.

The job is a 3rd Six Pupillage, so I am finally barrister-ing again - a dream come true, and a LOT of prayers answered.

I can't tell you about the phone because it is top-secret-hush-hush-fraud-investigation and all that (ooooooh!) but it does mean I can't use my phone, or my number, and they can't give me a new number. So it's a real nuisance actually, but quite exciting all the same.

I would tell you about the pork, but I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Suffice to say, none of the piggies I sampled died in vain.

The 365 I can give concrete evidence of:

And here is the Photoset (go on, click on some of them... views make me blissfully happy)

(Lets forget about the brackets...)

Dog

2008-02-12T20:16:00.001Z

On a cheerier note, I have finally got around to uploading the photos I took of Si & Sal's dog, Winston, over the New Year period.

Am rather proud of them:

Victim of Crime #XXXXXXX-2008

2008-02-12T19:39:00.001Z

Hooray! I have now officially contributed to the national crime statistics.
Not, obviously, as a perpetrator. But I do like to help where I can.

Don't worry I haven't been violently attacked.
But I did foolishly allow a "poor-lost-helpless-and-confused-looking woman" ^TM distract me sufficiently for her to steal my brand new mobile phone. The policewoman I spoke to told me it happens all the time, and that anyone could fall for it, but given my particular profession I feel somewhat daft for not being wise to this particular scheme. Sigh.

For future reference, if a women with a poor grasp of English, gold teeth and big shiny jewellery approaches you in a coffee shop, waves a map at you and mutters incomprehensibly about pizza, don't abandon your possessions to stand up and point her in the right direction.

Kiwis

2008-02-10T00:47:00.001Z

London today (well, yesterday) was scary.
Kiwis. Everywhere. And not the cute, fluffy kind. More of the drunk, noisy kind.

They filled the circle line to uncomfortably-bursting point... which struck me as very odd. Surely the Jubilee line would be a much more refined place to get battered and shout at trains...

Perfect 10

2008-02-08T14:07:00.002Z

How refreshing it is to finally accept that you are now a dress size bigger than you were, and to cave in and purchase clothes that don't give you breathing and/or digestive problems.

Last year when I was training, I was somewhat ill and exhausted, and consequently had the figure comparable to the stars of "FunnyBones"... only less healthy-looking. So the suits I was buying were of appropriate scarecrow-esque proportions.

This year, having been sleeping and eating properly, I have noticed a certain constriction around the midriff which meant that putting on a suit for court required quite a bit of mental preparation - similar to ripping off a plaster, only knowing the impending discomfort would last 8 hours.

Anyway, today I have bought new suits, which fit. Yay! I'm broke, so it has damaged my bank balance, but at least when I look in the mirror I see somebody healthy, rather than skeletal... and that is well worth the cost of a suit or two.

NB. If you haven't read this, you were a deprived child. It is classic literature.

Temporary

2008-02-04T22:46:00.001Z

Well Blogger is already driving me mad with its 'simple' but not-quite-doing-what-it-says interface, so this will be a temporary location until I find webspace / the will to learn html properly / a friendly geek-type to do it for me.

Hello, Mark...!

Anyway.

Yesterday there were ducks at the canal, as ever. Emily, Mini-Jo and I went to see them.

I made the mistake of feeling sorry for a one-legged goose, not appreciating that it had probably remained alive through sheer evil alone. I fed it. When I ran out of bread it followed me around for a while, hopping pitifully to lull me into a false sense of security then, as I was bending to take another slice out of the bag, it hissed and tried to take a chunk out of my hand! It got no more out of me. One could make a handy proverb out of such a situation, but geese are notoriously stupid when it comes to proverbs.

Not an Introduction

2008-02-03T23:15:00.001Z

Introduction posts always come across as a little needy - as if one says something brilliantly witty and promises stories of strange and unusual happenings the entirety of the internet will bookmark one's blog which would... what? Give a reason for writing I suppose. But my reason for writing is more for myself - as a record of the little things, and reminding myself in the future of how unbelievably blessed I have been. Because that is always the case when I look back.

And if you're reading, it's probably because you know me anyway, so if I set up a hyper-interesting online persona it would just be odd.

I had a blog elsewhere before, but it was merely an outlet for angst and in all honesty I came across as tortured and whiny, which really isn't me in real life. So I let it die a death a while ago.

I shall dive in.

My beloved husband is sat at his computer, playing a selection of clips of the most catchy and irritating songs in the charts at me... "Keep Bleeding, Keep, Keep Bleeding, Looove" anybody? Yagh. It'll be in my head for a week now. Which I suppose is marginally better than The Lumberjack Song (Monty Python) which I was humming internally throughout a particularly grim court case I was taking notes on last week, occasionally panicking and wondering if the Judge could tell.

Last year I did the Project365, where you aim to take a photograph every day. I have now finished but am still uploading the backlog of photos to flickr, and trying to Photoshop the horrible ones into something less, well, horrible (with varying degrees of success). The overall result is pleasing though, in that at the beginning of the year, all of them were horrible, and I didn't have the excuse of being forced to use my cameraphone at that stage. So I must have learned something, and am hoping to find time to figure out my new shiny (complicated) camera.

Samples will appear when I manage to bully Blogger into aligning things the way I want.

A Post

2008-02-02T21:05:00.001Z

This is where my blog will go.
Complete with pretty flickr pics

and witty banter, innit.