Happy Christmas

Wishing you a very happy Christmas.

Barmaid

Barmaid's had a facelift!

No, not one of those facelifts, I haven't got any wrinkles *cough*.

Thankyou to Android, who has made a very good job indeed of pimping my blog.

The red shoes, alas, are but a fantasy for Barmaid, who would need industrial scaffolding on wheels in order to get from A - B in them, but a girl can always dream.

I've absolutely no idea why Andro put chocolates on my blog, I only ever eat fruit and wholesome organic vegetables, hence my perfect size 6 figure (I wear a slightly larger size just to make the fatties feel better about themselves) ;-)

Bar-Os has made an appearance. The picture is several years old and was taken when he was just 2 years old, but already bigger than his (step) Dad, who stands proudly beside him. I was told when I bought Bar-Os, that he would make a decent sized pony/cob - he is neither a pony, nor a cob, but a somewhat larger chap, who resembles a Clydesdale and who has a 14ft stable to accomodate his ample proportions. My dreams of elegantly vaulting onto him from the ground, have been replaced with the reality of a 2ft + high mounting block and a prayer each time I launch myself upwards and vaguely towards him, trying to land in the saddle at first attempt.

Thank goodness for Amazon, who yet again have come to my rescue with the Christmas shopping list. I've bought a cat cartoon book for BF, a couple of ornate wild bird feeder stands for relatives, the usual DVD's and books for others. There was only Bar-Man left to buy for, but he has suggested that we replace our old TV with a flat screen one in the New Year, instead of buying each other gifts. I'm all for making life easy, so that's sorted, but I did buy him a few blokey gadgets to open on Christmas Day.

Today, I was supposed to write out Christmas cards too, but somehow haven't found the inclination time.

MCT revision is painful and slow; youth sentencing is as much a mystery to me now as it was when I first glanced at the subject several months ago. I'm almost at the point of giving up on hearsay, it just hasn't clicked and I'm quite frankly sick of people shouting "In criminal proceedings a statement not made in oral evidence in the proceedings is admissible as evidence of any matter stated..." - I'm thick, not deaf thankyou, and continually shouting the same sentence isn't working ok!:-) I just can't tell the difference between hearsay and original evidence, so seeing as it's Christmas, balls to it. I shall find myself a Janet and John book to make myself feel big and clever again.

ttfn.

Decisions, Decisions?

Another study weekend over. The Drafting formative work has been handed in and the results shall be given out next month. Both Advocacy exams came and went and the results were given out immediately afterwards. I faired better in the Examination-in-Chief, than the Cross-Examination, but am relieved just to have gotten them out of the way without any fails  mishaps.

Next month I have the Criminal/Civil MCT exam and also the Negotiation formative. The MCT worries me most because there are far too many areas of procedure and evidence that I'm uncertain about, not least hearsay! As for the Negotiation, we shall see? Usually we 'perform' our negotiation with another student, but next month we are up against barristers, who are, I'm informed, extremely well briefed on the subject in hand.

We also have a one off civil advocacy next month and luckily it is an area of law that I'm quite interested in, so for once I feel reasonably comfortable. Last years contractual disputes did rattle me somewhat and I felt a little out of my depth at times, simply because my LLB, Sale of Goods Act and associated broken electrical appliances essays didn't really provide a sufficient grounding for the more technical aspects of contractual law.

As the title of this post suggests, it is also time to think about which Options I shall choose for the final few months of BVC. No. 1 is the Advanced Criminal Litigation, but I'm still all at sea with the 2nd choice. Judicial Review is a possibility, as is Company Law, and also Property and Chancery, but then there's also Employment Law...

Each has bits that I like and bits that I don't. Wills and Trusts didn't go down too well during LLB, but the remaining contents of the Property Option do look interesting (apart from mortgages), but the reading list looks quite daunting. And there's also the small matter that I haven't a hope in hell's chance of landing a pupillage at one of 'those' sets - wrong sex, wrong age, wrong uni... .

Judicial Review covers prison law, but also covers asylum and homelessness, which just doesn't float my boat somehow. However a knowledge of Public Law is useful in relation to some criminal appeals. I hadn't previously considered Company Law, but having looked through the information on the subject, quite a bit of it does look to be familiar, not least directors duties, which I covered quite thoroughly during LLB. And as for Employment, well it looks user friendly and the assessment format appears to be less onerous than the others.

Being a complete anorak, most of the Options look interesting and if I thought that it might be of use, I may have even considered International Trade, but somehow carriage of goods by sea is perhaps a little too specialised to be of any use post BVC, unless of course I decide to become a pirate. Family Law is a no no for me, not least because the module is based on ancillary relief and numbers and me don't always see eye to eye. Same with the Personal Injury module, quantum takes me ages to calculate and even longer if I then have to start calculating interest as well.

I shall have a better idea once I receive the results for my Opinion Writing and Drafting mocks - no point choosing a subject that requires excellent written skills, if I haven't gotten those skills.

Decisions, decisions...?

The start of the exams

Well, it's been all go for the last week or so and the BVC homework has been seemingly never ending. Today I have been reading through the Civil Litigation homework questions and have completed about three quarters of them, but I may have to leave them in order to finish off some Criminal Litigation homework and also have a final tweak at my Drafting formative (which I intended to tweak at the weekend but somehow didn't find the time). This weekend sees the last of the Civil and Criminal tutorials before the MCT in January.

I've done no Christmas shopping as of yet and must make a bit of an effort soon, but shopping doesn't float my boat and I suspect that it will be a last minute online clickathon.

I've been practising my advocacy on Barman, who, when I'd finished my cross-examination of him, he uttered one word; "bitch". Perhaps I need to tone it down a bit, but what the heck, it's like PMT heaven:-)  Best friend is invited to mine tomorrow to be a witness, good job I haven't bought her Christmas present yet, she may never speak to me again! Her boyfriend has been appointed as judge in the proceedings and I suspect that the two of them are conspiring against me as I write.

My fondness of advocacy dwindled last year and I got a bit bored with the interim civil applications that we had to perform each month, but this year's witness handling is much more fun, not least because my group has a very good tutor, who's enthusiasm is contagious, so much so, that one or two of the staunch civil aspirants are contemplating a switch to the criminal bar instead!

The early nights are a bit depressing, but I do find that studying is a little more focused without the distractions of nice weather to lure me away from the computer. However, in a slight distraction to the Costs homework I decided to throw myself around the house to the Prodigy's 'Fire Starter' and tonight have a slightly sore back and a somewhat bewildered neighbour.

Seem to think that call dates are to be released soon - ooh er, it's all getting a bit real - wigs, gowns and the small matter of several dining sessions to complete. I'm not one for being suspicious, but I do feel a little intrepidation at having to book my call night when I've got such a lot of exams lined up.