Nice weather for ducks

The snow has melted and been replaced with rain, lots of it too. Roll on Spring, I'm cheesed off with the Winter now, it seems to have hung around since last July.

I have prepared my notes for the first Advanced Criminal Litigation class, which is all about first appearance in the Magistrates Court. There's a conference, a bail application and also plea before venue representations. Not entirely sure what it is all about, but no doubt once I've made an arse of myself in front of the class, the penny will drop.

Today I should be preparing for the Negotiation exam, but I cannot summon any enthusiasm whatsoever, so instead I've been faffing about doing other bits of homework. Apparently we have some Drafting work to do, which is to go into our Personal Development File, which we hand in sometime in April. I didn't realise that we had this other work to do, so hope to get something sorted before the next study weekend, as it looks to be a busy time from mid-March onwards.

Would like to push on with the remaining Options homework, but the lectures haven't appeared on Blackboard yet, so it looks as though there might be a last minute rush (again).

The MCT results came out yesterday and thankfully I didn't fail. Due to the delay in releasing results, I'd gotten myself into a bit of a panic, particularly with the Civil Litigation, which I thought was very difficult. The thought of doing a re-take made me feel quite sick, so I'm very relieved to have gotten through it.

Barman has been working away all week and came back home yesterday evening to a lovely, neat and tidy house. Today, said house is a tip:-) Bar-Os has been particularly sweet whilst Barman has been away, but that all changed this morning when Barman led him out to the paddock. At the halfway mark I took over the leading, as Bar-Os was determined to take a chunk out of hubby's arm. Must be a man thing going on there? Actually, I think it's a spoilt thing going on there!

Good luck to all at College of Law doing their MCT's this weekend.

What are you doing Monday?

The results for the civil and criminal MCT exam have been delayed, they are released next Monday. I'm concerned about the civil; we shall see.

The options papers have been given out and there is quite a bit of work to do in time for the next study weekend. In relation to the Advanced Criminal Litigation, the tutorial looks to be mostly oral skills based, with a conference, a bail application, first appearance in the magistrates court and finally, endorsing the brief. I had rather hoped that endorsing a brief meant signing my name on George Clooney's underpants, but apparently it doesn't and instead it's something a bit boring, but necessary.

We have been given the 1 page handout for the Negotiation exam, which is a basic list of the areas of law that the negotiation will entail. I'm dreading the exam. With just 2 hours to read the papers and to prepare a negotiation plan, it will be a tall order, as I'm not the quickest worker by any stretch.

I have also received the papers for the second Advocacy exam which is examination-in-chief. We have to prepare for 2 witnesses, but will only examine 1. There will be some last minute instructions and we are given 30 minutes to fathom out how those instructions alter the case and the subsequent line of questioning.

Just for a change, we had snow AGAIN last night and it looks as though the weather is going to be really cold again next week; minus 6 predicted for Tuesday night:-(

Oh, and I have just sent off my application for call. I feel quite excited about it all and just hope that I don't mess up the final load of exams.

That's blown it!

It's too late now. Too late to notice that there is a coma missing in paragraph 14; too late to notice that I mixed up the names of the claimant and defendant at random points throughout the tome; too late to amend the inevitable typos littered generously throughout, which for some reason went un-noticed the 3 times that the script was proof read.

The Drafting and Opinion Writing assessments have been emailed with love, and a sloppy Valentine's e-card, to provider. Ok, I lied about the Valentine's bit, but they are sent, vanished, disappeared, gone, but not yet forgotten.

Now there is just the 2 month wait before I know whether I'm quite as thick as my nearest and dearest think I am:-)

On a less obsessive note, tomorrow sees the last of the Negotiation and Advocacy classes, before the exams next month. In an ideal world I would have liked to have spent a great deal more time on the Advocacy prep, but the written exams took centre stage this month, so I've only had a couple of hours to cobble together a few notes and a trial plan. As for the Negotiation, well, it has always been my least favourite subject and after last month's fiasco, it is now on par with cleaning the oven.

I pick up my options stuff this weekend. I actually have no idea what the said 'stuff' is, and no idea what each option entails. Apparently it's a big secret, well either that, or provider can't be bothered to explain. There was a brief explanation on Blackboard, but not enough to make an informed decision. I guess it all adds to the excitement.

It only dawned on me today that there aren't any more classes with my 'big' group. I shall miss them. Not sure which one's are doing the same options as me, we were all a bit confused about them last month.

So, it is now time for the final slog towards the finish line. It's too early to tell how I shall fair with the grade fairy. In my heart of hearts I shall be gutted if I get a 'C'. I suppose that sounds quite arrogant, but I have worked really hard for this and would like to do well.

The biggest worry is the 'Marmite Effect', as regards the oral skills. Some tutors like my style, some definitely don't, so it's with the toss of a coin as to how I shall do in the 3 remaining compulsory oral skills exams.

Time now to get my papers together for the 'trial' tomorrow morning. 'Can you tell the Court your full name please...'

Work in progress(ish)

I am still working on the BVC written exams and progress is painfully slow. I have chopped and changed my Opinion until it has lost what little flow it had in the first place. Today I intend to try and reach the finish of the first draft and will let it sit for a couple of days, before looking at it with a fresh set of eyes. Last night I read it out to Barman and was surprised that it sounded better than I thought, although it was repetitive in parts. The niggling feeling that I had about missing something obvious hasn't gone away and yesterday I spent a couple of hours perusing Chitty and Halsbury's to see if there was something that I'd forgotten - the search was futile, but the niggle remains.

The Drafting is on ice, as I came to a sticking point and decided to leave well alone for a few days before trying to work out where I'm going with my pleadings (nowhere fast probably:-)).

I dread the point at which I have to hand over my work and then the wait for weeks before discovering my mark. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

There are 4 other lots of homework to do - 2 lots of Advocacy prep and 2 lots of Negotiation plans. I will be lucky to finish the homework this month!

The options DVD lectures are handed out in February, I haven't heard whether or not I have been given the choices that I wanted. I also haven't had the MCT results yet, but I think that they are out in the next couple of weeks? Good time to join the Foreign Legion perhaps!

It was very frosty this morning and I had to take it steady with Bar-Os on the way to the paddock. He has got a little bored with the routine and stops dead at any given point, looks in the direction that he would prefer to go (he has a thing about gravel drives and always wants to walk up them and explore). This morning he decided that he wanted to have a walk around the snobby cul-de-sac and refused to move, standing on the spot staring into a little hankerchief garden and the kitchen window beyond. I pretended that I'd had to stop to faff about with something in my pocket. He has also developed a bum scratching fetish (a leftover from his skin condition) and turns his rather large backside around to be scratched. I haven't seen his face for weeks and it is only a matter of time, I fear, before I am hauled down to the police station to explain exactly why I always seem to have a horse's arse in my face:-)

Oh well, I can't delay it any longer, opinion writing here I come...