Observations on Star Wars

Today I got the train to Edinburgh. The journey brought to my attention several attractive.. oh actually before I start on that I ought to mention that Miller got up at a catastrophic 12PM - Gavin nearly went into cardiac arrest when I told him, so I guess it is significant enough to get into the blog. Oh and I also discovered the joys of hedge trimming today, a subject to which I shall return on Thursday.

Anyway, back to that train journey. The following attractive features of Scotland were noticed:
1. Many of the houses are made of concrete, or at least have pebbledash walls. Gavin says this is because Scots dont like to spend money on their houses, but I think it is more to do with the wild elements which these houses must withstand. The concrete lends them an rough hewn, earthy quality which sends me into overdrive.

2. The nuclear power station next to the railway line. This excited me somewhat, and I jumped about a bit in my seat until I noticed someone staring at me.

3. Instead of the endless nettles and vine like plants which grow by the railway line in London, Scotland's railways have thistle growing on their banks. I like this.

3. The bus drivers are very gruff and tell you not to stand in the doorway.

We went to watch the new Star Wars film. I thought it was excellent - everything fell into place nicely.

Observations on Badminton

Today was rather lazy, though I got a bit of work done. The following interesting things happened:

1. Played badminton. This I havent done for a while. I realised that it is a marvellous little game. Furthermore I found it was a useful catalyst for a brief psychoanalysis of my opponent.

2. After a coffee with Jon Dowland and Kate Hunt we descended upon the second hand bookshop in Oxfam. My expectations were exceeded and I found several books which I had been looking for, including another Dostoyevsky, a compilation of Steinbeck novels and a Gogol. I bought these partly for the purpose of reading them, and partly in order to weigh myself down and thus make the journey back home more challenging still.

3. I did a LOT of washing up, and realised that I find it thoroughly invigorating.

Observations on Buses

Journeys are usually interesting in one way or another, and today's was no exception. I spent the best part of 10 hours getting from Farnborough to Durham using Megabus and various trains at each end. The buses are rather old and painful, but excellent value. I spent about 8 hours sat in the same position, testing my ability to remain static for long periods without consuming food or water, and being subjected to a barrage of questions from an Estonian trumpet player about the state of farming in the UK (not my special subject, it has to be said). Anyway, I endured the said test and feel all the more resiliant as a result. Plus I got to gatecrash the excellent Kings' BBQ at Miller's house...

Meltdown

The trains went into meltdown this afternoon. I was trying to get to Godalming for dinner. I dont know if you've ever seen the departure boards at London Waterloo, but the trains work their way from screen to screen as the train time gets closer and closer. Except that this afternoon every time they got to the last screen (ie about to leave) they kept getting cancelled! So for 2 hours all the Guildford trains were cancelled, by which time there was a HUGE number of furious and sweating people packed into Waterloo getting angrier and angrier. When they finally gave us a train it filled up instantly, so most people remained stranded.

Still, when I finally got into a (packed) train, I had a very interesting chat with a plumber who gets the train to work in London because its cheaper and (usually) less delayed than driving his van. He exploded the myth that Plumbers in London make loads of money, and talked about how hard the work is. Infact its quite like being a barrister in that whilst you are self employed, you cant turn down work easily so you dont really control the hours.

The second leg of my journey was also a bit crazy. An elderly lady who spoke constantly and in an incomprehensible manner took it upon herself to engage me in conversation. Aware that the rest of the (standing) carriage was listening, I did my very best to appear interested by repeating the odd word she mentioned. I never grasped what she was talking about, but it sounded interesting. The only words I picked up were 'Romans' 'Hadrian's Wall' 'Toilets' 'Central Heating' and '1666'.

What can you do!
Anna Wilks provided an excellent dinner.

Football Managers - how to control them.

Its jolly hot at the moment. This is a good thing on the whole. On Wednesday evening I went to watch the 'big' match with my cell group from Church. Some of them seemed to know a lot about football, which was useful because I didnt.

The most interesting part of the game for me was the opportunity to observe the behaviour of the managers. I noticed that they are kept within a small box marked with dotted lines on the grass. Apparently if they wander out of this they can be shot. Anyway during the match I noticed that they often failed to look down to see whether they were going out of this box. This interested me - it was as if they cared more about the players that they were shouting at than their own lives. It reminded me of Christ.

I left before the penalties, on the assumption that I wouldnt get to see the managers boxes after the end of extra time.

How to find a court and confuse the state of Sweeden

Today I got lost. I was trying to find the Central London County Court. I checked on the Court Service website, which told me that it was at the bottom of Regents Street. However, when I got there this morning there was no sign of a court at all. Where the court should have been there was a clothes shop. For the first time in a long while I felt well and truly stuck. I ended up asking the following people, none of whom knew where the court in question was located:

1. Police station
2. Postman
3. Taxi Driver
4. About 6 business men
6. Old man
7. The Swedish Embassy (who were confused and jumpy)

Finally I found a policeman outside the Chinese Embassy who radioed his station (probably the same one I had visited!) and found it on his map for me. Good old bobbies. It turned out the court was right at the top of Regents street, a good 45 minute walk from my starting point at Waterloo. I watched some thoroughly entertaining cases. That's a story for another day though. Now I am writing an opinion advising someone as to whether they can sue a policeman. Perhaps it is the same one that helped me! Be ye ever so high...

An encounter on Waterloo bridge

An intruiging Monday. I was in London for the start of my Advanced Civil Litigation module. Spent much of lunchtime in Apostrophe with my tutor debating whether or not conditional fee agreements covered the work of law costs draftsmen (this is highly unlikely to interest any reader, but if it does, the answer is that such agreements do cover the work of law costs draftsmen, because their fees are categorised as profit costs)(I digress). In the afternoon I acted as the father of a severely disabled child who was contemplating litigation against a health authority.

The oddest part of the day came when, walking home accross Waterloo bridge, I was approached by a homeless man who was rather polite and apologetic and explained at great length how he had 10 children (or something) and had just come back from Japan. He asked me if I spoke Japanese, so I replied with a few rudimentary Japenese remarks which I have picked up (its amazing how these things come back to you). I didnt really work out why he was telling me about himself in such great detail. It turned out he was looking for money to get into a hostel. He said that it was very difficult to get accomodation if you were homeless and over 25. Anyway, the poor chap really shouldnt have spent so long explaining himself to me because, as a matter of fact, I didnt have any cash on me (I rarely carry it in London). Still, I felt I managed to witness to him a bit, and did my best to encourage his efforts. You can never tell how genuine these people were, but if he was making it up then he had certainly put a lot of trouble into it (and learnt japanese!)

Cat falls on woman

The picture below appeared on 'http://exeterpubwatch.blogspot.com/' a website run by my (pub frequenting) brother in Exeter. I felt it required some explanation.


Explanation needed!

I did some research and came to the following conclusion

There is a reason for the cat being on the local's head. In rural Devon, the feline's natural habitat is in the branches of sycamore trees, rather like those in the picture. This is because of the navigational difficulties faced by cats when on open moorland. In short, the cat must remain in sight of its home tree, as the homogenity of the surrounding moor, and the low profile of the cat, lead it to become disorientated very quickly when away from said sycamore. So, we have established that cats live in trees in exeter. Unfortunately for them, and in common with all known mammals, cats die. In exeter they often die of starvation because the open moorland provides insufficient nutrition for a family of cats. Thus the cat has developed what is known as the 'rigid ejection system'. By use of this parting technique, the cat renders its own body rigid immediatelly prior to death. It then waits morbidly for a passer by (preferably an elderly person, as they are generally slower). When the said passer by is directly underneath the cat, the said cat, with its dying breath, jumps from the sycamore tree onto the head of the passer by. The reason? To alert other cats in teh area that the tree which it chose to live in is not suitable territory for other cats to make their home, because there is insufficient food in the surrounding area to sustain feline existance.

The space-time conundrum

This morning I went to a pupillage interview at a chambers in London. If it wasn't such a significant interview, the process could accurately have been described as farcical. I got up at 6AM so that I could catch the train at 7.38 (there is only one an hour on Sunday mornings). I got to London at 8.38, waited for an hour and twenty minutes (reading CS Lewis 'Miracles' on the south bank - both of which I recommend). The interview lasted 5 minutes! It was finished by 10.05, and I didn't get home until after 12PM. Still, I got an interview, which is positive. Odd questions though... " interview Pupillage>&1;

Positive Thinking

This page will soon be burgeoning with prosaic life. Right now I don't have much time as I am jolly busy. Hold your breath.