Merry Christmas Everyone!
It has been such a long time since I've posted and the reason for that is I had no idea how difficult juggling studying and full time work can be when a depressing labour market forces you to take a Brummie based job and move back in with your family who have no understanding of why you might possibly appreciate some alone time in which to squeeze in a few hours of studying so as to pursue a life long dream of a career that you've already invested most of your life in rather than once again watching a Hollyoaks-Emmerdale-Coronation Street-Eastenders marathon "as a family". It's a right blog blocker. Although for anyone out there that cares, I think Janine did it. Oh and I'm also "Team Andre" in the Jordan v Peter saga, wanted Joe to win X-factor and "Team Jacob/Werewolf" in the Edward v Jacob debate. Just so you know... (*shoot me! PLEASE!*)
It's not all been mindless distraction though. Since my last post I've been marshalling, mooting, studying, had 2 teaching weekends, arranged 2 mini-pupillages, started a new job in London, started an accompanying part time job in London, then started a newer job in Birmingham instead. Oh, and I got my loan!!! So I can now actually pay my course fees and get to sleep at night :)
BVC-wise, things are going pretty well I think. I'm noticing that despite my interest in Criminal Law and my lack of enthusiasm for Civil, I'm finding Civil pretty easy but Crime more of a struggle. In Advocacy, I'm getting good feedback but in all honesty I just don't feel that satisfied with myself, whereas in Conference I think I'm doing well but then the feedback doesn't live up to how I felt at the time. I was pretty nervous about Conference to begin with, but actually, my tutor is brilliant and I think if anyone is going to help me figure out how not to be too slow talking about the irrelevant things it will be him.
Opinion Writing is still the best taught subject, and so clear and, at the moment at least, no trouble at all, which is good because I have an assessed Opinion to hand in next session. Legal Research becomes more of a nightmare as time goes by. I thought, foolishly, that it would be fine, instead I handed in an 80 page UNFINISHED mess as my Mock Assessment and genuinely can't wait till the next session to be put out of my misery and find out where on earth I went wrong. Generally I'm pretty pleased with how things are going, it isn't all smooth sailing obviously, but all the same, I am finding it much much easier than university. Which is strange considering the amount of work there is, but doesn't surprise me because I'm much more dedicated to this than I was to my degree.
Oh, and my classmates are still fantastic people, and nothing like the idiots I went to university with. I feel really lucky. The only thing is that there is one absolutely crazy cat lady who is a shakespearean tragedy all to herself. She doesn't do the work, and then disrupts the class and interrupts to ask the tutor why she doesn't understand what he is talking about, or whether or not she read about such and such a case that was in the newspaper last year. I noticed that she had become a bit of a pariah (it's not hard to imagine why) and attempted to make nice and got my head bitten off and last session, she stormed out of a classroom mid lesson. It kills me to think that she might somehow land a pupillage. The pupillage system seems so random, it could actually happen, and if she did, I think I might have to stick pins in my eyes to block out the pain.
Will try to post again soon, but not only do i have the family time/soap opera gauntlet to run daily, I also got Rumpole and Kavannagh QC DVD box sets for Christmas. Which is for Advocacy studying purposes of course...
