Friday 23 May 2008

Finished!


I have finally finished my exams! No more staying up the entire day before the exam nervously panicing, having to take pro plus, drink coke by the gallon! I'm an not entirely sure how I have done this year, infact I have no idea at all, ah well at least a suprise is waiting for me on June 23 when I get my results then! I'll probably be having nightmares over the next few weeks of walking into an exam room and complaining that I've finished my exams then waking up in a sweat!

The exams in general went ok, did all the major ones such as Admin, Eu, Equity, Tort and my optional subject the dreaded criminology! Extenuating circumstances for tort.. pretty much a shame it can't be transferred to all my exams though!


Work experience
So now I find myself trying to get some more work experience for a workexperience block. I have left it too late to get any more mini pupillages, and to be honest the people I am ringing round here a local barristers chambers down the road seem completly thick, well at least their receptionist did "Hi I am a really friendly law student from a decent univeristy, sorry I couldn't find out what area of law you practice because you aren't listed in Chambers&Partners so I am just ringing to see why you are so shit and do you have any work experience?"
"umm no". The reply received was equal enough to make sure that I wouldn't be trying there again.

I also rang a criminal soliticor whose receptionist stated that they had no work experience until I kept asking if she was sure, so I'm pretty sure she just diverted me to leave a voicemail to someone who won't ring me back. Ah balls!

Which Inn is in?
I have no idea which Inn to apply for student membership for... it appears that lots of students and bloggers seem to prefer middle temple. The information on the web is useless, and gives little difference between them apart from telling me which ones are more boozier than the others...

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Doctor Says

Well first of all doctor didn't say anything because there wasn't a bloody doctor but only a f'ing nurse practionner who couldn't treat me and my deep painful overflowing black mucus cough at the walk in clinic.

So Nurse practionner gives me the number to Out of Hours emergency number, I ring up leave my contact details, an hour later a Dr rings me, tells me that my cough is probably just an irritation. I've told him I've had it a few times before, and that it can get quite bad, that I have an exam tomorrow, and its quite important that I get it seen and under control. Oh no the doctor said you'll be fine, just drink tea with lemon and honey. 5 teas later its 3 am, I can't sleep, still coughing, constantly for hours on end, having a hard time breathing. So I can't sleep at all so stay awake and do some work for my exam which is well needed, as I spent three hours trying to get seen to by a doctor.

So I went to the exam today at 10am, coughed all the way through, went to the loo about 5 times. The people sitting next to me probably wanted to kill me, and I'm probably on their hate list. Went to see head of subject (it just happened t0 be tort) she said see examination officer, I saw examination officer, she said see GP. I saw GP, GP said "i'm surprised you went into your exam" as she thought I was too ill to go in.

So thank you very much Walk in useless f'ing clinic, and not so very helpful over the phone doctor, I am now on antibiotics and inhaler for my chest infection. Dick.

Thursday 8 May 2008

Ohh Bother




Yes bother, why am I looking at work experience opportunities, such as being a witness helper, an independent police station visitor, an admin/paralegal, or even doing some work for the FRU(oh boy would they be up shit creek if I had to defend someone).

I think serial procrastination should probably be a criminal offence, just like having Boris as Mayor should be (I voted for Ken). Not withstanding the fact that I do in general hate bendy buses but they are the only decent way of getting round London at silly o clock in the morning and he wishes to scrap them!

So I have been investigating work experience opportunities, however some seem too onerous for the current time, and may have to wait for my potential gap year after I finish my degree to gain some more experience/live a little. Unfortunately I do not have a CV with a flowing list of relevant work experience(Minx knows shes seen it) however I do generally feel better about myself(what is blogging for?) that some people I know have NO legal work experience let alone an ACTUAL CV. I can be known to be lazy and demotivated, however these people in their 2nd year not actually having any legal work experience or not even contemplating a CV really does give me a bit of confidence that there are probably a lot of knobs that want to go to the bar.

I'm fairly (overly) set on going into criminal law, yes i know poor pay, the criminals in jail will be living a better life than me, so I a hoping that my mini-pupillage with a criminal chambers will help me. However I do wish to explore other areas of law, and had I worked harder this year and not generally covered an entire course in a week, I would have realised that whilst Admin law and Trusts are generally quite boring, when you know everything about it its actually quite enjoyable! Perhaps I should have applied this to the bane of my existence last year (contract law) Which for various reasons of my tutor being the devil incarnate I didn't quite enjoy.

I'm wondering about the potential of other work experience, and I know that chambers also like the fact that if you have volunteered or traveled that this also looks good on your application.
Hence why the BIG plan for this summer is to go interralling round Europe for a month or so!