Work experience!

I did work experience for a week at Garden Court Chambers in London! It was so awesome, definitely the best work experience I've done so far.

Well, let's start the week off. Monday. First off all, I had trouble finding my way to Middle Temple or wherever I had to go and I was also like an hour early. So I wondered all the way down... what was that road called? I can't remember, but it was starting to get dodgy because I was going where Blackfriars is... and that's definitely wrong, according to what I memorised from the map.

So I asked a few people... I tried to choose ones that looked like they weren't in too much of a rush... rush hour, sighs. No one really know where it was. Then this woman told me to try this gate... so I did. It kind of looked like what it was supposed to be on the map. GCSE geography doesn't empathise how to read maps enough. I'm one of the worst people at reading maps... I prefer to figure out a route on the map, memorise it, then try to read the directions off my head. 

Anyway, so I turned at this gate thing. I kept on walking and walking. And it was actually the place... but I had no idea. On the booklet thing, there were a few photos of the places, just so we could recognise the buildings, but there wasn't a map of that place. So I thought, as seen as I'm still about 45 mins early, I should go and find a coffee shop and sit down. For some bizzare reason, there are only a few coffee shops near there. You have to proper walk down a bit more until you see some. Then I bought a bottle of water and sat there for ages, and I was just doing the sodoku in the newspapers! London is amazing for newspapers. I get like 3 free newspapers everyday, well sometimes I just take one or two. But you get the metro, Londonlite and the London paper. Depending on where I go, sometimes you get like the City A.M. or whatever it's called. But yeah, I tend to read the metro upto the puzzles page, then I just do all the sudoku's in the newspapers and I'm too lazy to read all of the other articles. But seriously, first thing in the morning, the next thing you need isn't to absorb all the shocking news in the society today... although it'd be useful to know. I always like starting my brain off with some sodoku's, so it gets me into thinking mood =]

I've been waffling about that for ages, I haven't even got to the actual work experience part. Anyway, in the morning, we had some talks, then we had a small tour, then we had lunch (which was amazing). Then the barrister I was meant to meet during lunch was held up at court so another barrister had to come and pick me up. I'm not sure whether I can mention details of cases I did (I signed a confidential form thing) so I think I won't risk it =]

Anyway, on the first day, I did some immigration stuff. It's actually more interesting and slightly more complex than I had expected. I was meant to go to this court somewhere, but there might be security issues since I'm under 16. So instead, I meet a pupil who had some immigration cases the next day at Taylor House. So the next day I met her there and I watched her go to court. It was pretty interesting =]
Then we were meant to do a social security case in the afternoon, but it was cancelled.
So in we just went back to the office =] Even though she was a pupil, in her second half of the year, she seemed really professional. At first, I didn't even know she was a pupil because she just seemed like a lawyer who's been doing stuff like this for years.

Then in the afternoon, I went to the housing bit and read over a case and stuff. Then on Wednesday, we had to go to the court... was it a county court? I can't remember. I should have wrote all these stuff down. Anyway... it was interesting in the way that we had such a slim chance of winning. I don't really have the knowledge and stuff to give a proper opinion, but if I was the judge, I wouldn't let the guy keep living there. And we were defending for the guy...
But yeah, it was just amazing to see how professional barristers are. It's like, even though if you know you won't win, you still fight your hardest to represent the best of your client.
On that morning, before it was time for our case (ours was the last) I went to sit in on a few cases, since it's a public court. Then I realised, sometimes women barristers can be even more aggressive than men.

Thursday was my final day at the chamber because we were doing things with SMF on Friday. I went on a criminal trial with a QC. It was a murder trial... not as thrilling as I see in films but it was okay. Since I had read the summary, so I kind of knew what every witness saw and stuff. But then during the trial, the barristers have to ask each and every one of them everything that happened and lots of other questions. To be honest, it was interesting in a way, but boring at the same time. I kind of wanted to close my eyes and keep my ears open... I feel like this a lot of the time. Though it was slightly boring, I still listened hard. Then like the QC asked me whether I had any questions, I said no... but like, because my brain is so slow, I had lots of questions and points about the case afterwards. The QC I was with was really nice, when he talks, he talks in like a really gentle way... but like, when he's on court, he's like completely different. And that was just kind of interesting for some reason... like once you get into your job, you completely adapt into your role.

All week, it was boiling... it's just been really hot. So on Friday, I decided to not wear my jacket, and just wear trousers and a shirt. But that turned out to be the coldest day of the week. Not only that, in the courts, they like to blast air-con to keep people awake. So I was freezing and tired.
We went into a few courts and observed a few cases. One was funny because the offendant tried to get us kicked out. In the afternoon, we did some advocacy training. It was more difficult than I had imagined. Because you have to asked open questions, closed questions, and leading and non-leading questions. My brain just wasn't quite working but I managed to participate a tiny tiny bit =]

Then at the end, we had a kind of reception where all of our barristers came. The SMF people gave out certificates and stuff. And I was just talking lots to my barrister. I think next year, I'll definitely try and get another work experience placement there. As I've mentioned, it's the best work exp I've done so far. My first one was at Manchester Uni which was purely boring. Then I worked at the Co-Operative head quarters... it was interesting... but it just missed something. The week I worked in the chamber, in the morning, I actually felt like "Yeah, I'm looking forward to work today." Because every day is so different, and you never get a repetitive day. The only down side of working there is travelling into London every day. Waking up so early, getting ready, get the train, then get the tube. I did it for a week and I felt like dying. I feel for the people who do this day in day out. And it's not even cheap, it's probably slightly cheaper than driving a car since you have to pay congestion charge and parking... but I had to pay like £90 or so just for a week's worth of transport in London >.< fun ="D">

DBSK

I knew I forgot something in the last post. I remembered as I clicked "publish post".

I was gonna mention DBSK's new stuff as well. Their "The Secret Code" tour DVD and their Mirotic t-shirts. I was gonna buy their photobook and their t-shirts... then I also wanted to buy TSC dvd. But they're all so expensive. Why is SM so cruel to us fangirls.

I was gonna buy at least one of them. But then after I bought my piano and headphones and stuff, I'm a bit poor now. I also have to save up a bit more for the EYC Slovenia trip.
Money takes forever to get into my bank account, but it leaves really fast.

But yeah, I've decided to not buy anything else... I said that a while ago....
It's gonna be true this time, I'm not gonna buy anything online besides my further maths textbook.
DBSK... this obsession is too expensive =S
I'll catch up with all of their stuff when I have money, even though I'm pretty sure most things will go out of stock - as always.

Anyway, I have to go and watch tv then tidy up. Ja ne!

Piano ~~

I can't remember the last time I posted. But I feel like I should post today!

I bought my piano! =D It's not the most amazing model, but it's good enough to keep me satisfied and help me practice ^^
Ahh I've been playing on it a lot today. I've realised how rusty my piano skills are after just stopping for a year. I can barely play Forever Love now, I can't even remember the Fur Elise notes T_T
But yeah, plenty of time to practice this summer ^_^ *happy*

Also, today, after I bought the piano. My mum told me this shop which sold some classical cds cheap. So my mum took me there *after I've asked to go so many times*
It had some really cool Mozart for baby cd's =] It had ones for concentration and for memory and for emotions and stuff. It was really cool. If I have a kid, I'm gonna get him or her to listen to Mozart hehe xD
Anyway, then I saw this box set of 12 Mozart cd's.... I wanted to get that.
Then I saw a box set of 12 different classical composer cd's. There was Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Chopin and many more. So I bought that and I'm really happy =D
Oh yeah, it also had Vivaldi, the four seasons.... but I already have a Vivaldi cd...

Also... I bought some really cool Sony headphones with my piano. They were more expensive than the ear phones I usually use for the ipod... but these were headphones which was quite awesome because they don't hurt my ears after a while =]

Yeah, I don't really know what else to say now. I'm sure there's more but I can't remember. I'm gonna go and watch tv, it's this thing about the Caribbean, it's so cool =]

Today

Hmmm... I haven't posted for a few days again. I can't remember what's the last thing I posted. Was it about DBSK's new photobook? So expensive x_x

Let's start this post up with some complaining. It's SOO HOT!! *sighs* *dislikes extremely sunny weather*
I don't mind the sun that much... but not when it's completely in your face T_T
Hayfever's been killing me... but it isn't too bad when I take tablets. I take my tablets at around 7am each day... but they take about 3 hours to start working... so I work my way through tons of tissues until about 10am.

College is so boring lately. There's nothing to do really. Well there's plenty to do. But like no one is in the right state of mind to learn anyway. Number 1: we've finished our exams, we need a break. Number 2: It's too hot to work. Number 3: We should get an early summer anyway. They might not be completely valid but it's a good enough excuse xD

I finally got a library card today ^^ I was going to look for some JK Galbraith books, but I couldn't find any, so I reserved one instead.
Anyway, I took out a book called "The Economic Naturalist. Why economics explains almost everything."
I've seen this book a few times, I just thought it had an interesting cover.
It raises some interesting questions like "Why do 24 hours shops have locks on doors?" and "Why are there brail on the drive-through cash machines?" (Of course, USA has drive-through everything).

But yeah, interesting book. I'm only about a third of the way through but I really like it ^^

AADBSK 3

*edited*

Basically this post consisted of my waffling about AADBSK 3 and how expensive the Japanese version is and how the other versions didn't play on my dvd player. 

I re-read it and it really annoyed me... so I felt the need to get rid of all that waffling. 

Untitled

I don't know what to name this post. I'll think of a name by the time I've finished writing this.

I was meant to post the other day (when I say the other day, I mean about Wednesday)... but I haven't had a chance to.

On Wednesday, we went to this UCAS thing at Herts Uni. It was good to get prospectuses and stuff, even though I could order them all online, but because we went in the afternoon, most people probably get bored by then and have ran out of prospectuses.  
Lol, my friend and I was walking round... and we were having a silly conversation and I was like "we're such weirdo's" while we were walking past this group of boys. And I was just talking and walking... then my friend was like "You know, they thought you called them weirdos... they all turned round and was like 'excuse me'." Haha I found that quite amusing. I wasn't intending to offend them. I was going to turn round and apologise but I had already walked on quite a bit and we saw some other girls from our school and started talking xD

Hmmm there was something about yesterday I wanted to post. But I can't remember now *memory is like a sieve*

I've been singing Stand By U for the past two days. I keep going "kimi no dare? da da no ite. da da da da da ite." lol I haven't memorised the lyrics so I keep "da"ing to the song instead.

Today... was a pretty pointless day. It said it was going to rain, I was disappointed that it didn't. Apparently it rained near where I live, but not in St Albans. I need rainnnn ~~
But yeah, I had three free in the morning and I had pretty much nothing to do. Well that's a lie, in fact, I have plenty to do. i.e. make notes and read and all that stuff. 
Then economics was okay... it went pretty fast ^^ The work was easy-ish.
It's just a bit dry at the moment, but I hope it's gets better ^^

This is random but really weird... blogger saves drafts every few minutes *thank God for that ^^* But like it just said "draft autosaved at 19:51" but my laptop says 19:50. I think the time on my laptop is a bit slow because I keep to be saving things a head of time.

I think I'll leave it at this today. I can't really be bothered to type a lot and I have nothing to say.  

P.s. as I can't think of a title for this post, it's called "untitled" but that's a bit weird because the title is untitled and it's kind of ironic.

Oh yeah, before I click publish post... today I realised that the word "bound" is quite weird. There was a reason for this, but I can't remember now. It had this weird contrasting ambiguous meaning that I noticed while I was staring at the word in my economics lesson.

Stand By U

I've been watching and watching and watching Stand By U.

I love the first bit, where the piano plays. I've been trying to remember the chords because I want to try and play this on the piano, so if I have the first chords, it might help me figure the notes out *shrugs* maybe I should stick with finding the actual score?
It's so sad. It's such a beautiful song.

*edit*

I found one with subs ^^

Yiruma

As usual, I end up spending hours and hours on YouTube watching piano videos (especially when I'm supposed to do something important like finish off the magazine article or homework)

But yeah, I've spent all day from about 10:30am this morning watching piano videos. I can never ever get tired.
They just make me happy.
But I did spend some time shopping round for pianos too. They're so expensive >.<

I've discovered a few people on YT who plays wonderful Japanese and Korean songs. I'm surprised I didn't notice their videos before.

 I've always been a big fan of Lang Lang, Yundi Li, etc. But then I was looking for DBSK's "Share The World" piano score, 'cause I read from one of the video's I watched that I could purchase it from Yamaha. But to no avail, I couldn't DBSK scores on the Yamaha website. I also heard that their newest single "Stand By U" will be available too. 

Anyways, all of that was besides the point. I ended up stumbling on a great pianist called Yiruma. And I am completely in love with his music.

Although they're all good, so far I have two favourites ^^


Kiss The Rain




Love




So yeah, check out his videos. They're pretty awesome! He plays so beautifully... you just get completely mesmerised

I also love Destiny Of Love. Watching him play is so awesome, he's so absorbed into it ^^

I've been looking for his piano scores. I found some of them on YesAsia. I'd love to own all of them.
Should I spend about £40 buying the 3 volumes of piano scores? They look so tempting. But before I buy those, it'd make sense to buy a new piano first. 

I think I'm gonna have to find all the mp3 files and then put them all on my ipod <3>

First Post!

This is my first post on Blogspot, although I've made this blog ages ago... but I never did anything to it.

I prefer this than LJ because I think there are more features, though I do have to change the layout, etc.

I don't really know what to post, I never really know what to post anyway. I just tend to ramble on with myself.

Here's an amusing thing. The other day, I was searching for pianos (not that it's important), then I ended up looking at violins online. Then I clicked onto this website, and the first thing I saw said something like "Get FREE delivery when you buy a product for £100 or more" or alternative wording. I can't remember exactly. Then I looked at the violin and then the price on the side which said £99. LOL it just made me laugh for some absurd reason. Then I looked underneath the price and it said £4.99 delivery.
I found it really funny, it made my day xD


Anyway, let's talk about today. I'm going to make this a long post. I made noodles today. Instant noodles are meant to taste delicious, since it's fast food, unhealthy, and requires e-numbers.
But for some reaosn, the instant noodles I made today tasted disgusting, in fact, it didnt even taste disgusting, it tasted of nothing, even though I put the whole packet of MSG in.

Moving on... today, I went into Marks and Sparks to buy lunch, then I decided to buy the newspaper too, since I felt like I should read something. So I bought a copy of the Daily Mail, though I did stand there for a few minutes trying to decide whether I should buy the Daily Mail or The Guardian.
Anyway, so just then when I was waiting for the msn to upgrade itself, I started to read the newspaper.
It's rather depressing all it talks about is MP's and expenses and stuff. But there were some interesting things on there.
Apparently there are official guidances which say teachers should scrap the "i before e" rule. Which I think they should have done AGES ago. In my opinion, it was a stupid rule anyway, what's the point of having a rule when there are so many exceptions?

I don't really know what else to say.
I'll post again when I have something interesting to post xD