Monthly Archives: July 2004

Interesting observations

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Coming home on the 134 bus from Tottenham Court Road to Muswell Hill today, I had a little think about some quirks that people have. They may be exclusive to British people, but on the other hand, maybe not. Let’s have a look.

- in the men’s toilets, if a guy is going to use an urinal, he goes to the one furthest away from any other urinals being used;
- on buses, have you noticed that people who are forced to sit in the aisle seat due to lack of room always move to a window seat as soon as one becomes available, usually because they’d rather sit alone; and
- on the tube, if there are seats available with no one either side, people automatically aim for them.

I can’t think of any more. Can you?

Buckingham Palace

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Rachel and I had the rare honour of being invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party today by the Lord Chamberlain on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen. It was quite surreal walking through some of the reception rooms of Buckingham Palace from the front of the grounds to the enclosed gardens in the back.

We had our fair share of Battenberg cake, carrot cake, sarnies with the crusts cut off and cups of tea. They also served iced coffee and homemade lemonade, which we tried as well – lovely.

The Queen arrived at 4pm prompt and was a vision in a dress of lime green plus a hat. We think that she was dressed in such a bold colour simply so that people could see her and identify her quickly. There were, I estimate, about 5,000 people at the Garden Party. We watched for ages among the crowds to get another glimpse of Her Maj as she made her way around the throngs of people doing her meet and greet stuff to the Royal Tent to have her cuppa tea. She looked so small! The Duke of Edinburgh was with her as well, but no other members of the Royal Family that I could recognise.

All in all, quite a nice event to attend. I was invited because I’m the immediate past chairman of the GSD. Rachel came with me as my partner, as did Aprile Harman, as our official BSL Interpreter.

Training Contracts

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31st July is coming up. This is a big deadline in the law world; most law firms have their deadline for training contract on this date, for trainee positions to start in September 2006. I sometimes wonder at the logic of recruiting two years in advance. After all, it means that for LPC graduates like me, if I’m lucky enough to secure a training contract, I have to wait 2 years before I can actually do it, by which time I will be married, and have a wife who doesn’t want to live in London with me.

How practical is it for LPC graduates to be recruited for jobs 2 years in advance? Not very. So much can happen to one person in 2 years. The last 2 years of my life have seen so many incredible changes i.e. moving from Bristol to Cardiff to London and starting my first proper job; getting engaged and booking the wedding. I know for a fact that if I start a training contract in September 2006, I will be married – but what else?

Anyway, back to the point. I’m applying for lots of training contracts over the next few weeks. Wish me luck.

Blog Readers

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What is the best reader for feeds on the www? To read blogs, database based wwws and so on? Well, Tony N tried to convert me to FeedDemon, but I wasn’t too fussed. It was too much, if you know what I mean. Alison uses Bloglines, which I gave it a try and I much prefer it by far. It doesn’t take over your computer, and you only need to install a little button. Here’s a description of it.

Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it’s FREE!

Go for that one I say.

GSD and International Law Firm Open Day

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I’m incensed. The GSD in association with a major international law firm will be running an open day for GSD student members at the beginning of December 2004 from 11am to 3pm at the firm?s London Office. You can read the article here.

Why am I pissed off? Well, the criteria for participation includes 2 A?s and a B at A level. This is discriminationary in itself. A large number of GSD members will have not managed to get such high A Level grades due to their disability. For example, if you have dyslexia, you are not going to be able to achieve the grades that reflex your ability due to the fact that the very system of exams discriminates against the dyslexia.

(I’m not one of them, I don’t see my Deafness as the reason I only obtained BBC.)

I’m going to apply anyway – quite strange because I’m an ex-Chair of the GSD, and I won’t fulfil the criteria. Will let you know what happens.