North of the Stupid Line

Seeing as I’m going to be based in Croydon from September, I have decided to move once again! Yes, I know I’ve only lived with Aprile in Hornchurch for 3 months so far, but I have the opportunity to live in Croydon, as a mate of mine, Stephen Dering, has just bought a flat in the Croydon area, which will be perfect for work.

I’ve certainly been around since I moved to London in June 2003! I started off in South Wimbledon with my uncle Howard, and then moved into the one-bedroom flat in Muswell Hill four months later in November 2003. And as you all know, I moved to Aprile’s home in Hornchurch in April 2005!

Hopefully, living in Croydon will make access to Paddington much quicker.

What’s happened to me? I’ve turned from cat-wary to cat-lover in the space of a month or so.

Since I moved to Aprile’s, I’ve become rather attached to Thomas, the resident cat. He’s a lovely lad, 17 years of age, and very docile and calm. He’s housebound, although he does like a stroll around the garden from time to time. As we speak, he is lying on my bed dozing. Cats sure have an easy life, don’t they?

Anyway, after much blahing and toing and froing via my mobile phone, I’ve managed to get a picture of Thomas on here. Inne schweet?!

Another week gone by already. This weekend I popped up to Leicester for the next residential weekend of my LLM in Law and Employment Relations with the University of Leciester. Can you believe I’m half way through my masters degree already?

The weekend debriefed Module 2: Equality at Work, and introduced Module 3: Termination of the Contract of Employment. Some of the lectures this weekend included:

1. Parental leave: sorry, what is that for?
2. Managing Diversity in Camden
3. Unfair Dismissal – An Overview
4. Is Contract Law Relevant to the Remedies for Personal Injuries caused by Work?
5. Economic Dismissals and Transfers

Gripping, eh?

It was also an opportunity to meet up with Ian McDonald, my flatmate from UWE, Bristol, and I also got to meet his friend Hannah. That was nice. With good train journeys to and from Leicester, and nice accommodation, the Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Leicester, and nice meals, it was a pretty good weekend! Would have been better if Rachel was there with me though, but trains to and from Newport are a lot more complicated than to and from London. Pah!

As of today, I’ve quit the Group for Solicitors with Disabilities (GSD). I became Chair in May 2003 for a year, and since then I’ve remained on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past Chair and became Editor of “The Bridge” newsletter.

This letter explains why I’ve quit.

Dear all

The reason I am emailing you all today is because I have decided to resign from the GSD Executive Committee and as Editor of ‘The Bridge’, as well as my other duties for which I have volunteered for in the past few years.

This has not been an easy decision to make. However, I do feel it is the right one. I have decided to do this because I have very little time to myself these days. I have a demanding job and am uncomfortable about the amount of time I take off to attend meetings for the GSD. Also, I am looking to hopefully obtain a training contract within the next few months, which will take up nearly all of my time. With a fiancée on the other side of the country in Wales, studying a LLM by distance learning and moving into a house I have bought this summer, I feel that I will be stretching myself too far if I continue to be involved with the GSD.

Nonetheless, I would like to very much remain a member and to receive the mail outs that are sent out from time to time. I do not wish to detach myself from the GSD completely.

I would like to say a big thank you to Judith for all her support over the last few years, and to wish the rest of you the best of luck in every endeavour.

Best wishes

Rob

Just got back from Southampton. I went to see my best mate, Stuart Giddings. He has now bought a 2-bedroom flat in Southampton with his girlfriend Karen. Stuart is a trainee solicitor in Lawcomm Solicitors, and Karen works for Shoosmiths as a paralegal.

I have to say their flat is superb. It is really nice. I also have to say that I have never seen Stuart looking so happy. It was really nice to see him; I hadn’t seen him since before Christmas 2004, and as Karen was away for a hen weekend, it meant that we had one of our blokey weekends i.e. food, booze and DVDs! This was a very rare opporunity for us; the last time we did anything like this was when we were both in Cardiff Law School doing our LPC.

On the way home, I got to thinking about whether it’s good or bad to not see your best friends so often. Since we both left Cardiff Law School, I’ve only seen Stuart on four occasions. I do miss him, but I think long absences makes me appreciate him more. It’s the same with a lot of my other friends, some I don’t have very frequent contact with, but I do think about them from time to time.

I guess it’s just life – we all take different paths throughout our lives, and this will affect friendships and relationships. I guess life is just a constant test of friendships and relationships. I’m glad to say that Stuart and I are still the best for friends, and he’s doing me the honour of being my best man at THE wedding, so I’m chuffed about that.