Well, it really has been a ridiculously long time since I last updated my lovely blog. I have been very busy, but this is hardly an excuse for those of you who go on every day, despairing as you seek news of my adventures, misadventures and adventurousness in general. So I apologise, half heartedly, as we all know May shall be as bad as April in terms of me finding precious time to blog.
Yes, exam season is upon us. I have one tomorrow, for which I am reasonably well prepared, one on Tuesday for which I am extremely ill prepared, and then tow later in the month for which I have done ZERO hours of study. So I am somewhat nervous, and am relying on my lovely, large brain to pull some kind of trick wherein it produces all this information that I don't recall learning at the last minute. Brains have been known to do that, no?
Anyway, the main reason for my long absence was the MOOT. Yes, I went off to the Hague to participate in the international rounds of the moot, and the good news everyone, because I don't like to build undue suspense, is that we WON. Best overall, most points overall, best oral argumentation for the respondent... yes, it was a regular sweep, and now that it's over I can look back and be pleased. While it was on, I was stressed, worried, not eating (I can't eat when I'm stressed and worried), not sleeping (see disclaimer for not eating) and having semi-regular freak outs. Finally, the preliminary rounds were over, and I was feeling quite confident I would not have to be in the finals, so was relaxing with a well deserved glass of wine, thinking about eating dinner later on (as my stomach had unclenched) when I was told that I would have to be in the final rounds the next day. Great. My stomach clenched once again, my glass of well deserved wine was whisked away by my coach, and we spend the rest of the night studying (although, as one of the speakers, I was sent to bed at 12:30, and got to lie awake in be instead, dreading the next day). The finals are more nerve racking than the other rounds because rather than the opposing team and the judges watching you, you have everyone who was involved in the competition, and all the judges (many of whom are potential future employers) watching you. And the judges in the final round are ICJ judges. So I was a little worried. The boys had to pull me off the tram in fact. And then I was shaking. But, at the risk of sounding arrogant, Joe and I blew them away, leaving the Dutch team in our dust, quaking and crying about the English (Australian) invasion. Well, not quite. But it was a unanimous decision by the judges (last years team only won by a vote of 2:1).
Well, that's quite enough boasting. After the finals we went out into the quiet streets of the Hague to wreak some havoc. Highlights were: a man with blue hair telling me about neo-Marxism, me and Joe betting the trophy in a game of pool with some Serbians, then losing the game of pool and having to flee and Sam going to a club wearing sandals, then looking shocked when people spilt beer on his sandals. Good times. Then of course, caught the train back to sunny London, in time to find out that some kind of big thing had occurred here that same weekend. Some kind of wedding? 2 billion people watching at home? And then, of course, Osama died. So all this has meant we are not front page news as expected :p.
But it's over now. I was hoping to have like a week to veg out and let my brain break apart, but exams are upon us and I have not done nearly enough work due to the moot. So back to it! I'll try and write sooner than two weeks from now, promise.
