Moot Point

Greetings!

As I made this blog and I haven’t really updated since, I figured I’d make a new entry.  I’ve done a few things over the past couple of weeks, including get a job for the summer.  I managed to apply, along with my brother, online for a job at Sainsbury’s and fortunately they took me on.  They had quite a lot of positions so I don’t think it was because I particularly shined at the interview but I’m very happy to be making money to go towards living in a house next year at Uni (which is both an exciting and scary prospect) and to update my CV.  So far work has been quite good, there are lots of nice people there and I think I’m coping pretty well.  So I’ve been at work and being trained quite a bit over the past few weeks.

I also returned to Uni a couple of times, the last time to hand in my keys as term is now officially over and everyone has finished for the year (although I finished about 4 weeks early).  The first time I returned to go to a Mooting Competition held by the College of Law for students of York Law School.  As nobody really knows what ‘Mooting’ is I’ll attempt to explain.  In some ways it’s like a mock trial except it isn’t about interviewing witnesses and establishing the facts, it’s about using legal authority to debate points of law in front of a judge.  In all honesty, that probably doesn’t help but I was teaming with my friend Rachel Pennington for the moot.  Rachel got a first in our assessed moot as part of our course, so she’s rather good.  After getting up at 6:00 to catch the 7:00 train into York, I got the bus to Uni and then arrived at Goodricke.  It was then I realised after coming all that way that I had forgotten my keys (which was incredibly foolish of me).  So, I went over to Goodricke Porters’ Lodge and luckily I was given a spare set of keys without too much hassle.  I then rushed back to my room and got changed into my suit for the moot (I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it).  I then met Rachel and our fellow mooters Tom Metcalfe and Michal Kovac outside Goodricke Porters’ Lodge to get a taxi to the College of Law.  At this point it had already felt like a long day for me, having gotten up at 6:00 and then panicked about not having my keys.  Luckily there was plently of time to rest as we arrived at the College of Law early and spent some time hanging around and preparing for the moot.  Eventually, Adam, Frankie and Ben arrived together having driven up in Adam’s car and Richard arrived having walked apparently (which is quite a distance).  Rachel and I were in the first moot against Richard and Adam, I had to good fortune of going last overall which allowed me to get more prepared as the others were talking.  Richard, who also got a first and is apparently rather experienced at this sort of thing, went first and was quite good although he overan quite a bit and I didn’t like the tactic of trying to counter arguments before Rachel made them.  Then it was Adam who admitted that he had only spent about an hour or two preparing as he has being working full-time as an estate agent since term ended.  He kept it rather short and sweet but I think he did very well considering the lack of preparation.  Our team was next and Rachel went first, she was very good and got her points across well although she seemed a little nervous at the beginning.  Finally, it was my turn and I stepped up and I feel like I did quite well and got my points across.  After the other team got their chance to respond we were dismissed so the judge could make their judgement.  In the judgement, Richard won on his ground of appeal and then I won on my ground of appeal with the judge quoting parts of my speech and even saying part of my argument is ingenious.  So, I was rather pleased with that and felt I’d done rather well.  We were then brought back one at a time for individual feedback.  I was told I did well but I should have summarised my argument (although nobody else did either), my authority list wasn’t put together properly (which was a slight accident on my part) and that I needed to vocally highlight important parts of my argument.  The four of us then had to wait while Ben and Frankie went against Tom and Michal for the second moot.  We just sat around and chatted until they had finished.  After the others had finished we were told which four people were going to go into the final.  The people who got through were Richard, Rachel, Ben and Tom.  I felt a little hard done by not getting into the final after the judge had told me that my argument was ingenious.  However, I was very glad that Rachel got through because I think she deserved to get through.  We then were given lunch which consisted of sandwiches, some fruit and a muffin.  Then we went to prepare for final moot, where I tried to help Rachel, who got the hardest side of the argument in the whole moot sadly.  Rachel also wasn’t helped by Richard who, despite being on the same team as Rachel, was very patronising towards her and even told her she was going to lose.  Whether that was some kind of tactic to put Rachel off I don’t know but either way it was pretty harsh.  Rachel did well to ignore him and soldiered on anyway, eventually forming an argument worth making (although it was certainly a struggle with such a horrible ground of appeal).  After a couple hours of preparation the final moot took place and all the ‘semi-finalists’ (I use that term loosely seen as though we were all semi-finalists technically) were allowed to watch on.  It was a good moot and quite good to watch, at the end the judge decided who had won and said that Ben & Tom were the best team and won £50 each, while Richard won the award for the Best Mooter and gets his name engraved onto a trophy.  Personally, I didn’t really agree with the decision, firstly because Rachel didn’t get a prize indicating she was the worst of the four and I think she did really well, especially considering she (even the judge agreed) had the hardest part of the argument.  I also thought Ben was probably the best mooter but he was happy with the £50 prize so I suppose it all worked out.  After the moot, Rachel, Tom, Michal and me got a taxi back to Uni and, after thanking Rachel for being my moot partner and commiserating her on the result of the moot finals, I headed back to Goodricke.

Once I got back I thought I would go and say ‘Hi’ to everyone as I hadn’t seen anyone yet.  I knocked on Erin’s door first and she was happy to see me.  She’d been a bit lonely since her boyfriend has left for a three month trip of Japan and Sarah had gone home for a week to revise for her upcoming exams.  I then caught Sophie as she was coming in and she shouted my name which then brought out various other people around the corridor.  Everyone was very happy to see me after a few weeks without me.  At this point it was getting to tea time and I hadn’t eaten yet so I managed to get Sophie, Tim and Erin to agree to come to The Courtyard (the Student Union Bar) to get something to eat.  Sophie and I had a burger and chips and we all chatted about things that had been going on while I’d been away.  We had a good catch-up and I think I’m reasonably up-to-date with all the things that went on while I was away.  After coming back, Sophie and Tim had to get ready to go to a party of someone I didn’t know I think.  So, Erin and I decided to go and watch the Lion King.  Apparently, despite being a Disney fanatic, Erin had never seen The Lion King so I told her she was in for a treat.  We watched the Lion King and both lauged at Timon and Pumbaa who are classic every time.  After that we chatted for a while and then I went back to my very bare room to sleep.

Sadly, although I had planned to go to the Woodstock Music Festival on campus the next day I had to go to work and had to catch the train before everyone was going down.  It was a shame I missed it, apparently it was really good.  As this blog is dragging on quite a bit I think I’ll end this entry here.  I’m not sure it’s very coherent or well written but at least I got most of the stuff that happened down.  It was certainly fun to go back to Uni and see everyone after my considerable length of absence, I’d missed them all very much, even if I only got to stay for just over a day.  I did return again to finally hand in my keys but I’ll leave that tale for another time I guess.  That’s all for now…

Peace Out!