The rest of the week....

Sorry for the radio silence recently, Denise and I have been having (shockingly) a rather more busy week. Anyway here's a run down of the rest of the week in the RCJ.

Senior Master Whitaker has been extremely hospitable and friendly throughout our visit, and before we left, he insisted that we put on his ceremonial wig to take a photo (he is a great fan of photos). Here are D and I looking like complete toots.


The wig is a horsehair wig and is very big and heavy - evidently not meant for small heads of Asian girls.



Before I put it on I simply had to ask, "er, how is this thing cleaned? dry clean?"
To which, Master Whitaker replied, "I have no idea! It's never been cleaned!"

....*gawk*....

Master Whitaker also brought us around the Registry and the Masters' Support Unit, to show us the nuts and bolts of what really goes on in the Queen's Bench Division. The Registry doesn't look very different from any other Registry, full of papers and files.



But we did find an old seal that is still in use. Here is Master Whitaker showing us that he really does do everything around the shop in the Queen's Bench Division.



Lunch as usual was in the Inner Temple dining hall. We can't really take pictures of the hall and the Masters at lunch, but here's a picture of (the back of) Master Rose in his cute bowler hat out to lunch.



By the end of our 2 weeks, we were extremely heavy hearted to say goodbye to all the Masters. They are truly an endearing lot, very warm, very funny (fuzzy?). We invited all of them to come and visit us in Singapore, and we hope they will find the time and opportunity to take up the offer. (Though I think they might be quite shocked at how we do things in Singapore...)



(From L to R: Barbara Fontaine, Graham Rose, Steven Whitaker, Basil Yoxall, D, Me, Ian Foster, John Ungley, Patrick Eyre)
(Not in picture: Master Leslie, Master Paul Miller)

Goodbye RCJ, goodbye Masters.
The experience you gave us was truly memorable; we will treasure the memories.

Willesden County Court

Yesterday, Denise and I took a train out of central London to Willesden County Court, where we were promised some real 'on the ground' action, quite different from the cases we usually see in the RCJ. (We were also warned that we should not wander around too much lest we get stabbed or something but it really wasn't so bad. We did find however that the area is largely populated by people from the South American countries and sub-Indian continent).



The work in the county courts is fairly routine, and involve mostly family matters and repossession claims. There are 2 Circuit Judges, and 4 District Judges, who share the work between them, with most of the trials and/or more serious matters going before the Circuit Judges. There's a lot more volume here than in the RCJ, and we also get to see more real, tangible issues for the man on the street, many of whom are just trying to eke out a living, given the extremely high cost of living in the UK. Very different from the large commercial claims or clinical negligence cases we see in the RCJ.

After hearing a morning of a mishmash of case management conferences and possession cases, we adjourned to one of the judge's chambers for lunch! This is apparently something they do every day - they sit around a table in the judge's office and take out their packed lunches. There's also cheese and crackers for everyone to share, and coffee and WINE! Needless to say we had a great time (*hic*) and enjoyed their company very much. They are a jolly bunch of people and were very warm and welcoming.




After lunch, one of the Circuit Judges kindly donned his robe to pose for a photo with us. They must've thought we were extremely tacky but nevermind we've got a great photo to show for it. :)



Weather: Brrrr.

Day 6 - Start of Week 2

Monday morning started off on a bright note with breakfast at Caffe Nero in Holburn. One of the benefits of starting hearings at 10 to 10.30am is that WH and I usually have time for breakfast and a cup of coffee. Many Londoners commute long distances to work, and as a result, the hearings at the RCJ are either by telephone or fixed to only begin in the mid-morning. I was to sit in with the Admiralty Registrar for a full day hearing, but as it had settled (as most things tend to do), I joined WH to sit in with another Master who was conducting a case management conference. The Master was extremely proactive and robust in his approach, and it was interesting and instructive to watch him as he made an unless order for the claim to be struck out if previous court orders were not complied with by a certain date.

Lunch at the dining hall was extra good, moroccan lamb shank as the main course, and chocolate tart for dessert. We had actually planned to tour the Temple church at lunchtime, but were glad in the end that we didn't miss out on the food. In the afternoon, we sat in with another Master for a long and fiddly discovery application, before heading to Harrods to wander around and buy gifts. We also had Krispy Kremes which were off the belt, but disappointingly, already cold by the time we sank our teeth in them. Dinner was at Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant at Whiteleys shopping center along Queensway.

Weather: Chilly but sunny.

It's the weekend!

Bright and early Saturday morning, and off to Bicester Village I went! Bicester is an hour's train ride from Marylebone station. On the way, we passed rolling fields complete with blooming daffodils and grazing ponies. This very English experience was marred only by the numerous PRC students chattering away in the same carriage. We also went past the Bicester town Magistrates' Court, which is a charming little brick building, which cannot have more than 4 or 5 rooms inside. The Village itself is well done, much nicer than Woodbury Common, but with far fewer stores. I hardly bought anything in the end, but it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the sun and countryside fresh air. I had a swedish meatball in tomato ragu wrap from the ubiquitous Pret a Manger for lunch. After shopping for nearly 4 hours, I returned to drizzly, grey London at around 5 to meet WH at Leceister Square for a Japanese dinner.

In the evening, we headed to the Saint Martin in the Fields, a lovely church in Trafalgar Square for their gala concert. The concert was the culmination of a 3 week long celebration to mark the renewal of Saint Martin. We found ourselves tucked away in a corner pew on the second level of the church. We could barely see anything but the acoustics were fantastic! The orchestra of the Saint Martin's Academy joined forces with the church's choir to perform Bach's Fantasia in G and Haydn's Symphony No 44, but it was Mozart's Mass in C minor that really took the cake.

On Sunday, our first stop was to Royal China for dim sum. Royal China opens at 11am, and if you're ever thinking of going, you would be well advised to get there at 11am on the dot. By the time we were halfway through the meal, it was a madhouse outside the restaurant as people queued to get in. By the way, the egg tarts are amazing, as good as the best ones in Hong Kong.




Immediately after brunch, we dashed off to Waterloo station to catch the train to Windsor Castle. We were quite excited as there was a royal wedding at Saint George's Chapel in Windsor just the day before! Peter Phillips, the Queen's eldest grandson married Canadian Autumn Kelly as the rest of the Royal family watched on. Unfortunately, we didn't run into Prince Harry, although it wasn't for want of trying. It was the perfect day to visit Windsor as the sun was out and the temperatures fairly cool. We wandered through Queen Mary's doll house, as well as the State apartments, which contains grand ballrooms that Queen Elizabeth II still uses for official functions. The apartments also contain an impressive array of artwork, including a captivating self portrait of Rembrandt in a turban, and a painting of the young QEII at her coronation.







The castle closed at 5pm, and we headed to an ice cream shop around the corner for waffles and ice cream. We then decided to attend the evensong service at Saint George's chapel. The chapel is fantastic, and the flowers (probably left over from the wedding) were amazing. It has been a long time since I've attended a traditional Church of England service, and I really enjoyed the chorale music. After the service, we caught a train back to London in time for dinner. As the tagline goes, "If you haven't been to Khans, you haven't been to London", so how could we not have at least one dinner at the famous restaurant along Westbourne Grove? WH, WH's friend and I shared butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, prawn briyani, naan, daal and that creamed spinach thing with potatoes. Yums!

Weather:

Cold and rainy in London but sunny in Bicester on Saturday
Cool and windy in Windsor on Sunday

Day 6 - End of Week 1

I sat in with the admiralty master this morning. Truth be told the admiralty master doesn't really do much admiralty work at all. There aren't many of such cases and even when there are admiralty related claims, they prefer to classify them as straightforward contractual claims (which they mostly are) and circulate them as per normal. So the admiralty master does pretty much the same work as everyone else. Anyhow, the hearing this morning was for EJD, nothing to do with ADM at all. The Masters here don't actually sit in during the EJD hearings; they simply give directions on when and where this should take place, and what questionnaires should be answered before the hearing. The actual EJD hearing then goes before a "court officer" (specially designated). If committal is required, they then fix the matter before a Judge. It sounds more circuitous, but at least it frees the Masters from having to conduct such hearings. Committal is also rarely invoked, so hardly have to bother the Judges on that front.

Our guardians were kind enough to let us have Friday afternoon off - presumably they think we have worked hard enough this past week to deserve the afternoon off, yes they do.

So off we went across the river to explore the south bank.



First stop - Borough Market.

First thing I made a beeline for - scallops! Fried with bacon, taugeh, and served with a piece of bread, it is GREAT STUFF.



After that, we just walked around the market stuffing our faces with all kinds of things. Fudge, jam, pate, cheese, yumyumyum.


(bratwurst!)

(PS: D is on strike, didn't want any more gluttonous photos posted so I took over for the day. But i DID manage to get one of D buying some cider. Muahahha)



We ended off the day catching The Sound of Music (nobody can beat Julie Andrews!. Great staging and sets, but the movie's boots are too hard to fill. Good try though.

Weather: Blinking cold. Ear pain.

Day 5

Denise and I have come to the conclusion that - we need a cafe in the Supreme Court building. A real cafe, not a bistro.

Anyway, we met up with Amy Tung today - she's currently doing her LLM in London and is having a ball of a time. We had a walk around Russell Square (oh nostalgia nostalgia!) and rounded off with some solid dinner at Hare and Tortoise. Love the penang prawn mee there (yesyes, i came to London and ate Penang prawn mee, scoff all you want).





Weather: Very English - cold and drizzly.

Day 4

Many of the hearings here don't go on, and the caseload is generally low. The courts are really 'suffering' from the effects of the CPR Amendments in 1999, which basically killed litigation to little more than a trickle. But the upside of that is that the quality of litigation is probably higher, so are the quality of judgments. And we get more time to chat with the Masters and ask them all sorts of questions, so that's alright.

One of the Masters I sat in with was bemoaning the state of IT illiteracy in their courts today. The Masters present a whole spectrum in terms of IT literacy. Some stick stubbornly to paper for EVERY thing; getting them to check emails is an impossible task. Others are fighting a futile battle in trying to implement more IT initiatives generally. So a conversation went something like this today -

Master A: Master B! Did you know that Singapore has all their pleadings in electronic form? They have everything in the computer screen!

Master B: Well yes, but that's because they do things properly! We can't jolly well do the same!

Lunch has been in the dining hall at Inner Temple every day thus far. Most of the Masters dine there daily, and we end up tagging along with them. It's quite interesting though to see the Masters in a more relaxed mood, engaging in silly banter amongst themselves. Here's a picture of the dining hall, very Harry Potter-ish, as Denise described. :)



Here's some interesting trivia about the Hall.



After hearings, D and I hit Oxford St and Bond St to do a bit of shopping. First stop - to buy YJ's bag. Mission accomplished - picture enclosed as evidence.



We ended up near Picadilly, where we stumbled upon a Laduree shop! Didn't even know they were there! Bonus!




*chomp chomp chomp*



Dinner was at a gastropub near Covent Garden. Food was interesting, but not great.

Finally managed to find the cats to take pictures of them!

This is Zeus, the friendly one.



And this is a very sleepy and elusive Hera. Very soft and cute, but never around!



Weather: Cold and drizzly. High of 16 degrees today.

Day 3

I was sent to the High Court Costs Office to sit in with the Costs Master yesterday morning. Costs Masters, as the name suggests, are specialist judges who preside over costs hearings - i.e. Registrars who do nothing but taxation, day in, day out (and they look normal!) Anyhow, 2 barristers came in and argued over a bill for 40,000 quid yesterday morning. I wonder if it makes much sense. But this is probably one of those cases where the lawyers fight over everything. In the afternoon, I sat in with one of the Deputy Masters (the Deputies are part-timers) for what was essentially an afternoon of phone PTCs. The courts here seem to use a lot of 3-way phone calls for case management, I guess it makes practical sense given that the lawyers are calling in from all over the UK, or even elsewhere.

After work, Denise and I walked all around Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, taking in the sights and sounds and complaining about there being too many tourists.


(look at the sky! it's so clear and blue!)


(wanted to go the National Gallery before dinner but it was closing. grr)

After a pretty disappointing dinner at Chinatown, we wound up at Covent Garden for a drink.



We had one drink each. Really. Only one.

*glug glug glug*


*hee hee hee*



After our only one drink, off we went to the Noel Coward Theatre to watch Avenue Q!!! It was great! Probably the cheapest musical to produce; all puppets, hardly any cast. It's amazing how many people will pay to watch a bunch of soft toys cracking dirty jokes on stage.
(Kenneth - the Avenue Q paraphernalia wasn't very nice, only fridge magnets and buttons. No cap, but there's a ski hat. Do you want it?)

Anyway, here are some more pictures of our hotel -


(views of back garden)



(drawing room)



Still can't find the cat to take a picture of him.

Weather: Getting cooler. Lovely day.

Photos from Day 2

The first image of the Royal Courts as you turn the corner is striking - it has the grandeur of all buildings from that age but not the same decrepit feel of a building that has fallen out of use. From what Senior Master Whitaker told us, it seems like a lot of effort (and $) is taken to restore the building and keep it in a functioning state. Like us, they suffer the problems of a building that is falling apart and needs constant repair. But unlike us, their building is 140 years old. HMM.

Trigger happy me started snapping away once we got to the front gate.




Once we entered, there were signs everywhere that cameras and photos were not allowed anywhere in the RCJ. Such a shame, because the main hall is a real sight to behold, and so are all the chambers with their lovely ornate fireplaces and the courtrooms with wooden relief everywhere.

As Denise stated in her post, we had a very interesting day sitting in with the Masters. They are all lovely friendly people and extended a very warm welcome to us. Denise and I concluded that lawyers are as full of nonsense here as anywhere else in the world. (But I think they get away with it less in our system.) On the whole, everyone is very civil, very dignus.

Dinner was belgian mussels and beer at Belgos. Good stuff, cannot bluff. Cheers!





PS: I'm up at 5.30am again. ARGH.

Weather: Cool and sunny. Warm when sun is beating down your back, but very pleasant in the evenings.

Dining with the Masters

Day 2

Day 2 saw us start our attachment with the Masters at the Queen's Bench Division. The Senior Master welcomed us with a cup of tea (he was most perturbed at the idea of sugar in tea) before he whisked us away for a quick tour of the building. The Masters' rooms are organised around a lovely high-ceilinged hall called the Bear Garden. The story is that Queen Victoria sat on the balcony of the hall in, well, Victorian times, and commented that the people jostling to get into the court to see the Judges were "fighting like bears". After the tour, we sat in to watch a striking out application, before sitting in for sheriffs' interpleader summonses. We were then taken to the Inns for lunch with the Masters. The Masters dine in the same hall as the barristers, with a table specially reserved for them. Reminiscent of a scene from Harry Porter (or a drunken night at an Oxbridge formal hall), the Inns dining hall has lovely high ceilings and is beautifully adorned with various crests and carvings. Wen Hsien and I had organic salmon with asparagus sauce on a bed of rocket leaves for our main course, and I had fresh strawberries with cream and iced coffee for dessert. The food is fantastic! Imagine having a fancy AR lunch everyday!

After work, we walked through LSE to get to Covent Garden, where we spent a happy evening shopping at Paul Smith, Ted Baker and H&M. We headed to Belgos for dinner, which I absolutely adore. Mussels, fries and beer anyone? After dinner, we were off to our neighbourhood Marks & Spencer and Tescos to get our fix of fresh fruit and juice. It's berry season, and I bought a punnet of the sweetest blueberries for a grand total of one pound. Hope tomorrow will be as good!

Watching United Win the League in a Pub in Notting Hill

UNITED! UNITED! heh. London has been a blast so far. Wen Hsien has given pretty much a comprehensive rundown of what we did on Sunday, so I shall endeavour to describe my pub experience instead. Wen Hsien, her friend and I were wandering around Portobello market in the very chi-chi district of Notting Hill on Saturday afternoon when I realised that it was just about match time and I wasn't anywhere near our hotel. Luckily there was a great pub around the corner which didn't seem too dodgy nor full of hostile Chelsea fans. It's a fairly big pub by London standards, and all the chairs and tables had been pushed to one side to fit more people in. By match time, the place was three-quarters full, and it was really really hot! The pub has tall bay windows that lets the sun stream in, which is really quite beautiful but doesn't help with the heat. I got meself a little glass of Fosters to tide me over. When Ronaldo scored the penalty, everyone shouted, including this weird Jamaican dude who kept yelling "It wasn't no penaltyyyyy!! It wasn't no penaltyyyyy!!!!!" in my ear. When Giggsy scored, it was CHAOS. Everyone was screaming, and random people walking down the street ran into the pub to see what the commotion was about. Good fun :) Now for the Champions League final!!!!!!!

Welcome!

HELLO! A warm welcome to one and all from London!

Denise and I decided that this would be a good way to update our friends and colleagues on our adventures in London during this attachment. This blog will capture the more light-hearted, social aspects of our trip. It will of course contain lots of pictures of us gallivanting through London, and the interesting things we have seen/done. (If there is sufficient interest, we can even post pictures of handbags and start online catalogue and shopping service).

DAY 1

Denise and I arrived in London at 5.30am yesterday morning, all sore and achy from our not-so-comfortable flight on the A380. Yes, we got to sit on the A380, but we didn't realise this until we got onto the plane and read the safety information card. Anyhow, the plane was big and steady, but extremely uncomfortable - something wrong with the seats; not ergonomically designed or SQ is stinging on kapok. What followed was 13 hours of tossing, whining, and trying to devise a way to put an A4 sized pillow to some use.

We shared a mini-cab down to Prince's Square (off Bayswater), where our studio apartments were located. Vancouver Studios are located within a Grade II listed Victorian building, with a nice back garden inhabited by a big ginger cat called Zeus and a more elusive one, Hera.



After some milling around waiting for the rooms to be ready, we were both pleased with our rooms. Bright, clean, spacious rooms, with kitchenette, ensuite shower facility, and free broadband and TV. Excellent value for money - highly recommended to future visitors to London who don't want to pay a pound of flesh for accommodation. Here are some pictures of Denise's room (which got upgraded to a double due to lack of availability) -




After a scrumptious lunch in Chinatown, we headed to Portobello Market for a romp in the Sunday market. Stalls selling antiques and "passing off" items are a-plenty here.



So are fancy cupcakes and other scrumptious things.
(Denise tried a "red velvet" - they do taste as good as they look!)



As 3pm drew near, Denise found herself a pub to watch the Man Utd vs Wigan game - result is of course a foregone conclusion but as all die-hard fans go, must watch the last game of the season. Result: 2-1, Ronaldo and Giggs.

While Denise was surrounded by hot sweaty men in the pub, I took a walk with my friend W through Hyde Park to see sun-dried tofu. Lots of tofu on the lawn. My picture doesn't do the scene justice - it was tofu for as far as the eye can see. It's like Little India on a Sunday, but imagine you're looking at the negatives.



Dinner was fabulous roast duck at Bayswater. Conked off to bed very early. Which explains why I'm up at 5am writing this entry.

Weather: Sweltering. Too hot for comfort. Hope weather drops 5 degrees.