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!