397: living in a rhythm where the minutes’re working overtime

I feel like I’m running around in circles. I’m probably just panicking for no good reason, as I always do, but it’s weird to care and not care at the same time. Just like how I feel 半桶水 about most things nowadays; can’t decide which way to go or another.

I feel a bit guilty sometimes, that I’m never 100% anything. But I get the feeling I don’t know how to. Some part of me’s somewhere far away, dreaming of a time where I can get away from here.

395: reason #2358435 to do corporate law instead

The best kind of judge —

— is the insulting kind of judge.

359: if it’s not rough it isn’t fun

Some things in life are painfully legal. The other day while I was cooking dinner with Sharm we were talking about something regarding Val: it’s possible, I said, after some thought. But not probable, our friend Peter interjected, and I didn’t know what to make of that. It hasn’t been so long since I’ve heard those particular words, which often seem to people like the same thing and contributes to the (mostly true) observation that law people are just a bunch of lunatics who split hairs regarding definitions all the time.

348: they come, they come, to build a wall between us

(You know that they won’t win,)

Berlin is a wonderful place. For everyone who has been there, they will know what I mean. There’s nothing quite like Berlin, which continually surprises you and makes your heart stop at every turn. Berlin is a city where contradictions fly into each other and crash spectacularly. Next to a piece of history there is the unmistakable odour of youth. The crash and bang of paint and art hurls itself against unwanted buildings, forgotten roads, new life creeping into dead parts of cities. Slowly but surely the city is being preserved, sterilised against time, for a past they refuse to forget. And yet history is made relevant in the most startling of ways, through new life, new art, new ideas. Fresh ideas that refuse to be forgotten, old ideas that refuse to be erased. We cannot forget, and so we must remember. 

294: youth’s like diamonds in the sun

 

So many adventures couldn’t happen today

So many songs we forgot to play

So many dreams swinging out of the blue

We’ll let them come true

271: i cannot swim in this sea of semantic exercises

When you are totally bored and don’t want to do any work, weird conversations with your friend call out to you.

This is how we spend our time talking about totally irrelevant things.

267: CLOSE THE DOOR

Continuing my new and exciting series of Things You Never Needed To Know About Law, here is the following judgment from the former Justice of Appeal Karthigesu.

 

 

Everybody, all together now: WTF?

 

ETA: Okay, everybody needs to compare that with this from Lord Justice Chadwick:

265: teo soh lung’s friend

Everybody’s favourite quote,

 

By the way, programs that can highlight PDF documents = win. I am obviously really interested in my work.

 

264: i ♥ the house of lords

“The unhappy results which may follow from incompetent drafting may be, in the case of an instrument held to impose a trust, that it is so much waste-paper, whereas in the case of an instrument differing perhaps on the face of it very little from the invalid trust instrument a good gift of a power to benefit objects may emerge. Thus it is said that in order to avoid fine distinctions the test should be the same for both.“

Hello there. Am I missing something here? Who starts a freaking judgment by saying “incompetent drafting leads to wasted paper so we will just make the test the same”?!?!?!

♥.

263: 怎么看也看不明白

Sian 一半。 

In school on a Saturday when the weather outside is bright and chirpy. Need a haircut. (And a life.) 

就像年轻人难以理解的心态
这个社会怎么越来越奇怪 

244: it’s friday – i’m in love

242: back to the grind

231: why?

I’ve submitted it.

So now I am officially known to my mother as the world’s most spoilt child.

Everything comes back to the same thing. Must it come down to this before we realise how screwed up it all is?

#

I just had the most random thought.

The person that your brother marries is your sister-in-law. But now they are engaged, and they are not yet registered at the Registry of Marriages. Does that make your brother’s fiancee your sister in equity?

An equitable sister! HAHA

220: vigilant yes, indolent no

lately, one of my favourite quotes,

from the late Welsh legal professor Glanville Williams —

Slippery slope arguments are “the trump card of the traditionalist because no proposal for reform, however strong the arguments in favour, is immune from the objection. In fact the stronger the arguments in favour of a reform, the more likely it is that the traditionalist will take the slippery slope objection – it is then the only one he has.’

… of all things, against whether certain interests should be caveatable interests in land.

and yet indeed, even in the real world,
where the equities are equal, the first in time prevails.

wish i could say my mind was neater than this.

187: totally random x10

things i am suddenly thinking about:

we seem to be far more spontaneous these days, than in last year. i don’t remember doing these things when i was a freshman, or maybe it really has been too long ago. or perhaps, the spontaneity is worth so much more these days.

i watched ratatouille with a bunch of secondary school friends recently, people i treasure alot. that day i remembered how nice it was to keep old friendships alive, and somehow they are always the best, and incomparable. on a whim i got asked to go mambo and off we went, but not before hanging about like delinquents outside california fitness mixing drinks (with cups stolen from cheers) and wondering very loudly if the glass at california fitness was one-way. and it was a very very slimy night. nevertheless all-girls mambos still seem the most fun.

over an msn conversation in CLT caitlin and i decided not to go to school the next day. so we talked, and shopped, and bought nothing. it was completely unproductive, but not more so than going to school that particular thursday anyway.

172: kill all the trees and put them in a tree museum

the tree along braddell road has been cut down finally, only a few months after the government responded to public outcry and spent $200,000 trying to save the tree. why? the official reason is because some random scholar decided that the tree was a clear and present danger to all motorists who were, naturally, not adhering to the advised speed limit of 40km/h along that road — because such a speed limit has been statistically proven to be unrealistic seeing as how they have discovered people tend to drive faster along those bends than a measly 40km/h, especially at night when there is no traffic. so for people driving above 40km/h, there is too real a chance that someone stupid will crash into the tree divider someday.

having driven there almost every day since i’ve gotten my licence (i take the road on the way home both from school and the bf’s house) and being clearly still alive even though i drive there at 2am in the morning and taking the bend at 70km/h, may i humbly propose that (1) the fact is that stupid people will crash into anything, including the expressway divider on a straight road, and (2) the onus is on every motorist to open his eyes and look where he is going, regardless of how fast he drives. the tree is not totally obscured by the construction that is going on, and if you are taking the road for the first time, common sense tells you to at least slow down marginally to look where you are going. in other words, it really is not that easy to crash into something so big!!!!

sometimes i feel as if the government gives in just to pacify us and look like they are doing their job and listening to the people and then 6 months later (when everyone’s forgotten about it) they give some stupid official-sounding and theoretically sound reason and then proceed to do exactly what they planned to do at the start. most of the time i just feel entirely cheated.

*
happier things — i think these days i feel better about myself as a person, and i’m getting used to being young and reckless. i haven’t felt so good about being old and young enough at the same time, and i feel as if there are so many things out there waiting for me to do. i’m not talking about academic opportunities, or job opportunities; things like internships and work and things to do with practical life have no place in my summer holidays. all i’ve done is recharge, taking the best i can out of this break, doing all things i couldn’t have done during my school term, like visit the national museum and watch all the movies i want at home with the bf, go driving in the middle of the night, read and read and read, sit in a coffee joint and chill out with a macchiato, travel around the world, blast my playlist on the car stereo with the windows down and the doors open and dance to the music, and rediscover things about my friends, myself and my country just by wandering about aimlessly. all this you can only do with lots of time on your hands. real life can wait till school starts! i’m determined to enjoy my youth, my holiday; to do things i’ll regret not doing when i’m married with two kids who want their own life, things utterly stupid and romantic. oh yes, i’m feeling good (:

148: i know right now you can’t tell

things that make me happy

- banana crumble
- chwee kueh
- nice fried tang hoon
- steak & guinness pie
- guo tie
- urban outfitters
- shopping in bangkok
- sesame and flaked salt crackers from M&S
- pasta pomodoro
- fish and chips, in newspaper with vinegar
- a filled notebook
- an empty notebook
- a hug
- friends getting together
- people getting attached
- a good sleep

things i want to do
- watch all 4 seasons of the L word
- watch the remainder of the guhuozai series
- watch the entire samurai x anime again
- and slam dunk
- watch meet the robinsons
- eat toad-in-the-hole
- re-read all my enid blyton (st. clare’s! mallory towers!) and roald dahl books (i read the BFG yesterday!)
- go kayaking
- get a tan

you know what, they should really have a magazine for women that’s like vogue + economist + wine&dine – much like monocle, or to a lesser extent lexean, which i think is trying too hard (there are only so many things to gripe about singapore, and even then – i could’ve written that stuff, and they’d even save money paying me less). why is there no such magazine in the world? does everyone still think women are morons who only like to read about 1) the latest trends, 2) how to please their partner in bed, 3) aunt agony columns?

maybe i just want an intellectual fashion-y food-y magazine. i think that would go down very well indeed!!

(well, back to illegality of contract. that’s far too much intellectual stimulation for me…)

144: you wanna fight for this love

today i watched the sky turn dark on me. stayed in the library from 12 – 8 on the 11th floor, where zhen, shuki and i used to study during the last leg of our a-levels (i attribute us getting exactly the same results to all this studying together) with the huge glass panels that let light in and reach up at least two storeys. when the sun comes out in the afternoon these black hangings slide down the sides of the building, unrolling like film*, and the lights go off because the sunlight is really all you need. when the sun begins to set and it darkens slightly outside the hangings go back up, all the way back to the sky. the library brightens with artificial light while the streetlamps switch on over the city in an instant, and the neon lights begin to flash, yes, even in singapore. as we pad silently to and fro in search of the toilet or the fundamental principles of criminal law, i think i might love this new library of ours, big glass monolith that it is.

in addition i had a nice homey breakfast at the bf’s house when i went to pick him up this morning, and ended the day with duck rice for dinner (RICE! the joy), and decided to walk a bit from bugis to city hall. it was a lovely night, and when we reached raffles city, we stopped at bakerzin and i was tempted, so i had a lovely chocolate souffle for dessert!

AND I UNDERSTAND CRIMINAL LAW!

*it actually pains me quite greatly to notice that in about two decades or so, comparing anything to a roll of film will be an anachronism

143: i want a permanent vacation

in an attempt to save my legal theory i have finally started catching up on all the forum posts that i have been missing out on. i don’t think i’ve read any legal theory forum posts since mid-february, which leaves me 1.5 months’ worth of stuff to trawl through. it’s pretty interesting, though, and i regret not reading them earlier, because i have a lot of things to say that now seem to come too late.

the academic year is almost over. all that remains are three papers and a month in between. i don’t believe it, quite, my first year in university is ending, and where did all the trauma go?

today we took a trip downtown and ended up watching bleach episodes on my laptop at pret a manger along robinson road. it was relaxing, but now i’m reminded of just how much work i have to do, and i really should have started earlier. this is what happens when you don’t know when your exams actually are: i just know they’re not very far away and i should apply my ass to the chair and get some law into my head. the only consolation is that this year my LAWR grade is decidedly better than last year’s even though i keep getting half a grade knocked off for stupid things like wrong citation, but moots should have helped me out quite a lot. but i’ve still got crim and legal theory and contract to plow through: it’s not pretty. i don’t even know where to start.

140: it’s been a hard day’s night

TODAY:
(1) i accompanied 3 boys to the gym and ended up doing happy ab stuff! (no zoobs i also never bathe)
(2) i went for law frat concert at the quadrangle in school with beer and wine and sausages and pies (pictures soon!)

THIS WEEK:
(1) moots were yesterday and LAWR is finally over
(2) i am proud to say i think i kicked some ass
(3) even though i was majorly grumpy preparing for it, and patrick and i were very frustrated
(4) we must thank bernice

THIS MONTH:
i have bought:
(1) a rainbow dress from f21
(2) a purple dress from UO
(3) a white dress from http://www.candypulp.com
(4) a blue dress from _spreee
(5) a wallet from etsy.com
(6) and i am now going to buy this bloody nice top i found on UO!!!! WHEE.

i need to stop spending money!!! but somehow my bank account still has money (patrick still doesn’t understand why i can shop so much and still have money leftover), maybe because:
(1) it is nearing the end of the month and there is more money coming in
(2) i used chinese new year money
(3) i have birthday money
(4) i don’t pay for all my food :X
(5) I NEVER EAT RICE

oh my lenten resolution is coming to an end. and cheryl just found that sundays don’t count!!! waaaah. i feel cheated of all the days i could have eaten rice. anyway it ends on easter! and then i’ll go back to being a rice bucket (: (: