The Week of Saturday

This week seems to have been fairly uneventful except fro Saturday which had a number of occurrences. As well, the weather is changing and it's very obvious that autumn is upon us, with winter soon to follow. My studies proceed apace and I think I'm getting the hang of the law, at least the basic concepts. Contracts is the least interesting of my courses not because of the lecturer, but there appears to be little consistency in the enforcement of contracts. Even if a contract is valid on its face it can still be negated in equity, which is a whole other league of law.

Anyway, there has been a marked change in the weather of late with temperatures dipping to levels with which Canadians are accustomed. Little more than a week ago, daytime highs were just over 30C but now are just under 20C. At night, the temperature drops by about 15 degrees making for chilly mornings. Canberra does receive snow but only on the rarest occasions. During winter frost is much more common. Actually, it snowed the other day in Victoria's high country. It's a little strange to equate Australia and snow but it does happen.

Easter Monday was also a welcome break in the scholastic routine. Although there will be a 2-week holiday later in April, it's still nice to get a few days off. Nonetheless, I spent most of it studying and reading. I'm actually I'm finding some of the case extracts quite interesting, although some of them are a little too long and the judicial reasoning is sometimes opaque. I even find myself questioning the decisions at times, which I'm told is a good skill to develop at law school. I believe that knowing the law is only part of law school and it is the creative (often very creative) application of the law which is more important.

An interesting darkening occurred today with the advent of Earth Hour. For 60 minutes (20:00-21:00) Australians were encouraged to turn off their lights to call attention to the issue of global warming and climate change. The Parliament extinguished all its lights, except for the one which lights the flag atop the flagpole. I also think that it serves to remind us just how important electricity is in the developed world. It is so ubiquitous that we take it for granted and do not realize its importance until it's gone. I am reminded of the 2003 North American blackout which left 50 million people in the dark --- the largest blackout in history. Government, business and society in general in northeastern North America shut down for nearly a week.

I witnessed a Fenner Hall tradition today with the annual wedding of 2 first year students. The wedding is, of course, not legally binding, and meant to be all in good fun. 2 first year students were selected at random and they then had a wedding ceremony followed by a reception. According to tradition, the couple stays "married" for a week and the "divorces". I can't wait to see if something happens for that event. I can say, though, that it was very amusing and in the fun-loving spirit of the Hall.

Lastly for this week, I also officiated my first aussie rules game this season. It was quite some ways away so I had to get a lift from one of the other officials. I was even given a proper fluorescent brown-orange shirt and baseball cap as part of the uniform, which go with black pants, dark socks and dark shoes. The game itself was reasonably good and gave me a few challenges to my officiating skills. I think I came out alright, though. I'm looking forward to many more of these opportunities.