Legal Aid

The first 2 weeks of semester have gone by and I can't say that there is much to report. Tutorials begin Week 3 and run to the end of semester but so far there have been no assignments due and nothing will be due until mid-August which is when I have 1 or 2 mid-semester exams. It's just the slow process of learning.

I did meet with the person who's going to be my research supervisor at ACT Legal Aid, Matt O'Brien. He's a rather pleasant criminal attorney. We had a discussion about possible topics and he indicated that I should come back in a few days to sort everything out. This is part of the legal internship program which is essentially a research task. While I probably will have a work space at Legal Aid, it's not compulsory, but at least it will give me some experience in the field. Matt has also said that if I want to go to court I can, including observing interviews with clients and heading down to the cells. We'll see where this goes but I'm looking forward to working with some real lawyers.

Last Sunday I attended the final functions of the Landmark Country Football Carnival. The first was the Grand Final at Manuka Oval. Being an umpire, I had a free pass. The game was of high quality but Victoria Major was far too good for South Australia. I was hoping for a close game but it was a pretty wide margin. After the game, there was a function at the Ainslie Football Club where trophies were handed out. I went for a final get-together with my fellow umpires and for the free food. The carnival was really exciting and I enjoyed umpiring at a reasonably high level. It's just unfortunate that my tendon wouldn't let me finish off my last game, but I think it's paid off; next week I've been appointed to my first Division 2 game.

Lastly, on Sunday Fenner also had its annual Bush Week trivia night. I was in charge of 2 rounds --- the first consisted of 3 short questions for the leading team and the second was a full round of lateral thinking questions. I think I made them too easy since most of the teams got most of them; 1 team even got all 10. Unfortunately my team didn't win so we couldn't get any extra money for floor events, but we gave it a good try.

That's it.