An Iberian Experience - Spain

I enjoyed Spain immensely. As with Portugal, I'd never been before, but I think Seville was an ideal place to start. The coach journey from Lisbon was eight hours long and seemed to be populated by people like myself clutching their guides to Europe. I had a bit of time on arriving to explore Seville at night and get my bearings before doing it properly the next day.



Seville is lovely, and it's dominated by its huge Cathedral right in the centre. Unfortunately they were digging up quite a few roads for a tramway, but it didn't detract from the ambience of the place - it was just buzzing. It's hard to describe, but the place just felt alive, whereas Lisbon didn't. I stayed in a rather lovely Hostel as well, right in the centre and was fortunate enough to have the room to myself one night after spending the previous night trying to drown out the snores of my bunkbed mate. Seville proved itself to just be a lovely city to walk around and get lost in.




The central Alcazar was quite a surprise. It's an Islamic building that contains Seville's walled garden, and it's so tranquil, yet right in the centre of the city next to the Cathedral.

I visited the bullring as well out of curiosity and was left rather unimpressed with the whole thing. The arena was impressive, but the whole idea of the sport left me cold and struck me as rather pointless. I guess the sides are more even than they are in fox hunting, but still.



So, yes, Seville was lovely and on the second day I made a mistake in leaving it to visit Cordoba which I'd been assured was worth a visit. I'm not quite sure it was. It was certainly pretty and full of little winding streets, and the Cathedral, being a converted Mosque was architecturally curious, but the place felt a little dead and the dearth of tourist shops in the centre spoilt the feel of the place.


Maybe if it hadn't been a one-and-a-half hour train journey away it would have been worth the detour, but Sintra it wasn't. It did though have the only 'We Speak Dutch' sign that I saw on my trip.

After two days in Seville I caught a bus to Tarifa which I slightly worried, being the most southerly town in continental Europe and being a mecca for windsurfing, would turn out to be like Newquay. Fortunately my fears were misplaced and it actually turned out to be a charming town much more like St. Ives (and we all knows that St. Ives > Newquay by a long way). On one side it touches the Atlantic and on the other the Mediterranean, so I was quite excited about seeing the latter for the first time.



But that wasn't quite the most exiting thing. Hopefully in the photo above you can make out an African mountain range in the background. Being able to see Africa was incredible. It's always been this place that I've read about and seen pictures of, but being able to see it myself was quite something. Of course, it was still 15mks away, but I was in Tarifa to catch a ferry to Tangier in Morocco (see next instalment), so I was full of anticipation going into the next day.


After spending the day in Morocco it was time to head to Gibraltar before finally heading to Malaga for the night to fly back to Amsterdam. Malaga is not a place that I ever imagined I would go to. Its associations with sun, sea, sex and sangria had never really appealed and I was curious as to what I'd find, but not for the first time, my expectations were misplaced. Regardless of how you feel about the four S's, Malaga is actually a city that's worth visiting for the sake of seeing the city itself. It's in a wonderful position on the Mediterranean flanked by hills and an old fort.




Again, all the beaches were deserted despite it being 28C and, if you ask me, distinctly inseason. I think that actually applies for everywhere I went - if you're going to go, go at this time of year as hot enough to have a lovely time, but not packed with people.

So Spain was indeed fantastic, and I'd be happy to go back at any point. I made good use of the opportunity to try out numerous tortilla's and other Spanish produce, and was even invited to a tapas party yesterday evening which was great fun, so perhaps, I haven't really left!

An Iberian Experience - Portugal

I am officially awful at recounting holiday experiences. I'm always reminded of those start-of-term assignments you used to get in primary school where you had to write about what you did on holiday, and now, just as then, any attempt I make to write such a thing descends into little more than a blow by blow account of what I did. Which is hardly any fun for anyone. But it's not going to stop me, and at least with the magic of Blogger I can add photos.

On Monday evening I got back to Utrecht after spending ten days travelling around the Iberian peninsular, taking in Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Gibraltar. In now time-honoured fashion, here's a little Google Maps summary of where I got to:


By way of a summary, I think I can quite accurately compress ten days into twelve words: Portugal was good. Spain was fantastic. Morocco was bad. Gibraltar was amazing.

I started off by flying to Faro in the Algarve. It's an odd place, it felt like a holiday resort town with no-one making their holidays there. That was actually quite a recurring theme. Temperatures everywhere I went average about 22C, but to the people living there, it's still out of season, so there's apparently nothing odd about walking around in ski-jackets and scarves. I felt decidedly out of place in my t-shirts just about everywhere I went. But, despite this oddity it was a pretty little town, and the relative lack of tourists probably helped.


After only five hours there though it was time to catch a train to Lisbon, which was uneventful enough, aside from being evicted from my seat, and the scenery was pretty amazing having never been that far south before - I can't say I'm accustomed to seeing fields of orange trees. I got into Lisbon quite late, and decided to leave exploring until the next day.

Either I missed something with Lisbon, or it was missing something itself - things just never really clicked, and by 2pm on the first afternoon I felt like I'd seen everything it had to offer, which shouldn't be the case in a capital city. I spent the day just walking around the city, and climbed up to the old castle ruins which provided an oddly underwhelming view across the whole city and the river.



I did though get the chance to witness a rather spectacular, and quite unexplained, military parade by what appeared to be (worryingly) child soliders. So that was nice.


So as result of feeling I'd exhausted central Lisbon, at 3pm I decided to walk to the little district of Belem, 6kms away, and I'm so glad that I did. Walking along the river was just lovely and Belem itself so such a contrast to Lisbon proper, it just seemed much more full of life and laid back. the fact that it has what is reputed to be Portugal's best custard tarts was naturally quite a draw as well.



The next day (after stopping by Belem for more custard tarts), I decamped to the nearby hill-top town of Sintra which Lonely Planet listed as the 'star' place in Portugal. It was raining, and I didn't really know what to expect, but as impulse decisions go, it has to be one of the best I've made. It was spectacular. The town is loomed over by a Palace and a ruined castle high up on the hill tops and I immediately resolved to climb up there, and equally quickly found myself sitting on a bus up instead. The town itself was pretty, but from at the top of the castle, it was stunning.



On the one side you could see Lisbon, and on the other you could see over the town all the way to the Atlantic. It was terribly windy, but that just added to everything. I had a lovely walk down through the forests at sunset before making my way back to Lisbon ready to move onto Spain the next day.

I now have to go and tend to some bread that I'm baking, but I will be back at some point with the Spanish instalment.

An Iberian Impulse

Having only got back to Utrecht six days ago I'm now off again. What started out in my mind as a small trip to Gibraltar has expanded somewhat (mainly under the bad influence of Lonely Planet's guide to Western Europe!) to become a ten-day holiday to Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Gibraltar.

Early tomorrow morning I'm flying out to Faro in Portugal and spending the day there before heading up to Lisbon for two days. I'm then moving into Spain to spend two days in Seville from where I'm going to Tarifa to catch a ferry to Tangier in Morocco. From there I'm going to Gibraltar for two days before ending up in Malaga and flying back to Amsterdam a week on Monday. Or rather, I should say, that's the plan. I have a page of scrawled notes with possible bus and train times, but they're all based on Babelfish translations, and refer to local services that I can't book ahead. I don't speak any Portuguese, Spanish or Moroccan either.

So, here's hoping that it all comes together and I end up where I expect to!

Back to school

A few days ago I was somewhat caught off guard. I was walking to a lecture by an American judge when I bumped into one of the Dutch students I taught last month, and who greeted me by saying "Hello, Mr. Connah". I don't think I've heard anyone address me like that before, and I suddenly felt like my Grandfather.

Anyway, yesterday I went back to school. But fortunately this time I was neither teaching nor being taught, and instead I became an English language assistant. Our first task was to be interviewed by groups of 11-12 year olds who then had to produce a newspaper article on us. Their English was terribly impressive and I wouldn't be surprised if some were almost fluent - all this despite the fact that it was only their first or second year of learning English officially. Most of the questions they asked were quite innocuous ("What's your favourite ice-cream?", "Do you like football?" - "Why not?!", and the rather more probing, "Do you like Dutch girls?" etc), but I had a rather disconcerting exchange with one group. They asked me how old I was, so I asked them how old they thought I was. The guesses went something like: 24...22...26...29... at which point I stopped the exercise and let them know that I was in fact a comparatively sprightly 21. 24 I can deal with, 29 though! The second task was to talk one-on-one with 16 year olds, and surprisingly, they seemed a lot more self conscious about their English than the younger ones did. They then took us on a tour around the city of Culemborg which culminated in them trying to get us into a Coffeeshop. It didn't help that it was raining and that I'd neglected to take my umbrella, but still, it seemed like a pretty place - a bit like Delft.

It was actually good fun though and everyone seemed to have a really good time taking part. Comparing it to my school experience though, the secondary school was more like my sixth-form than my secondary school. No uniforms, more relaxed teachers etc. I wonder if it's part of the reason that the Netherlands ranked as the best place for children to grow up recently, and the UK the worst? Humphry Davy School it wasn't.

Later that day I saw Notes on a Scandal and aside from it being a rather good film, it was also set in a secondary school. So I'm now well and truly in the schoolboy mindset!

Small world

When I was in Cambridge last week I thought I saw one of Emma's friends who visited Utrecht last term. Unfortunately, being in my own world at the time, I didn't realise that I recognised her until sometime later at which point it was rather too late to go back and check. However, a post event clarification has confirmed that it was indeed her.

Unexpectedly bumping into people in all the wrong places is actually surprisingly common. I spotted loads of people in London this Summer, but perhaps that's to be expected. After the first year at Uni I saw Flora in Penzance's shopping centre of all places, with my first comment being a cheery and welcoming 'what are you doing here?!'. But perhaps the most far fetched occurrence has come through me getting to know Bart, who spent an Erasmus year at Jesus last year, and who organised the Legal English course I taught earlier this year. His girlfriend goes to Oxford and I've met her a couple of times, but the oddest thing is that she went to school with Lottie and the two are still good friends. This is bizarre in itself, but even stranger, his girlfriend is also good friends with someone I went to secondary school with back in Penzance.

Now that I've met people from the UK, Spain, America, Germany, France, the Netherlands etc, I can't help but wonder who else I'll bump into wherever I eventually end up.

This all got me thinking. It seems amazing how I can come all the way to a different country and meet someone who knows two friends of mine. There's no pattern to it and it's all entirely random. People talk about the six degrees of separation rule, but in my experience it's often much lower. But how about this for food for thought: If it can be that I can quite randomly met these people, then how many other people do I have some sort of connection with, yet walk past each day without noticing them?

That was the week that was

And it was very good fun. I'm now installed back in my room in Utrecht, and after such a whirlwind week, feeling slightly unsure of where I am. It was fantastic being back at University and seeing everyone who I haven't seen for too long again. So much so that I've already arranged my next trip back!

I came across a rather startling fact while back at Uni; I'm not actually studying in Holland after all - I'm a little bit too far east for that. So I'm really studying in the Netherlands after all. Unfortunately, quickly after realising this, I came across another startling fact; namely that after sleeping on Stuart's floor for two nights, Clare actually had a spare blow up mattress sitting unused. Although I am continually amazed how well I seem to sleep on the floor - so well in fact that on Thursday I managed to sleep right through the fire alarm, which doesn't bode well for next year.

I got some odd looks going to the EU lecture this morning, but it might have turned out to be a rather smart move. The topic was discrimination in the field of the free movement of persons between EU states and it got me thinking about the Dutch OV card. This is a card that gives Dutch students free rail and bus transport throughout the country, but isn't available to non-national students. Discrimination? The lecturer seemed to think so, and naturally, so do I. After my success in complaining to Marks and Spencer, Microsoft and First Great Western I feel the Dutch Education Ministry is the natural next step, so watch this space. I've even got my bank statements to claim back payments!

The journey back to Holla... rather, the Netherlands, was quite entertaining. Check-in opened at 17:45 and I checked in at 17:46, but mysteriously was still assigned to boarding group B. Perhaps I wasn't cheery enough. Security once again took ages as people tried to smuggle just about every size, shape and sort of liquid through despite the myriad of signs. Then of course I had to take my shoes off to be scanned. I knew as soon as I came around the corner that I'd been spotted and was going to be called over. Perhaps I really wasn't be cheery enough. Unfortunately things weren't much better once through and I discovered I possessed a grand total of 29p in English money. Now, it probably won't surprise you that 29p won't get you far at Stansted. In fact, sadly, the cheapest item I found was 49p, and then it took about ten minutes before I found a charity box to give it away. Of course, the flight back over had the obligatory hen party (or in actual fact, three), but it was actually quite good natured with a cabin announcement as to their presence which concluded by saying "Good luck. The first ten years are the worst". Cue much laughter and a slightly worried look from the bride-to-be. I then had the rather bemusing experience of having to tell a Dutch person where the capital of their country was. So yes, in a word, entertaining.

But now it's over and I'm back in Utrecht. I took a few pictures while I was back (and I know everyone likes pictures), so here's a pictorial review of the week:



These are both of Greenwich park. I've no idea who the people in the bottom photo are, and they've no idea who I was, but it just seemed a nice scene summing up what's so lovely about the place.


This is what should have given away the fact that something big was happening in China town, but to save face, I should point out that we only came upon this after consulting the police as to why there were so many people around.


And this is Will and I proving that two biologically unrelated people can indeed give off the impression that they might be brothers.

Lonsterdam and Camtrecht

As you might well know, I'm currently reprising my old role as Selwyn resident, although this time, I'm doing so by sleeping on Stuarts (still surprisingly comfortable) floor. In fact, I've passed up the opportunity to go to a Family Law lecture to write this blog entry - Labour Law and Equity lectures yesterday were quite enough.

I flew into Luton on Saturday to spend a few days in London staying with Kelly and Dan while doing a mini-pupillage at One Essex Court chambers. I've never been to Luton before, and I was pretty surprised to see that the 'green' customs channel had a bin with 'Bird Flu' written on the side. Absent any other sort of notice I can only conclude that it was for those people unfortunate enough to have flown in from Hungary with turkey giblets in their hand luggage. Things did not improve greatly when my train down to London was (a) delayed by thirty minutes and (b) devoid of anywhere to sit. But at least it was an authentic re-introduction to the good old United Kingdom.

It was great to see both Kelly and Dan again and I had a good chance to have a wonder around south London and the Greenwich area. I don't know what it is about Greenwich, but I just think it's lovely, especially the park. Unfortunately someone had rather selfishly taken the Cutty Sark away for refurbishment leaving a bit of an empty space on the pier, but it was still worth the trek. Greenwich also provided the setting for a rather brutal haircut. My passport photo convinced me that I needed it cutting, but not quite to the extent that my barber evidently thought necessary! I should imagine it won't need cutting again until at least July. Met up with Will, Jon and Nathan from home as well which was great. We did the usual thing of spending two hours trying to meet up before going for lunch then spending about three hours deciding what to do with the rest of the day before trying to find somewhere for dinner etc. Unfortunately we ended up in China town while being oblivious to the fact that it was Chinese New Year. The amount of people around was therefore quite perplexing, but one clarifying conversation with a policeman later and we were slightly the wiser. But not wiser enough to realise that finding somewhere to eat would be almost impossible. Cue much walking in and out of restaurants in quick succession.

London though felt a lot different than it did when I lived there over the Summer. When I flew back to the UK, for the first time, I didn't get that 'coming home' feeling, and stepping off the train at London Bridge, it didn't feel like I was in a different country. Walking around London things didn't seem that different either. Sure, the architecture is very different and the people mainly speak a language I can eavesdrop in, but things really didn't feel that different. Perhaps I've had more time to get used to Holland, or perhaps more likely, I've changed in the way I perceive things. It was great to be back 'home', but it didn't feel anymore familiar than Utrecht now does. Although, having said that, the UK does have the huge advantage of having both J2Os and Innocent Smoothies in abundance, so that'll probably keep me coming back.

The mini-pupillage was good and I got the chance to play at being a Barrister for two days. It's such a shame that I can't mention what I was working on, but it's amazing knowing what goes on behind the scenes in the most everyday things. Unfortunately it took me about half an hour and an inordinate amount of prodding before I approached the answer to one of the problems I was working on - so I guess I've a little work to do before next year! But I'm convinced that it's a career I'm going to give serious thought to pursuing.

I've now been in Cambridge for two days and again it feels a little odd. It's great to be back and to have seen everyone, but at the same time, it doesn't really feel like I've been away for any length of time, perhaps because nothing's really changed (although the whacking great big crane behind Newnham appears to have disappeared). Although I have finally had a famous Chelsea Bun from Fitzbillies, and for the first time in my life I've actually done everything on my highly-optimistic to do list. So they were both worth coming all this way for! We're going to a Formal Hall tomorrow night before I fly back to Amsterdam tomorrow afternoon with my bags packed full of crumpets and cheddar cheese.

Pausing Utrecht

Before going to bed last night I had one of those 'Oh, that's good, I'll blog about that' thoughts. Of course, I've now completely forgotten what it was going to be about, but it was really good. Alas. But something else odd just happened that I can write about instead. I was walking back to Parnassos from spending an afternoon in town having a drink and trying to book a bus ride on a non-existent route, wondering how to make something exciting from spinach, potatoes and onions, when I became aware that I was being flagged down by the girl in front of me. Now, this doesn't happen that often. But she seemed very pleased to see me and asked me, in English, if I could help her with her bag. Now, I have no recollection of talking to, or even meeting, this person before, but I didn't feel I could deny her request seeing as she apparently knew me. So, I took the bag and had one of those awkward '(I don't know who you are, but) how are you?' conversations all the way back to Parnassos. I am still no closer to knowing who she was, but she apparently lives downstairs. How very odd.

On Tuesday I handed in my final assessment of the first semester and at the same time officially started the second semester. That means I'm halfway through my time here, which is a pretty scary thought when I think about how much has happened already, but also how much there's still left to do. Annie was right on her blog when she mentioned how odd it seems to think that some people only get to do this sort of thing for six-months. Worryingly, the 30th June is only 4 1/2 months away, and I can well imagine the time running by at breakneck speed, but the sun has shone for two consecutive days now, so that must be a good sign. Shamefully though, still ik spreek slechts een beetje Nederlands...

On Tuesday I also went to the Hague to do some research at the Peace Palace library. Law people will know the building from the front of Shaw's International Law book. I must say, from the picture I'd expected a grand palace in the middle of nowhere, so we settled down for a long haul on the tram, only to find it nestled in between normal buildings about 5 minutes from the centre of the Hague, so that was a surprise. We had to go through security to get in to the library and then we had to pay €10 for the privilege of using the library, which didn't have what we wanted anyway. Humph. So we spent three hours trying to make the most of our €10 before giving up and spending the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Hague where most things were oddly closed, but I do now know a rather nice cafe there, somewhere. I even had the good fortune to find an English-language Dutch newspaper which informed me that if I ate something from a fast-food outlet in the Netherlands, there was a rather disconcerting 30% chance that I would end up eating horse meat. The Febo fastfood automat vending machines have never seemed so unappealing.

I'm coming back to the UK tomorrow for a week to spend a few days in London on a mini-pupillage at One Essex Court and to visit friends I haven't seen for too long, before heading up to Cambridge for a few more days to do exactly the same (and get in the way). So I'm really looking forward to that, although I'm somewhat less looking forward to getting to Schipol airport at 6am tomorrow morning.

Winter Wonderland

After spending last night moaning to anyone who'd listen about it not snowing here (sorry Cecily!), it seems someone at the Dutch equivalent of the MET Office was paying attention. Yes, today it finally snowed properly in Utrecht, and seemingly just about everywhere else in Europe as well!

It did though come as quite a surprise for I met up with Andrew for breakfast this morning in what has just become my favourite cafe in Utrecht. It's built into the wall of canal in what look like old cellars and is all very quaint. Unfortunately where we sat we didn't really have a window and despite seeing some flakes falling and some pretty damp people walking in, we couldn't really see what was going on in its full glory. So five hours later when we emerged it was to quite a surreal, but rather pretty scene:



I had a grand total of 20 minutes to get back to pick up my lecture notes and camera, and to enjoy the scrunching of the snow before my final lecture of this period, so sadly I didn't get a chance to regress to my childhood and join the children in sledging down the banks in the park.

After said lecture the student association here had arranged an ice-skating session at the 'local' rink. Being quite curious as to what it would be like to cycle in the snow and ice for 30 minutes, I cycled there with about five others, but (un)fortunately it wasn't quite as extreme cycling as I was hoping!


The ice-skating itself was good fun though, although the same problem I have with my left leg skiing is exactly the same problem I have with my left leg ice-skating, so everything I do comes in halves! I don't really feel like I've improved since I went last year and it's always the case that things feel like they're coming together just before we have to get off. But I guess that's a good reason to go back and keep trying. And, making up for my not being able to regress to my childhood earlier in the day, we even found time for a snowball fight on the way home.

So, my timetable for today has been something like this:
10:00-15:00 Breakfast
15:15-18:15 Lecture
19:00-23:00 Ice Skating

Unfortunately, I feel that my timetable for tomorrow will instead go something like this:
10:00-23:00 Paper Writing

But if it snows again then I guess I might have to alter that a little.

From Moots, to Mocks, and Beyond

I'm getting concerned at the amount of time I'm spending wearing my suit at the moment. Today was the end of the Legal English course that I've been teaching here, and it was time to hand the floor over to the students as they took part in a Mock-Trial. My role was strictly non-participatory with me having 'observer' status, so we were intrigued to see what they came up with.

To say it was good fun would be an understatement and the whole thing was nicely light-hearted. Some were more prepared than others, but everyone put in a great effort especially considering that English isn't their first language. The scenario was a dangerous driving case and everyone really got into their roles:


It ended up being my class against the other class, so people seemed to be quite competitive! Unfortunately the other class won in securing the conviction, but my class did a grand job nonetheless. I'm actually a little sad that the course has come to an end. I didn't always do a great job of teaching, but I had fun trying and it's been great to be involved with something so different to what I'm used to. So much so that I'm spending a day in a Dutch secondary school at the end of February helping out in an English class, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Today has also been momentous for another reason - I've been able to sort out my timetable for the rest of the year. Winning the moot has had the unexpected benefit of freeing up my options enormously and I've been able to drop two courses this coming semester without falling below the number of credits I need to come away with. So, after tomorrow I won't have any lectures again until the 25th April as the only course I'll be following in period three is self study. After the 25th April I'll have one lecture a week, every Wednesday, until the year finishes at the end of June. I have a paper to write for next Tuesday on the future of the European Union before I can really start the second semester, but now it's all confirmed and timetabled, I'm almost feeling that it's coming to quickly. Suddenly the 30th June doesn't feel that far away.

Jumping Ship

It’s a strange time here at the moment. The second semester officially started yesterday and while it’s made no difference to me on my courses, for some it’s meant the end of their time in Utrecht. Moving room has shielded me from the changeover to a large degree and there are now a lot of unfamiliar faces and voices floating through the corridors, so I’m going to have go meeting and greeting!

Yesterday evening I had the mooting team over to dinner to say goodbye to Yu who’s now on his way back to Australia (hopefully sans food poisoning!). Yu’s been a great friend these past five months and he’s probably the one I need to thank (or perhaps more suitably, blame) for infecting me with the travelling bug after we went to Brussels last year. Not to mention the fact that without his sterling performance on Saturday we probably wouldn’t be going to America in March.


So it seemed the least I could do to bring a few people around for dinner to say sayonara. So my tiny kitchen was rearranged Tardis-like to seat three more people than it really should be able to. Unfortunately I should have realised that I was biting off a little more than I could chew. Not only did I manage to get lost on my way back from Lidl this morning (that's the last time I try and make up a shortcut home – 10 minutes there, closer to 40 minutes back!), but neither did I reckon with the fact that I’ve never hosted a dinner party before, and my intended menu consisted of a main dish that was somewhat more adventurous than I’m used to – a chicken and leak puff pasty pie.

I couldn’t find the pre-made stuff in the supermarket so had to resort to making my own. Amazingly, despite ending up with only an hour to get it all together, and never having peeled so many potatoes so quickly, it all came together at the right time. Once again, there are no photos of the actual end products, but I’m starting to think that’s a compliment! I’ve also been bequeathed an umbrella, a bicycle lock, a roll of masking tape, some hay-fever tablets, a bar of soap, and best of all, 18 (possibly overdue) hardback library books. So it was all worth it after all!

Mooting USA

Last week I mentioned that I was finally going to see the back of my mooting competition and 'get on with the rest of the year'. I was wrong. Yesterday I found myself wearing a suit, sitting on a train while the sun was rising and again when it was setting. In between I mooted. Twice. And amazingly, despite everything I'd predicted, we won! We're going to Washington DC in March to represent the Netherlands in the world finals!

The moot was held in The Hague's District Court building, and it was the first time that I've mooted in a proper court room which was a little intimidating to say the least. The Judges themselves weren't afraid to butt in with awkward questions, but thankfully they were never obstructive and instead asked questions that allowed us to get on with our arguments. Fajar and I first mooted again Maastricht University and I thought we'd done OK, but I flunked the rebuttal. Yu and Emma then took on Rotterdam and both did a good job, with Yu deservedly winning the award for being the Best Orallist for his performance. Then came the final. I wasn't sure whether we were going to make it in, but we did and found ourselves up against Amsterdam. Amsterdam won the coin toss and chose to present the case for the applicants. This equalled the worst case scenario for it meant that I had to represent Utrecht in the final. As Emma's mum kindly reminded me before I got up 'It's up to you to get them to Washington'! Amsterdam's main orallist was scary, and even made me jump when she started talking! Still it allowed for quite a difference in styles and I felt like I'd done a reasonable job, and made a much better effort in the rebuttal second time around.

But still, none of us could believe it when they said we'd be going to Washington, and to tell the truth, I still can't believe it. But it's fantastic and I'm still on Cloud 9. We've a meeting tomorrow to discuss logistics, but at the moment I'm just quite hapy with having been presented with one of the biggest trophies I've seen, as shown in this rather self-congratulatory (and bad!) photo of us all:


Unfortunately we no longer possess said trophy as our Coach appropriated it after we went out for dinner, but not before he'd had it filled with wine:


Now it's all a blur and I can't remember what I said at the podium, but hopefully I'll have remembered by the 26th March when it starts all over again. A few weeks or months ago I'd have been crying at the prospect of the moot dragging on for another two months, but now that's it's all over, I almost can't wait to get there and do it all over again. In fact, I think I might even be looking forward to it!

A meandering miscellany

Last night was an emotional one for I said a final 'goodbye' to my old corridor. Actually, that's slightly over-dramatic as it's still less than ten metres away and relatively easy to get to. So perhaps better to see it as a farewell. I had promised that I would bake a cake for the event, so I racked my brain for something a little different and came up with a chocolate cake (not different) covered with baked meringue (different). It was a seat of the pants exercise, and the meringue was slightly marshmallowey, but it was a success and seeing how it all got eaten, I'm rather sad I didn't bake another one. So here's the final picture of the people (other than me) who constituted corridor 153-163 for the first semester:


Both Antje and Sabrina are leaving this week for pastures new, but the first lot of University mail for the people who'll be arriving on Friday has already come, and it looks like the corridor will be repopulated by Spanish and Portuguese, so it's going to have quite an Iberian flavour!

I was sitting on the train today for the first time in a while, and while watching the scenery passing by I was intrigued by the fact that every so often the train line becomes bordered by these translucent barriers. I've seen these before on highways, usually on bridges, but I hadn't really noticed them on the railway before. I had always assumed they were crash protection, but trains usually stay on the rails. Were they there to stop people jumping off? Or perhaps even to punish (rather severely) those who did? Or maybe even to stop people jumping on? Lacking a person sitting opposite to ask, and not being that intrigued at the time I had to wait to find out, but now I know. They're acoustic barriers to keep the noise in. What a fantastic idea. People always moan about the noise from the road and rail, so why not build a barrier to reflect it back? Seems like a pretty sensible idea to me, which is probably why I've never seen them in the UK.

This discovery got me thinking further about sound in the Netherlands generally and I've realised that this is a very musical country. Take church bells. In the UK, they are certainly tuneful, but here, they're positively musical and they often have little interludes between the quarter-hours. Even the Dutch language sounds musical from a non-speaker's perspective. I'd sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music", but there aren't any hills here to be alive, although I hope you get the point.

Something else that's also very Dutch are pancakes. English pancakes are generally rather thin and to be honest, a little wimpy. French crepes are light and delicate. American pancakes are puffy. Dutch pancakes on the other hand are essentially an omelette - with added flour. Yum. Nonetheless, this evening, armed with a couple of left over egg yolks (see meringue above), I decided to try and make my own Dutch Pannekoeken. Surprisingly it actually worked out quite well, although it wasn't quite as bright yellow as the real thing. The real highlight though was dessert. I finally made the blueberry and pear sponge from a few nights ago. When it came out of the oven it was one of those 'I really should take a picture' moments, but temptation got the better of me and now there's nothing to take a photo of. Alas, but I still have plenty of pears and blueberries, so I wonder how best to rectify that one...?

Given the content of recent posts I reckon that I should transform this into a food blog, especially seeing as tomorrow night I get to sample the Dutch speciality Boerenkool, which, politely, seems to resemble a green mush. Perhaps a food blog isn't such a good idea.

Jack Frost

I have very little to write about, so I'll start with something simple. It's pretty cold here at the moment. So cold in fact that the other day, not only did I, for the first time since I got here, change back into trousers to cycle back from badminton, but by the time I arrived home I had two patches of ice crystals on my gloves where I'd been holding the handle bars. The numerous digital thermometers lining the route gleefully informed me that it was anything from 0C to -5C. Either way, it was decidedly nippy. I'm curious as to why there are three such things on my way to the University, it's not really as if the temperature here is anything to boast about!

Unfortunately, although it has been cold, there has been a marked absence of the one thing that makes the cold fun: snow. I was momentarily excited this morning when I was caught in a little brief flurry, but it quickly become little more than cold rain, which I guess is better than hail, but nowhere near as good as snow.

The cold though means that I'm appreciating hot food more and more, and recently I've done pretty well on that count. Tonight I cooked two pizzas for Amadeo, Jeff and myself and contrary to my expectations they both turned out rather well. So much so that I didn't need to bake the dessert I had planned as well, so the pear and blueberry sponge with custard will just have to until breakfast tomorrow! Actually, after writing it, that doesn't sound like such a bad plan...

I had my final practice moot today. We have a dress rehearsal next week before the Dutch final on the 3rd February. I'm now feeling better about the whole thing than I've ever done, things just seem to have come together recently and we're all gelling well as a team. I'd be surprised if we win in February, but I'd be more surprised if we bombed badly. Either way though, it'll be nice to be able to put it away afterwards and get on with the rest of the year.

New surroundings

The past few days have been rather hectic and for the first-time since I got here my ad-hoc 'to do' list stretched over a monstrous two postic notes. But still, it has all been worth it and I'm now writing this entry from my own room! The silly thing is that its bigger than my old shared room, so someone in the Housing Department missed an opportunity here, not that I'm complaining mind! I also effectively have my own kitchen in which to let my creative juices (if any) run free. I took a photo of my new surroundings, but it looks exactly the same my old room did in the photo I posted of that, so just imagine my old room, but with a 100W light bulb, one bed, a TV, and a little more space.

Now that I have a lot more space it'll be easy for me to put up anyone who would like to come and visit, and I should hopefully be able to borrow back my old mattress, so please treat this as an open invitation to come to Holland and say 'Hello'!

In time honoured tradition here's a photo of Jeoff, an American masters student and my new flatmate, with me and Amadeo at the (slightly disappointing) Italian dinner we went to the other evening:


It's certainly going to be a change living with someone more than twice my own age, but the early signs are that we'll get along fine and I'm really looking forward to the next five months here.

Although the final semester doesn't start until the 12th of February, I guess that for me, in a way 'Utrecht: Part 2' starts now!

Swept away

It's been a little windy here recently. So windy in fact that Utrecht made the BBC News! I've had a few emails asking if I'm alright after it was reported that a crane crashed into a University building here injuring six. Thanks to everyone who asked; I'm fine. I'm hardly ever at the University campus as I don't have any lectures there, but by coincidence I was there yesterday, although I didn't see the crane incident. In fact, the most exciting things I saw were a sheet of iron being torn off a roof and two portaloos toppling over (presumably unoccupied at the time). For those that haven't seen, this was the damage to the building the crane connected with:


The police were stopping cyclists and ordering them off their bikes and I've heard reports of people being blown backwards on their bikes in Amsterdam. There's a huge number of branches and roof-tiles smashed on the pavements as well. Strangely it's very calm today, almost as if nothing happened!

Last night, despite the official advice to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary, we ventured to a restaurant for dinner. And it turned out to be well worth battling the gusts. The essential concept of said restaurant was that everyone got a little mini frying pan and stove, a supply of meat and vegetables, chips and bread, and was left to it. Great fun! The fact that it was all you can eat with unlimited drinks was naturally a bonus:


Thankfully, despite some rather pink looking chicken, I don't seem to be suffering any ill-effects from the venture and in fact I'm looking forward to my next visit! In the meantime I've signed up for an Italian dinner on Sunday evening arranged by the student network here, and on Monday I might be lucky enough to sample a Dutch dish that's been highly recommended and goes by the name of 'Farmer Cabbage', courtesy of Emma, a member of my mooting team. I imagine there's more to it than the name suggests, but I'll be interested to find out!

Analysing Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city that constantly alludes me, a little like Brussels. As with Brussels, I've now been there three times, and I'm still not quite sure what I make of it.

Today it was very different than the other times I'd been. It's no longer Summer and it's no longer filled to bursting point with tourists who only go there, to put it politely, for the 'typical' Amsterdam things. Instead, the streets were almost empty and most of the people I passed were speaking Dutch rather than English. Everything felt much more relaxed and less rushed and I had a proper chance to just walk around the city. The main streets are much like any others, aside from being overly filled with conspicuous, loud and brash tourist shops. You don't have to go far though to walk into a completely different place. The canals in Amsterdam are, from my point of view, both a huge bonus and drawback for the city. Their advantage is that they largely keep the touristy bit confined to the very centre of the city. Their disadvantage is that they break up the city and everywhere becomes too small to fit into a whole. When walking around some of the farther out canals I was struck by how lovely and open it all was. And I think that's the thing, a lot of Dutch cities are simply lovely to walk around - I would go to see the city, not necessarily something in the city.

Amsterdam is also an amazingly multicultural place. Although today it wasn't so evident, I don't think I've ever been to a place where such a multitude of languages are spoken. Not only this, but there's an incredible amount of bilingualism as well, with many speaking a language with an accent which betrays their true nationality. It's all incredibly eye-opening.

So, where does this little ramble lead? I think I was a little hard on Amsterdam before and I certainly didn't give it a proper shot before - it has more to offer than I gave it credit for. It won't become my favourite Dutch city (that honour currently being held by Maastricht,), but I don't think its the worst.

Catching up with Cambridge

Today I increased the number of Dutch cities that I've visited by one, by getting on a train to Leiden to meet up with everyone on the yearly Cambridge-Leiden exchange. After a busy week it was nice to have to get up early for a social event for a change!

I didn't get a chance to see that much of Leiden, but it felt a lot more open than a lot of Dutch cities, with the streets being wider than they are here in Utrecht and Amsterdam. In fact, I really liked what I saw and I'll probably go back again for a better look when the weather's improved and the temperature is rising slightly!

It was really good to meet up with some of the people from back at Selwyn. Max, Jaron and Joe were all there, and I also increased the number of first-year lawyers I know by one as well. So that's two +1's in one day:


We started the day with an extended coffee and breakfast stop before I visiting a Leiden fraternity house, and then joined up with the rest of the exchange group for a lecture on Dutch politics. The lecture was quite interesting, if a little bit statistical, but it was good to get some more information on the politics of the country that I'm living in and to hear how it's likely that Holland will get less liberal in the next couple of years, so, as the lecturer solemnly told us "make the most of it now"!

The lecture hall itself took quite a lot of finding, but inside it had perhaps the most spectacular water feature I've seen:


The picture doesn't do it any justice, but the water flowed down wires from the ceiling into the bit at the bottom. The whole thing was really quite hypnotic. I believe that Joe was kind enough to film me gawking at it if anyone's interested in seeing more!

This seems like a convenient place to mention that I'm coming back to Cambridge in February to do some proper catching up with everyone. I have a mini-pupillage in London on the 19th and 20th of February, so I'm coming up to Cambridge after that for a few days before flying back to Holland on the 23rd. That'll mean that I'll be there on a Thursday evening, so need I ask: formal hall anyone?!

Teaching the Undutchables

Wednesday marked the start as my (to-be short lived) role as a teacher. This month I'm teaching a course to a group of 23 first and second-year Dutch students introducing them to the basic outlines and concepts in English law. Perhaps unfortunately I didn't have time to be nervous due to the mooting work, but I'm now one lesson down.

I've never done anything like this before and it was quite a strange experience to find me writing my own name and email on the whiteboard in front of 23 students. Things went pretty much to plan, but I was impressed with how boring I made everything sound. I was talking about some basic concepts like Parliamentary sovereignty and the difference between common and civil law systems, before I got bogged down (heavily) in trying to explain what Equity was all about. So it didn't end on that high-a-note. There was class participation though which was encouraging and I was asked quite a few questions.

I did enjoy myself though, but there's certainly room for improvement. I have though learnt from the first week and I know what needs to be changed. I've always preferred lecturers who do just that, and lecture, so that's the style I adopted, and it didn't really work. Next week I'm talking about the English legal education system and the legal profession which hopefully I can make a little more interesting and involving. If anyone has any funny video clips or multimedia involving Barristers, Solicitors or Judges, or even just some teaching tips (Annie?!), then you know where to find me!

The whole thing is leading up to the students themselves running a mock-trial set in an English court room. There was a general look of bemusement when I explained a little about it, but I'm hoping that it'll be something good fun and give them all a better impression of what English law and our legal system is like in practice. It'll also be a good excuse to dress up - Judge John Deed anyone?

Back to the Future?

Does the EU have a Future? That's the title of the course I've started this year - my first since November last year. It's a condensed course, so it's going to finish in February and it consists of two four-hour sessions each week which are essentially a combination of lectures, seminars and question and answer sessions. It's also being taught by a visiting Professor from Harvard who isn't a lawyer. One of my previous lecturers here joins us in the class as a student himself. So, in short, it's quite unlike anything else I've done. And it's also rather good fun.

The sessions themselves are pretty intense, and the lecturer, John Gillingham, seems to have boundless levels of energy and a real passion for what he's teaching. If anything, it's too condensed as there clearly isn't enough time for him to say everything in as much detail as he'd like. It's really interesting to hear so many different views on the EU from all the people in the class from so many different countries. I don't think you really appreciate how much some countries benefit from the EU until you speak to someone from there. British Euro-scepticism is all very good, but it does risk missing the bigger picture. Having an interested and lively class, and a lecturer who's keen to get people involved in debate is great as well. It really opens you up to other viewpoints and considerations that otherwise I wouldn't have thought of. I actually think that this sort of thing is sadly missing from the Cambridge system. Naturally you can't have debates in lectures, and ones in supervisions are necessarily only between three or so people. There are about 35 people in this class with widely different backgrounds and opinions and it makes for a really lively atmosphere. Perhaps it works because it's not really law, it's more political science, but its stimulating and something I'm determined to make the most of while it lasts.

But it doesn't end there. After the class he asked if anyone wanted to take advantages of his 'office hours' in a nearby bar. Seven of us did so and spent the next two hours carrying on the conversion and discussing everything from bicycles to EU enlargement. He even paid for a round of drinks for us all!

At the end of the course I have to have produced a paper outlining what I believe should be in any future EU Constitution. I'll be quite interested myself to see what I come up with there! So, does the EU have a future? My best politician-style answer: Yes, I think (and generally hope) that it does, just not as the EU we know.

Mooting Madness

This past week has been pretty odd. I'd expected that I'd have quite a little bit of work to do, but I hadn't anticipated quite how said work would come about.

I entered last weekend with the knowledge that the deadline for submitting our finished mooting submissions was Sunday 14th, which, although they weren't near being finished, was plenty of time to get things in order. So naturally I wasn't pushing that hard to get them finished.

Unfortunately, on Monday afternoon my knowledge was 'updated to '. The deadline wasn't Sunday the 14th, it was instead Wednesday 10th. Panic. So cursing my rather laid back attitude of the days before I had a manic couple of days trying to get everything finished in time; concluding, proof-reading, footnoting, formatting, cross referencing, indexing etc. Thankfully my team got everything done with about two and a half hours left to go. Unfortunately the other team did not, and it was actions stations right up to the deadline to get theirs done. In fact it was action stations until \after the deadline, with us finally being two minutes late. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in a few hours to get them all finished. I summed it up at the end by commenting "That was rather fun, in a sort of sadistic 'I don't want to ever have to that again' kind of way."

The fantastic thing about the whole thing is that I've now finished the written work for my moot a whole weekend before I thought I would, which given my general loathing of the whole thing, is brilliant! They are now all printed and stapled and they look quite professional if nothing else. Unfortunately I had to pay €135 for the privilege because the University isn't sure if it's going to pay for them. As far as I'm concerned though, it is.

After all of this we had to take our printed submissions and march off to The Hague to 'present ourselves' to the competition organisers. So, suited and booted off we trotted expecting something quite formal. Alas, not only were we the only team in suits, our submissions also looked the shabbiest, there was no 'presenting' in any shape or form, and the whole thing lasted less than an hour. We were told what we already knew, had to endue a painful 'lottery' system to determine who we were to moot against, and weren't really given the chance to talk to each other properly as we can't know which University each team is representing. They didn't even give us lunch, to everyone's disappointment. And it was raining and blowing a hooley. Not that positive an experience really!

So, that was essentially my week up until yesterday, and consequently provides my excuse for not writing a blog entry before now. I have several other things to mention as well, but to boost my post count, I shall post these separately!

Carpe Diem. Cotidie

After a landing that I'd rather forget and a Christmas holiday that I'd rather not, I'm now back in residence in Utrecht, and everything is much as I left it two weeks ago. I now have an Internet connection again, although seeing how I had to guess an IP number to get it work, I'm not holding out much hope of it lasting for any length of time. Unfortunately work started right away with a three-hour meeting regarding my moot this morning, and I've got to get my lesson plans finalised for the 'English Legal Reasoning' course that I'm teaching this month. I'm going to have to get used to having lectures again as well after not having had any since November. All in all I think it's going to be a rather hectic January.

But it's not all work. I'm hopefully going to manage to meet up with the people from Cambridge on the Leiden exchange in the coming week, I may return to The Hague (albeit for work reasons), I have a dinner party invite for this weekend as well and I'll be back at Selwyn around the 19th and 20th of February. I've also returned equipped with a mental list of the places that I'd like to have been and some things I'd like to have done before I leave for good in July, so that's giving me something to aim for.

So it's now 2007 and everyone is in the habit of making New Years Resolutions. I've never gone a bundle on making my own, but in light of the above, this year, I fully intend to seize the day. Everyday. I don't want to look back and wish I'd done something I didn't, and I look forward to letting you know the outcome.

21 and counting

I am now officially 21. In fact, I was officially 21 two days ago now and I'm still getting over the shock of it all.

I only flew back to the UK on the 21st and woke up that day to the news that the UK was fog bound with quite a few flights being cancelled as a result. Luckily I was flying to Exeter and not London, so things looked OK. But I got to Schipol airport and joined a crowd of people waiting for the same flight in watching the departure screens as they stayed empty firstly as it went past the time for boarding, then the time for departure, then one hour after we should have boarded, then one hour after we should have departed. I had visions of myself spending my 21st birthday in the departure hall at Schipol airport, which wouldn't have been that bad as I was with some really friendly people waiting for the flight, but anyway, two hours later we were in the air and on our way home. Apparently the delay was caused by the fact that all the airports we could have landed at in an emergency were fog bound, so that wasn't encouraging, but as testified by the fact that I'm writing this now, it didn't come to that!

After all that, it was a relief to spend a quite day at home with family and friends, and as the picture shows, even at 21, I'm not too old for a balloon and a birthday cake. I even made a wish:


It's been an amazing year, so much has happened and so much has changed from this time last year that it's almost hard to take it all in. But on the whole things have been great, and I'm looking forward to seeing what 2007 will bring.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!

Christmas in Cologne (and Bonn)

No sooner had I arrived back in Utrecht from Paris than I found myself on a train to Cologne in Germany. Now, I have to say a word about the German ICE train I got - quite simply, it has to be the nicest train I've ever had the pleasure of sitting in. It was clean, quiet and stylish - it even had wooden panelling throughout with little LED's telling you the weather, temperature, train speed and next station etc. And all for only €38 return, so I couldn't have arrived in Cologne in better style.

Unfortunately, Cologne itself wasn't quite as snazzy. I arrived quite early in the morning and the whole place was shrouded in a rather heavy mist, something that didn't change over the three days I was there. The Allies flat tended Cologne in the war and it hasn't recovered that well. Some places have been rebuilt lovingly, especially the Old Town, but the rest makes it all rather industrial and soulless, which is a shame for a town with such a history, such a huge Cathedral, and such a wonderful position on the Rhine:



It's one of the those unfortunate cities where the main shopping street leads right to the old area and everything is commercialised. After walking around for the whole day I went to a cinema in the evening to see Little Miss Sunshine (and thoroughly recommended it is too!). In fact, after the first day I felt I'd seen about as much of Cologne as I wanted to, so on the second day I caught a rather less-swish train to the nearby city of Bonn. Bonn was much nicer and less built up than Cologne and I was very glad that I went. It's really a University town but it didn't feel like it and instead it felt much more cosy than Cologne:


The fact that the weather was nicer must have helped as well. Bonn lives and breathes Beethoven as the man was born there, so there's rather a lot of museums and theatres etc decicated to him, including a rather impression sculpture:


Bonn was just nice to walk around, and I walked down along the Rhine to the Federal Government district then across the river to a neighbouring town. I could have spent a couple of days there, which considering that Bonn is much smaller than Cologne says a lot about Cologne.

Still, I had gone to Cologne more to go to Germany than anything else. After taking GCSE German I've never been to Germany to put it into practice, so I thought it was about time I did something about it. The end result was, surprising and I managed to make myself understood the majority of the time, with the exception of a rather funny exchange in the youth hostel concerning duvets and checking out. No-way was my German good, but it was passable to the extent that I managed to give a guy directions in German when he stopped me to ask where something was. For ten minutes after I was elated, until a lady similarly stopped me and refused to speak nicht so schnell despite my protests with the consequence that I couldn't help her. So I've still somewhat to go there.

I also went to Cologne was for its famed Christmas markets, which were something of a let down. I had expected each to be different than the others based on what I'd read, but they weren't; they all had the same stalls and the same produce, just in different places. Heaven forbid, but perhaps I'm getting sceptical over this whole Christmas lark! Still, they looked pretty all lit up in the evening and the hundreds of children seemed impressed and full of Christmas cheer:


They also allowed me to sample some authentic bratwurst and a wonderful dessert called dampfnudeln which I should imagine I'll be dreaming about for weeks.

A very Parisian reunion

Last weekend I finally did something that I should have done a long time ago and got on the train to Paris to visit Sacha and Lottie. It was only when I got there that I realised I hadn't seen either of them for something approaching six months, which is quite a long time really. So it was great to put that to rights.

I've always had a thing about Paris. I don't quite know what it is, but of all the places I've been, Paris is the one that I like the most, and I'd go back tomorrow if I could. I've only even been in December, but it's a lovely time to go with all of the city lit up for Christmas and Paris does the cold-winter mornings very well indeed.

I spent Friday night staying with Sacha and he took me on a walk around the main sights in central Paris, and I mean all of the central sights. I think we must have walked for about 7 miles in the end! I visited the University Paris II, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, The Louvre, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triumph and numerous parks. It's all lovely:


Unfortunately, my language skills let me down again in frightful fashion when in a rather busy boulangerie failed to order a macaroon by asking in a rather unconvincing combination of Dutch, English and French. Thankfully Sacha rescued the situation and I did make up for it the following morning when I managed, on my own, to order a baguette and two croissants. Maybe one day.

The next day Sacha took me to a couple of art galleries before meeting up with Lottie for lunch whereupon I transferred hosts before I headed off to the Race of Champions at the Stade de France. Essentially this is an even that gathers some of the best drivers from around the world and puts them all in the same car to see who wins:


The setting was quite spectacular and it was good fun, but being 50 metres up in a stadium with no roof for five hours at this time of year is rather less fun and I was quite glad to escape into the warmth afterwards. Unfortunately, the French guy lost in the final round as well, which as you can imagine, led to a rather disappointed home crowd!

On the final day Lottie and I travelled around Paris a little more and visited Paris's equivalent to (and better than) Canary Wharf before heading to the Eiffel Tower:


It was a shame that I could only stay for a couple of days. I almost think that I might have picked the wrong country to spend my Erasmus year in! There's just something about France, and Paris especially, that I love. I can't speak the language though which is obviously a major drawback, but I can't do that in Holland either. Sacha said that an architect in the 19th century had pulled down lots of Paris to make way for its sweeping boulevards and avenues. Usually this would horrify me, but it might well be on of the best things that happened to Paris and it's precisely this that makes it unlike any other city I've been to before. At the end of the day though it has class and style, something that even extends to the Metro:


Can you imagine seeing that in London?

The last lie in

I really should be working on my endless moot rather than writing this, but I figure it's good to take a break sometimes. A thought struck me on the way back from town this morning - not in the life changing, eureka sense of the word though. Today was the last lie in that I'm going to enjoy in Utrecht in 2006. This has come round very quickly. When I arrived things seemed like an endless series of lazy mornings, but now I have an 08:30 meeting tomorrow, then a 09:00 train to Paris the next. I shall be back prior to going to Cologne, but I have to catch a 07:00 train to get to Cologne, and when I get back from there I'll have to get up early to pack my bags before flying home for Christmas on the 21st.

I suppose it's nice that my biggest concern at the moment relates to my sleeping patterns, but had I realised all of this while I was still in bed this morning then I might have made more of today's lie in. Alas, role on 2007 I guess!

Melua's Music

These past few days have been rather different, and quite musical. On Thursday almost everyone from the residence here went to a classical concert at the Vredenburg music hall here in Utrecht. Shamefully I haven't been there yet despite the fact that there's usually something on every day or evening. But this time, Yu (who has sadly broken his knee-cap and is now in a full leg plaster cast after an unfortunate bicycle accident) was singing in the choir, so along we all trotted. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as it's not usually the sort of thing that I'd go along to, but the line up of Mozart, Beethoven and Bruckner sounded impressive, and indeed it was. I only knew one of the pieces, but it didn't matter and it was a nice evening. We all came away saying that the classical music had finally made us feel Christmasy, even though it wasn't Christmas music...

Yesterday though I went to a slightly different type of concert. I went to see Katie Melua play at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. I found some tickets for €44 and thought 'why not?'. I'd never been to such a concert before, so had no clue what to expect, but I thought I'd better get there in plenty of time. So I arrived two hours before the start and only had a few people in front of me in the queue. The upshot of this was that I got to stand in the front row right up against the barriers. I had to wait there for two hours, but it was worth it as I'd forgotten how tall some Dutch people can be. Had I been much later and had to stand further back I fear I'd have seen little at all. There must have been about six thousand people there by the time it started in earnest which all contributed to a fantastic atmosphere.

Firstly the support-act came on, I can't remember what they were called but their music was pretty decent, if a little bland and warbley:


Finally Katie Melua came onto the stage and the Hall exploded. I have to confess that I only know a few of her songs, and I felt like an imposter and slightly guilty standing right up against the stage in front of people who probably had more right to be there:



I had a fantastic evening. Hearing music sung live like that was incredible, and being so close to the stage only added to that. I can't believe how quickly it was all over, but it felt like a lot had been packed into the time and I wouldn't hesitate to go and see her again, or perhaps, buy her CDs!

In more mundane news, I've got to write 5000 words in the next four days for my moot. So after a nice and relaxed four months, everything has suddenly come down to the final week. Why does that always happen?

It's a strange world

Yesterday marked my first attendance at badminton practice for three weeks. Unfortunately, in between my last visit, Brussels, Maastricht and then laziness got in the way. I was quite surprised when I got there for a new period had started and hence I was confronted with a sea of new faces and the realisation that after not playing for three weeks, I wasn't very good. Still, I had fun.

Two things though have not changed. Firstly, it's the 7th of December, yet yesterday I cycled back from the Sports Centre wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. I've been doing this since my first lesson, and each time I've thought to myself "I won't be able to do this next week", but then the next week, I've done exactly the same. Secondly, on my way back I cycle firstly to the east, then to the south, then west, then north, then west, then north, then west and finally south. Now, aside from being inefficient, that means I follow all four points on the compass. So can someone please explain why, no matter which direction I'm cycling, I'm always cycling into the wind? Surely that shouldn't be possible? Trying to be aerodynamic on a bicycle isn't easy with a badminton racket sticking out of my backpack.

I've also finally broken my aversion to hot drinks by conditioning myself to stomach hot chocolate. So no longer do I have to go for a coffee with friends and order an orange juice or similar. This also means that I now join the legion of people who get a free biscuit with their drink.