my brain is numb,
where is the sun?
i need to eat,
where is the meat?

there is no rest, they say,
for the wicked;
i say bollocks,
there’s my mattress and my blanket.

if i had my way,
i’d sleep all day -
no black on white,
no goddamned effing reading light.

aight, enough’s enough,
this poetry thing is tough.
i must get back to reading,
‘fore the fire of guilt gets burning.

this happens, all the time.

because at the start of the course, i think to myself ‘hmm… do i really need that? maybe i don’t need that, really… i’ll survive with the basics, i’m sure’. and then now, a month before exams it dawns on me that i seriously have to get that book.

last year it was the statute book for EU law. the year previous, it was another statute book, some revision guide to public and constitutional law, and an extra book on criminal law.

This year i’m too lazy to go into school, or even to walk to the bus-stop, so amazon.co.uk is my new best friend. say hello to amazon everyone, it’s been providing me with endless book recommendations and a free trial for their dvd rental service.

but of course i’m ignoring all of it, bceause i don’t have the time nor the money, to get down to the bowels of its stock, to get my hands on some Hart. The Concept of Law, by HLA Hart. damn these law books are expensive *gulp* charge it to my credit card please.

and, seriously, even if it’s not going to be of any use at all, if i don’t do an exam question on that topic, and i never read it ever again, at least it’ll look good on my bookshelf and bump up my intelligent-intellectual quotient.

this is how one spends the days - potting and re-potting, watering and admiring. i’m still deciding whether i’m going to stick to my 2 baskets and fill them with tomato plants whilst everything else goes into pots, or buy less groceries to save money for more and baskets to fill up with flowers and things so i can hang them all along the roof of the balcony. OR, i could ask the corner store for the woven baskets that they use to store/display fruit in and throw away at the end of the week, and try lining them and then stringing them up to make hanging baskets - i’m only worried they won’t be strong enough or that they may rot away.

this gardening thing is obsessive, i tell you. i think about where to put which plants all day long, i scour gardening boards and forums, i spend hours in garden centres, and i keep buying more and more plants and seeds. but, y’know, it’s pretty and it takes my mind off things, and i get to chill out on the balcony and listen to the kids from downstairs play.

i’d rather get dirt under my nails and pick slugs out of the soil than have to study for exams. maybe i’ll open a nursery or a florists when i’ve made my millions bleeding clients dry with billable hours and legal-babble, which brings me back to the fact that i have a very hot date with bentham, austin, hart and kelsen. argh!

we all dressed up in our best fancy clothes, and i dug out my stilletos for good measure. thank god we drove, i wouldn’t have survived the london bus system with ankles elevated that much higher than my toes. we ate great food, and all drank too much wine for our own good - but what’s new.

i’m back from east sussex and a long weekend in the countryside.

apparently i’d been ‘cooped up’, and i’d been ’staying indoors all day’, and so had to be put in the car and driven to the southeast.

obviously it was easter and all that, but there weren’t any egg hunts or rabbits or much chocolate. what there was was a bonfire, trips to the garden centres, and having tea and cake in the backyard/field.

and there wasn’t any studying that i said i’d do. there were lots of newspapers and magazines and plant buying, which have resulted in the addition of 2 geraniums, 2 ranunculus (ranunculi?), 1 mint and 1 gardenia to my balconygarden.

now i’m going to repot my new purchases and water some plants. (but i’m going to watch the simpsons first).

Francis Seow, former Solicitor-General of Singapore, on The Politics of Judicial Institutions in Singapore:

The judiciary — a bulwark between citizen and state — plays a consequential role in the affairs of a nation, and often sets the ultimate seal of legitimacy on controversial policies and actions of the state by its decisions. Governments, therefore, try to ensure those persons, who are called upon to make these weighty decisions, understand the purpose of controverted legislative acts and policies. The PAP government is no exception. It also tries to ensure that judicial aspirants are screened for loyalty and political correctness. Although the PAP government recognizes the role of the judiciary in the body politic, it no longer sees it as a check on the balance of power in the traditional sense but rather as an important instrument for the prolongation of its political longevity.

High court judges are appointed from within the legal and judicial service and among qualified members of the bar by the president on the advice of the prime minister after consultation with the chief justice. Judges hold their appointment until the age of 65 years and thereafter at the will of the president. For many years, retiring high court judges have had their appointments extended on contract for short periods at a time and, in some cases, from month to month. Judicial commissioners are employed on time contract. Some do, indeed, make the grade to the high court bench. Needless to say, judges on contract, renewable at the will of the prime minister, is not conducive to judicial independence.

Judgments of the appellate court have to be unanimous, and are delivered by a single judge detailed by the chief justice beforehand. No dissension is countenanced lest a perception is created of disunity within the judicial ranks. Cases are allocated to judges by the registrar of the supreme court, on chief justice’s instructions, and not rotated, or drawn by lots, or channelled to special divisions of the court. Thus, it is not uncommon to find a particular judge, like T.S. Sinnathuray, being commonly assigned sensitive cases with predictable results. Judges known for impartiality, independence and strength of character are never assigned them.

I knew i’d never be appointed judge.

But, jokes aside, I can’t describe, really, how i feel about the whole issue.

It’s stomach-churning fear, amazement and despair mixed in with a little loathing. And more. On top of it all, though, i feel sad and ashamed, sad and ashamed that we are supposedly one of the most incorruptible states in the world, and yet this happens.

Corruption isn’t just about exchanging money for favours, corruption is also about patron-client relationships. It’s about the lack of independence to make decisions because one feels indebted to, and obligated to, someone else for one’s position. It’s about not being able to make a decision free from any other consideration apart from what is ‘just, equitable and conscionable’.

I wonder if the judges realise how they’ve been implicated into this scheme. Do they actively know, and pretend to be ignorant; Or, are they truly unaware of their role in this?

But most of all, I wonder if they even care.

Lord Steyn on Democracy, the Rule of Law and the Role of Judges:

[Lord Steyn] said ministers did not always understand the principle of the separation of powers as it affected the judiciary. The home secretary, Charles Clarke, had complained in a recent interview that he was “frustrated” that the law lords would not meet him for discussions “because of their sense of propriety”.

Mr Clarke “apparently fails to understand that the law lords and cabinet ministers are not on the same side,” said Lord Steyn. “A cosy relationship between ministers and law lords would be a worrying development.”

And apparently the Singaporean judiciary fails to understand their role as an independent, unbiased, public-serving body whose role is to protect the constitutional rights of Singaporeans and promoting the causes of democracy.

The judiciary is not supposed to be the government’s personal adjudicator.

oh the futility of planning a revision schedule.

the person who came up with the idea of exams in may and june must have been one very sick and perverted dude indeed. if all exams were in, say…. december, then i WOULD study because it’s so much warmer indoors and there’s nothing else to do in winter.

i wouldn’t even mind going to school in summer. at least the days are long, and there’s still light when i leave, and i can have lunch in the park in the sunshine.

anyway, basically, exams in spring/summer are stupid. they should re-adjust our term times. or give us take home exams. i’d seriously have 4 assessed essays over the year than exams at the end. but i’m just being a ninny and complaining for the sake of complaining - after this, no more university exams forever!

and in other news that many of you will fail to appreciate, i have plants! my seeds have sprouted, and my plan to boycott store-bought salad this summer is under way.

i only put them in on saturday, but already my tuscan salad mix is coming up nicely. i’ll be sowing the californian leaf mix this weekend so that i’ll have some variety and continuity in my veggie supply.

the sugar snap peas are doing strange things like growing out the bottom of a 500ml Evian water bottle whose top i cut off to make a long pot. i hear that peas had long tap roots, but i didn’t expect them to be this long this quick, especially since they’ve only just sprouted.

basil and thyme are doing fine (oh, oh, the rhyme the rhyme!); the rosemary twigs i stuck in water have suddenly decided to root themselves all over the bottom the jar. my chilli seeds are also showing signs of life, and the seed-leaves have a slightly purple tinge to them - purple tiger, rawhr!

i’ve also stuck a sweet potato in some water in vain hope that it will start sprouting leaves, because they are so pretty in a vine and i just like the magical-ness of watching things grow.

now, i’m waiting for my tomatoes, stock and night-scented stock, anemones and peony to surprise me by shooting and leaving (leaf-ing. ok, not funny. whatever). and also more seeds to put into boxes and pots and containers of compost, like choy sum and borage and tansy and more lettuce.

okay. enough of this gardening banter. i have (marginally) more important things to do, like writing an essay on trademark dilution. here’s a choice quote on what i’m up against,

“[it is] a phenomenon that cannot be seen, measured or otherwise perceived or detected and… for sixty-five years, has proven wholly resistant to analysis” (Jonathon E. Moskin)

i know. isn’t it such an exciting thing to be writing about? so elusive and mysterious, so attractive a character you’d expect johnny depp to play the role if intellectual property law were ever a movie.

i can just feel the envy emanating from all of you, from the tips of my toes to the end of my nose. but don’t be jealous, i’d give it to you to write any time. i’m generous like that.

and by the way, this whole revision thing?

revision schmivision.

all i do is stare at the flats across the view from my window, and long for sunshine in the afternoon like they have. and watch the trees sway in the wind, and the clouds in their varied formations drift across the sky.

apparently, my jurisprudence exam is right smack bang on my birthday.

hurrah.

it’s also the first of my last set of university exams.

hurrah again.

so now my birthday celebrations will have to be deferred by 3 weeks, by which time it will be june. and june means it’s summer, and there’ll be sunshine. which means that i could very well have a birthday party picnic in the park.

hot weather and ice-cream trucks. cute boys showing off their lily-white calves in board shorts, cute girls in tank tops and bikinis. sandwiches, salads, sodas and spritzers. pimms! gin&tonics and whiskey&gingerales. plastic cups and paper plates. balloons!

now, how awesome will that be? very very very awesome, i tell ya.

hurrah!