apparently, because i’m not qualified yet, giving legal advice to people is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE.

that’s great excuse!

now everytime anyone asks me to go over some contract or do something vaguely legal or give them a legal opinion, i can say

’sorry, i’d like to help but it’d be a criminal offence for me to tell you anything, and i’m sure you wouldn’t want to be guilty of conspiracy to commit a criminal offence now, would you?’

or

‘if i tell you, i’d have to kill you, because either way it’s a crime.’

sometimes professional development and conduct lectures can be so crap. but other times, they actually impart useful and practical knowledge.

there is something quite exciting about going to have your passport photo taken.

and the tension between it being a formal headshot and a smiley see-me-as-you-do-everyday picture is overwhelming. and of course the desire to just go apeshit and look like a hobo or a dragqueen with feather boa and all.

the FLR(S) form - that’s the extension of student visa form to everyone else - advises that i must be content with the photograph because it’s going to be stuck in my passport on my visa extension thingie. good advice, and stops me from wearing a spiderman mask in the photobooth.

but then it also tells me to attach 2 photographs to one photo-square - do i glue them together and then onto the paper? but then how would they be able to remove one to put in my passport? or do i glue 1 of them, and slip the other into some sort of plastic baggie and staple that to the paper? or do i blu-tack them to the form? or what?! no guidance on that anywhere, not even on the internet.

right.

so off to the photobooth now, change jangling in my pocket to be changed into one-pound coins.

i miss the photobooth in berlin, with its black and white strips, a real glass lens and that rotten-egg smell of developer wafting out the collection hole.

the guardian is great.

on the question of whether the coup will help the progress of democracy in thailand, jonathan fenby writes:

If, on the other hand, the Thai generals conform to the habitual military pattern, south-east Asia would find itself with army-ruled Thailand sitting next to army-ruled Burma and nearby to Singapore, dominated by one party.

it’s always lovely to see our island country quoted in the press, and even better to know that it’s cheek by jowl with burma.

at least singapore still has elections and parliament and all that wayang stuff so we’re definitely one up on burma (nyah nyah) since it doesn’t even pretend to give anyone democratic freedoms. elections? what’s that?

but seriously, i hope singaporean politicians realise that this ought to signal substantive reform and change, and not the easier tightening of the already uncomfortable noose around freedom’s neck.

+ + + + + 2141hrs edit + + + + +

i think i’d like to add further that whilst there are a lot of countries calling for the ‘return to democracy’ in thailand, it is my opinion that the democracy that existed in the period before the coup was a false democracy.

thaksin, although democratically elected once upon a time, has failed to act like a defender of freedom and democracy for quite a while. the reports of alleged nepotism, cronyism and other under-hand dealings are for the public record.

coups get a bad name, mostly deservedly. however, if this coup does actually achieve its aims, a new prime minister is in place in two weeks, and the elections take place when they are supposed to, then this glitch in the democratic machine is perfectly okay by me.

so i had a chat with my best friend today, about things and the up-and-coming and the singaporean condition. also about remote-controls and delegation of power. as we do, most times we speak.

i could go on for hours about the things that prick my heart, about the things that get under my skin like a bad splinter, when we talk about singapore (the state), singapore (the people) and singapore (the place), but i shan’t because i’m not really in the mood.

why is the choice between labelled defiant, rebellious, a leaver, or integration into mindless homogeneity? and why is being different a bad thing?

over the weekend, after many drinks in a hot and sweaty pub, we played games and one of them was to state our age and our biggest accomplishment so far. (not that we were being arse-y or anything, we were just slightly depressed and needed joyous perspective)

i am 23. my most important accomplishment so far has been to leave singapore behind physically, if still not yet completely mentally.

i’m not burning my bridges or abandoning my heritage or snubbing my nose at my roots. i’m merely trying to become a citizen of the world, a world that is much bigger than one country and one ideology and one dominant mentality.

a world in which difference is as valued as sameness, and where individuals are allowed to be.

Sunflowers, sub-machineguns greet IMF-WB delegates , which may not be a big deal to those people who are used to travelling with air marshalls on their flights, but still.

these are interest groups that are, generally, non-violent but very outspoken. the majority of them are just going to wave placards and make a lot of boo-ing and hiss-ing noises when they see a delegate they have a dislike for.

treating them like would-be criminals is not only stupid, but way overreacting. i mean, seriously, ‘high security alert’? they’re demonstrators and interest groups, not rioters.

the police here in london, when faced with demonstrators, generally just let them do their thing, set up road blocks so the demonstrators don’t get run over, break up fights between demonstrators, etc. sure, some of them are armed, but most of the time they are looking out for the welfare of the demonstrators, the people, they’re own.

maybe a mounted policeman or two, police vans with reinforced windscreens and lots of walkie-talkie-ing, but no submachine-guns, no tall spiked fences.

i’m not looking forward, at all, to the explaining i’m going to have to do when my friends read about it, because i don’t feel in the least inclined to defend what singapore has done.

it’s shameful, it’s transgressing on human and civil rights, and it’s just downright embarrassing that as a supposedly developed and first-world nation the government behaves like some backwater fiefdom/junta/pre-89 soviet satellite, and has no respect for other non-governmental, non-diplomatic, non-financial-connected opinions.

do we not all have a right to be heard?

it’s like bad-parenting style gone wrong - telling one’s own kids to shut up, and then leaning over to tell someone else’s kid to mind their business and shut up as well whilst that kid’s amazed parent looks on in horror at one’s audacity and rudeness.

and i was being so good too.

waylaid by the evil-internet, google and email. also, by the sudden realisation that it hasn’t rained for a week, and i haven’t watered my plants, and that they’re all looking slightly sad and forlorn out there on the balcony.

anyway, i went to the brighton speed trials yesterday - for cars and motorcycles and vintage automobiles. it rocked! i love all the vintage cars and want all of them for christmas. i especially loved M’s dad’s lotus. it is tres fantastique! photos will come shortly, i promise. for now, just imagine the smell of burning rubber and exhaust, combined with sea salt spray, and the warmth of the afternoon sun beating down your back, with the drone of engines and the surf in your ears.

and, school has started. have i mentioned this already? it’s started, and it’s HARDCORE i tell ya. seriously, this LPC shit is not some main-main, masak-masak thing, it is for real dude. not only are we told how long we’re expected to spend preparing for each small group session (3 hours), but we also have business simulations, interview and advising simulations, constant assessments and all that kind of other stuff. even the one day a week we don’t have school is meant for studying, revision and catching up with reading.

so, i was being good today, and i’ve done my readings, and was about to type out a table of different business media and other stuff for a compare and contrast exercise before all that other stuff interrupted my diligence. i think now, though, that i shall have to continue with my intentions, and stop faffing around, otherwise i’m never going to finish the rest of it. it’s a crying shame, but that’s life, eh.

or rather, it’s a fashion crisis that i’m dealing with.

problems i am facing include, but are not limited to:

• what does a 23, going on 24, year old female law student wear without looking boring?
  everything in the high street shops look as if they can only fit girls between 15 and 18, or are formal/office-type stuff.

  i have not the thighs of a 15 year old, nor the general gangliness that teenagers have, that make the clothes look so great on them, but so wrong on me. and all that exposure! ok, i’m not one to cover it all up, but there are limits, y’know. i have no desire to squeeze into skinny jeans and end up ripping them whilst picking something off the floor, or at A&E for numbness and/or paralysis by depriving my legs of bloodflow.

  similarly, i would like to avoid looking like miss prim, or miss legal. i’m not a lawyer yet, and i still have a good couple of years left before i actually need to hide my body from critical eyes. however, smart-casual is such a misnomer, and often oxymoronic - emphasis moronic.

  so, i do not want to dress younger, but neither do i want to dress like an auntie. big problem is, what the hell does the 23 year old female demographic wear?

• can i wear mustard yellow shoes without looking like a cock-a-nah-den?
  i love mustard yellow, but i’m afraid wearing yellow will set off the yellow undertones of my yellow skin, making me look sickly and sallow.

  although, really, it’s just my feet. my feet can look sallow,can’t they? it’s far away from my face, and hardly anyone will stare at my feet and go ‘wow she is the yellowest yellow person i’ve ever met’ right?

  a greater problem is the sudden boom in mustard yellow knit jumpers that seem to be in all the store windows. are my shoulders and neckline just slightly too close to my face for me to carry it off without looking consumptive? they look so great hanging off the rails, and on the mannequins, and i’m sure i can find one that fits so perfectly on me because i’m a champion (read: obsessive) shopper.

  but, seriously, is yellow on yellow okay?

• apparently the fashions for fall/winter is into layers, or oversize clothes, leggings, etc
  once again, looks that will only work on 15 year olds and/or very thin people, so i already know it’s not going to work on me.

  but i do love autumn and winter, and all the comfy woollens and knits and jumpers and coats. they cover up all the bad bits, and make you look so cuddly and fuzzy and huggable. magic, eh? and all the dark colours like brown and plum and maroon and black, they make fall/winter feel so romantic and mysterious.

  ankle boots, however, seem to be either very ugly, or highly impractical for walking in. they also look stupid with anything else but trousers, which detracts from the whole point of them being ankle boots and being able to show them off.

so these are a few of the questions for the seasons, which i may or may not find answers to, but they’re not life or death kinda problems so i might just very well let them slide. i mean, fashion is just fashion, right? and i’m too much of a feminist to actually admit that i give any time of the day to something so frivolous and so petty, even if i really do. although i could, perhaps, defend myself by attributing this to the post-feminist in me.

i often say that i’d be much happier when i start working, since i’ll need just 10 different shirts, a couple of suits (trouser suits and skirt suits), 3 pairs of court (or similar) shoes, and i’m done. no need to think about what to wear to the office, because it’s invariably going to be something like black&white.

anyway, sorry if all this clothes talk bores and/or appalls you. my boyfriend appreciates the end-result, but cannot fathom the actual deliberation/discussion that leads to that final choice, so i know where you’re coming from.

for now, the post-feminist/wannabe-hipster-fashionista in me has a ‘meet your firm’ day to think about, and a decision to make regarding which outfit will best make me seem like they made the right choice in giving me a training contract - i.e. intelligent, non-slutty, confident, non-girly, classic with a modern twist, etc.

très difficile et compliqué, non?