Last coupla days
The mum didn't come yesterday either. She sent text messages to the social worker saying she wasn't giving up, just facing facts that her boys weren't coming home, so why should she sit there and have it thrown in her face anymore?
So we had a case where neither the mother nor the father gave any evidence. The children's guardian gave his, the advocates all made their submissions, and judgment was given this afternoon. Very sadly and with great regret, recognising mum's ability to parent, the judge ruled in favour of the local authority and gave them their care order, finding that mum had not separated from her abusive partner, and to wait and see if she could undergo therapy -- six months even to see if she could engage -- would be putting the children in limbo for far too long, when what they need is permanency now.
The next proceedings will be for the adoption order. I won't see those, unless by some chance my next pupil supervisor is the same barrister as the one who they're assigned to next -- G can't do them (and can't have me for my last month with her) because she'll be doing training to be a part-time judge.
It began snowing mid-way through the afternoon yesterday. It was already very slippy when I arrived, and I'd picked my way to court very carefully on my high heels. The snow made it infinitely worse. I got about ten yards from court -- about a quarter of the way to the station -- and thought I'd be OK, then came across a driveway which I found out was much, much more slippery than the sidewalk the minute my feet went out from under me. I fell hard on my right side, bruising my arm and wrenching my wrist, which was already a bit weak from all the trolley manipulation I've done the past three months. I went to get up, and as I put weight on my right foot, it went out from under me again, like in a cartoon.
Somehow I got up and the rest of the way to the station. My train to Euston was fine. Victoria line was fine. Then I changed at Oxford Circus to go the chambers. I arrived on the platform to find a train standing there, not moving, with all its doors open, people milling around in confusion and announcements saying "There are severe delays to your Central Line service due to a person taken ill on a train." The guards on the platform said the train wasn't moving and they didn't know when it would be. So out onto Oxford Street I went, to join what seemed like the entirety of London, and got a bus to chambers.
I arrived about seven o'clock, put S's papers into her pigeon hole, and went down to the fourth floor to map out a route to Janet's "hub" where I was meeting her and check my emails and Facebook. It was almost deserted. The only other person I saw was C, the other pupil supervisor (not mine) and I gave her a smile and said hello. She didn't reply other than to look at me which I thought was odd. Then the third-six pupil, M, showed up and needed to look at her listings for the next day, so I got off the computer so she could use it, chomping at my half-eaten dinner. Once she was done I logged on again to quickly finish up what I was doing. C came out again. "I would have thought there were more comfortable internet cafes than chambers," she said. I wasn't sure how to take this. Was it a joke? "Well," I replied, hesitantly, "I had to drop something off for S, and then I had to find out where I'm going next, and as I haven't been online all day, I thought, 'Kill two birds.'" She paused. "If you think that's an appropriate use of chambers' computer," she said, and went back into her room.
Seriously. Seriously?!
Anyway. I went off to meet Janet at a nice tapas bar in Soho, met her friend Angela, had a bit of a chat and came home. Getting off the 38 bus I was astonished to see the snow had actually stuck in Hackney too. Now I had to manipulate my trolley and my high heels across three blocks of unploughed pavement. I was doing fine -- very slowly -- and would have made it except that just under a block from home I got impatient and started to try to go faster and, sure enough, at the corner of my block took another tumble. Not a very spectacular one this time, though, but I am very stiff today.
Getting home today was an adventure too. Again the train to Euston was fine, but this time my Victoria Line train stopped at Kings Cross and announced we all had to get off. Once we had done so, an announcement informed us there was an emergency and everyone had to leave the station. I got a 73 to Angel and transferred to a 38. It tootled along until it got to Dalston Junction and then, inexplicably, did a three-point turn and started to go back the direction it had come. The driver didn't make an announcement or explain himself at all. Someone went downstairs and came up to say he was going to turn around again in a minute -- he was supposed to have waited longer at a previous stop. "Oh," someone said, "it must have been to change drivers." Which turned out to be correct. Back we went, turned around in a big loop on another road, came up to the previous stop again, waited while the drivers switched, and then carried on. It was completely mad.
But I'm home now.
And I should pack! YAY!
(Oh and also I left my wallet on the train this morning but it's been turned in, it had very little money in it and the only card in it was my debit card. They'll keep it for two months at the lost and found and are saying they'll charge me £5 to pick it up, which I'm in a snit about. So I'm just going to go to the bank in person to get some money out tomorrow and pick the wallet up after I get back from Vancouver.)
So we had a case where neither the mother nor the father gave any evidence. The children's guardian gave his, the advocates all made their submissions, and judgment was given this afternoon. Very sadly and with great regret, recognising mum's ability to parent, the judge ruled in favour of the local authority and gave them their care order, finding that mum had not separated from her abusive partner, and to wait and see if she could undergo therapy -- six months even to see if she could engage -- would be putting the children in limbo for far too long, when what they need is permanency now.
The next proceedings will be for the adoption order. I won't see those, unless by some chance my next pupil supervisor is the same barrister as the one who they're assigned to next -- G can't do them (and can't have me for my last month with her) because she'll be doing training to be a part-time judge.
It began snowing mid-way through the afternoon yesterday. It was already very slippy when I arrived, and I'd picked my way to court very carefully on my high heels. The snow made it infinitely worse. I got about ten yards from court -- about a quarter of the way to the station -- and thought I'd be OK, then came across a driveway which I found out was much, much more slippery than the sidewalk the minute my feet went out from under me. I fell hard on my right side, bruising my arm and wrenching my wrist, which was already a bit weak from all the trolley manipulation I've done the past three months. I went to get up, and as I put weight on my right foot, it went out from under me again, like in a cartoon.
Somehow I got up and the rest of the way to the station. My train to Euston was fine. Victoria line was fine. Then I changed at Oxford Circus to go the chambers. I arrived on the platform to find a train standing there, not moving, with all its doors open, people milling around in confusion and announcements saying "There are severe delays to your Central Line service due to a person taken ill on a train." The guards on the platform said the train wasn't moving and they didn't know when it would be. So out onto Oxford Street I went, to join what seemed like the entirety of London, and got a bus to chambers.
I arrived about seven o'clock, put S's papers into her pigeon hole, and went down to the fourth floor to map out a route to Janet's "hub" where I was meeting her and check my emails and Facebook. It was almost deserted. The only other person I saw was C, the other pupil supervisor (not mine) and I gave her a smile and said hello. She didn't reply other than to look at me which I thought was odd. Then the third-six pupil, M, showed up and needed to look at her listings for the next day, so I got off the computer so she could use it, chomping at my half-eaten dinner. Once she was done I logged on again to quickly finish up what I was doing. C came out again. "I would have thought there were more comfortable internet cafes than chambers," she said. I wasn't sure how to take this. Was it a joke? "Well," I replied, hesitantly, "I had to drop something off for S, and then I had to find out where I'm going next, and as I haven't been online all day, I thought, 'Kill two birds.'" She paused. "If you think that's an appropriate use of chambers' computer," she said, and went back into her room.
Seriously. Seriously?!
Anyway. I went off to meet Janet at a nice tapas bar in Soho, met her friend Angela, had a bit of a chat and came home. Getting off the 38 bus I was astonished to see the snow had actually stuck in Hackney too. Now I had to manipulate my trolley and my high heels across three blocks of unploughed pavement. I was doing fine -- very slowly -- and would have made it except that just under a block from home I got impatient and started to try to go faster and, sure enough, at the corner of my block took another tumble. Not a very spectacular one this time, though, but I am very stiff today.
Getting home today was an adventure too. Again the train to Euston was fine, but this time my Victoria Line train stopped at Kings Cross and announced we all had to get off. Once we had done so, an announcement informed us there was an emergency and everyone had to leave the station. I got a 73 to Angel and transferred to a 38. It tootled along until it got to Dalston Junction and then, inexplicably, did a three-point turn and started to go back the direction it had come. The driver didn't make an announcement or explain himself at all. Someone went downstairs and came up to say he was going to turn around again in a minute -- he was supposed to have waited longer at a previous stop. "Oh," someone said, "it must have been to change drivers." Which turned out to be correct. Back we went, turned around in a big loop on another road, came up to the previous stop again, waited while the drivers switched, and then carried on. It was completely mad.
But I'm home now.
And I should pack! YAY!
(Oh and also I left my wallet on the train this morning but it's been turned in, it had very little money in it and the only card in it was my debit card. They'll keep it for two months at the lost and found and are saying they'll charge me £5 to pick it up, which I'm in a snit about. So I'm just going to go to the bank in person to get some money out tomorrow and pick the wallet up after I get back from Vancouver.)