a more relaxed day!

Monday we woke up and we set off for the Old Bailey Crown court. we were welcomed by a reporter who had taken the time to print off a copy of the different court proceeding that would be taking place that day. he also went over some of the history of the building,which used to be New Gate Prison. throughout all of his speech i was most shocked by the story of a king wanting to make an example out of a "poisoning incident" and show  his servants what would happen if they ever tried to pull something like that. the punishment was to boil the person alive right in the street across from where we were standing. we were told that the man being "boiled" was so determined to not let the king see that he was in pain that while he was boiling he remained completely calm, so much so that the king walked up and put his hand in the water and suffered from serious burns.

here are a few pictures of the building

funny story about the weights you see the statue holding. we were told that one time it rained really hard and filled the weights up with water and a big gust of wind came along and blew the water out and it crashed down on the head judge who was walking in the doors. he then made people go all the way up there and drill holes in the bottom so that would never happen again! 

after this we walked across the street to the entrance where we encountered a bit of a delay  i have to say i was waiting for the day when things didn't go as smoothly for us as we had all got used too :) we ended up having to wait close to an hour outside in the cold (maybe that's a little exaggerated. we were in a tunnel so at least out of the rain and wind, but none the less outside.) once we were let in we played the security game again and preceded to the court room they said was the "only one available." we go sit for 45 mins and listen to a murder case where a mans blackberry cell phone was stolen and he had hired some guys to go retrieve it back for him. well the men he hired ended up killing the guy who stole the phone. as interesting as it sounds we unfortunately were only there for the closing arguments so it was really hard to follow and not too exciting. i should point out though that this was a court where they wear the old fashioned wigs and as much as i try and grasp the fact that it is a long standing tradition for them I cant help but laugh inside because it just looks so ridiculous. I just find it hard to take someone serious when they all look like they are playing dress up.

after leaving the court we headed off for the ISA office where we had a couple hours to try and catch up on our blogs before a professor from Kings College would be there. Thomas Macmanus was our guest speaker and a very good one at that. he took the time to ask us what all we found different in London compared to back home and explain some history behind our findings. He discussed all of the different courts and really helped me piece together all of this information I was receiving everyday but not really understanding. for example i kept hearing the words barrister and solicitor.  do you know who they are? they are both Lawyers, only thing is that barristers rarely or never deal with the public directly (until recently, we were informed) and solicitors do more of the client based work. there are also many other differences but this just gives you a little insight. I really enjoyed the lecture and it will be a great help with the paper required after our return.

after the lecture we pretty much called it a night and spent the rest of our time grabbing some food and getting organized for PARIS! which we would be taking off for at 3:45 (in the am) Tuesday morning!