Quick catch up

Firstly my apologies for leaving it so long to update my blog, there is no other excuse apart from sheer laziness. I wont even try to go through everything that has happened in the last couple of months in detail (for the same reason mentioned above). I will however give you a quick rundown.

OK so, the Rodeo came to town in Feb and I thought I cant be in the South and not visit the Rodeo. Eveyone that I had spoken to said that it was a great event and I would have lots of fun. I was really looking forward to it and it ended up being quite a big group of us going (about 10 or so I think?). We all meet down there around 6:00-6:30 along with the rest of the crowds (first time I have ever seen so many people of the train (yes Houston does have a train!). We make out way in and the first thing to hit me was the smell (or should I say stench) of cooking pork. For those of you who dont know I dont eat pork and frankly the smell of it makes me sick (apologise to those that do, you would have been in your element). I tried very hard not to complain (didnt work) and THEN we went to go and watch the pig racing (I was outvoted and followed the crowd - it's ok guys I didnt mind so much, I couldnt smell them from where we were anyway). Then it was RODEO time (after getting food of course). The stadium was HUGE and the echoing voice sounded really cool, but I didnt expect what came next (although I really should have I mean it's a bloody rodeo afer all). The next 2 hours or so was mostly man against animal. Grown men chasing around cows and trying to stay on horses that were going psycho and bull riding. NOT MY THING! I just kept thinking this is 2007 right? I thought the cave man years were over.

I know that I may be coming across completely narrow minded and offending some people and that rodeo and all that comes with it is part of many people's culture, but for me uh uh I cant comprehend why people would put themselves through that. It just looked barbaric. SORRY. The concert was fun we watched Gretchen Wilson a country music singer (Red neck woman - thats her song by the way).

I also went to Galveston (a Beach town on the coast), that was cool, the weather was really nice, we lay out on the beach and picked up some ray and me and Laura went for a walk. We then found a nice little spot for lunch before heading back, a nice civilised day.

I have been to see two Dynamo Soccor (football to the Brits) which were a blast. My flatmate volunteers to help on game day and sometimes manages to get tickets. That was an absolute blast. I have to admit watching Soccor here and watching at home (not that I ever have at home) are two completely different experiences. Soccar here is not as big and people dont get as excited so the crowd is pretty mellow. Then enter Sadia, I managed to scare away a bunch of kids, insult the other teams mother's and almost deafen my mate Jason who had to stand two feet away from me in the end pretending not to know me oops soory Jase (the Dynamo's still won though so yay!)

Also went to see a Hockey match (scored some free tickets from my trainer at the gym - thanks Eddie). Now I know nothing about Hockey and it turns out there isnt much to know. You have a gorup of men padded up to the eye balls who skate around the ice bashing each other and occaissionally hit the puck towards a net.

Cant think of anything else right now and its time to go home, to be continued.

San Diego

These are pics of the wild life park.

The view of the drive to Wildlife park

Me being a poser by the beach. Coronado (San Diego's oldest hotel behind me)

Out for dinner with Theresa's friends in Old town.

Mexican drive through

The place where the first scene in Top Gun was filmed

Theresa Downtown

Just some neigbourhood

Theresa



Her fridge (she took all those pics herself)

Well I think I have found my place in the USA and its California. I knew from the moment that I landed and looked outside at the beautiful sun and palm trees that I was home. I know it sounds so trivial that a bit of nice weather and pretty scenery can make that much of a difference but it really can. The drive to my friends work place was just confirmation of my initial assessment. It has a healthy balance of superficialness and tolerance to diversity.

After a leisurely walk around Balboa Park my first night there was dinner by the ocean in Coronado at this great Greek place, followed by a visit to Theresa's (my friend that I was visiting) parents. The neighbourhood was beautiful and her parents were great. We then moseyed on to Moo Chews where we had ice cream (Caramel and Hot fudge mmmmmm).

The next day we took the ferry over to downtown and walked around the tourist trail seeing all the big building and the city. It was just as pretty as everything else I had seen. The evening was dinner in Old Town Mexico (good Mexican food). We sat outside and it was so cool they had a little mariachi band playing and the waiting staff were dressed in authentic mexican clothing. After that guess what more ice cream this time it was white chocolate and kit kat.

Sunday was a day at the Wild Life park where we saw animals from Africa and Asia that was very cool, the weather was beautiful and the animals fun. Dinner that evening was at Theresa's parents with great dinner debate with her dad.

It was such a nice weekend and I will admit that coming home (which is considered Houston for now) I was a little sad to be leaving. As much as I am enjoying my time in Houston it's so different.

I was walking the other day and I saw a man walking with a T-shirt that said "I'm from Texas which country are you from?" I thought that was hilarious.

Some random pics ENJOY!

Not sure how this is all gonna come out, am going to try and give best commentary on all pics.
The one below is the view from my room.
The one to the left are my friends that I have met here (Left to Right Jow, Matt, Elizabeth and Tom)


To the left at Michelle and Shirley's going away bash there is (Left to Right Jessica, Elizabeth and Tom).
Below is my flat mate Amber

To the left is the spread for SUPERBOWL SUNDAY !!!!!!!! below the dumpster on fire in the car park (yeah i dont know the american traditions baffle me)

To the left downloaded it twice and dont know how to remove it. Below ME in my room



To the left Angie and Laura my great mates here.
Below Mike (Cheese), Angie and Laura

To the left Clemmy, Michelle and sorry i forget the name of the girl beside her. Below is Shirley.

Talk at University of South Texas

So Robert and his wife Jan were invited to give a talk to some University of South Texas law students. I was very interested to see what my equivalents in Houston would think about the Death Penalty. Having spent most of my time here with young anti Capital Punishment lefty's (I kid, love you guys) I came to expect the same from them. How wrong was I!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say it was so nice being back in the classroom (yes I am one of those sad people that actually miss the classroom atmosphere). It was a little daunting as no one knew who I was (not that I had any part to play) and there were some questioning glances in my direction (but I held my own).

So Robert began the talk, outlining what he was hoping to discuss with us all and Jan began talking about what constitutes Capital Offences. It then came to Robert showing the class a page of the questionnaire that is given to the jurors as part of the jury selection process (YES to all those Brits they jury select here and it's not picking a name out of a hat). This page questioned the juror on their views on the Death Penalty (whether they support and would vote for it or not?) The options went from 1.1 which was for those that were against it and would not vote for it under any circumstances and then there were the 5.5's who were on the opposite end of the spectrum. Needless to say you know where I would be by now. Robert then turns to the class and asks where the students there would fall, and then piped up Mr Beaumont "I'm a 5.5, if someone has killed someone he does not deserve to live" he then continued with some bull*hit about the legislature and what not (I stopped listening).

Another couple of things about that talk that stood out to me was this girl sitting at the back who seemed to be sitting on the fence with regards to her view on Death Penalty and then Robert played a small clip of a young man in jail (not for a Capital offence in that particular scene but ended up there later) who due to his refusal to go to his "house" (sick sick sick) was rushed by at least 5 police officers all shielded to apprehend (apparently that involves sucker punching again and again and again - why you have cuffs then I don't know). So anyway he then turns to the class and says "any thought?" I made a conscious decision to stay quiet, I don't think Houston was really ready for my rant. Then the on the fence girl puts her hand up and says with much passion "oh I/m sorry after watching that I definitely think(I took a sigh of relief hoping she was gonna jump on my side of the fence) that we should have death. If he's gonna behave like that then you really can't trust him". My faith in the youth of today was completely lost and I thought Houston has A LONG WAY TO GO.

Final rant before I leave y'all. We then turned to the subject of mitigation. For me this is a new area and I'm still learning about it so excuse my ignorance in some places. From where I sit I see mitigation as a crucial part of the process. It is here that we can explore everything. My theory here you see is that those that support the Death Penalty do so because of fear of these people that (sometimes) have done atrocious things, unspeakable, cruel, disgusting things. No one can understand why or how they can do those things its not good for society (both inside and outside prison) so they have to die. BUT what if we had the opportunity to diffuse that fear that lack of understanding. Not only that but it allows for the opportunity to open doors to the root cause of all these problems the poverty, abuse, torture that these people are living through each and everyday of their lives until one day it all gets too much. If we can walk around thinking you did bad so bad is gonna happen to you what makes you think these people don't walk around thinking the same thing. Thinking the world has let them down and no one is there to help them so some one has to pay right? isn't that the thought process involved here?

I just want to say that I am not excusing the nasty things that some of those charged with Capital have done at all, and I am not saying that everyone that has had a tough life leads a life of crime. However those that do tend to come from those backgrounds so surely its time for us to recognise those and do something about that????????


ANYWAY long story short (sort of) no one really gave mitigation any real value and brushed it under the carpet.

It was a surreal experience for me, not what I thought it would be.

Excuse my bad grammar and general use of the English language, these are my thoughts fresh and raw.

Another lesson learnt

Well it's only been three weeks in the job and I'm already jumping big hurdles. My learning curve has just gone way up. Lesson 1 - Don't try to be too nice and fix your clients. My client that I mentioned earlier, with whom I had the intense visit with has now developed an unhealthy attachment with me. When he first told me I was like "Shi*, this can not be happening to me". I didn't know how to react, I didn't want to be too understanding as that is what got me in this mess in the first place. So I put on my sternest face and reminded him why I was there and how our visits were going to help his case. After I left I couldn't stop going through my previous visits with him (all two of them) and trying to figure out if it was anything that I had done to make him think like this. The first thing I did was call my attorney and I was like "Robert what do I do?" he thought it best to cut down on the personal visits. I don't mind telling you that I thought I'd failed. I know in my head that it was the right thing to do, but I had made this guy feel like he could trust me and open up to me and then I become ANOTHER woman to let him down.

Without going into detail about this person he has had a terrible time in his life and carries so much insecurity and fear, you can't help want to save him. I should have realised sooner that this was way out of my league and stepped back but my damn pride stopped me, thinking that I could deal with this. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal of it this it really is (I have a tendency to do that) but it just felt a bit crappy that's all.

Birthday celebrations

For those of you that didn't know it was my birthday on the 28th and my work lovely bunch that they are all took me for lunch at a place called El Hardines (the best Mexican food ever). There was great food, Sombrero's, tambourines and the old classic "Happy birthday" singing (it was the first time I've gone red). Then it was back to the office for cake (thanks Linda and Yola it was yum). I have to say I felt so spoiled and everyone was so sweet.

Thanks

(here are some pics)