The ID saga

I’m sure this story has got plenty of coverage already, but I can’t let it pass without mention myself…

Tesco shopper, 24, forced to show ID... because she was 'too young to buy slice of QUICHE'

- Daily Mail

Maybe it’s because of this old joke…

George W Bush and Dick Cheney are at a restaurant for lunch. The waitress comes over and asks what they will be having. Bush says, "I'll have a quickie." The waitress steps back in disgust and says, "Mr. President, I thought that kind of piggish behavior went out with the last administration!" She storms off and Dubya looks confused. Cheney shakes his head at the president and says, "George, it's pronounced QUICHE."

Winter Olympics – Men’s Bobsleigh Preview

There’s one name in men’s bobsleigh. He won his first ever World Cup event at Calgary in the late 90s, and his last even World Cup event in the 4-man at Igls this year. Reigning Olympic champion in 2 & 4 man, 8 World Champion gold medals, and with 47 World Cup gold medals over his career. Andre Lange is certainly the force to beat, and will be looking to round out his career with a double gold.

Despite that, it’s not going to be a foregone conclusion. It’s been a very close set of competitions all year, and there’s always chance for an upset.

In 2-man, the Swiss teams are almost certain to get at least one medal between them. Ivo Rueegg won the World Cup (despite not taking a single Gold Medal), Daniel Schmid has come on strong at the end of season, but Beat Hefti has been the man to beat. But for injury meaning he missed Lake Placid, he almost certainly would have taken home the cup title. Hefti started out as a push athlete, so the power at the start in SUI2 is always among the best. The thing is though, this advantage is more prevalent on a short track – which Whistler isn’t.

Hefti came 2nd in the 2-man Olympic test event at Whistler last year, behind Thomas Florschuetz. All three German sleds (Karl Angerer being the third) are all very strong and can’t be ruled out.

In the 4-man, the biggest threat to Lange comes from Latvia. Janis Minis won in Canada last year, and is a real 4-man specialist. The other big threat is Steven Holcomb’s Team Night Train, USA1. Winning the World Cup with a race to go, it all came at the start of the season with 3 wins in the first 4 races. However, Lange was injured then, and since the German has returned to form he’s had to play second fiddle. Also from America, John Napier has had a brilliant season, and clearly has strong career ahead of him – if (in my opinion) not going to be a winner at the games.

Other people to watch are the trio of Russians (but the better money is on a Russian gold at the 2014 games), and a dark horse could come from the Dutch sled of Edwin van Calker who’s had a really strong end to the year – probably not enough to get on the podium, but enough to upset the applecart a bit.

Home advantage to the Canadians could be interesting. Pierre Leuders is a true veteran, former Olympic champion, and winner of a gold every season in the World Cup – except this year. He’s expected to retire after the games, but won’t want to end on such a poor season. In CAN1 however in Lyndon Rush. In the 2-man his brakeman is Lascelles Brown (formerly Jamaican, and formerly with the aforementioned Pierre Leuders). He’s had a real break-out season, winning the first 4-man event of the year in Park City, and winning his first ever 2-man medal (which happened to be gold) at St Moritz. Prior to Whistler opening, St Moritz was the fastest track in the world – so that can only be a good sign.

Sadly, Britain is only sending one sled to the games – which will inevitably be already 3-time Olympian Lee Johnston. There’s probably not going to be a medal, but there will be a lot of good spirit.

The 2-man competition takes place on the 20/21 February, and then the big boys come out to play after the Women’s competition on 26/27 Feb.

Should’ve gone to Specsavers

Wouldn’t you be gutted if those were your only shoes available?

Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s a fact of life.

What varies is the type of mistake you make. In the law, I think there’s three types of mistakes.

Firstly, there’s the big mistakes. These are the ones that either open you up to a negligence claim or, worse, being struck off. They can even be minor things, but have major consequences – see conveyancing in particular. No-one wants to make one of these mistakes.

Then there’s the smaller mistakes. You may need to agree to reduce a bill, or the firm may need to incur a few extra costs on its own account – but you can recover from them.

Finally, there’s the embarrassing mistakes. The only consequence is looking a complete tit.

Dear Asp,

Thank you for your letter. However, in the draft you have called me Derek instead of David.

A bit like that one.

Winter Olympics – Women’s Bobsleigh Preview

I mentioned that I’d look into the hopes, aspirations, and expectations for the forthcoming Winter games, so let’s start with the women.

Looking at this year’s World Cup standings, it looks a very simple affair. Sandra Kiriasis is the reigning Olympic champion, the three-time World Champion, and the 7 time (including this season) World Cup winner. A force to be reckoned with.

But, this season, she’s yet to actually win a gold. After some fairly major politics in the German federation, her brakeman Romy Logsch has jumped onto GER2 with Cathleen Martini. This year, GER2 has won the European Championships and 5 Gold Medals in the Cup. The other two events she took part in earned her a silver medal – the only reason she didn’t win the Cup was from missing the race in Altenberg.

With Claudia Schramm almost certain to be a third German sled it could potentially be a German lock-out, but I wouldn’t be too hasty.

Canadian Kaillie Humphries has had a cracking season, finishing second in the rankings with a win in Altenberg together with other podiums. Best thing in her favour though is home-track advantage. Not only will the entire crowd be cheering her on, but the Canadian athletes will have been down the new Whistler track more than any other nation. If anyone will know how to drive the track from experience, it’ll be Humphries.

Her stablemate Helen Upperton can’t be ruled out from a podium finish with this home advantage, and the top two American sleds of Shauna Rohbock and Erin Pack (Rohbock with a couple of wins this season) will probably also be in contention.

As regards British hopes, well, I have mentioned it before but this time last year this happened.

The last time a race was over 4-runs, Nicky Minichello with Gillian Cooke took the gold. The first British Bobsleigh gold since 1965. Is it going to happen in Vancouver – well, probably not.

Last season GBR1’s push times were at the top of the list. This year, they were anything but. Nicky is still a good driver, but if you don’t have the opening velocity it’s an uphill (pun intended) challenge. Minichello also missed a couple of races through injury, dropping her right down the World Cup rankings and therefore also the starting order for the WOG.

Still, over 4 runs, consistency is key – and one mistake could ruin any hope of a medal. And it’s a fine line between ice and fire…

The women’s bobsleigh at the fastest track in the world takes place over the 23 & 24 February.

Why is it?

Grace has been off on her holiday for over two weeks. Due back on Monday, everything on her files just nicely ticked over. No major panics, no problems, nothing urgent.

Until yesterday, the final day she was off. I was planning on everything on her files just being put on one side to wait until Monday, after all it’s only a weekend to wait.

My clock said 09:02 when the phone rang:

“Hello Asp, it’s Chris Evans* here, we spoke earlier in the week.”

“Yes, of course, how can I help you Mr Evans?” [knowing full well it wouldn’t be “When Grace gets back, could she…” if he’d waiting until just after 9 to phone]

“There’s been a development and I need your urgent advice…”

Cue an hour of reading the file, deciding what needed doing, and doing it; and a day of “Asp, it’s Mr Evans, something else…” or “Asp, it’s Mr Evans, any news?”

It wasn’t a life or death matter (it very very rarely is), but the client was justifiably concerned enough to want something doing promptly.

The only annoying thing is why it waited until the last day I was meant to be babysitting those files?!

 

*No, that’s not his real name before someone starts twining about be breaching client confidentiality. I don’t have any clients who are ginger haired Radio 2 presenters.

Counsel

I’ve been in court a few times lately, and has come across a few “interesting” characters who are better known for wearing wigs that us humble solicitors (and trainees).

There was the barrister on the other side who, upon coming to an agreement to settle, drafted the consent order. In a style that would have failed me in the LPC.

“Herewith referred to” … “The aforementioned Plan referred to in the 5th Paragraph of the Recitals” … etc etc all in sentences that (when writing it in neat for signature) went on for half a page without any punctuation whatsoever.

He was a, erm, well experienced barrister though.

Then there was the barrister who, when having the initial both-party-conflab, I took an instant dislike to. It’s very rare that you can instantly despise someone, but he was clearly so far up his own arse (after just 10 seconds of talking) it was incredible. It wasn’t just me either, everyone in the room agreed that we didn’t like them one iota.

Thankfully, I think these are mainly the exceptions. I had the pleasure of dealing with a young, newly-called, female counsel who was excellent with the clients, able to formulate good arguments in front of the judge, and think on her feet. One who will, very obviously, end up dealing with some pretty big cases in a few years. Just incase anyone was worried this was going to turn into an anti-bar rant :p