August 4, 1330hrsAnother month and another corporate golf outing. Again I was called upon as a substitute. The partner who was originally invited was caught up in a delayed completion (a very regular occurrence I have noted: don'
t plan your holidays round them).
So, once more I was "told" I was to spend my Thursday playing golf. What a bind! A day eating, drinking, playing sport and pretending to be professional; fine by me! I can't wait till I've been in this game long enough to warrant a personal invite as opposed to relying on the full diaries of others.
A place at which to make such contacts was a recent RCCW "Young Professionals" evening. As a young professional and an RCCW employee, I was required to attend (the words "free" and "drink" were uttered as an inducement). It was good networking and socialising with other "youngsters" in the Aberdeen business world and hopefully there will be more events of its kind.
Part of the evening's entertainment was a wandering magician who, after seeing that I appeared to be enjoying his sleight of hand, asked if I would assist in his next trick. He asked if I had any money and I confirmed to him that I did. He then asked if I had a £10 note, to which I replied "Eh, I can give you £4.37 in change; is that any good?" Apparently it was not, so one of the partners present had to bail me out. One of the joys of a trainee's wage.
In other extra curricular news, (there's been a lot this month!) I took part in a corporate rowing event which on the whole was fun, but also pretty hard going. Eight brave souls from the firm took to the water in two different boats guided by our mentor from the court department the light weight "Mr Steel".
Having to name our boat, we struggled to be imaginative and had to come up with the entirely de facto name "Cox of Steel".
Our other boat for this extravaganza on the River Dee was called "Deesparately trying to stay Afloat". The training was pretty tough: six 1 ½ hour sessions in just over a week in which cramp contrived to render my right calf muscle useless at every given opportunity.
I discovered that I am far more unfit than I thought and that I have legs made of jelly. When it came to race day we discovered that we (or more precisely, I) had an inherent lack of skill and co-ordination both of which are, apparently, integral components of a good rower. Three races; three defeats. I'll stick to golf. Luckily the other boat did better!
Diversity is still the order of the day in the corporate department of Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace. While still involved in some conveyancing transactions, the purely corporate work has been varied. As I said in my last blog, it has been interesting to get involved in different aspects of transactions, from the heads of terms to post settlement disputes.
This department is really deal orientated and as a result when it "hots up", it gets pretty hectic. Thisis good for me, as I appear to work far better under a bit of pressure. I imagine I gained that "skill" in the wee sma' hours of the morning before essays were due to be submitted. Those were the days.
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