I have to write an entry on the Law Council's Trade Practices Workshop that I'm attending this weekend. I've spent the last few days complaining about how I have to give up my weekend to attend this conference and hang around with these people who will be 20 years older than me and will have no interest whatsoever in talking to me. Plus it started on a Friday night, and would wipe out my whole weekend, starting again at 9am on Saturday, finishing at 11pm that night, then restarting at 9am on Sunday. It would have been great to sit in the Hyatt hotel listening to academic debate on the Trade Practices Act on a weekday, but not so much on a Saturday morning...
But I retract my previous reticence. The conference started tonight and it was great! SO much of it was relevant to the work Treasury does, and so many of the speakers wanted to know what Treasury's position is, or what Treasury is doing. The conference is attended by solicitors, barristers, ACCC commissioners and officials, judges, industry bodies, agencies, business groups, firms, academics... and they are all applying the Trade Practices Act which Treasury is currently working on reshaping. So they all wanted to know what is going to happen to the Act that they work with every day, which we're reforming in lots of ways.
I talked to Stephen Corones who is a bit of a celebrity to me because he wrote the textbooks for my competition law unit and about 20 of the articles I read when I was working on my honours thesis. Graeme Samuel, the Chairman of the ACCC was there and gave a talk, plus there was also Russell Miller (who has written Miller's Trade Practices Act, the TPA Bible, for the past 20 years or something), Allan Fels, the former chairman of the ACCC, barristers from WA who were household names at law school, plus some youngish people, incredibly, from law firms practising in competition law.
We had awesome food and fantastic wine - it was basically a cocktail at first, with wines and champagne and finger food, then later we had a buffet in one of the Hyatt ballrooms. People have flown from all over Australia to attend the conference, and most of them are staying in the Hyatt so having everything there is convenient. And it's also directly across the road from Treasury so we just walked over after work today.
That was my excitement for the week anyway - and completely unexpected too! I shall not whinge until better informed in future :)
Friday, July 21, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Back to school
It's been awhile since I've written - I don't know where the time has gone! Last weekend I went to Sydney to catch up with Elizabeth. Hey Elizabeth!! Hahahah.. I know you'll be reading. We went to the Lindt cafe and had some delicious Lindt chocolate cake and hot chocolate. And the end-of-financial year sales were very impressive. And we saw an apparently very famous Korean actress filming a juice commercial, but Elizabeth you'll have to fill in the name for me because I can't remember.
I was again struck by how much I like Sydney. I don't know if it's one of those places which is great for a holiday, but when you actually live there is hell. That's what some people say about New York City.
Over the past 3 days, I've been back at uni! I'm doing Legal Workshop, which is equivalent to Articles/College of Law/whatever your state calls it. Treasury is supporting it, which is good, so these 7 days of the first intensive unit I'm doing are claimable on study leave! I have so many 'extra' days of leave this year that I'm wondering how and when I will use up my annual leave. So we're at ANU this week doing submissions, appearances, applications to have default judgments set aside, client interviews, negotiations, cross examinations, drafting... all that stuff that is very familiar from law school.
It's been funny being back at uni again because I think when I left after 5 1/2 years, I was so glad to be out of there and vowed to never study again. But after only 6 months of the working life, and being stuck in a centrally-heated office for the majority of the daylight hours every day(Canberra's winter days are short), staring at a computer screen for 7+ hours each day, and being expected to be efficient and on the ball all the time - well, it was actually really nice to be at uni again! It was nice to be on a university campus, walking between classes, breathing the fresh air and seeing the sky and sun and trees during the day, being able to zone out during lectures, taking notes and listening to the lecturers run the show. The course is pretty interactive so we don't sit around all day but it definitely was nice to veg sometimes. And being able to take a lunch break without feeling rushed! That was great!
It all made me realise that I often don't appreciate or enjoy things fully until they have passed - and it was a good reminder to me to value all the fantastic things that are going on now - at work, with friends, at home, in Canberra generally. Because you can spend all your time looking to the future when things will be 'better' and completely miss the wonderful things about living in the moment.
I was again struck by how much I like Sydney. I don't know if it's one of those places which is great for a holiday, but when you actually live there is hell. That's what some people say about New York City.
Over the past 3 days, I've been back at uni! I'm doing Legal Workshop, which is equivalent to Articles/College of Law/whatever your state calls it. Treasury is supporting it, which is good, so these 7 days of the first intensive unit I'm doing are claimable on study leave! I have so many 'extra' days of leave this year that I'm wondering how and when I will use up my annual leave. So we're at ANU this week doing submissions, appearances, applications to have default judgments set aside, client interviews, negotiations, cross examinations, drafting... all that stuff that is very familiar from law school.
It's been funny being back at uni again because I think when I left after 5 1/2 years, I was so glad to be out of there and vowed to never study again. But after only 6 months of the working life, and being stuck in a centrally-heated office for the majority of the daylight hours every day(Canberra's winter days are short), staring at a computer screen for 7+ hours each day, and being expected to be efficient and on the ball all the time - well, it was actually really nice to be at uni again! It was nice to be on a university campus, walking between classes, breathing the fresh air and seeing the sky and sun and trees during the day, being able to zone out during lectures, taking notes and listening to the lecturers run the show. The course is pretty interactive so we don't sit around all day but it definitely was nice to veg sometimes. And being able to take a lunch break without feeling rushed! That was great!
It all made me realise that I often don't appreciate or enjoy things fully until they have passed - and it was a good reminder to me to value all the fantastic things that are going on now - at work, with friends, at home, in Canberra generally. Because you can spend all your time looking to the future when things will be 'better' and completely miss the wonderful things about living in the moment.
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