Well, that was certainly an adventure! I always find something slightly amazing about London during rush hour. Coming into Waterloo station this morning, seeing train after train after train going past mine, all crammed with men in suits, women in fashionable dresses and sunglasses, all going to the same city for a days work.

Anyway, enough of that rubbish...a very boring, hot and crowded train trip and a bumpy taxi ride later, I was stood outside the City of Westminster Magistrates Court. After the initial half hour of waiting around for anyone to actually unlock the doors (sucks being early!!) I was finally faced with that one thing that is really awkward for me, and I've been told every mini pupil. Obviously you are in the right place, at the right time...but how on earth do you find the person you're looking for?! They could be anywhere and apart from the passport size picture from about 5 years ago, you have no idea what they look like!

My initial thought to wonder around the court and peek through the window of the advocates room failed miserably, so I thought I would be sneaky, turn up the friendliness and ask the receptionist for help, sure enough, she obliged and put a tannoy out for the barrister in question. Sorted! Apart from when 10 minutes later, I was still stood there like a lemon, the next half hour passed uneventfully, the only excitement being several people asking me which court they were in, and 3 even mistook me for the duty solicitor!

Just as the clerk appeared out of the courtroom to call our case on, my barrister appeared and begged for 5 minutes so she could explain what was going on to me first. A simple case of a chap caught pickpocketing on the underground, tut tut! No details as otherwise I'd be breaching my confidentiality agreement which EVERY mini-pupil has to sign to stop you embarrassing anyone! The hearing took only half an hour! However due to our late arrival at the magistrates court, we had to run quickly across London to Parliament Square to the Supreme Court.

If there is one thing that I cannot describe, it is the feeling you get sat 20 feet away from a bench with 7 of the world's leading judges on it! I guess a mixture of terror and awe...I personally felt a tad starstruck, but thats probably just me!! This was a VERY brief application in preparation for a case happening in about 6 months. Nothing like early planning!

12pm and all was done! The barrister I was shadowing was off back to chambers to do paperwork for the afternoon and I was off home! A strange day really, going from the lowest court, to the highest court! All in the space of 2 hours!

It's difficult I think to not feel a little disheartened after your first day, its not all glamour, with barristers screaming at witnesses and making them break down, its not judges sending people down to the cells for merely looking at them in the wrong direction...but the one thing that is guaranteed...from the moment you set foot in court, you will know if it's for you. So, I have now called chambers again and I am taking a loooooong trip on the Northern Line tomorrow to Hendon Magistrates Court to meet someone else I've never seen in my life!

Right now though, I am off to do absolutely nothing. London is a tiring place!