Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I'm not surprised. Being late for court is a serious no-no, and results in Big Trouble.

One day during my 3 month trial in Jan to March this year, the Defendants (who were in the same car) were 30 minutes late for court. They'd been on time every other day, and it was snowing heavily, and the A40 was completely gunked up. Despite all that, the judge lost his rag, and said if they were so much as a minute late any day in the following 2 months of the trial, he'd remand them all in custody for the duration.

Tell me, what SHOULD I have done when the judge started asking me questions to me in court? Stayed seated, stand? Whisper in someone elses ear? i thought maybe the counsel for prosecution might have relayed the message, but nope, it was down to me, and i had no idea of the ettiquettea. I had no idea, because honestly never seen anyone other than counsel (or the witness, or dependent , or jury or whatever). Not that I expect to clerk again, but .....I'd like to know what I should have done, and I cannot remember if anyone to.d me after the event...

SingleSue

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's fun camping, both in itself, and in the appreciation it gives you for the rest of your year.

I've never lost my awe at turning on a shower / bath tap and getting hot running water, after one summer in India (cold water in a tap and a bucket to tip it over your head) and the next summer in Mongolia (washing in rivers and lakes, digging a hole to go the loo). I think it's improved my quality of life immensely, as I value a hot bath every time I have one.



"If at first you don't succeed, try again. But then give up, there's no point wasting your efforts on a lost cause."



that's a very odd combination - an awful lot of people want to do all 3 sciences at GCSE / O level, for all sorts of career options.

My school, at GCSE, made us all do maths, Eng language, Eng lit, and a foreign language. Then we had to do one of physics / chemistry, one of geography / biology, one of Latin / history / RE / classical civilisations, one of art / music / drama / CDT.

Then you chose 2 more out of any of the above, including extra modern languages, so you could easily do all 3 sciences, if you wanted to, or 3 languages (4 if you chose Latin). I did physics, geography, history and music as my choices, and added Latin and class civ as my options. My sisters both did all 3 sciences, and one of them also did both French and German.

OH got a free GCSE in Hebrew, he just turned up for the exams, and got an A.



On spelling, I am extremely correctable. I'm dyslexic, and spelling is my real weakness. I don't have any trouble reading, though, fortunately.

I have a number of dodges to avoid words I can't spell. There are a few things at work I have to handwrite, such as backsheets, and I am a master in avoiding those 'orrible words which begin with a weird combination of p and other consonents, and using "mental health assessment" or similar instead.

On the road near my parents' house, about 400 yards from the house itself (there is a private track leading to 4 houses / farms, of which my parents' is one) there is a long straight road, and then a sharp left-hand bend without much warning. Cars regularly go too fast along the straight bit, ignore the warnings that are there, and go through the hedge into a neighbour's field. About 6 times a year, on average. His sheep are now so blase about random cars entering their domain at speed that they hardly even look up when it happens.

It was frustrating but that was how it was.....you had to choose one or the other if you was in the top sets or do general science if you was in the bottom sets. Doing a double in a science was not possible (so that made doing physics and chemistry plus biology and chemistry at the same time a no no). There was absolutely no way to do physics and biology as a combination. Stupid way of doing it and I moaned like hell at the time about it.

It had improved by the time James was doing his, he got the option of triple science (because he was in the more able group) or normal science...he did the triple science.

neverdespairgirl

silvercar wrote: »

Totally agree with the first bit. Not really on the 2nd bit - pentacost is god giving the jews the commandments, day of atonment is god demanding atonement for our sins, 10 plagues come from god on passover.

Yes, but they are much more about the Jews than any Christian festival is.

Starting from the old first day of the new year in England:

25th March - Lady Day, Mary being told of the forthcoming holy pregnancy

time varies - Lent, penitence, fasting, prayer, to remember Christ's 40 days in the wilderness *

time varies - Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter, based on Christ's entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, trial, crucifixtion and reserrection

40 days after Easter - Christ's Ascension *

50 days after Easter - Whitsun, the Holy Spirit descending to earth

December - Advent - penitential, looking forward to the birth of Jesus and also bearing in mind the Second Coming

25th December - Christmas, birth of Jesus

6th January - Epiphany, the arrival of the Wise Men in Bethlehem



* 40 crops up a lot in the Bible, I think? Noah's flood was 40 days and 40 nights of rain, Moses spent 40 days up Mount Sinai, the Jews wandered the wilderness for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land (I've been on walks like that, when some idiot suggests a short cut and it all takes much longer. And 40 years from Egypt to Israel does suggest a pretty scenic route).


In Judaism, it's far less about things that only happened to or with God, and there's a lot more almost negotiating with God in the Old Testament, rather than just accepting with awe?

In Judaism:

(Taken from OH, who can't remember all the dates in the Hebrew calendar, and can't be bothered to look them up, he say)

Rosh Hashanah - New Year, preceeded by a month of fasting and reflection and penitence

10 days of repentence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur - day of atonement, extra and longer services, lots of prayers, the holiest day in the Jewish year? (OH says it is, but he also says that when you have 10 Jews you have 11 opinions about absolutely anything).

Sukkot and Simchat Torah - starts 6 days (?) after Yom Kippur, OH says it's a harvest festival with the nasty stuff banned (working, etc) but some of the Sabbath restrictions don't apply - you can cook, travel to see family, etc. And you get to build an outdoor flimsy shed with a palm leaf roof, and if you are devout (or in Israel) then you sleep in it. If you aren't devout, or live somewhere colder / wetter than Israel, you just eat your meals in it.

Hanukkah - marking the defeat of the Greek Seleucids by the Maccabees, adn the day's supply of oil lasting a week. OH says this isn't, or wasn't, a big deal until American Jews made it into a big one to compensate their children for not celebrating a commercialised Christmas.

Rosh ha-Shanah la-Ilanot - tree New Year, when you plant trees and eat fruit.

Purim - celebrating the Book of Esther, where the King of Persia decided to kill all the Jews in his empire, and his plot was foiled

Pesach - Passover, commemorating the flight from Egypt, the 10 plagues, death of the first born Eygptian children, parting of the Red Sea, Moses, et al. God certainly plays a big role, but I think it's fair to say it's about what happened to the Jews in exile?

Shavuot - celebrating the giving of the 10 commandments to Moses

Tisha B'Av - Oh translates it as "the Day When Bad Things Happen" - fasting and mourning for the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem, the destruction of hte second temple in Jerusalem, the massacre of 100,000 Jews after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, the expulsion of the Jews from England, and France, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the start of the First World War, the SS approval of the Final Solution in the Holocaust all of which happened on the same day in different years. OH says it is clearly a day on which no Jew should get out of bed.

lostinrates

Forty is used like we use 'dozens' or 'hundreds' isn't it, linguistically? To mean'lots'. I don't know where I heard that, might be Bunkam. What isbunkam?

neverdespairgirl

I've no idea what bunkum is, sorry.

But I didn't know that about 40, either, I just suddenly thought of how often "40" cropped up in RE lessons!

lostinrates

Bunkum

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bunkum

Americanism. But it is used here, right?

Yorkie1

lostinrates wrote: »

Bunkum

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bunkum

Americanism. But it is used here, right?

Yes, though probably not since the time of Jeeves and Wooster "I say, old chap, what an absolute load of old bunkum" etc ...

silvercar

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yes, but they are much more about the Jews than any Christian festival is.

Starting from the old first day of the new year in England:

25th March - Lady Day, Mary being told of the forthcoming holy pregnancyDo many people celebrate this?

time varies - Lent, penitence, fasting, prayer, to remember Christ's 40 days in the wilderness *

time varies - Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter, based on Christ's entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, trial, crucifixtion and reserrection

40 days after Easter - Christ's Ascension *Again is this widely celebrated

50 days after Easter - Whitsun, the Holy Spirit descending to earth

So if Whit Sunday is a Sunday, then Christ's ascension is a Thursday, a work day generally -

December - Advent - penitential, looking forward to the birth of Jesus and also bearing in mind the Second Coming

25th December - Christmas, birth of Jesus

6th January - Epiphany, the arrival of the Wise Men in Bethlehem



* 40 crops up a lot in the Bible, I think? Noah's flood was 40 days and 40 nights of rain, Moses spent 40 days up Mount Sinai, the Jews wandered the wilderness for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land (I've been on walks like that, when some idiot suggests a short cut and it all takes much longer. And 40 years from Egypt to Israel does suggest a pretty scenic route).


In Judaism, it's far less about things that only happened to or with God, and there's a lot more almost negotiating with God in the Old Testament, rather than just accepting with awe?

In Judaism:

(Taken from OH, who can't remember all the dates in the Hebrew calendar, and can't be bothered to look them up, he say)

Rosh Hashanah - New Year, preceeded by a month of fasting I've not heard of people fasting for a monthand reflection and penitence

10 days of repentence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippurwith a fast day in between.

Yom Kippur - day of atonement, extra and longer services, lots of prayers, the holiest day in the Jewish year? (OH says it is, but he also says that when you have 10 Jews you have 11 opinions about absolutely anything).yes and yes

Sukkot and Simchat Torah - starts 6 days (?) after Yom Kippur, OH says it's a harvest festival with the nasty stuff banned (working, etc) but some of the Sabbath restrictions don't apply - you can cook, travel to see family, etc. And you get to build an outdoor flimsy shed with a palm leaf roof, and if you are devout (or in Israel) then you sleep in it. If you aren't devout, or live somewhere colder / wetter than Israel, you just eat your meals in it.fairly accurate

Hanukkah - marking the defeat of the Greek Seleucids by the Maccabees, adn the day's supply of oil lasting a week. OH says this isn't, or wasn't, a big deal until American Jews made it into a big one to compensate their children for not celebrating a commercialised Christmas. 8 days of chanukah or 12 days of christmas? or both?

Rosh ha-Shanah la-Ilanot - tree New Year, when you plant trees and eat fruit.this really is a very minor festival, it gets bigged up because it is the only festival around this time of year and kids can spend ages in school making paper trees, tasting fruit etc. I've always called it Tu B'shvat.

Purim - celebrating the Book of Esther, where the King of Persia decided to kill all the Jews in his empire, and his plot was foiled

Pesach - Passover, commemorating the flight from Egypt, the 10 plagues, death of the first born Eygptian children, parting of the Red Sea, Moses, et al. God certainly plays a big role, but I think it's fair to say it's about what happened to the Jews in exile?

Shavuot - celebrating the giving of the 10 commandments to Moses

Tisha B'Av - Oh translates it as "the Day When Bad Things Happen" - fasting and mourning for the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem, the destruction of hte second temple in Jerusalem, the massacre of 100,000 Jews after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, the expulsion of the Jews from England, and France, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the start of the First World War, the SS approval of the Final Solution in the Holocaust all of which happened on the same day in different years. OH says it is clearly a day on which no Jew should get out of bedSome people seriously don't. Lots of people won't fly on that day..

Impressed with your OH's memory/ knowledge.

neverdespairgirl

silvercar wrote: »

Impressed with your OH's memory/ knowledge.

He was sent to a Jewish school for a while - when his brother was born, OH was 7, coming up to 8, and his grandparents came over from Jerusalem to stay for a couple of months to run the house and look after OH while his mother was heavily pregnant and then had a newborn baby. Well, I think his grandmother came to do that, and his grandfather came to criticise and generally get in the way.

Grandparents were horrified that they were escorting their grandson daily to Trinity C of E Primary School, and even more bothered when taking OH to visit his new baby brother in hospital, and Oh asked if the small white cap on the baby's head meant that he had a Muslim brother.

So the next academic year, OH was sent to a Jewish school; most pupils boarded, he was a day boy but quite long days, he had to stay at school for prep and so forth. And the school week started on a Sunday, and ended at Friday lunchtime.

So he says the festivals got thoroughly dinned into him, and he's not been able to forget all of it, yet (-:

He was there until he was 13 or 14, and then he left and went to a local state school instead.

neverdespairgirl

lostinrates wrote: »

Tell me, what SHOULD I have done when the judge started asking me questions to me in court? Stayed seated, stand? Whisper in someone elses ear? i thought maybe the counsel for prosecution might have relayed the message, but nope, it was down to me, and i had no idea of the ettiquettea. I had no idea, because honestly never seen anyone other than counsel (or the witness, or dependent , or jury or whatever). Not that I expect to clerk again, but .....I'd like to know what I should have done, and I cannot remember if anyone to.d me after the event...

If a judge directs a question specifically to you, I think you should answer it (standing up first, of course). Start by saying you have no rights of audience, and if he still wants you to answer, go ahead. I've not actually come across it happening though - not to a clerk. i've seen solicitors (who don't have rights of audience in the Crown Court or High Court or higher) get asked things.