About Rose: I grew up in Singapore, lived in Melbourne but currently call London home. I love gastronomic adventures, especially while travelling. I stated writing at 17 to remember how it all began.
Perth was the perfect time to wind down towards the end of a really great year. It was a chance to sit on the grass over looking the sandy shore onto the Indian ocean and just look back...
(Excerpt from long post below)
This year has only been as great as it is through the travels, experiences and people I've met. Despite painful times (read: college of law) and trying issues with friends/ family, there are also those moments when life catches you unaware whether it's shying away when two people catch themselves looking at the other or a tranquil moment spent on the beach with the sun on your back and sand between your toes. There may be the disappointment in realising that some things aren't meant to be but also the pleasure of nurturing a friendship that grew out of something special all those months ago in Vienna. And most of all, there are the enduring friendships that stay with me no matter where I am and the knowledge that despite it all, family will be family. And every once in a while, if I can find myself making snow angels while lying in the snow or trotting through the bush on a horse, I will be lucky because I will have done everything I can and more. Happy New Years to you, all my loving. XX
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The year began for me as a lead up to the vis moots. We spent all of January and February in countless practice moots in law firms, the federal court, on the lawns at uni and before we knew it was time to hop onto that plane off to Hong Kong and Vienna. It was supposed to be about the moots but I realised pretty soon that getting to know these eleven other people and travelling with them for the next six weeks was going to be an amazing experience.
We trekked though hills in Hong Kong and feasted over seafood dinners... lived it up at too many parties while filling our days with rounds of moots. And then Paris came and with the moot at the International Chamber of Commerce, it became a defining moment for me. Everything changed after that and I had yet to begin the competition in Vienna, but it didn't really matter - I finally understood fully what Jeff meant all those months.
But there was still all of Paris to see and so we took a boat down the Seine, stood in front of Monet's water lilies at the Musee D'orsay, had french onion soup in the Latin quarter and shared crepes at the Eiffel Tower. And although Vienna was about the moot competition, it was also about spending an entire night dancing and walking through its beautiful streets till the morning sun rose with someone. But there were the moments when it was just about the team, all of us running through the rain in Hungary, sharing goulash in Sopron or atop the Prater and watching snowfall in Vienna. Then came Easter and I spent it in Prague walking across the Charles Bridge, standing in rooms that housed Dali's art and squealing excitedly about finally getting to see Gehry's Fred & Ginger. Soon enough it was 6 weeks since I left Melbourne and I had after traipsed across the world with the team. Vis officially ended (for me) as the rest went on to Poland and Helsinki and I was the first few to enter into the vis-drawal symptoms.
But no time to dwell as I had to hop on a plane to Doha to meet my parents before we flew off to Iran. Needless to say, the 6000km of bus and train rides across Iran completely changed the way I felt about history as I knew it and altered pre-conceived notions. Walking past the grand pillars of Persopolis and beholding the grandeur of the amazing mosques was humbling and a privilege.
By the time I flew back to Melbourne, it was already mid-April with just 6 weeks left to write my honours thesis when most people spent 9 months on it. I spent hours upon hours in the library and thought of nothing but jurisdiction clauses in Australia and the EU. And after many cups of tea, slices of hummingbird cake and even more cupcakes at my supervisor's house, on 30 May I ran to student services with minutes to spare and handed in 3 bound copies of my honours thesis.
I realised with that, I was done with law school and figured that it was time to leave Melbourne. So, in two short weeks I packed everything I had accumalated in the four years I had been there into exactly eight boxes and shipped it back to Singapore. Every dress was laid carefully and the rocks I had collected from my travels that had been on my window sill was placed inside tins and into the boxes.
When I was finally back in Singapore, I was off to spend some time with my parents after having spent the last four years haphazardly dropping in on them during my winter/ summer breaks. And so our sojourn along the east coast of the US began in Times Sq in New York, continued along the boardwalk of Antlantic City and onto the steps of the Lincoln memorial in DC. We also crossed the border into Canada and took a boat out to the foot of Niagra Falls and was drenched in its incredible mist. And on one afternoon in Quebec while walking along the port, I realised more than ever that I was truly lucky and grateful to be where I was in life.
By the time I got back to Singapore, it was time to start an internship with B&M where I realised in 3 short weeks that the area of law I'd rather be in i.e. private international law and/or international commercial arbitration. As soon as the internship was over, Mim came down from Melbourne and I showed her around Singapore before we made our way to Siam Reap. In Cambodia, we walked through Angkor Wat, took a boat out to Tonle Sap lake and through our travels realised what values were most important to us. The people we met and the lives they led were extraordinary despite the adversity and gave me more insight to the person I wanted to be - humble and grateful.
I came back to Singapore and packed for Melbourne planning to be there the three weeks in August it would take to lodge my Visa applications and apply for the College of Law. I learned pretty quickly when I was back in Melbourne that I would have to stay pretty much for as long as it took for my Visa to be processed and found myself with nothing but the belongings in my luggage and everything else I owned already shipped back to Singapore. I agonised over the fact that I had given up the lease to my apartment just 2 months ago and although I managed to find a townhouse in Northcote, for a while, I never really felt like home like it did at Little Bourke St.
While I could deal with all my belongings/things being in Singapore I also knew I wanted my collection of postcards of the art that I had seen through the years that I would create a montage out of on my wall- from the impressionists to rothko, warhol to picasso. But then I was busy getting my affairs in order- visa applications, college of law, finding a place to live, moving.. it wasn't a time to whinge.
And when you least expect it, things sometimes fall into place as it does. I would be working at a firm while I studied my way through College of Law to get admitted. 3 weeks in, I realised how massive the case I was working on was and within a couple of months, I started drafting letters to clients, preparing briefs to counsel, sitting in on meetings with clients and liasing with regulatory authories on a case I am told will go to the High Court and challenge the formulation of tort law in Australia. More importantly, I got to work with three very brilliant lawyers who were always patient and valued my work but most of all, had a wicked sense of humour.
In October, my parents flew down for my graduation where I was officially a graduand with a bachelor of laws (hons). I was glad they were so proud of me and to share a dinner with my family and my friends was an immensely special night that meant so much to me. I only wished that friends in Singapore could have been there.
As I continued to work on at the firm, I began to realise that I could see myself there and with an offer by the partners to stay on once I got admitted it seemed all sorted. They would allow me to go back to Singapore for three months and intern with SIAC, if only to indulge in international commercial arbitration for a bit and then they would hire me as a lawyer when I returned.
But of course things never turn out the way you plan for them to be. I received an offer the morning of the firm's end of year party about working at the Permanent Bureau of the HCCH for six months next year. I spent that morning confiding to someone in my team about the news because I was overwhelmed and confused. He took me out for coffee, talked through it with me and listened to my pros and cons list. Taking up the Hague would jeopardise the job offer withthe firm, exclude the possibility of an amazing opportunity to intern with an international arbitral institution and throw my visa applications into disarray. It took me an entire week to make up my mind filled with countless conversations and many late nights waiting for phonecalls to/ from the Hague. My biggest fear was giving up more than I would be gaining and it seemed I was putting more at risk - things I could never fully articulate. It was hard in so many ways pushing for the right decision to come through and suffice to say, those who know, will know. Now, I am finally finding my emotions catching up with my head and knowing that I made the right decision.
This year has only been as great as it is through the travels, experiences and people I've met. Despite painful times (read: college of law) and trying issues with friends/ family, there are also those moments when life catches you unaware whether it's shying away when two people catch themselves looking at the other or a tranquil moment spent on the beach with the sun on your back and sand between your toes. There may be the disappointment in realising that some things aren't meant to be but also the pleasure of nurturing a friendship that grew out of something very special all those months ago in Vienna. And most of all, there are the enduring friendships that stay with me no matter where I am and the knowledge that despite it all family will be family. And every once in a while, if I can find myself making snow angels while lying in the snow or trotting through the bush on a horse, I will be lucky because I will have done everything I can and more.
Happy new year to you, all my loving XX.
"The cadence rolls in broken Plays it over and then goes One flight down there's a song on low And it's been there playing all along Now you know, now you know"
