Bobbo first attempt

Bobbo is the Bobbin Head cycle route. Our firm organised a team for it and I signed up for the 58km ride.

I didn’t practise much for the ride. The full ride is 107k, and I was not crazy enough to do that, so my option was good.

From my place in Sydenham, I need to take the train to the start line at Karuah Park, it’s around 1-hour train ride. I got up at 4:30am, had some food and rode to Sydenham Station. On the way, I realised I didn’t bring the sunglasses, so I had to come back. When I went to the Station again, I was still on time. When I was on the train, I found something big: I forgot to bring the helmet, so I had to come back again to bring the helmet. When I was on the train again, I was 20 minutes late.

It’s probably not the best start to a ride but when started the ride, I was the last one in my group. In the beginning, the road was pretty flat, but then we turned to a mountain, it was first downhill to Bobbi Head, and then the mountain challenge started. Honestly, I didn’t find the challenge that difficult. Then it was a good ride along at some nice suburbs. The houses were so big, definitely better than my little house, and then we turned into Terrey Hills. There were some additional small hills but they are so sharp, then there was one before the second drink station, I had to dismount the bike and walk. The best moment for me was to see the 10k sign, so I could finally enjoy my ride.

My watch told me I finished this ride at 3 hours 19 minutes but I only did 56.84km, not 58km, so I might have cut some big corners.

It was a good experience. If the firm organises the same event next year, I will do that again.

PLT Second week

Sentiment

I received my completion letter in 2023. This is pretty annoying as my last unit’s result was delayed by two months. The unit was lectured by a British barrister, who doesn’t follow the University rule that much. At the result day last year, the unit co-ordinator said they will try to get the results before Christmas in 2022, but the result was not available until late January.

With some further delay in getting the PLT approved by the firm partners, I finally enrolled PLT in March. The College of Law’s new office in Town Hall was pretty cool with nice designs and a small terrace. Although I went to the terrace on the worst day when it’s super hot.

The first week was fun. I was going to do that in part time and the group was pretty small like 14 people. The workshops were relatively easy but I spent quite a bit of time on the cross-examination preparation. It is also a pretty strange feeling to see all the future lawyers, which are quite different from accountants.

On Thursday, I submitted the first online assessment. It was not bad but in a strange way of video. I don’t mind oral assessment but the strange part is the recording and the short time limit. I did a few attempts before submitting the final.

Wrong Way, Go Back.

Sentiment

Wrong Way, Go back is a signpost that always hides behind another one. I can see it anywhere in Melbourne, even on campus. Sometimes I think this warning is quite funny, if there are other signs to tell people what is the right way, how can people drive into the wrong way? But I saw a car, today, really came to the wrong way, then the driver saw the sign, stopped, and went back. Suddenly I kind of understood why this signpost should exist, even though it’s clear what is right, often people tend to go to the wrong way for any reasons. Till they are reminded again, they won’t be back to the right way.

What a simple theory, I never think about it before. However, people cannot always see this kind of reminding. In reality, facing different kinds of choices, it’s difficult to make any decisions. Then if the first step were wrong, sadly there would be no such kind of signposts to expect as on the road. Undoubtedly many people just keep going and never give up, and they never know they are wrong.

Long long time ago, I discussed this question with someone, which types of questions do you prefer in the exams, multi-choice or questions? The answer was unanimous: multi-choice is the nightmare in any exam, though it will never miss any exam.

Well, luckily we can correct, like we can correct the exam answers, like the two sons story in Bible, we can always review ourselves and make a wise progress. There is nothing wrong to persist, just sometimes we need change.