All fixed now...again...

Phew... I lost the domain www.podcastpaul.com for a few days. My domain hosting company had changed names and had simply forgotten to mail me to remind me to continue the hosting. Even more annoying is the fact I couldn't trace 'em. Still - all fixed now thank goodness.

I said at the start of the year I wasn't going to get stressed. I'm trying the best I can to stay calm and focused, but it's very hard.

Work is incredibly demanding. You pay your money and you take your choice I suppose. I'm not working in terrible factory conditions, or couped up in some terrible call centre/ I work with people I like and do a job that is very rewarding, but it doesn't half take its toll.

Today I got up at 4.3o, started work downstairs on some files I had with me at 5.00am and then went into work via a conference in Birmingham.

I worked up to 4.30pm - 11 1/2 straight hours and then went into Uni, 6 - 9. I arrived 3/4 hour early so I could do a bit of prep. I got back at 9.20pm. I'd been on the go, constantly for nearly 161/2 hours. I thoght we lawyers were supposed to have it cushy.

Litigation is a job that also takes it toll. You are paid to professionally argue all day every day. Do it for 23 years and it gets tiresome. Change the rules of the game and get a busy caseload and it adds to the nightmare. In this job, you miss a deadline, you get struck out, you lose the case... you get the sack. You don't miss a deadline - you just wake at 1.30 am covered in sweat, convinced you've missed it.

The job has changed hugely, ask any litigator who has trodden the court carpet. Kids who enter the profession do so now with a huge arrogance, the firms are more corporate and costs concious, the character of the job, and the characters within the profession are all disappearing.

Maybe it's just tiredness - or the massive list of urgent jobs, needless admin, and plate spinning I have to manage every single day.

Swaziland and those wonderful kids permeate my every thought. I long to be back there. However, when I count my blessings and look at my healthy kids, I have so little to moan about and so much to be thankful for.