pressure

I'm sorry I've not posted anything meaningful for a while. I'm studying for my final exam this Tuesday and have been busy with exams since February - that and getting in at the office between 6 & 7 am.

I've been getting in early, working through to about 1pm, getting home and then revising 2 - 10 while intertwining work every other hour. It just doesn't stop - ever. I'm also dealing with a couple of massive matters and a shed load of other stuff that would make a plate spinner wince.

I'm willing myself a year forward to when all the studying stops - I'll have 12 years academic legal study behind me, a string of extra Scrabble letters and hopefully partnership or even my own firm in the offing.

But, is it all worth it? Really? It's just a job at the end of the day, and a ridiculously pressured one at that. Litigation is a vile part of law in one respect. People pay you to argue. Try doing that every day for 23 years, it gets more than slightly tiresome.

The general consensus amongst those in the know is that the new breed of lawyers are nasty, sniping and spiteful. The gentleman's sport is out of it now. Everyone is in to make a fast buck, insurers are staffed by clueless kids, their lawyers are dummed down, being paid the narrowest margins...... you get the picture? It just is not a pleasure to do business anymore. My entire working day is spent arguing. It's so wearing.... and I'm so bored..... of being bored.

.and when I get back home I spend my time like a cross between Henry Kissinger and a referee, keeping my mouthy, idle, downright vile 18 year old child - for that's what he is - from insulting his mum and siblings. More arguments, more stress. It really is taking everything in me not to flatten him, and I'm at breaking point.

There should be a government health warning for teenagers. I'll have three of them come just under two weeks, and one very sweet little 6 year old. What happens to these kids? Is it TV? School? Where do they learn the attitude that stinks? Why is there such disrespect?

It's so easy for those without kids, with tiny kids or those long since flown the nest to say ' I blame the parents ' I'm just bewildered and shell shocked at the moment.

Life isn't a bed of roses at the moment. No siree. I also had a letter from the tax office chasing up some outstanding tax.

I worked out that I pay far to much tax for the privilege of going to work. What's that all about? The other indirect tax I pay is mind boggling - 17.5% VAT, 80 odd % on petrol (we're paying around $8 a gallon now). I'm so broke it's untrue........ I could go on, but I really would get fed up.

Hey ho.