First week

Four blunders ... Four defence points ... Three abnormal colleagues ... Junior Junior gives us lists ... Her first week in new chambers 

WELL, I suppose it should come as no surprise that the colourful cast of characters that make up my work family are no less colourful than the last batch.

Some highlights from my first week include:

1. Walking in on a very prominent male senior member of the bar urinating in the ladies bathroom; 
2. Asking a former celebrity turned barrister what they did before they came to the bar; 
3. Typing the word "anal" rather than "banal" into a email to the whole of chambers; and 
4. Accidently eating a colleague's lunch out of the fridge.

So far, it is not going well.

That said, I pray most members of chambers find my bumbling ways endearing, but I suspect that won't translate into devilling.

I have some points in my defence:

1. It was the ladies bathroom! Who the hell uses the bathroom and doesn't close the door! 
2. I was never really into sport and I don't know the names of any prominent sports people, current or former. Get over yourself. 
3. OK, I have little in the way of a defence here. It was particularly unfortunate that the context of the email has given rise to a misunderstanding about my private life. It wasn't quite the opening line I was hoping for in this new relationship. 
4. We both had the same food in the same container from the same place. How was I supposed to notice there were no cashew nuts?

Besides I rank myself as significantly closer to the middle on the continuum of normality than these colleagues:

• A former female colleague has five identical suits and five different shirts. These are each worn once a week on a specific day. 
• A male colleague who confided that he only wears boxers with superheros on them as he thinks it gives him an edge in court. 
• A barrister in a friend's chambers who strips naked each lunchtime and does push-ups for exercise.

So finishes an eventful week at my new address.

Now its onwards and slightly more upwards.