Mooting Compeition 2008

I finally got the moot pictures from Ru. ;)

On the 9th of May 2008 (a Friday), there were 2 papers that I was supposed to sit for - Biology paper 1 and Mathematics paper 2. But instead of making my way to class, I'd skipped it to go to the Resource Room.

Pak cik: Tsk tsk! Skip class ya?
Me: Ya!

And Puan Hajah who was sitting with him was like o_O'' Haha!

Anyways, my morning that day was spent with Olivia in the Resource Room, constantly timing and recording ourselves and asking each other questions.

Oh... and also some eating and camwhoring along that way, Tee hee.

Child suffering from ADD

That morning was so funny. Olivia read the wrong citations and I laughed. Hahahaha! Then, I got stuck when Olivia suddenly said, "I don't know what's 'But for' test! Can you explain?". I went O_O''' and she laughed.

Anyway, we left early and went to Holiday Inn that afternoon for our moot. I was the first one there, followed by Mei Theen who was a few seconds behind me and Olivia, more than one minute behind us. Then, we got a bit lost and turned one big round before we actually reached the Sadong Room (where the moot was held) and then, being amateurs, we decided to just hang outside and be barbarians (we.. ok lah, I, was talking loudly out of excitement) simply because we didn't dare to enter without teacher. Lol!

Teacher finally arrived after that and we registered ourselves. The form had no column for "Form 4". Haha. It started with Form 5... so we had to draw our own column.

Barbarians in Court =P

We were the first team to start off this year's competition with Tunku Putra so there weren't many people there to watch us... because they weren't allowed to watch before they have mooted. Hehe... so our viewing was rather private.

The viewers were only our teacher, our coach (who came in her working attire with a professional camera, we nearly mistaken her for media), some of our "konco" who were so supportive, they came in their school uniforms after sitting for Maths paper (Elaine, Maryann, Kim, Abigail, Lysandra), my parents and also some organising people.

Mingling with our konco

We were scheduled to start at 2.00 p.m. but at 2.00 p.m, the Tunku Putra people weren't even there yet. The ang moh judges were already there, being very friendly to us. The first thing they said to us when they entered was, "St Teresa's? I recognise the uniform!". Lol.

So while waiting for the Appellant team to arrive, we fooled around. Ru was busy playing and snapping pictures with her new "toy". And we would pose for her but then, she would roll her eyes, said, "Posers" and put down her camera. Hahaha!

Ru: *about to take picture*
Us: *suddenly realise and put up peace signs*
Ru: *puts down camera* Aiyo... I cannot take this.. my lens break later!

-___-''

Taking my "last drink"

The Tunku Putra were very late so the judges decided in the end that we would proceed without the Appellant team because there was going to be another moot after us at 3.00 p.m. so they couldn't wait very long.

And so... after sending Ru to sit somewhere that is not in our line of sight (but still a seat good enough for her to snap good photos =P), we started with Olivia, as the Senior Counsel, making her first submission.

"Take me Your Honour! I'm 15! Use me as your benchmark!"

That's Olivia being very passionate about her 15-years-old-is-more-mature-than-5-years-old argument. She stuck to that point until the very end. Haha.

The awkward brown box sitting on the table in front of Olivia is our self-made lectern. =P We suddenly realised in the middle of our meetings that we wouldn't have any lecterns during the competition because it was not held in High Court... so there... we made our own lectern! Lol! The passing of the lectern from the Senior Counsel to the Junior Counsel is always funny though. Hahaha!

Anyway, after Olivia was me, the Junior Counsel, to make my submission....

One thing I'd realised from that experience was that those papers sitting atop the "lectern" is merely for decorative purposes. The questioning took up most of the time. So pretty soon, it was all over~! The 10 minutes given just flew by!

Our judges - Professor Eric and Professor Libby

Then, there was the judges' feedback session. They spent quite long giving their feedback because they only had to feedback one team and the audience was very, very small. The first thing they'd said was, "Well! It seems we have very matured 15 years old with us!" Lol! They'd commented on Olivia's "slouching" and my random, out of the blue, consultation with Mei Theen. Other than that... I can't remember. Haha.

We stayed to watch the teams after us - Lodge International Team A (Appellant) and SMK Matang Jaya (Respondent). And that was it for Friday. We went back to school that night to talk with Azureen and Bethany about their moot the next day.

Azureen =)

I'd gone to Holiday Inn the next morning to a bunch of supporters. We had more supporters than the day before! =P But then... they were all the "konco" from Form 4... Hahaha! All the Form 4s were making their way in one after another so Azureen had to call her "konco" from Form 5 to rush them to come. Lol~

Among those konco present were Abigail, Kim, Maryann, Amanda, Marilyn, Andrea, Elaine, Kristen, Zahira, Aiman (!), Emily and also Olivia and I.

Azureen's team was first for Saturday with Chung Hua Middle School No. 1.

Trying to get comfortable...

The Chung Hua made their submissions first, followed by Bethany and Azureen.

I saw Ru laughing uncontrollably when Azureen used her fire analogy. Hahaha!

"A child of 5-6 would view fire as a pretty, shiny thing!"

Theirs was finished pretty soon also la. Aiman said it's boring! "Always talk only!" Lol! And then he asked... Bethany (I think...) why she is so short! Aiyooo! Hahahaha!

Us: Aimaannn~! You're not supposed to ask people that!
Bethany: It's in my genes!
Azureen: Come let ask you! Aiman, why are you so fat?
Aiman: I want my che che!

Aiman is so cute! Hahaha! We then stayed to watch Lodge Secondary Team A and SMK St. Thomas Team A and then we left for lunch, skipping the one with Lodge International Team B and SMK Matang Jaya Team B.

We had our lunch in McD... we wanted to do the Big Mac Chant but they ran out of coupons! =( Then some of them went off to catch a movie while some of us just went to walk. Amanda and I went to look for Teachers' Day present while Andrea and Marilyn went to look for Mothers' Day present. Haha. When our legs finally got tired, we went back to Holiday Inn and watched the moots that were held after lunch.

At about 3.15, the whole moots were over and it was then the time to wait for the announcement of the teams that entered the finals. But we had to wait for all teams to arrive so there was some time for us to yet play around... tee hee...

Kim was slapped in the process. Lol!

Francoise: (telling Ru a story about my blurness while throwing her hands around)

*pap!*

Kim: *shocked* You did not just slapped me!
Ru:*dropped to the floor laughing* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Gladys: Eh... coach ar!
Ru: This is why I warn you guys against the use of excessive gestures!

Note the height difference =P

Lol! It was so hilarious!

We took some more pictures and then the announcement time was finally there.

First team announced was Lodge International Team A for Appellant.... and they were to go against... also Team A from Respondent... SMK St. Teresa.

Olivia and I looked at each other for awhile.... and then we ran to Ru. Hahaha!

So that was how Olivia and I found ourselves submitting to the judges' again.

Olivia submitting again - no more slouching liaw =P

It was better this time. We've learnt the art of dodging the judges' questions. Though for Olivia, the judges kept directing her back every time she tried to move on.

I had better luck. The judges' questions are tricky!

Teacher also got stress for us

The moot soon ended and everything was already said and done. Ru's only words of encouragement were "It's over!". Lol.

So we went home, showered and went back to Holiday Inn for our dinner and announcement of winners.

Dinner was nice. I can't remember the last time I'd had dinner in Holiday Inn. Haha.

Anyway, the results: We got runner-up.

But it's ok. =) We'd tried and Olivia and I both won something. I guess to be able to make it to the finals is something rather remarkable already.

Goodbye, Gold Coast....~~

Us with our konco-konco =D

It's only a little bit sad that it's all ended. Those days were so fun!

So in conclusion, mooting is fun. ;p

Thank you to teachers, Ru and also our konco-konco. =D