the monotony that makes up mornings in court was broken up yesterday, albeit unwittingly, by the (not quite qualified) defence 'counsel', who was, to his credit, clearly trying very hard.

his attempt at mitigation started off with an astoundingly selfless declaration of : "i plead guilty on (the accused's) behalf". it ended with an equally incomprehensible "without further adieu, your honour, thank you." unfortunately, whatever was sandwiched in between those two revelations was not a great deal more cogent.

even more unfortunately, the judge decided to spend 5 minutes elucidating on the differences between, and appropriate usages of, the words 'ado' and 'adieu'. and how an understanding of such a distinction would greatly aid this defence representative in his drafting of future mitigation pleas.

my wife also recounted this incident she witnessed in court.

judge : "i see that the accused has a ferrari, a maserati, and a porsche."

prosecutor : "yes."

judge : "and where are these cars now?"

prosecutor : "they've been repossesed by the bank."

judge : "oh."

pause

judge (curiously) : "and so, what's the accused driving now?"

on a separate note, national days are awesome. we should have more of them, at least 2 a month. and also, we should get a half day off the day before each national day.