My highlights and experiences in 2018.

1. The Year in Reflection – 2018
Dubrovnik, December 2018
Dear all,
With some spare time in Dubrovnik over the past few days, I have had the opportunity to reflect on
the many, many things that I did and experienced in 2018. From the first day of 2018, the year has
been marked with numerous highlights and unexpected events.
January
2018 started with Davy Lalor, Nathan Van Wees, Amelie Brofeldt,
Simon Becker, Laurens Deforce and I ringing in the new year in the
Danish way – we jumped into the
new year by jumping off a table in a
bar in Skerries, Ireland. Thanks to
Davy for hosting all of us. A few
days later, I toured Northern Ireland
with Amelie and Simon on a 4 day
road trip, visiting a bunch of really scenic places like the Giant’s
Causeway, Dark Hedges, Belfast and the Carrick-a-Rede rope
bridge. The road trip could not have run any smoother.
We returned to Oxford in mid-January for the beginning of Hilary term and of course, the first week
“BOPs” (big open parties) at St Cross and Balliol.
February
The true grind of Hilary term started in February with tutorials. The
never-ending reading lists and my cluelessness in seminars and
tutorials left me deflated. The cold weather did not help either,
though much to my excitement, the Beast from the East in late
February did bring another bout of snow. Maybe, this is what
people mean when they talk about the “Hilary term blues”.
Not all was bad. In early February, I moved to Carfax Quarter in
the centre of Oxford, which was probably the best decision I made
all year. No joke. Many endured my daily complaints about my previous accommodation. I had a few

2. 2
people over for a housewarming party much to the irritation of one
of my flat mates. He would turn out to be irritated with me on several
occasions for the several (not so noisy) parties I had in the kitchen.
I think that the number of
socials I attended peaked
in February. To name a
few: the black tie dinners,
birthdays, several nights
out that ended up at Hank’s (such good times), post-
Arbitration dinners at my place drinking Christ Church wine
which we smuggled out of the arbitration seminars, BOPs
and general MCR parties
at Keble. But the crown jewel of social events in February was the
white tie Oxford Polo Ball at the Tower of London and the
subsequent cruise along the Thames. Despite missing the private
champagne reception and tour of the Crown Jewels (yes, the pun
was intended) due to an incompetent bus driver, the Oxford Polo
Ball was truly extraordinary. Never have I ever dressed in white
tie attire and it will likely be my last time!
March
My spirits lifted in March, in part because Hilary term finished in mid-March and most of the
substantive content was “taught” by then. But I do stress that at that time, I knew very little and there
were still very significant volumes of self-teaching and reading to do!
The BCL/MJur cohort celebrated the end of the term at House
Bar, which ended up at Hank’s. Such a fun night. Thanks to Flick
Fox for always organising these great events! I also celebrated
the end of Hilary term with some Prosecco at a small gathering
at my new digs. I had 2 hours sleep that night and woke up in the
early hours of the morning
with only 10 minutes to
get myself ready and
catch the Heathrow bus
with Amelie and Simon to catch our flight to the Canary
Islands (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura). The trip was much
needed – chilling, sleeping, swimming, having the warm sun
on our skin after weeks of Vitamin D deprivation, tapas and
good seafood.

3. 3
After a week’s rejuvenation, I returned to Oxford with good
intentions: to do some serious study. In reality, though, time escaped
me. I lazed around, went to London to watch the Oxford/Cambridge
(rowing) race and drank to my birthday at the Varsity Club, which
unsurprisingly ended up at Hank’s again.
April
Before I knew it, Easter came around. In March, I spontaneously
booked a skip trip to St Moritz for Easter. I had lugged my skis, ski boots and all my ski equipment
from Australia to Europe – I needed an excuse to use them! Coincidentally, Alison Chamberlain and
her brother, David, were also going to ski there at the same time. The
4 days of spring skiing was fantastic. The weather and snow
conditions were perfect. So too were the views, even on the train to
the St Moritz. I also caught up with Benjamin Schumacher over lunch
in his hometown, Zürich. I was so impressed with Switzerland that I
flirted with the idea of retiring there.
On my last night in Switzerland, I could not stop thinking about all the
work that I had to do and the looming four 100% exams in June. I
dreaded returning to Oxford as it would signal the beginning of Trinity
term and a long period of studying hard – really really hard.
Post-Easter to June
Between Easter and late June, my life was pretty monotonous. Most of
my days were timetabled to essentially facilitate full-time study from
early in the morning to late in the evening (or the early hours of the
morning). Reading the volume of
material, understanding it and trying to
piece concepts and ideas together was
laborious. It was never-ending. I
constantly felt like I was going two steps
forward and one step back. Meanwhile, the days were becoming
warmer and warmer, and the sun was coming out more often. So many
days I longed to simply bask in the sun, rather than be holed up in the
library.

4. 4
I tried to spice things up by varying my days with
different scenery – that is, different libraries: the
Law Library, the Radcliffe Camera, Codrington
Library at All Souls, and the Christ Church,
Corpus Christi and St Hildas’ libraries. My coffee
intake increased during this period,
accompanied with a decline in my sleep periods
and quality.
In the end, I interspersed my studies with
some occasional fun. I went out for runs,
formal dinners at different colleges and
even a dinner organised by
Andy Hanna with Chief
Justice French in London, a
black tie ball at Lincoln
College, poker nights, and
the Summer VIIIs rowing regatta (and saw Timothy Chen and
Björn Brauer win blades!). I even played Polo with Malala!
Mid/Late June
For me, exams started in mid June. They were spread over two weeks. Sitting Oxford exams was
an experience in itself – madly writing papers against the backdrop of the old grand halls, and
entering and leaving Examination Schools in sub fusc; that is, white shirt, bow tie, and suit with
academic gown. Fortunately, we could strip down whilst writing the exams themselves!
I was so relieved when I finished my exams in late June.
Pinning on the red carnation (flower) to my academic gown felt
so good. Carnations are an Oxford tradition: you wear a white
carnation for your first exam, a pink carnation for your middle
exams signifying you bleeding, and a red carnation on the last
exam signifying that
you have bled out.
Immediately after
finishing exams, in
true Oxford tradition,
I got trashed. By this, I mean I had silly string, shaving
cream, glitter and paint thrown on me. I also jumped into
the ISIS River in sub fusc with course mates who finished
exams on the same day. I felt that a huge weight was lifted
off me. Finally, I could enjoy the Oxford summer, but not

5. 5
after some much needed rest. I was so exhausted. I remember it
being such a challenge to stay awake that night at the final term black
tie St Cross dinner.
The next few days at Oxford saw me chilling in the sun, having a few
drinks, watching the World Cup, playing croquet, punting, picnicking,
dinner-ing, coffee-ing, and partying it up at the end of term BCL/MJur
party at Be at One.
July
The days began to blur together in July. In
early July, I pegged tents with Amelie,
Simon and David Baker in order to score
some Wimbledon tickets. We ended up
with really good Court 1 tickets that were
in Row 4 in the middle of the court. We
were so close to getting Centre Court
tickets (if we only tented an hour earlier or
so)! In the end, we were able to watch
good players like Serena Williams and Zverev…under the unrelenting sweltering heat! Who knew
that England could get so hot?!
Later that month, I went to my final Oxford ball at
St Cross and the black tie Law Feast at
Sommerville College. The BCL/MJur experience
was coming to an end and it was time to bid
farewell to the friends I had made over the past
10 months! It was a bit of a difficult time form that
perspective.
After Law Feast, I did a solo trip for a few days
in Vienna and Bratislava, before spending a
week in Sardinia with Nathan, Luciana Morón,
Alison, Géza Orbán and Laurens Deforce. It was a much welcome
break. The trip proved to be very relaxing, with sleeps on the beach,
heaps and heaps of seafood (insane amounts of mussels and
clams), swimming and tanning. There was no longer any
undercurrent feeling of needing to study and the associated guilt of
not studying.

6. 6
After a week of lazing around, I flew back to Heathrow to meet
my immediate family, my aunt, uncle and cousin who had come
to visit me from Sydney. We explored London and headed to
Oxford for my graduation! The graduation was, at least for me,
a once in a lifetime event. No word is more apt to describe the
graduation than it being very “Oxford” – the whole ceremony
was in Latin. I was
the very first up.
The BCL/MJur
graduands go up
even before the
DPhil (PhD) students.
I was nervous because I did not know what to do. I did
not know the Latin reply to the Vice-Chancellor and the
proctors, did not know when to bow, did not know where
to move and stop etc. It all somehow managed to work
out in the end. It was so satisfying to finally graduate and
be able to don the Oxford gown…and drink fully gowned at Turf Tavern.
August
I left Oxford with my family on the first of August. I had such a great
year in Oxford and it was sad to leave. We travelled to Paris,
Heidelberg and Marburg, all very beautiful cities. The heat,
however, had a soporific effect.
Following these travels, I moved to Frankfurt to begin my
unexpected 5 month stint at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. It was
unexpected because I had intended to return to Sydney in
August/September. I was slightly anxious with moving to Germany
– I didn’t know German, had few contacts in Frankfurt, and was starting a new job in a completely
new and different environment. However, much to my surprise, the move went more smoothly than
expected.
I settled in my apartment in Westend. The work at Freshfields
was very interesting (I got to apply so much knowledge from
the BCL!) and the team was very welcoming. In the first 10
days, I attended the Freshfields Summer Party at the Panther,
had drinks with colleagues at the Wine Festival and went to a
dinner party at a colleague’s place. Many of my colleagues are
good friends (to name a few, Stuti Gadodia, Sebastian Coulon
Bauer, Cristina Rosales von Prado, Jyostna Chowdhury,

7. 7
Roopa Matthews, Olga Sendetska, Franz Kaps and Carsten Wendler). Freshfields provided me with
private German tutoring lessons (2 hours a week). Learning a new language and culture was very
enjoyable and I intend to continue learning German back in Sydney!
In late August, I flew to Berlin. Björn and
Eloise Fulmer kindly hosted me,
showing me around Berlin and bringing
me to their friend’s house party on the
night I arrived (I made them sleep
deprived with the early wake ups). Their
inflatable mattress was so comfortable –
it was the first time in a long time that I
slept continuously without interruption
for more than 5 or so hours!
September
My travels started to ramp up in September. The first weekend, I
visited Holger Jacobs and Carina Anirac in Mainz. We hiked through
the wineries in the Rhinegau. The scenery was breathtaking and I
was so tempted to harvest the grapes for myself. The second
weekend, my friends from Sydney now working in London, Ishani
Jayaweera and Ruwan Goonetilleke, visited me in Frankfurt for a
day. It was so good being able
to catch up.
The third weekend, I flew to Athens to meet up with Elisa
D’Ambra from Sydney. It was a great weekend trip. We
spontaneously booked concert tickets to the Odeon, visited the
Acropolis, dipped into Lake Vouliagmeni and tried –
unsuccessfully – to find a bar with good music on a Sunday
night! The day after I got back from Athens I was back in Mainz
for a conference.

8. 8
On the fourth weekend, I was so excited to make an appearance at
the Käfer tent in Oktoberfest. Through
Cristina and Bas Ti von Prado, we were
VIPs and secured the first table in
Käfer. Oktoberfest was so much fun. I
enjoyed being able to freely frequent
the upper floor without any interference
from any security or bouncer. We also
visited Füssen and visited Schloss
Neuschwanstein, which was very
Instagrammable.
October
I returned to Oxford in early October to see several friends
graduate. It was great to be back and to catch up with so many
people (thanks to Sebastian Lewis for letting me crash at his
place!). It was also fun to be able to celebrate Davy Lalor’s
graduation with dinner at the exclusive Oxford Blues Club! I also
caught up with David Watson and Sophia Haq in London, both
of whom had just got off their own flight from Angora, as well as
Timothy Chen (whose really nice place I got to crash at). I also
visited and worked in the London office and met up with fellow
MJur classmate and Freshfields colleague, Katrin Harter.
I was back in Frankfurt for no more than 24 hours before flying out
to Milan to take advantage of the public holiday on 3 October. I
was disappointed to miss seeing Michelangelo’s “The Last
Supper”, but the food, shopping and the Duomo were amazing. I
also visited Genova and Cinque Terre. I was lost for words at the
picturesque vista of Cinque Terre. It is a truly unique part of the
world. The walk between Corniglia to Monterosso showed off
Cinque Terre’s beauty. October
also meant that there were far
fewer crowds and that
temperatures were comfortable; in the mid-20s.
Later in October, I flew to Barcelona – such a vibrant city with such
good food. The Sagrada Familia, Gothic Quarter and Montjuïc were
brilliant. I also attended a 2 day arbitration conference in
Stockholm. Whilst I did not have much time to explore Stockholm,
I did walk through the old town and visited the harbour and it was

9. 9
really pretty. I also managed to meet up with a friend from Sydney,
Bryce Williams, over lunch, and dined in the Royal Palace!
After the conference, I rushed to catch my flight to London to
watch Les Misérables with Alison, Géza, David and Amelie. The
musical was top notch. I’m so glad that it converted Géza from
being a musical hater to a musical lover! Thanks to Alison for
letting me stay at hers for several nights.
November
In November, I met up with Ishani and Ruwan in Kraków. My flight to
Kraków was diverted to Katowice due to fog, a fact that I did not know
of until after we landed at Katowice Airport and found it strange to see
no other planes at the airport. I waited for the Lufthansa-organised bus
transfer to Kraków Airport. It did not come after waiting for 45 minutes.
Given how late it was (11.45pm) and that I needed to be awake really
early the next morning for the tour to Auschwitz, I forked out 85 euros
for a 1.5 hour Uber ride straight to my hotel in Kraków – fortunately,
Lufthansa reimbursed this trip (cheers to being a frequent flyer with
Lufthansa and its partners!). Krakow was an interesting city – relatively
small but with its own charm and nice buildings. Auschwitz and Birkenau were confronting and
moving.
I was only in Frankfurt for three days before going to Amsterdam for
a 2.5 day conference attended by all Freshfields lawyers in the
Continental European offices – there
were more than 1,000 lawyers! This
was by far the best conference I’ve
attended! The content, the speakers
and the events (such as the cocktail
drinks and the Great Gatsby ball) were
really good. I also sat in a Tesla for the
first time in Amsterdam. I stayed an extra night in Amsterdam at Géza’s
place. It was fun brunching and ice skating outside the Rijsmuseum
with him and Alison. I also went full Dutch by riding a bike along the
roads, something that I’ve never done before!

10. 10
I was back in Frankfurt, once again, for no more than 24 hours before
heading to New York via Zürich. I worked from the New York office
and spent the next few days dining and shopping, taking advantage
(generally) of the Black Friday Sales. My credit cards had a good
workout. I had lost track of my purchases, calling up to dispute a
charge I thought was fraudulent but which I subsequently discovered
was one made by me.
December
December was a whirlwind month –
it came by so quickly and so much happened. Amelie and I flew to
Berlin to visit Simon. We explored Berlin and mulled over mulled
wine at different Christmas
markets. Björn and Eloise so
kindly invited us and two other
BCL/MJur classmates (Philipp
Hülse and Matthias
Schindlbeck) to their
Thanksgiving dinner slash Eloise’s birthday. They catered so
well for over 25 people! Being the coolest kids in the block,
Amelie, Simon and I were the last to leave the party ☺ I also
took the opportunity to work in the Berlin office.
My health started to take a turn for the worst on the Monday night that I returned to Frankfurt. I
started with some stomach discomfort which morphed into
general abdominal discomfort the next morning. I did not think
very much of this and thought I could sleep it out. I still enjoyed
several glasses of wine on the Tuesday evening at Westlage
for my farewell drinks, courtesy of Freshfields. However, over
the course of Wednesday, I began to have increasingly painful
sharper pain localised in the lower right side of my abdomen. I
saw a doctor who prescribed me an antacid and asked me to
come in 2 days later for an ultrasound and blood test (he in fact
had no availability until 5 weeks later).
Thankfully, I did not heed his advice. That evening, with the pain getting worse, I decided to visit the
hospital. My blood results showed an infection and a CT scan showed inflammation of the small
intestines surrounding the appendix, but neither the CT scan nor the ultrasound clearly showed
inflammation of the appendix. Nonetheless, I was immediately admitted for observation on suspicion
of acute appendicitis and IV antibiotics. The next morning, the surgeons strongly advised surgery to
remove the appendix.

11. 11
That evening, I had a laparoscopic appendectomy performed by the Head
of Surgery. I was in very good hands and the surgery was carried out
without any complications. The histological results of my appendix
confirmed appendicitis. I was very fortunate to have such a generous
German private health insurance that seamlessly took care of all the
administration and payment of all my medical expenses. In total, I was in
hospital for 5 nights. After being discharged, I stayed in a hotel taking
advantage of room service and housekeeping given my limited ability to
move. I am extremely grateful to all my colleagues during this period, some
of whom brought me personal belongings to the hospital, visited me and
organised some of my work and personal affairs.
Fortunately, my recovery was speedier than expected. I was on my feet the day after surgery (albeit
very slow) and was walking quite a bit by the fifth day or so after surgery. The surgery, however, still
meant that I missed my last week of work at Freshfields, though I did manage to attend the
Freshfields Christmas party at the Palais Frankfurt. My parents arrived in Frankfurt on the same day.
I was concerned that I would be unable to ski. My parents had
booked a ski trip weeks before my appendicitis, and it was to
start 10 days after my surgery! In the end, we did go to
Zermatt, Switzerland. I did not ski the first 2 days, instead
resting and doing some light hiking. I hopped on my skis on
the third day and ended up skiing for several days. Whilst I was
a bit rusty on the first day
– not being sure of how
my body would cope – I
began to feel comfortable
on my skis from the second day of skiing. The skiing was really
amazing. The ski area is huge and the scenery, particularly the
Italian Alps and the Matterhorn, were breathtaking. The scenery
is completely different to that North America. My time in Zermatt
confirmed my intentions of retiring in Switzerland ☺

12. 12
We flew back to Frankfurt for one night and then travelled to
Strasbourg for Christmas. The Christmas markets were cosy and the
city itself was very pretty. We returned to Frankfurt again for another
night before flying to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is also a beautiful city. The
city and sea views from the walls
around the Old Town are
amazing. We took a day trip to
Kotor and Budva in Montenegro.
I would highly recommend Montenegro, having previously not
appreciated how beautiful the country was. We also took a day
trip to Bosnia/Herzegovina, visiting Medjgorje, Pocitlj and
Mostar. Influenced by the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian
empires, Mostar is really interesting from a historical,
architectural and cultural perspective.
We celebrated New Years in Dubrovnik. The atmosphere and fireworks were exciting but I have to
admit, nothing compares to the Sydney fireworks.
Looking forward
We fly back to Frankfurt on New Years Day.
On 3 January 2019, I return to Sydney via London and Singapore to start a judge’s associateship
position with a Federal Court judge.
I am very excited for 2019. I am sure that it will entail a less eclectic travel schedule!