Time for an update. Professional and personal.

I learnt in March that I am being kept on at the firm I’m working for after the end of the traineeship. That means that from September I will, at last, be able to call myself a solicitor and practise unrestricted in all of Scotland’s sheriff courts, plus I will get to continue in the job I already have for a not insignificant pay increase. It marks the closure of a chapter in my career and the gaining of responsibility (I can be sued in my own name for professional negligence and will inevitably have higher expectations placed on me) and identity (people kind of know what a solicitor is and don’t require the post-amble that comes with the trainee prefix).

At the end of the month I will be attending an “admission ceremony” at the Signet Library in Edinburgh. I will be “admitted” to the roll of solicitors. Really, this is of no practical effect until my traineeship is discharged in September (and I am on the roll anyway, just as one with a restricted practising certificate), but it is nice to cap off my long apprenticeship with some sort of occasion to mark it.

As for personal developments, I can categorically affirm that I have met, and am meeting with, someone who has given me her permission to be referred to by me as my girlfriend.

We met on Hinge at the end of October, and then on a Tuesday night at a cocktail bar once a certain level of rapport had been established.

Her name is H—. She is a vet of the equine variety, is from Motherwell and lives in Quarriers village.

We see each other at weekends and sometimes an evening midweek too. We enjoy books, walking, nature, gigs and cooking. I have had to become a dog person to a certain extent due to her adoption of a rather exuberant (to put it mildly) labrador puppy shortly after our own introduction. So far, he has only been capable of being tired out by a 10-mile walk from Paisley to Lochwinnoch (leg 2 of the Whithorn Way). It’s a new lifestyle, and far from an unpleasant one!

Later this month, I will be visiting Jersey and taking the ferry to France to explore Normandy/Brittany. In a fit of spontaneity, I asked H— whether she would like to accompany me. Dear Reader, she said yes. Goodbye solo traveller, hello couple’s sojourn.

No doubt I will be writing about my experience in the Channel Islands/Gaul in detail during and post-trip, so I will save divulging my motivations and aspirations for that entry. Suffice to say, I am very much looking forward to it – both part 1 and part 2.

Mostly out of my own interest, but partly due to this upcoming trip, I have begun a course at the Alliance Francaise (AF) in Glasgow that convenes on a Tuesday night. I decided to choose a B1 intermediate class with the goal of working my way up from there. Regular readers of the blog will know that I am a fan of French literature and culture, as well as languages generally. The highlights of last year’s book group repertoire were, respectively, Emile Zola’s Germinal and the short stories of Guy de Maupassant.

The Francophilia continues with our reading list for June and July, although in the case of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities phobia might be more accurate. July’s text is Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame which I found in an abridged A2 version within the library of AF at less than 100 pages to the full novel at over 600. For this reason, the French original is almost certainly too ambitious an assignment for the c. 6 weeks I’m allowing myself to get it read.

For having lived in the heart of the West End of Glasgow for nearly three years now, it is astonishing that I’ve not once frequented the Alliance Francaise or the Goethe Institut (which share the same building in Park Circus) when both are virtually on my doorstep. While I did go to a couple of events in the German film festival run by the Institut last year, that has really been the extent of my interaction.

I resolved to get a bit more serious about learning French at the beginning of the year, i.e. move beyond Duolingo. My first step towards this goal was attending a meetup in a pub in January. Most of the participants were Scottish, but there was at least a concerted effort to keep the conversation Francophone. I mostly listened and nodded. One thing I did pick up was that several of them had done or were doing these courses at the AF, so it was on their recommendation that I looked it up. Classes also suited the level of commitment I wanted to make and would provide a structure to things that mere conversation doesn’t lend itself to.

So far, I’m in week 2 of an eight-week block. The first was a bit scary, not knowing whether I’d picked the correct level and being exposed in the limited class size (small enough that you know you’ll have to speak, but big enough for that prospect to be a tad daunting initially). However, I’m enjoying it. It’s a good mix of 50-60 somethings and one or two other folk my age,  and the teaching is professional with a balance between fun and the discipline I’m looking for.

I’ll get two more classes in before gracing the coast of Brittany. Without a guide as I had on the shores of le Lac Léman, I will have to take charge of navigation and negotiation. With a companion, the stakes are higher if I fail or falter. Mais, je crois que je suis plus ou moins prêt pour le défi – c’est parti !