Whilst trying to establish whether or not any exotic gentlemen were happening upon my blog in a quest for an eligible wife by browsing through the log of google searches which have pointed people to pink tape (see familylore) and spurred on by an umprompted email asking me out for a date purely on the strength of my photo on chambers’ website (I’m not sure if I was more puzzled by the fact that he described himself as a Cambridge Law Graduate as if that were some kind of infallible selling point in the dating world or that he was apparently undettered when informed of my marital status and knocked-upness. But i digress…) – I am disappointed to note no such bachelors appear to be out there searching desperately for me, but interested in the following regular searches:
- searches for the phrase pink tape, most recently ‘why pink tape’
- searches for references to eating worms, which occur with a frightening regularity. Somehow I don’t think this is exactly what they were looking for…
- searches pertaining to the difference between barristers and solicitors
- searches for ‘enforcing contact orders’ or ‘no contact’
- and until recently searches for bruce hyman (for those of you still searching for him, he’s not here, he’s in prison, booomboom)
Some of these I’ve already covered – but for all those of you out there who are wondering about pink tape here it is:
Pink tape is the stuff used to tie up barristers papers. When solicitors instruct us they put together a brief and a bundle of documents and send it off tied in pink tape. It helps us keep the papers together so we can easily identify each bundle on our shelves without them being mixed up with other cases. Increasingly pink tape is replaced with rubber bands and an assortment of other paper-holding devices such as broken lever arch files, treasury tags and those metal strips that go through the holes and clip it all together.
When you talk about things being tied up in red tape, this is in fact what you are talking about. Its not really red, but pink/red tape is the metaphor for things getting stuck, Jarndyce-like in a legal quagmire or bureacracy. That is unless (someone please tell me if this is so) government has its own special Red as opposed to Pink tape and the reference is altogether more precise.
Pink tape is also handy for the following: tying together broken suitcase on way back from court, hanging items around the house (I am currently stringing chillis from the garden across my conservatory to dry with an old piece of red tape and they look rather splendid), spotting other barristers on trains (its like a secret handshake, barristers inevitably have a stray bit of pink tape sneaking out of their bag, pocket or sock), taunting kittens with, stringing up christmas cards in the office (in my case only a short piece is required).
Other handy uses for pink tape – tying it round your suitcase handle so you can recognise it at airport baggage handling. Tying your stockings to your suspender belt or wandering hold ups – holes have to be made but this is better than the indiscretion of seeming to be wearing knee highs. Impromptu restraint devices for the not so bondage friendly. A useful means of reclaiming your drinks glass at a party (you do need to know how to tie a clove hitch). In fact any time a clove hitch is required pink tape quite useful. Wrapping presents you have only just bought but forgot the wrapping requirement but happen to have pink tape and newspaper in bag. Tying up unruly cherry tree in garden (ever so eco friendly as will not cut into bark because rots when damp and absorbed into the ecosphere). Not that I have done any of these things – just thinking outside the box of my briefs!