Give It A Go: The Rest of the Pics

 Here’s the rest of the pics from GIAG 08.

Here's an 'E' from the Digital Photography class...

...and here's an 'X'!

In the making it's the...

...the GIAG 08 Clown!

Here's the Student Life Fair.

Here's the Cooking Masterclass...

...which was on the Thurday evening.

And finally, here's the Detox Night...

...this is Eddie Burgess who did some Reflexolgy and here he is doing a one to one session of Indian Head Massage...

...here's the Wii Gaming and the fantastic Chocolate Fountain in the background...

...and finally, here's the Virgin Vie girls!

Next up, it’s the interviews!

x

Give It A Go 08: Last Few Days

Hey everyone, sorry this is later than I’d intended.

Anyway, back to Give It A Go 08!

The last event that I went to was the Detox Night that was held in the Atrium on Friday night and after two weeks of covering the events, I was really looking forward to it!!!

The evening wasn’t set out in a rigid format like I’d expected and this helped with the relaxation. As I walked in I recieved my free smoothie, there was two on offer; strawberry and banana or mixed berry and then went quickly over to the chocolate fountain, which was pure temptation! There was bananas, doughnuts, marshmallows and strawberries, amongst other things, all waiting to be smothered in warm, runny chocolate!!!

Other things on offer included Eddie Burgess, who took the Indian Head Massage class on Wednesday offering a one to one treatment of either Indian Head Massage or Reflexology for £2 for a 15 minute session, which was great value and the Virgin Vie girls were there giving people the chance to try their products and take part in competitions to win products.

The atmosphere was really chilled and the way everyone was free to do what they wanted when they wanted was great, so if you missed it, you really missed out.

As for Saturday, well there was a Paintballing trip, which I’m sure turned out great (though was probably very painful) and there was also a White Water Rafting trip, which first year Journalism student, Chloe Duckett has written a review on.

After a three hour journey getting lost in the Valleys of Wales, we finally arrived at our destination; Canolfan Tryweryn, the National Whitewater Centre.

 
We were split into two groups and assigned to a raft and an instructor. Next we were fitted in some rather fetching wet suits, boots, jackets and helmets, however these were all freezing cold so putting them on was horrible!

Once fitted, we made our way outside in the pouring rain to have a quick safety talk and to be explained of the instructions and commands. Some of the commands involved ‘get down’ and ‘all forward’.

We then had to lift the very heavy raft onto the back of a trailer, get into a mini bus which then took us to the top of the river.

Our raft was thrown into the water and then the white water rafting experiencing began, we met our first rapid named the ‘Graveyard’. This rapid seemed passable when we first entered, however we soon began to realise why it was called the ‘Graveyard’. It was an exhilarating drop into a fast flowing mountain of water.

We next met the rapid known as ‘Ski-slope’ which I personally think was the best out of the three, it seemed to never end until you hit a drop and was given face full of river water.

The final rapid to end the course was ‘Miss Davies’ bridge’, this rapid was in full front view of the café and therefore many watched. It was extremely bumpy with the raft all over the place and ending up pushed to the side, however it was extremely fun!

We then had a second attempt down the course, but this time we swapped positions on the raft and even tried to tackle the rapids backwards and sideward.

It was an extremely good day and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, the only fault I had was the bus driver and his crazy driving!!!!

Thanks to Chloe for that, think I missed out on a great trip there.

The final event for this year’s Give It A Go was a trip to Blackpool Illuminations. Now I didn’t go this year, but I did go last year and it was fantastic!!! There is a reason why they call Blackpool the Las Vegas of Britain because it’s amazing, but the lights are the best part of it.

For more info go to: http://www.visitblackpool.com/blackpool-illuminations.

And that’s it. I’ve still got to pop up the pictures and interview, which I’ll work on tonight and hopefully have up by the end of tomorrow, but apart from that it’s goodbye from me.

x

Update!

Hey I’m really sorry nothing has gone up since Friday, had a mad weekend and everything has got a bit hectic this week, but don’t worry, everything that needs to go up will be here by the end of Wednesday, so that will include all the pictures and interviews and everything that happened over the weekend.

Sorry for the delay.

Em. x

Day Twelve: Journalism Masterclass

Hey just got back from the Journalism event hosted by Blake Welton, a former UCLan Post Grad student.

The basis of the session was to introduce us to different sections of journalism such as editing and subbing. One of the main discussions was about how to cut articles down and knowing how to do that without changing the content or the meaning.

Since leaving UCLan, Blake has worked for many newspapers, reporting mainly on the sport, but he currently works for the Preston Citizen, as well as his own fanzine magazine, Invisible, which is for Preston North End supporters. Blake describes it as, “For the fans, by the fans.”

Most of the session was based on Blake using his own experiences in the media industry to some outline of the issues journalists face, whilst the rest was about us looking at how our careers may be dominated by such problems.

Nevertheless, it was also helpful to those who aren’t journalists, but are looking to writing for specialist magazines and journals.

Unfortunately, there’s no pics or interviews from this one, but I’ll be at the Detox Night tonight, so I hope to see quite a few of you there and that review will be up tomorrow!

Tata. x

Day Eleven: Cooking Masterclass

Right, I’m back again and today is the last day that I will be giving things a go as I can’t do anything this weekend, but never fear, I hopefully have the White Water Rafting covered and I’ll give you the low down on Paintballing and the trip to Blackpool’s Illuminations so don’t think the blog has gone just yet!

But, back to my updates. Last night, I went to the Cooking Masterclass held in the Atrium by Lee Nutter, Atrium Co-Ordinator. The idea was to give us ideas for good recipes and show us how easy it is to make them.

I have to say the menu was fantastic; Mussels with Chizoro sausage and a Tomatoe sauce, Wild Mushroom Risotto, Peppercorn sauce with Steak or Salmon and to finish, Chocolate Fondants!!! Delicious to say the least!

Unfortunately, Lee had to do a lot of cooking on sort of camping stove so it did take a while to cook, which was absolute torture considering I hadn’t had tea because I didn’t want to be full for this, but he showed us how best to go about making each dish and explained how to prepare things such as the mussels, though due to time he had already done most of the work.

He let us into some tips of the trade. For instance, to tell when your steak is done, if you put your thumb and forefinger together, the fleshy part below your thumb will be resemble a rare steak, if you do the same but with your middle finger instead it is like a medium rare, your wedding finger is medium and your thumb and little finger is well done.

Lee also demonstarted how to tell if a mussel is still alive. Most of the time they will be slightly open, so if you tap them and they close, it shows there is a sign of life.

Although it took a while to cook, I was suprised at how easy it was to make the meals and it was definately worth the wait because it was absolutely gorgeous!!! Most of the food I’d never tried before either, so it was great to experiment and try something new and I have a new found love of risotto and chizoro sausage, which I think may because a new staple meal in my student lifestyle as it’s cheap, quick and easy to make!

But, I have to say the best part of the night for me was the chocolate fondants, which were amazing! Lee told us how difficult it to cook them, because to get the cake effect on the outside and the gooey, chocolate centre really depends on how long you cook them for; too little and they are too gooey (I know, as if that could possibly be a bad thing!), too much and they turn out like little chocolate cakes (again, not bad at all in my eyes!). 

Nevertheless, I see his point because to eat what looks like a little chocolate cake and then discovering a gorgeous gooey chocolate centre is a real treat and so I will definately be making them some time in the future, though whether my house mates get any or I eat them all is another thing!

Keep an eye out for an interview with Lee and pics of him cooking, they should be going up wither tonight or tomorrow.

I’m off to the Journalism Masterclass now, so I’ll be back in just over an hour with an update of that!

Tata. x

Day Eleven: Student Life Fair and Spanish Class

Hey, hope you’re all ok.

So, GIAG is heading towards it’s conclusion on Sunday. Can you believe the last week and a half has gone so fast? But, just because uni life is getting more serious with talk out assessments (already!!!), it doesn’t mean that the events are slowing down, oh no, if anything there’s even more going on!

Today, I’ve been to the Student Life Fair and what an event that was. I don’t think I went to it last year, or at least I don’t remember it, but did I miss out or what?! It’s in the least as good as the Intro Fair when it comes to hand outs, but there were so many people on offer to help and give advice.

Stalls included Endsleigh for all those insurance needs, the UCLan Accomodation Services and the Co-Op.

Speaking of the Co-Op, their stand was by far my favourite because the smoothies they were making were delicious! Banana with honey and a few other little treats thrown in and mixed berry smoothies were on offer and they really tasted delicious.

I think the Preston Transport stall was a great idea too because it gave people the chance to find out what was available to them in their area and they were very helpful.

There was a great turn out at this event and as Lee Bradshaw, Campaigns Officer told me in an interview (which will be going up tomorrow) there was a steady stream of students throughout the morning.

I do have some pictures for the event, so they will be up tomorrow soon.

Next on my list was the Spanish workshop. This was the last of the language taster sessions involved in GIAG and it was just a good as the previous ones.

Esther Lopez-Figueroa was our tutor during the session and her passion for her home country’s culture and language really came through.

She began by teaching us the basics of greetings and decribing where you are from like the other tutors did and went onto how to go about ordering food and drinks and how to count.

But the highlight of the session was the question and answer section towards the end, which was great for all those queries about the language, but Esther went onto describe the culture in Spain and little snippets of how its past has influenced the present.

She also mentioned how the country is split into different areas, a bit like counties in Britain, but these areas have a different local government and speak a different type of Spanish. For instance, the area above Portugal is greatly influenced by the Portuguese language and the area in the North by France, sounds very similar to the French language.

Esther also mentioned that Spanish can be taken as an elective or a certificate on top of your degree, as are all the languages available from the School of Languages and International Studies.

So if any of the language reviews have whet your appetite, go down to Fylde Building and ask.

That’s it for now. Unfortunately, I missed the How To…Guides, but I am waiting on a review of the Table Tennis event that took place this afternoon.

As for me, I’m off to the Cooking Masterclass in an hour, so I’ll be back later on this evening with another entry, but until then, tata.

Em. x

Days Nine and Ten: French, Origami, Indian Head Massage and Belly Dancing

Right then guys, sorry I haven’t done that much for GIAG over the last two days considering the amount of events they’ve got going on, but here’s a quick review of what I have been up to.

Yesterday, the were only two events and I chose to attend the French masterclass (boy oh boy am I going to be top at languages by the end of this week, I’ve got Spanish tomorrow!) and you know what? I was really suprised how much I’d remembered from my school days.

Although we only touched on the basics, our tutor, Mark Orme had designed a session that was aimed at intermediate students of French.

We began by learning the basic greeting and general polite manner that the French try to adopt, but I have admit this threw me slightly as the French I had been taught in school was the informal, rather than the formal, so it was only the odd word that helped me to understand the sentence.

Following on from that we learnt how to ask and reply to questions such as; where are you from? are you married? and are you a student?, before going onto learn how to order things in a restaurant.

Unfortunately, by that point time had beaten us and we didn’t get on to asking for directions, but the worksheet Mark had produced gave us all the information about what we had learnt and the rest of his plan for the session.

I have to say his enthusiam for the language and culture really came through in this short session and it was quite nice being in such a small group (there was only three of us) because it meant we could stop and practise and perfect our prounounciations, which helped a great deal.

An interview with Mark will be going up on Friday (I’ve decided to hang on to the few interviews I have and get them all up together).

So, onto today! Well, I began my day by trying my hand at Origami, one of those annoying things that sounds easy but is really tricky in practise.

During the session we made a square box that didn’t have a lid (though you could make one by making another box and fitting it on top, a small lantern type thing that didn’t look much until you blew into it and it formed something that when decorated, could make a nice Christmas decoration and finally, we made a crane (the bird form I might add).

It’s suprising how a small , insignificant piece of paper can be turned into something so different, but the annoying thing is that it’s so tricky, yet so simple to do. All you have to remember is that everything starts off with a square sheet of paper and it’s all about the folds and bends that you make that will hold it in place when you have finished.

On top of the session, we were given a small piece of origami paper, which is what the professionals use and probably makes the finished product look much better, whilst also being a better quality paper to work with and we also got a introductory sheet into the Japanses culture, which is where origami comes from.

Might I just add that I’m proud of my crane, even if it looks a little too skinny and won’t stay upright on its own!

Unfortunately, I was so involved with this one that I didn’t get any pictures and I’m sorry to say the rest of today’s activities turned out to be the same, but for this one I didn’t even manage any interviews, but never fear, I did get some for Indian Head Massage and Belly Dancing so keep an eye out for them.

And that neatly takes me onto my next activity of the day, Indian Head Massage.

Now I was gutted to miss this event last February, so there was no way I was letting it go by again and I’m glad I didn’t.

As with last time, our instructor was Eddie Burgess from Reflect UK and he led us as we partnered up and gave the techniques a try taking it in turns to be the giver and the reciever.

I cannot explain to you how relaxing it felt. We began by “saying hello to the head” by placing our hands on the top of it and then began to warm up and massage the back, neck, shoulders and upper arms using a variety of massage techniques. It really helped to get you in the mood and I could feel my whole body relaxing.

The soothing music and lavender scent that I could pick up in the background was an immense help and if you closed your eyes (which helped when the actual head massage began and my hair was in my eyes) you really felt like you were drifting off into a tranquil state.

The head massage however, was a bit, shall we say, not quite what I’d expected, but then I’m not sure what else I could have expected.

Basically, the same movements that you would do in a normal massage were applied to the scalp and at times it was done with the same pressure, which was an odd experience. I really didn’t expect my hair to get quite so messy though!

We followed that we soothing little massages across the forehead, temples and across the eyes, nose and cheeks, before removing our hands from our partner’s head and “flicking” (yes, that’s right) the excess vibes away (or at least I think that’s what it was about).

Apparently, the whole idea of Indian Head Massage is to oxygenate the head and I have to say, I certainly felt that was achieved and I think my partner for the session, Tom Richens would agree as I have sneaking suspicion that he was drifting off as I massaged his head!

And so, onto the last event of today – Belly Dancing. This event was such a laugh because my technique can only be compared to that of a ‘Thunderbirds’ type puppet! I have no movement in my hips whatsoever and although I tried, I think I probably looked completely awful.

However, our tutor, Sally Smith is a 3rd year Dance Performance and Teaching student and took lessons as part of her course and she looked much more professional.

There was a good turnout at the event, although it was all girls, even though traditionally the dance is taught to both boys and girls, but pretty soon we were all giving it a go and most seemed to pick it up quite easily.

Apparently, it’s all about the movement of the hips, so you should concertrate on where they are moving and your legs will follow, but remember to keep your torso straight. Sally told us that when the right outfit is worn, the skirt is so long that you can’t see the legs and feet moving at all and so it looks like it’s all down to the movement of the belly.

We learnt how to roll our hips, move them in a figure of eight and tried to, well the only word I can use to describe it is ‘jiggle’ them, which is pretty tricky because you want to move your entire body and therefore, look like some weird vibrating mad person!

Nevertheless, it’s definately something I’d like to try again and there are classes available in Preston (details of which I’ll get up tomorrow), but I feel, as with most things, it’s something you have to keep practising so I better get jiggling!

Well, that’s it for today! Amongst tomorrow’s events are the Student Life Fair in 53 Degrees, Spanish Language Taster and Table Tennis, so I’ll be back with all of those for you.

Tata. x

Extras: Wine Tasting and Speed Dating

Hey guys, just a quick treat for you now as I’ve had a little help in getting reviews for things I didn’t attend myself last Thursday evening and Monday of this week.

Nick Townsend is a 2nd year BA Hons Journalism student and here are his reviews for Wine Tasting and Speed Dating.

 

“We want the finest wines available to humanity” demands Richard E. Grant’s title character in the student cult classic, ‘Withnail & I’.

 

For the participants of the wine tasting class though, they had to make do with the finest wines available to Co-Ops limited range of discount bottles. Maybe not humanity, but humane in the sense that the bottles of red and white were all Fair Trade.

 

I reasoned with the ‘Give It A Go’ volunteers that my lack of ID shouldn’t forbid me from participating (as I am and look 23!), by arguing the case ‘real wine tasters don’t swallow.’

 

As participants sat down, moderator and wine connoisseur Helen Gittins spoke of much wine varies throughout the world and how subtle the differences can be and how the qualities of the samples are judged and determined are set by parameters.

 

Using standards such as smell, taste, transparency and fluid density (referred to as leg) students were encouraged to guess the hidden ingredients inside each brand with a free bottle offered to those with the correct answer.

 

The samples of wine given ranged from the vineyards of South Africa, Argentina and France. By the end of the evening participants ranging from the non-regular wine drinkers to the fully fledged oenophile, were able to appreciate the process of wine production with a deeper understanding of its geographical origin…or maybe they’d just found out how much they could drink for their £2.50 admission!

 

 

 

The speed dating had the biggest turnout for a paid event on ‘Give It A Go’ with nearly a hundred participants in total.

 

The event invited a large spectrum of personalities to meet, befriend and woo members of the opposite sex within 3 minutes. This is the true acid test of the dating game. Attempting to sell yourself (personality wise that is!) in 180 seconds proved difficult for some but effortless for others.

 

Myself a participant – I began to tire of the same introduction patter of “Where are you from?” and “What are you studying”. To avoid this déjà vu of Freshers’ Week, I began to throw other questions within my intro such as, “What’s your favourite dirty joke?” or “Is the fact we’re both here an act of desperation or proof we want to meet other outgoing people?”

 

There was an American girl there who seemed more relaxed about the event than all the other participants, who I’m sure didn’t feel like she was just ‘giving it a go’ as her culture practically invented the format of speed dating.

 

Whilst the girls complained there were too many frogs and not enough princes (many also suspiciously claiming they were there just to offer support to a friend) the only objection from the boys was that the room was too dimly lit making the event seem overly romanticised. I even overheard one boy say during a break, “I won’t find my future wife here, but there’s plenty of totty!”

 

And who says romance isn’t dead?!

 

Now if any of you are currently thinking, “I’d like to have my review up on there” then send it into pfeatures@uclan.ac.uk and I’ll get it up on here too.

I’ll be posting up yesterday and today’s events in about half an hour, but for now, thanks to Nick and I’ll be back soon.

Em. x

Day Eight: Ultimate Frisbee, Art Attack and Digital Photography

Hey, hope you’re all ok and had a great weekend. Sorry this post has been a bit longer in coming than I had hoped, time seems to be escaping me at the moment.

I’ve heard that the weekend’s various events were successful and if you went to anything please write a review/comment, no matter how big or small, it will go up here with any pictures you might have.

So, back to this week. Well, I’m feeling revitalised and ready for week two and it should have started off with a bang this morning as the Ultimate Frisbee event was held, but…I missed it! Unfortunately, there was a change in times and I arrived just after it had finished so I didn’t get any pics, but I did grab an interview with the lads who hosted it (Andrew Leat, Duncan Wolverson, Jerry Crotton, Kyle Shephard) and this will be up later on.

I think that it wasn’t as much of a success as they had hoped because timetable clashes and a change of time meant that only one person turned up, but they are hopeful that if they do it again they will be given a better slot and as you will hear in the interview, they hope to turn create a club and will be advertising it on Facebook, so keep an ear out if you are interested.

Next on my list of events was Art Attack, which took place in the SU. To be honest, you couldn’t really miss it as Fern Bennett, Chloe Duckett and Rachael Patan (all 1st year Journalism students) had created a giant clown face on the floor, which looked terrific if you looked down from the Atrium.

It’s still there now, so take a look if you’re heading through and if you don’t catch it before it goes, some pics and an interview with the girls who made it will be going up tomorrow.

Next, I headed off to the Digital Photography masterclass being hosted by the SU’s Media Officer, Andy Squire. Although there were a few issues with rooms and some technology problems, we were soon off in small groups heading around the university with one task – trying to take photographs of objects that look like letters of the alphabet.

So for instance, we had a spiral staircase that resembled an ‘s’. It was a really fun task and I’m pleased to say the group I was in managed to find suitable objects that covered every letter!

But, there was a reason behind us doing all this. Andy wanted us to look at objects in a different way and it worked because I wasn’t just looking a chair, I was looking at something that resembled a ‘c’ or a ‘h’.

Sadly, the Stage Make-Up workshop was cancelled so I have nothing more to report for Monday.

A quick update on today was the French Language workshop I attended, but I’m going to fill you in on that one tomorrow, along with all the other fantastic things I have on my list, including Indian Head Massage and Belly Dancing!

Also, I’ll be uploading photos and interviews tomorrow so keep an eye out.

But for now I’ll say goodbye.

Night. x

Give It A Go 08: Day Seven

Right then here’s a preview of what’s on tomorrow.

Sunday is going to be a big day for Preston, as they are having the annual ‘Preston On The Move’ day and this involves a 5km and 10km run in the morning, followed by a bike event in the afternoon.

Now it should be noted that although people from UCLan who are taking part will be meeting outside the SU tomorrow morning at 9am to take part in the run, the actual event is taking place in the city centre and some of the main roads will be shut, so if you do drive, plan your journey beforehand.

For those of you taking part in either event, good luck, I think you’ll need it, but for those not taking part, why not pop down into the city centre and cheer everyone on?! I’m going to do my best to pop down for a bit and take some pictures for the blog and hopefully a couple of the Frequency Radio guys who are taking part in the run will be doing a little write up for the blog.

And that’s it from me for week one of GIAG 08. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading it, have a great weekend whatever you’re doing and I’ll be back on Monday after sampling the Art Attack poject, Ultimate Frisbee, Photography workshop and the Stage Make-Up workshop.

Tata,

Em. x