Extra Interviews!

Ok, well here it is, the last update for Give It A Go 2008! It’s a random mix of interviews from the people who helped to bring you the week’s events and will be working hard to bring it to the SU again next year.

Nicola Rolph - Sports and Events Coordinator: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qo-EYH0GPE

Chris Lowden - SU President:

“Give it a go was amazing I must say a massive thank you to Kelly Burdett and Nicola Rolph for putting so much hard work into it but it certainly paid off. Nearly every event was full we put on a total of around 1100 individual events. We reached a lot of different students and hopefully showed them what the students Union has to offer them and will hopefully engage then more in the students union.

Overall it has been a massive success and I thank everyone who was involved as it has shown what the students union can do for every student.

I hope everyone enjoyed it and they look forward to its return bigger and better.

Kelly Burdett - Activities and Participation Officer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGl6OIESfNw

One final video was from Pluto’s Ricki Dewsbury of the Cocktail Workshop on the Wednesday of GIAG week. I might have already put it up, but if not then here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umZi1epSYCI

And so that’s it! I’d just like to say I hope you’ve enjoyed keeping up with what I did that week, I enjoyed every moment of it and I hope you enjoyed taking part too. Hopefully, it will be back next year and sorry it’s taken so long for these interviews to be loaded.

Take care and see you around the campus!

Emily J

Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s Interviews

Ok I’m back for the last leg of my interviews so here are Thursday, Friday and Saturday together, as you remember I didn’t get to do as many activities on those days for one reason or other, but sit back and enjoy anyway.

Thursday:

Drama and Speed Dating - Carl Bullen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bed1nJ2Ihac

Friday:

Surfing - Alan Briden: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ruYUdJRis

American Football - Martin Fitzpatrick & David Cox: www.youtube.com/watch?v=45UEsvZQnMQ

Fashion Show - Aron Bryne-Carter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=80mxdWXQQDw

Fashion Show - Jerry Bardwell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmJXNEWKTrE

Saturday:

RAG Abseil - Rajay Balgobin: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4EU0d2vwR8

RAG Abseil - Ross Pimlott: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTkDfabisyA

I’m really sorry I didn’t manage to get interviews from the Laser Tag on Saturday afternoon or the Liverpool trip that was on the Sunday but I do have one more set of interviews coming up for you!

Enjoy!

Emily J

Wednesday’s Interviews

Right, I’m on a whirl today, so here’s Wednesday’s interviews (sorry there are no pictures from the Fitness Training or Circus Skills) for you then I’ll be taking a little break and the rest will be up this evening. I’ve already had lots of views so click the links and have a listen.

Rock Climbing - Gill Peet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x-oLU3iQnw

Fitness Training: Ian Heslop: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnETGywMh2Y

Dance - Rachel Small: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHj2MzWYlvw

Dance - Lindsey Boydd: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyZHdhKoqIk

Circus Skills - Steph Weaver and Jonathan Lucas: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVpT9dofo8

Circus Skills - Russell Gregory: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsT3qqBFFG8

Bye bye for now!

Emily J

Tuesday’s Interviews

Here’s the interviews from Tuesday’s GIAG, sorry but I didn’t get any pictures from the Reflexology, Car Maintenance or Drama.

Reflexology - Eddie Burgess: www.youtube.com/watch?v=49ysbAUXVJc

Reflexology - Ricki Dewsbury: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYL4GI6wap8

Chinese Brush Painting - Peta Carter:

“Chinese brush painting is something that I do as a hobby and when GIAG was proposed, I thought that a lot of students might be interested in trying something that isn’t on offer in many places so I offered to run a session which would be more hands on than theory. Because the style is so fluid and impressionistic, participants would be able to go away with something that they had easily drawn themselves. The session sold out very early and, as you know, observers came along hoping to pick up some ideas. All attendees seemed to be enjoying themselves and they were not afraid to put brush to paper, especially as blobs or blotches could be made to look like birds or fish.

I thought GIAG itself was fantastic. There were so many varied activities to try out without committing to them for the year. I had never surfed on a surf board before and I find British waters way to cold to swim in but I had brilliant fun riding the board simulator on Friday and, surprisingly, came up with a really good ride time. I went to the alternative fashion show on the Friday night which was both entertaining and informative as there was dancing, speakers, and joking entertainment as well as the fashion - much of which was auctioned off for charity at the end. On the Sunday I went Go Ape in the Lake District. I really wanted to do this and was one of the first people to sign up. The weather was perfect and the route across wires and various forms of traverse methods through the high trees was loads of fun. After initial safety sessions, we were trusted to keep ourselves clipped on to safety lines at all times without constant supervision. Anyone for a giant Tarzan swing into a cargo net? And zip wires like flying. Excellent!!!”

Car Maintenance - Ross Pimlott: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv4OImDSdE8

Drama - Sarah Koratizitis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYTQMQ3tFJA

Karaoke - Heather Wheeler: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6up9WK1AGY

Enjoy!

Emily J

Interviews!!!

Hey guys at long last I have the interviews ready to upload. I’m so, so sorry it’s taken me this long to get them done and I hope this hasn’t annoyed to many of you but have a listen and if you know anyone else who was interested in them, then let them know.

Here is Monday’s interviews and the rest of the week will be up by the end of today.

Spa Treatment - Gill Ward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBmF3Roh-c

Indian Head Massage - Tom Davis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NbJbJjPnpg

Co-Op Food Demo - Kevin Spittle: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZs2cC4dBKQ

Fairtrade Choc & Wine - Dave Bretherton: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8wxSJ-ueFA

Fairtrade Choc & Wine - Lucy Cortis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZTW9Xigzqw

Cheers,

Emily J

Update!!!

Hey guys just a quick update for you. I’m really sorry I still haven’t got the interviews up for you, but they will be up by the end of Tuesday I promise and hope this hasn’t been too much of a pain for anyone. Also, in answer to Mo’s comment about the Speed Dating email, to my knowledge no-one has had their results yet and I think the GIAG guys will be getting round to it asap, but I’d give it until the beginning of next week so sorry if anyone was hoping to find their Valentine’s date. If anyone else can share some light on this then please leave a comment or if you just want to comment on GIAG week in general then feel free.

Take care,

Emily J

Day Seven: Liverpool 08

To round off Give It A Go week I went on the Liverpool 08 trip, which gave people the chance to visit 2008’s City of Culture.

The trip had proved popular with a lot of UCLan’s foreign students and it would give us all the chance to learn a little bit about the culture in the city.

When we set off at 9am this morning it was lovely, sunny and warm, but unfortunately, once we got close to Liverpool we hit quite a bit of fog and by the time we got into the city centre it was rolling off the Mersey in waves.

It was up to us what we did with the day. We were given maps and had six or so hours to go around and see what there was to offer, so once I’d got some breakfast in Wetherspoons I headed off for China Town.

I’ve been to Liverpool quite a few times, but I never realised that there is a large Chinese archway in that area and today there was a lot of activity around there because there was going to be some celebrations in honour of Chinese New Year, which this year is the year of the Rat.

There were a lot of stalls along the street and a parade was to be held at midday. I could see some martial arts experts practising and there was a stage at the end of the main street running through the area.

However, I didn’t wait for the parade, but instead headed off to the Docks to have a look at some of the things down there.

I decided to skip ‘The Beatles Story’, but instead went to have a look at the Tate Liverpool gallery, the first three floors of which were free and had some famous paintings on display.

In the entrance hall was Auguste Rodin’s ‘The Kiss’, which was part of the DLA Piper Series, ‘The Twentieth Century: How It Looked and How It Felt’. This series also had some famous Andy Warhol prints on display, including his infamous Marilyn Monroe ones, as well as Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’.

I really enjoyed looking at these pictures and I spent so much time there that when I got out, the fog had completely gone.

However, by this time I was starving so I had some lunch at The Pumphouse Inn, which was really quirky and did great food at a good price too.

After that I went back to the Albert Docks, but this time as I was making my way down I got caught up in the making of a music video. I have to admit I didn’t know who the musicians were, they looked a bit before my time to put it politely, but even so, I hung around for a bit and watched as people walked right in front of the camera!

As I made my way down the waterfront I passed the Royal Liver Building, which has the famous Liver Birds on top of it. The waterfront is being renovated at the moment, as is much of the city centre as there were a lot of road works and scaffolding in place.

Finally, I made my way back to the shopping area and found the Cavern Club. I’ve heard a lot about the place, but have never been before so this was a must for me today.

Although I didn’t have time to go inside, walking down Matthew Street took a fair amount of time in itself. There is a Wall of Fame with various names on it of people who have visited and then there is the actual Cavern Club. Although it isn’t the original, it is made in the original’s design with the original bricks about a hundred yards from where it was originally (I don’t think I could have fitted ‘original’ in that sentence anywhere else).

This area has a lot to see and all over the city there are shops full of memorabilia for people to look at.

However, by this time I was due back at the bus, though on my way back I had a look at St. George’s Hall, the Empire Theatre and the Walker Art Gallery, which are all stunning buildings, some of which, you can see in the pictures below:

The Chinese Archway.

Now you can see how foggy it was down at the Docks!

The infamous Cavern Club.

The Walker Art Gallery.

I really enjoyed this day trip and it was much better than a school trip as we were allowed to go wherever we wanted so I saw more of the city than I ever have before.

And so that’s it for Give It A Go week, although there are some extra events happening over the next couple of weeks including Scuba Diving and The UCLan Mile so keep an eye out for those because if I go to them, they will be up on here and I promise by the end of tomorrow I will have my interviews up!

Right then people, I will see you around campus and I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog.

Take care and tata for now.

Emily J

Day Six: Laser Tag

The day’s final activity was Laser Tag, which I have to admit was completely unknown to me before I went because I’d only ever heard of indoor laser games.

It turned out that Laser Tag was pretty much the same but as our instructor told us, the guns use infra-red same as in a remote control and the aim is the attack people by hitting the sensors on their hats and gun. We each had five lives and then our guns would stop working because we were out.

We were playing down by the Docklands, which was were the paintballers went on Thursday, but I think this was better, mainly because it wasn’t as painful!

We got into groups of five, though because the team I was on was one short we had one of the guys from the club with us who was apparently ex SAS so I suppose we did have an unfair advantage.

There were certain rules, such as to begin with we couldn’t cross the half way line, we couldn’t get with 5 metres of another player and we had a friendly fire mode so we couldn’t shoot people on our own team.

The guns also told us how we were doing, so if we got struck or were too close to a team mate it would say “WARNING” and when we were out it shouted something along the lines of “MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN! KEEP DOWN!” It was really funny, but it definitely got your adrenaline rushing.

We scored points on how many members of the winning team were left in at the end of each game and our team tactic was to stay down once you had had four hits, but it was so tempting to just sneak back out again and have another go!

Our team won the first round-robin tournament and after a quick break we had a go on another more difficult course. Unfortunately, that time we lost, partly because people could cross the half way mark and at one point I was the only player left and had three members of the opposing team advancing on me!

Nevertheless, after two round-robins our team only lost by one point, so the winning team had to face “The Girls” only what the guys didn’t know was that whenever we were knocked out, the instructor put us back in the game by reloading our guns and so we won!

It was a really good couple of hours and definitely worth trying out, I’d like to go back again and maybe have a go at paintballing next time as well.

Sorry but I haven’t got any interviews or pictures from this one, as you can imagine I couldn’t run round with a camera in my hand, but if you’re interested then you can get some more details from www.paintball-trax.co.uk.

Well that’s today’s events for you, if you have done anything today then leave a comment and here is tomorrow’s preview, though it’s only one thing:

9am-6pm Liverpool 08 Day Trip

Hope to see you there for the last day of Give It A Go!!!

Take Care,

Emily J

Day Six: RAG Abseil

Well Day Six has certainly been action packed and if I wasn’t tired before, I definitely am now!

I only did two of the events happening today as there was a lot going on and these two seemed the most fun, that and I refused to go to Old Trafford because I’m a Liverpool fan!

First mission today and it was a mission and a half, was to Abseil off one of the University buildings. I’d heard quite a few rumours as to which one it would be, but when I went down to the SU this morning I still didn’t have a clue. In the end it turned out that only Harris building had the anchor hooks that were needed.

When I woke up I didn’t feel too nervous about abseiling, I’ve done it before and one of those times was on Wednesday when I did the rock climbing. I know I was nervous that day but as I said, the pulley system just didn’t seem to be holding me until I’d totally let go. Today I was hoping that I was going to feel as safe as I did when I first abseiled.

To begin with we struggled to find which part of the building we would be going down and there was a bit of walking around and looking up for people, and then even after we’d found them we had to find out how to get in. Once we were in the building, it was a simple case of going up three flights of stairs and then we were there, on the roof!

This was when the nerves kicked in. Seeing the guys getting the stuff ready gave us all far too much time to think about what we were going to do and after the safety talk I felt anything but safe. However, before long I was harnessed up, had my hat on and was ready to go!

I made sure that a few people went before me, I wanted them to test the ropes before I had a go! The SU’s Health and Safety guy was in control of the proceedings and had hold of us all on a B-Line so we wouldn’t go anywhere.

The worst part was climbing over the wall as every other time I’ve abseiled it has been once I’ve climbed a rock, so all I’ve had to do is lean back and head back down, but this meant climbing over the edge and getting yourself safely on the wall.

Luckily, we had a sort of rope ladder to put our feet in as we climbed over but unfortunately, my foot slipped out as I went over so I was clinging onto the side of the wall and feeling very unsecured, even though I knew I was safe because of the B-Line.

Eventually, I got my foot back in a stirrup on the ladder, got my other foot against the wall and once I’d got my first foot there too, started to work my way down.

The way the ropes and knots worked meant that you could lock them just by pulling, so it was just up to you to work the rope through, the only problem with that was that it made me feel like I was bouncing as I only sent a certain amount of rope through at a time. This got even worse when I started to feel like I was bouncing away from the wall as well, as we had been told that if we pressed on a window the glass wasn’t likely to hold!

I’m proud to say that I made it down, though I just kept staring straight ahead all the way down and didn’t wave to the class having a lecture on the second floor. I was glad when I reached the bottom and had very black hands from holding onto the rope so tight!

Everyone I spoke to afterwards said they really enjoyed this event and I have to agree with them. It was also timed well as today was an Open Day for prospective students and to see us doing that must have surely swayed their decision because if they come to UCLan, they can give it a go too!

My interviews with Rajay Balgobin who took part in the abseil and Ross Pimlott from the Mountaineering Club who was there helping will be up in the next few days, but for now, here are some pictures:

This is Nicola Rolph from UCLan’s SI&D who has been organising Give It A Go week.

And this is Steph Waever from the Circus Skills Club making her way down!

That’s it for this post, but I’ll be right back with my next post about Laser Tag this afternoon.

Emily J

Day Five: Redress Fashion Show

Sadly, I missed catching up with the guys at the Pro Evo tournament in Source yesterday afternoon, so my last event of the day was the Redress Fashion Show that was put on by UCLan’s People and Planet Society. It was in the Atrium and it had yet again been transformed with candles and a catwalk that was created with an outline of fairy lights.

People and Planet campaign to get fairer conditions and pay for the people who are involved in the clothes industry, but do most of the hard work such as growing the cotton and sewing the clothes. Big name shops such as Topshop and M&S supposedly pay people as little as 4p an hour to create our clothes and the aim of the event was to make people aware of this so we can all make a difference.

The show was hosted by Aron Byrne-Carter, who was approached by the organisers after they found him on Facebook and read that he was a comedian. He was pretty crazy on the stage and unfortunately, didn’t seem to realise that clapping his hands while holding the microphone was a bit noisy for us in the audience but he did his best.

The main point of the show was to showcase some of the work created by people from the group and their work was a mixture of recycled clothes, bought clothes that had been altered slightly and clothes that had been created from scratch that fitted the four themes, Earth, Water, Wind and Fire.

My personal favourites were the ‘Water’ umbrella that had sequins attached to make water droplets on it and a jacket from ‘Wind’, which also had sequins that went down the collar.

The designers had obviously put in a lot of effort and the clothes looked great and the range went from clothes you could wear during the day, stuff for going out round town and fancy dress items.

At the end of the evening two of the outfits from each theme were auctioned off and they raised a lot of money through this, with some people trying to out bid each other so the amount went up and up.

But the show had much more than that. UCLan’s Dance Club put on two brilliant performances and some of the girls from the club modelled the clothes; there were also two acts, Anastasia and Spencer who performed their own songs and some covers; a speech from the Mayor, as well as a talk from guest speaker David Jarrett from People and Planet.

Other clothes from People and Planet were also on sale and they regularly have stalls in the SU if you missed the show and are interested in what they have to offer.

However, the highlight of the evening had to be when Aron picked three lads from the audience to dance with him, one of whom was SU President, Chris Lowden, who seemed very eager to take him belt off when some Full Monty style music came on. This was swiftly replaced with something more upbeat and the rest of us looked on while they strutted their stuff and pranced around the stage!

It appeared that this event had been a huge success and Give It A Go seems to have helped to boost that. Everyone seemed to enjoy it as well and hopefully it has made more people aware of what People and Planet do and are working towards.

After the event I interviewed Aron but I think I may have lost it so I’ll have a look, but for now, here are some pictures, sorry about the quality:

This was the ‘Water’ range.

Chris Lowden and the others getting their groove on!

Here is the Dance Club, really sorry it’s such bad quality.

Right then well that’s Day Five done, be right back with Day Six.

Emily J