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

Day Five: American Football

Yesterday afternoon I decided to give American Football a go, though I suddenly realised when I was waiting for the bus down to Preston Sports Arena, that I was the only girl there!

What made things worse was that I’m quite a small person and the guys taking part were anything but, so I was pretty nervous, especially when David Cox, who was taking the session with his friend Martin Fitzpatrick, asked who would like to get punched and who would like to do the punching?!

Luckily, none of this came into effect as we didn’t have the kit to play properly, but even so I felt nervous.

There were so many wanting to take part that the mini bus had to make two journeys, so as we waited for the second group to arrive, we did some throwing and catching practise.

I knew that the ball used was similar to a rugby ball, but I never realised that the stitching on the side was there for a reason. David used it as a guide to show us where you should put your fingers and showed us the right way to throw the ball, which is to not flick your wrist but to twist your body so that your whole wait goes into it.

This was easier said than done for me, but I managed to get it to go about 5-10 metres, unlike the others who were easily throwing 10 metres plus. However, I did realise that I was as good as the others at catching, so that gave me some hope.

After being joined by the others and doing a quick warm up session, we broke into two groups and started learning some skills. The first few were all variations of each other, but basically it involved running whatever distance the thrower called changing direction and then catching the ball while running to make yourself parallel with the thrower.

Some of the variations included turning and running either to or away from the thrower and stopping and catching the ball. Again, I was better catching than I was throwing, but I gave it my best shot even after I ended up getting hit in the cheek by a ball. Someone afterwards said it looked nasty and it was, not that I was going to admit it but I couldn’t feel my cheek for 5 minutes afterwards!

To make things a bit trickier, we then learnt how to defend. We started off by doing some quick back peddling (running backwards, which is a skill in itself if you can’t keep your balance), before putting this into practise by trying to stop our mark from catching the ball.

We went on to learn how to cover the ball once we had it and this was what I was best at. Apparently, in American Football whenever someone wants to tackle you they will try to push your kit upwards so that it goes into your neck (trust me the game isn’t as dangerous as it sounds), so when you get the ball you have to keep low so they can’t get you.

My height was an advantage for this because I’m only 5’ 2” when I stand up straight, so when I ducked down there wasn’t much of me to tackle!

Unfortunately, the next stage was learning how to tackle, this wasn’t quite so good. You see when you have big guys coming up to you it’s daunting enough and knowing that you have to stop them doesn’t help. I tried my best but I might as well as been picked up and moved out the way!

To finish off we had a mini game of tag American Football. I was pleased it was tag, because that made it feel a bit safer!

To be honest most of the game seem to flash by, but the aim is to move the ball up the field to the 10-yard mark, using four or more men. Sounds easy? Trust me, it’s not, but I must admit I got involved.

It seemed to me that because I was a girl, nobody wanted to mark me. Whether they thought I wasn’t a risk or not, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining because it meant that I could catch the ball easily. Unfortunately, when I did, I kind of panicked having everyone coming towards me and forgot that all they needed to get was my tags, but I did manage to gain about a foot for our team and I was congratulated. I’ve just got to remember to run next time.

I personally really enjoyed it and the good news for us girls is that it’s a mixed league.

David and Martin wanted to do this event in the hope that people would want to make a team, as the university doesn’t already have one and I must say it looks promising as a lot of guys turned up and they all seemed keen on doing it again at the end of the session, so keep an ear out for more news in the future.

An interview with the lads will be up on this site soon but for now, here’s the photos:

Ok well that’s it for this post, but the Redress Fashion Show post will by up, hopefully before I go to Laser Tag at 1pm today.

Here’s today’s preview:

10am-1pm RAG Abseil

1pm-5pm Laser Tag

As of yet I don’t know which building the Abseil will be on, but I hope to see you there.

Emily J

Pluto On Sale Today!!!

Hey it’s me again! Forgot to mention Pluto is out today and it has a double page feature of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday’s Give It A Go events so go out and grab a copy!

Emily J

Day Five: Surfing

Just thought I’d give you an update of today’s events.

I’ve just got back from Surfing in the SU and believe me, you have to give this one a go! At only £1 a go it’s great value and it’s really fun. It’s quite quiet down there right now, but it’s still quite early and it’s on until 5pm so you have plenty of time to try it out, though try to get there before the rush.

Basically, it’s a surfboard simulator that moves around while you try to keep your balance, but don’t worry if you fall off because the base is just like a bouncy castle!

I had a go on it and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be, but it did get faster the longer I stayed on it. The trick I think is to take the movement through your hips and knees and keep your arms out so that the top half of your body is balanced. Personally, I preferred to look down, but it seems like one of those things when looking ahead is more likely to keep you upright!

One thing I will say is don’t move your arms once you have them out because I went to move my hair when it fell in my face and that’s when I lost it. The only other time I tended to loose my balance was when it changed the direction it was rotating in.

UCLan’s Surfing and Wakeboard club are running it. They hope that this will tempt more people to join and even though you might not think they go surfing a lot, they told me that in Britain there are a lot of beaches that are great for the sport.

The full interview will be appearing on this blog as soon as I can load it (I’m still having technical problems sorry), but for now, here is a picture of Danny Weir, UCLan’s Welfare Officer, giving it a go:

Just another note, I’m going to American Football this afternoon and as it’s off campus I won’t be attending the Dance Street Pop Video, so if you are, leave a comment and tell us how you got on.

Take care and get down to the bottom floor of the SU, you can‘t miss the surfboard simulator and it’s there until 5pm!

Emily J

Day Four: Speed Dating

Hi! Well Day Four yet again had lots happening for Give It A Go, but unfortunately, Thursday’s my busiest day in uni and I had an exam, so the only thing I managed to get to was Speed Dating in the evening.

The guys organising this event really put in a lot of effort because the Atrium was transformed with candles for mood lighting and all the tables lined up ready for everyone to work their way round their dates.

If you didn’t already know, this event sold out earlier in the week, but due to the popular demand, more tickets went on sale yesterday and by the evening there were about 120 people taking part!

It was a much more even balance of boys and girls then I had expected and it seemed that everyone had been worrying about it, as all us girls thought hardly any lads would turn up and, to my surprise, most of the lads didn’t expect any girls to turn up.

The idea was that we would be given a number and then as everyone had their dates they would mark that person with a yes (Y), no (N), or maybe (?) and afterwards the marks would be added up and if you got any Y’s then you would receive an email letting you know, so I’ll let you know if I get any!

Unfortunately, there were a few teething problems, as not everybody’s number ran in order and it was so loud that sometimes it was a struggle to hear what your partner was saying. But it still added to the fun, especially when nobody could hear that it was time to move on and even when some did, they still stayed with the person they were talking to, leaving you sat at an empty table!

The night was so random and that includes some of the people I met! It was a much larger mix of people than I expected and it was a great way of meeting people who you wouldn’t usually talk to.

Everyone that I did spoke to said they were enjoying it and one guy admitted that even if you didn’t meet your soul mate, you were likely to make some friends, though if I see any of them today I doubt I’ll be able to say much as my throat is sore!

I think it’s something that definitely should be repeated in the future and by the looks, it was successful enough to do that. Just one plea for next time; when we are called through from Source, can the person collecting us not shout “Speed Dating” at the top of their voice, it was slightly embarrassing!

I’m really sorry I can’t tell you more about yesterday and that I didn‘t get any pictures from Speed Dating, but if you went to the Hair and Make-Up Session, Self Defence, CV Workshop, Paintballing or the Table Top War Gaming event, or if you get lots of Y’s from last night, then leave a comment.

Here’s the list of today’s events that I’m going to:

11am-12pm Surfing

2pm – 3pm Dance Street Pop Video

3pm – 4pm American Football (If it’s off campus, I won’t be going to the Pop Video)

4pm – 5pm Pro Evo

7pm – Onwards Redress Fashion Show

Take care.

Emily J

Day Three: Circus Skills

My last mission of the day was to try out Circus Skill. I’ve walked past these guys most Wednesdays and it always looks like they’re having a good time so, after missing it on Monday when they did magic as well, I had to catch up with them.

I was greeted by Jamie Weston, Chairman of the club, who introduced me to Steph Weaver, the club’s treasurer who was going to teach me how to spin a plate.

Spinning a plate may sound easy, but it wasn’t as simple as just placing the plate on top of the stick and spinning it, I had to learn how to spin it around the rim, going faster and faster until I could just stop and the stick would somehow end up in the middle and I pleased to say I did it after a bit of practise.

Luckily, we weren’t using really plates otherwise there would have been a lot of mess with the amount of times I dropped mine, but it was really good learning how to do it and I was determined to get it right in the end. I even went on to balance the stick, with the plate spinning on top, on the palm of my hand and learnt how to throw it in the air, catch it and still keep it spinning!

Jamie told me that he joined the club to learn how to juggle and he had been part of it ever since and I’m not surprised, it’s a really addictive activity. I kept thinking “just one more spin” even though I needed to get back to write up my review for Pluto’s feature, which is out on Friday.

I didn’t manage to get any pictures of this event, but they are in the Atrium every Wednesday and if you are determined enough to keep trying and want to learn some great circus skills, you should think about joining them.

Well that’s it for yesterday sorry. I didn’t get to do any of the evening activities as I was watching Biffy Clyro at 53° , but if you went to Kung Fu, the Cocktail Master Class or took part in the Pool Tournament in the evening, or went Snowboarding during the day, leave a comment.

Nb: Thanks to Ricki Dewsbury for this video of the Cocktail Masterclass: http://youtube.com/watch?v=umZi1epSYCI

And just before I go here’s today’s preview, sorry it’s a bit empty, got lots of lectures, but if you go to anything leave a comment:

3pm-4pm Self Defence

7pm-10.30pm Speed Dating

Thanks, have a good day.

Emily J