Give It A Go: Day Six

Right then, well I hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage of GIAG’s first week, I’ve certainly enjoyed covering it.

Unfortunately, I won’t be specifically covering anything this weekend because I really need to catch up with uni work and sort out my pages for Pluto, but never fear, here is a quick guide to the weekend’s events!

This morning saw a coach load of excited UCLan students going off for the weekend to take part in the Bear Grylls Survival Weekend. The group are travelling to the Llyen Peninsula in North Wales where they will be learning how to look after themselves in the wild, setting up shelters, finding food and cooking for themselves.

The menu is set to include mackerel, spider crabs and possibly even rabbit, so lessons in catching, killing and cooking your food will be included!

The other trip that left UCLan this morning was on its way to Chester Zoo! I have to admit I love that place, it’s not far from where I live and it is the UK’s number one zoo.

They have over 7000 animals and 400 different species, so it’s no wonder more than a million people visit every year. They also do a lot of conservation work and house some of the most endangered species we have on the planet.

For those that are visiting today or have done in the past, you will know what a fantastic place it is and a great day out that you will remember for a very long time and for those that have never been, don’t worry that you missed the trip this time, it isn’t far away from Preston (about an hour in the car) and the prices aren’t that bad either (£13.50 with a valid NUS card).

Chester Zoo is also in need of people to make donations so they can continue their great work. Take a look at the website: http://www.chesterzoo.org.

And for those of you who have stayed in Preston this weekend, don’t miss out on the two great events taking place at the uni today.

In about five minutes the Rounders Tournament, BBQ and Football is due to kick off at Source so get on down there and Give It A Go and tonight sees the return of the Roller Disco at 53 Degrees!

This was a huge success last time when it involved a trip to the roller disco place in Manchester, but due to the massive number of people who wanted to go, it has since been brought to 53 and this year sees its return as part of Fresher’s Week and GIAG 08.

Falling over, leg warmers, bad skating and neon skirts are a must at this 80s cult night and I hope those of you who go don’t have too many bruises in the morning.

And if you do take part in any of these events, drop me a line at pfeatures@uclan.ac.uk and I’ll pop your pics, reviews, comments and interviews up on the blog!

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back later this evening with all the details about tomorrow’s events!

Take care,

Em. x

Days One – Five Interviews

Hey guys here’s all the interviews I’ve gathered from the first five days. They are linked through to YouTube, so enjoy!

Em. x

Jonathan Andrews talks about the Abseil – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsm7nuw92GM

Summer Mouallem talks about the Arabic master class – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tU_rhAnOPm4

John Turner talks about the Chinese language master class – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FYU_oR1Inbc

Hayley Stubbs talks about the Cocktail class – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xZHqv9g9wno

Wojciech Falenta (Chek) from Mojito in the city centre talks about the Cocktail class – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l4f8HJgDKM4

Nicola Rolph talks about this year’s Give It A Go – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_iDq9lOwGvg

Daniel Haynes talks about the Pie Eating contest – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wRJEacTP7zA

Debbie Williams talks about the Publishing event – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A5aMBhJoR8c

John Turner talks about the Wii Boxing tournament – http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ73Gnj60yI

Day Five: Photos

Day Five…Acts of Kindness and Abseiling.

The Acts of Kindness Wall.

 

Gingergly making his way over the wall is Jonathan Andrews...

 

…before steadily making his way down as those waiting their turn look on.

 

So, that’s it for today. I’m going to work on the interviews tonight, but for those who are giving something a go tomorrow, have fun and I’ll be putting up some details about the events for those that aren’t going on them.

Take care. x

Day Five: Acts of Kindness, Getting Published and Abseiling

Hey, hope you’ve all got that Friday feeling and are looking forward to the weekend and the major events Give It A Go has planned!

But, first of all I better let you know what I’ve been up to today.

Well, earlier on I went to the ‘How To Get Yourself Published’ session. Our tutor for the event was Debbie Williams, who before taking up her current role in UCLan’s School of Journalism, Media and Communications, worked as a ‘Children’s Buyer’ for Waterstones.

Debbie’s job specialised in children’s books and she chose nearly every childrens book that Waterstones sold for ten years, that’s some responsibility I think you will agree!

But, back to the event! Today was really a brief introduction into how to go about writing any book, not just a children’s one.

To start of with the key is to do your research. There are many different trade papers, year-books and websites that can give you an up to date look at what publishers are looking for. For instance, there is currently way too many fantasy children’s book available due to the brilliant success of Harry Potter, so if you’re planning on writing one, I’d leave it a few years and go for a more niche market.

Following on from that Debbie advises that you write to the publishers asking what they would like to see more of and any advice they give you, from telling you how to lay out a manuscript and what themes they would like to see, through to the fact that they might only speak to agents and not directly to authors should all be taken very seriously. If a publisher has told you not to do something and you do exactly that, they won’t be very impressed and your name might be remembered in the future.

From there your book writing can taking any number of twists and turns. The publishers might want you to write a few chapters and synopsis, through to the entire story that turns into a series. The key is to keep ahead, have stuff prepared, do your best to sell the idea and be professional, but don’t forget to be thick skinned if they don’t like your ideas.

I have to say this event was very interesting. Although I’m not looking to write any sort of book at the moment, but it certainly gave me an insight into how I should go about it should I ever want to write one. It also seemed to be interesting for those taking part, as they walked out with plenty of notes.

After that I popped down to see how the Acts of Kindness board was coming along and the progress was steady but looking good.

Ideas ranged from cooking a meal for you friends, to sending a box of cough sweets to an ill friend, so for those of you that haven’t sent your cards back in yet, do it on Monday so the board can be filled up!

I think this is a really nice idea and it’s a really positive thing to have in the student community. The ideas that I’ve seen are great and I might do a few myself.

The final event for the event was the abseil down Harris Building. It commenced at 1.30pm this afternoon, but I can assure people that it was still going strong at gone 5pm this evening so I think it’s safe to say this event has proved pretty popular.

Due to the big numbers I didn’t take part this year, but I can assure you from last year (and you can read my entry from last year for yourself on this blog!) it really takes some guts to climb over that wall, even if those on the ground don’t think it’s that high up!

On that point I have to say it pretty funny watching the bemused students coming out of Foster Building who did that thing, you know when someone else is looking up so everyone copies just because they’re being nosy?! I think a few were a bit envious, but I heard quite a few say that it’s something they could never do!

Still it was good to see so many students taking part and enjoying themselves (or not as the screaming from some suggested!) because that’s what GIAG and being part of the SU is all about.

Now, before I go I just want to say thankyou and sadly, goodbye to Nicola Rolph, who is leaving her job in the Student Involvement and Development (I think that’s what it stands for anyway) centre in the SU.

Nicola has been behind GIAG since it first took place last February and it is thanks to her and Kelly Burdett, our Activities and Participation Officer that GIAG is what it is.

So thanks Nic, take care and good luck with your new job.

And that’s it for now.

I’ll pop all my pics, interviews from this week and let you know bout the weekend’s events in about an hour, but right now I need my tea!

Tata. x

Day Five: Get Yourself Published, Abseil and Random Acts of Kindness

Hey guys hope you’re all ok and not getting too tired with all the activities that are going on.

Today’s events list looks pretty exciting. For those of you doing the abseil, good luck. I did it last year and really enjoyed it once I got going, just remember to wear shoes with grip, don’t go near the windows because they are too old and weak to take any weight and if there’s a class going on as you’re going down, give them a wave!!!

Now I’m a bit snowed under with work today so I’m giving the Futsal a miss. It’s on right now, so if any of you are going to it get in contact with how it went.

For those of you that don’t know, Futsal is basically, indoor football. Two teams of five compete, but you can have up to seven subs. It’s very similar to five-a-side football, but you can’t use the walls to rebound the ball. It’s name is derived from the Spanish and Portuguese words for indoor football.

So, I better be off for now.

Speak to you later.

Tata. x

Days One – Four Pics!

Day One…Wii Boxing and Cocktails.

This was a hard fought final...

...but at least cocktails were on offer afterwards!

Sorry these couple of pics aren't great quality......I'd left the batteries for my camera at home!

Now I’m really sorry I have no pics from Day Two, but if I can get my hands on some they will be going up.

Day Three…Pie Contest!

The pies are lined up...

...and so are the competitors...

...and they're off!

The Hockey teams were cheering their mates on.

The competitors line up for the final (SU President looking a bit like Eminem there!).

It was a hard slog to the finish but worth it all the same!

Sorry I don’t have a pic of the winning team with their prize or of the Clubs and Socs Fair, if I can get my hands on some they will be going up!

Day Four…Chinese Language.

Sorry I don’t have any pics from this event either, but their wasn’t much I could take! But, if you have some of any of today’s other events send them to me at pfeatures@uclan.ac.uk.

See you all tomorrow. x

Day Four: Chinese Language

Hey I’m back again, slightly sooner than expected, but still I thought I might as well let you know about today’s events.

The only activity I’m attending today is the Chinese Language Masterclass. Unfortunately, the Rugby 7’s and the Preston Cycling trip clashed with a lecture and I won’t be at the Wine Tasting as I’m off the SU Media Meeting, and I hope to see a few of you there too!

Right then, back to Chinese. Well, I’m glad to say that unlike Arabic, I managed to catch all of the class and unlike Arabic, Chinese looked slightly easier to pick up.

Firstly, we learnt that there are five different tones, which can alter the meanings of certain words. A – above the word means it’s flat, / is up, V is up then down, \ is up and nothing at all means it’s neutral. This is a pretty important point to learn because it really makes a difference with how you pronounce things, but apart from that the language is pretty straight forward.

Of course there are some letters that are pronounced differently and the word order of phrases is different, but to actual pronounce words is much easier than other languages.

This not to say that it was easy, trust me, it takes a while to work out which tones goes where and that’s before you look at the writing, which I’m glad to say we didn’t go anywhere near, but we learnt the basics and it certainly gave me a taste for more.

Along with basic polite introductions, learning how to count and order food, we also went on to learn some words from the Beijing Olympics, which was really interesting.

Sadly, the tutor left too soon for me to get an interview and I didn’t catch her name, but if I do I’ll post it up.

Right well that’s it for now. I’m popping all the photos up tonight and will work on the interviews tomorrow so keep an eye out and tomorrow I’m covering Futsal, Random Acts of Kindness, Getting Yourself Published and the Abseil so see you there.

Take care, night! x

Day Three: Clubs and Socs Fair, Back To You and Pie Eating Contest!

Hey guys, sorry I didn’t blog yesterday, had a quite a bit on as I’m sure most you did because the SU was buzzing all day!

On a bum note, Lacrosse was cancelled yesterday. I think there was a lack of interest and a lack of equipment, but not to fear because the Clubs and Socs Fair was packed!

I hope all of you turned up to see just how many clubs and socs UCLan has available and that most you joined at least one. I have to admit the cost to join the clubs this year put me off slightly, but they all seem to have so much planned that each and everyone will be worth it.

From what people have told me the event was busy all day, with a steady stream doing the rounds, which this year included the Atrium and upstairs in 53 Degrees.

It was nice to see how passionate (and sometimes scary) people are about their clubs and societies, like the Poker guys who tried to reassure me it’s not just about gambling and the scary little Jitsu man, you know who you are!

Also, I have to mention how Mountaineering seemed to be swaying people with their home-made cakes and buns, a tip for the other clubs and socs next year I think!!!

For those of you that did join up, I’m sure you will get a lot out of being part of a group or team. It’s a great way to get to know people and it’s one of those things that makes being at uni (and especially UCLan) the great experience that it is.

As for the rest of the day. Well, once the various clubs and socs had tidied all their stuff away, UCLan’s first ‘Back To You’ event was held in Source.

Now this is something pretty special and it will carry on after GIAG has finished. The reason being that you can earn points for your club or society by drinking!!! Great excuse to get drunk huh?! Well, I’m not going to advocate getting drunk so remember it’s all drinks, not just the alcoholic ones!!!

But, getting back to the point! Last night was the first night for the event and it will be happening every Monday and Wednesday from now on so don’t forget when you pop down to Source because the points equal money for your club/society.

During last night’s event, the UCLan Pie Eating Contest was also held. Competition was fierce and the Men’s and Women’s Hockey Teams were out in force, cheering on each other and shouting out the randomest chants!

Basically, teams were made up of five people and each person had to eat their pie before the next could start. The winning team were the first to eat their five pies.

The six teams competing were; Chipmunks, Don’t Be Shy Show Us Your Pie, Spanky and His Fat Friends, Blazzin, Why Cry When You Can Have Pie and the Pieneers.

Antics during the two heats included pies throwing, people pretending to eat their pies, but then hiding them in a napkin and the SU President, Gavin Jones breaking his up into his glass of water and then downing it (urgh!).

The heats were close and surprisingly slow (I think the pies, or pasties as they turned out to be, were a little bit more of a challenge than everyone had expected), but before the competitors had the chance to feel a bit peckish again, the final was ready to commence.

I think now would be a good time to let all you pie enthusiasts out there know that if you didn’t take part, you missed out on steak and potatoe, big breakfast and steak and stilton pies in the heats, followed up by chicken tikka in the final!

As you can imagine, by this point the competitors weren’t exactly hungry for pie, but they did their best and the winning team, with a time of 5 minutes 46 seconds was Why Cry When You Can Have Pie, who narrowly fought of the Chipmunks and Don’t Be Shy Show Us Your Pie.

The winning team included; SU President, Gavin Williams, Rob Ferguson, Andy Greenacre, Daniel Haynes and a guy from the Cricket club (sorry I didn’t get your name, you left too soon!) and the points went to Cricket and Snowboarding.

And what did they win? You guessed it…a pie!!! Not sure what flavour, but lets put it this way, it didn’t look like they were going to eat it any time soon!

That’s it for yesterday’s events. I’m in the Pluto office at the mo so I can’t upload any pics and interviews, but they will be here by the end of the day I promise, even if I’m up until 1am!!!

Chat to you in a bit.

Em. x

Day One: Cocktail Masterclass and a quick round up of Day Two

Hey everyone, really sorry I didn’t get back on here last night, felt a bit too tipsy after the cocktails! I got to say, it’s the cheapest way I’ve seen twenty-odd people get tiddly!!!

Right then, so to start where I left off. Last night I headed on down to the Atrium where an array of spirits, liquors and mixers had been lined up and the guys from Mojito in town were ready and waiting to show us how to make some great drinks.

To start off with we were all treated to a cocktail called Cham 69 (or at least I think it was called that) and then a choice of either sambuca or tequila, which really helped to loosen everyone up and started off the tipsy feeling in me (I’m such a lightweight it’s ridiculous!!!).

Throughout the night we were offered more drinks if we wanted and Blue Lagoon and Sex on the Beach were available, but the really fun bit was when we each got the chance to make a cocktail. I’ll be putting up some pics tomorrow of people making their various ones and how they all turned out, but I have to say I don’t know how the guys working behind a bar remember everything that goes in! Not to mention not breaking anything when they are flinging the glasses and bottles around (which I’m reliably informed is known as “flailing” in the trade!), but not much of that went on last night.

When it came to my turn I made a Key West Cooler, which has at seven different ingredients that included vodka, midori and I think orange juice went in there as well. I was pretty pleased with the effect too because it is meant to be layered and I think everyone who made a layered cocktail achieved it so we were all pretty chuffed with our efforts.

One tip not to forget when making your own cocktails is: one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak!

I think the highlight of the evening was when Hayley Stubbs had to make and drink a Flaming Lamborghini. I have absolutley no idea what went in it, but it was meant to be on fire when she drank it (though there wasn’t enough sambuca left to get the effect) and as she drank it two more shots were put in it! Hope your hangover wasn’t too bad this morning hun!

But, in all seriousness the idea for the masterclass wasn’t so that everyone could get drunk for £2.50. It was a great way to try out drinks that you may or may not like and learn a few of the techniques needed to make them. The question and answer session that the guys did was helpful, but my only wish was that there was a receipe list handed out at the end.

Interviews with Hayley and Chek who runs Mojito will be up tomorrow with some pics.

So then, on to today. Well, I’m happy to report I didn’t have a hangover, just a lecture 😦 but after that was done I headed off to the Arabic Language class that was on.

Unfortunately, I did get to this half way through, which didn’t help me to pick it up, but I have to say I found out more than I had though I would.

The booklets that we were given were fantastic and we used them to spell our names and learnt how to hold a basic conversation in Arabic.

But, I also learnt how important it is to be polite in their culture. It might sound like a nag but I think too many of us tend to forget our ‘P’s and Q’s’ in today’s world, but our tutor for the session, Summer Mouallem told us how important politeness is and how easily you can offend someone if you forget.

Now, I have to admit I struggled to pick up the lingo and the writing still doesn’t make sense to me and I wasn’t great at getting my tongue around some of the words, but I think it was a great taster session for anyone hoping to take up the language as an elective or certificate and even if they chose not to do Arabic it was a great advertisement for the University’s language department.

An interview with Summer and some pics will also be going up tomorrow.

So then, what else happened today I hear you ask?! Well, to be honest today was a relatively quiet day for GIAG 08. Unfortunately, Irish Dance Class was cancelled due to lack of interest, but the Ikea trip certainly generated enough people’s attention and the Cooking and Eating event held tonight in the Atrium was a sell out by lunchtime.

I didn’t go to either of these due to other commitments, but I can tell you that those of you who went to Ikea should have gorgeous looking rooms and houses now (I have to say most of room is covered in Ikea products) and those that went to the masterclass should have some great ideas to eat healthy this year. Not only that, but you should be pretty stuffed too!!!

I went to a similar masterclass last year and it’s still on the site if you want to read the review, but for those who missed tonight’s event, have a look to see if the Cooking Masterclass taking place next Thurday (2nd Oct) evening isn’t fully booked yet. It’s a similar event and a good excuse to try some great grub!!!

Right well that’s all for now, but come back tomorrow for those pics, interviews and little bit more about what’s been happening in GIAG, including the Clubs and Socs Fair, Lacrosse and the Pie Eating Contest in Source tomorrow night!!!

And if you have been to any of the events or are planning to go, let me know, send me your reviews, pics comments and anything else you think would great on the site and I’ll get them up. My email is pfeatures@uclan.ac.uk.

Remember, it’s your union, your GIAG and this is site is yours too so let everyone know what’s going on!!!

Bye. x

Day One: Drama and Wii Boxing

It’s all go for UCLan’s ‘Give It A Go’ 2008, but what have you guys been up to?

Well there was a pretty good turn out at the Drama Improvisation group and it was a real laugh. Although I only joined in half way through the Drama group seemed to have loads of activity ideas up their sleeves, including a game called “News Conference” when three or four people are sent out a room, the rest choose a celebrity that each should be and when they come back in they have to gues who they are judging by the questions they are asked.

Another great game was an improvisation game when you are given a phrase, such as “Hole in one” and have to create a small sequence around that phrase.

Mine was “Face your fears” and the following scene revolved around myself being an arachnophobic Jordan on “I’m A Celebrity…” doing a bush-tucker trail!!! What was even more funny was my partner for the scene, Jesse (p.s. I’m sorry if I’ve spelt your name wrong!) pretending to be Peter Andre singing “Mysterious Girl”!!!

I had a really good time with the drama guys and if you are interested in joining the group they will be at the Clubs and Socs Fair on Wednesday in 53 Degrees.

But, if you’re not a fan of acting then you can always join and help out with the script, directing and technical jobs that help to make a performance come to life.

Hopefully, I’ll manage to get a few words from the group over the next few days and when I do they’ll be going straight up on here so keep an eye out and don’t forget they are doing a Stage Make-Up workshop on Monday too.

Onto my next task of the day, which was the Wii Boxing Tournament being held in Source. I’ve got to say I really like the refurb in Source, I never realised it was such a big space and I get the feeling I might be spending many an hour in ‘The Snug’ enjoying an alcoholic beverage!!!

But anyway, back to the boxing!!! I really liked the way there was a little ‘ring’ set up around the play area, it added that little extra touch to the event and it was great to see people having a go even though they had only turned up to Source so they could have a pint or two.

The competition to be named ‘UCLan Wii Boxing Champion’ was fierce, but after several well fought rounds and a lot of cauliflower ears, Mike Hitchen and Sandeep Mistry made it through to the final.

However, although Mike but up a brave fight, I think the exhaustion got the better of him and Sandeep gave him one heck of a punch that set him crashing to the floor and knocked him out!

Now, I have to admit I didn’t actually take part in the tournament, but I have played the game before and had a quick go afterwards and it really does make your arms ache so well done to all who took part.

Although the uptake for boxing was as great as people had hoped, I think this year’s ‘Give It A Go’ is still getting on it’s feet, so spread the word around so more and more people take part.

However, one event that has sold out is the Cocktail Masterclass, which is taking place in half an hour so if you’re going I’ll see you there and hopefully I’ll be sober enough to write the review up when I get home later!!!

Cheerio for now!

Emily. x

P.S. when I get home I’ll be putting up some photos of today’s events and an interview with John Turner who took part in the Wii Boxing so keep an eye out!