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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
The pies are lined up...
...and so are the competitors...
...and they're off!
The Hockey teams were cheering their mates on.
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!
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
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
Giving It All A Go 2008 