Day Twelve: Journalism Masterclass

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tata. x

Day Eleven: Cooking Masterclass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tata. x

Extras: Wine Tasting and Speed Dating

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

And who says romance isn’t dead?!

 

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

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

Em. x