Give It A Go 08: Last Few Days

Hey everyone, sorry this is later than I’d intended.

Anyway, back to Give It A Go 08!

The last event that I went to was the Detox Night that was held in the Atrium on Friday night and after two weeks of covering the events, I was really looking forward to it!!!

The evening wasn’t set out in a rigid format like I’d expected and this helped with the relaxation. As I walked in I recieved my free smoothie, there was two on offer; strawberry and banana or mixed berry and then went quickly over to the chocolate fountain, which was pure temptation! There was bananas, doughnuts, marshmallows and strawberries, amongst other things, all waiting to be smothered in warm, runny chocolate!!!

Other things on offer included Eddie Burgess, who took the Indian Head Massage class on Wednesday offering a one to one treatment of either Indian Head Massage or Reflexology for £2 for a 15 minute session, which was great value and the Virgin Vie girls were there giving people the chance to try their products and take part in competitions to win products.

The atmosphere was really chilled and the way everyone was free to do what they wanted when they wanted was great, so if you missed it, you really missed out.

As for Saturday, well there was a Paintballing trip, which I’m sure turned out great (though was probably very painful) and there was also a White Water Rafting trip, which first year Journalism student, Chloe Duckett has written a review on.

After a three hour journey getting lost in the Valleys of Wales, we finally arrived at our destination; Canolfan Tryweryn, the National Whitewater Centre.

 
We were split into two groups and assigned to a raft and an instructor. Next we were fitted in some rather fetching wet suits, boots, jackets and helmets, however these were all freezing cold so putting them on was horrible!

Once fitted, we made our way outside in the pouring rain to have a quick safety talk and to be explained of the instructions and commands. Some of the commands involved ‘get down’ and ‘all forward’.

We then had to lift the very heavy raft onto the back of a trailer, get into a mini bus which then took us to the top of the river.

Our raft was thrown into the water and then the white water rafting experiencing began, we met our first rapid named the ‘Graveyard’. This rapid seemed passable when we first entered, however we soon began to realise why it was called the ‘Graveyard’. It was an exhilarating drop into a fast flowing mountain of water.

We next met the rapid known as ‘Ski-slope’ which I personally think was the best out of the three, it seemed to never end until you hit a drop and was given face full of river water.

The final rapid to end the course was ‘Miss Davies’ bridge’, this rapid was in full front view of the café and therefore many watched. It was extremely bumpy with the raft all over the place and ending up pushed to the side, however it was extremely fun!

We then had a second attempt down the course, but this time we swapped positions on the raft and even tried to tackle the rapids backwards and sideward.

It was an extremely good day and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, the only fault I had was the bus driver and his crazy driving!!!!

Thanks to Chloe for that, think I missed out on a great trip there.

The final event for this year’s Give It A Go was a trip to Blackpool Illuminations. Now I didn’t go this year, but I did go last year and it was fantastic!!! There is a reason why they call Blackpool the Las Vegas of Britain because it’s amazing, but the lights are the best part of it.

For more info go to: http://www.visitblackpool.com/blackpool-illuminations.

And that’s it. I’ve still got to pop up the pictures and interview, which I’ll work on tonight and hopefully have up by the end of tomorrow, but apart from that it’s goodbye from me.

x

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 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