Week 7: Campus Whispers, Cake, Cuisine, Sport, Epic Double Win

First of all: campus whispers. I don't know a lot about this but I do know where it stemmed from. Weekly, I read PostSecret, an online project in which anyone can send in a postcard, anonymously, with a secret and a random selection are scanned in and posted on a blog every Sunday. There have been conventions where loooads of people have gotten together to listen to Frank Warren, who founded the idea and sorts it all out on his own, and share secrets. It's quite a popular proposal situation, too. The University of Birmingham Nightline have set up their own version of this and named it Campus Whispers. It was set up for a week to test it out but the popularity of it meant that they set up several post boxes in the Guild and various buildings on campus where students and staff can post their secrets. There is also an address to send them to to make it extra secret. See the end of this post for the address. Examples are on the Facebook group and on the original PostSecret blog.

All week my boyfriend has been dropping hints at me for a cake. "I fancy a cake." "I might make a cake." "It was really nice when you made me a cake." Having already made three basic cakes (there have been two birthdays in my flat and the other cake was made simply for the return after the winter break), I decided to search through my Mum's recipe book for a more interesting treat. I decided on carrot cake. I adore it yet have never made it, somehow. There are recipes to be found in various cookbooks and on the internet with a simple Google search. I used both Aldi and Sainsburys to buy my ingredients (eggs, bananas and carrots at Aldi, the rest at Sainsburys). The total cost was about £10 but I didn't use all of everything I bought because obviously things like flour, eggs, brown sugar and icing sugar come in larger quantities than you would use in one baking session. If I was to calculate precisely, it probably costed me about £5 for the ingredients I did actually use. Perhaps less. The kitchens in the UoB halls provide a good baking environment. I mean, all I needed was a work surface and an oven. As long as the table is tidy then it's all cushty! The cake was gorgeous, by the way.

Whilst I'm on the topic of student cuisine, I want to dispell a rumour about student food. It isn't all Pot Noodles and pizza (though I did have to recycle about twenty pizza boxes this weekend). Just today I made chilli con carne. My flatmate, Sarah, is a vegetarian and regularly cooks 'complicated' meals. The guys do tend to stick to frozen food, pasta, pizza and noodles but at least they go past the Pot Noodle expectation. It is most definitely possible to eat healthily in self catering halls. I much prefer self catering to Meal Plan, from what I've heard. Wednesdays are 'curly fries' days. There are other options but I wouldn't like curly fries to be one of them.

On Thursday we got the dreaded flat inspection letter, again. From what I believe, there is one every semester. It consists of a warden or two coming over and checking that every room in the flat is presentable and being looked after. If there's subsantial mess, you fail and have a certain amount of time to tidy it up. If you fail again, you are forced to pay for a cleaner to come round. I'm not sure about everyone else but I wouldn't want to fork out some cash for someone to root around my room and scrutinise everything. No thanks. I have to admit, my flat isn't the tidiest of flats. My room is what I call 'organised chaos' but the kitchen is potentially dangerous. It's expected that not everyone will keep up with washing their own plates and cutlery but it's got a bit out of hand in my flat. I'm hoping that the imminent inspection will be a kick up the backside for the guys and they'll get the kitchen back up to standard. I remember the first week back after the winter break - a whole week on my own in the flat with shiny surfaces and a clean smell in the air. Oh how I long for those days again.

Finally, sport. In particular, ice hockey (again). The men's final in the Olympics is on today at 8pm (midday in Canada) so yesterday I went to Bar One (the bar on the Vale) and asked if they would show the game on their big screens. It took some battering of eyelashes because that's the same time the quiz is scheduled for but I succeeded. Tonight at 8pm I will be enjoying both the quiz and the final between the US and Canada. Good stuff!


To post a secret to Campus Whispers, address the back of a postcard to:
Nightline "Campus Whispers"
Guild of Students
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston Park Road
Birmingham
B15 2TU


P.S. We won the quiz, finally! It was such a sweet victory as our rivals got second place by only one point. Sa-weeeet!
P.P.S. Canada won the Men's Ice Hockey Olympic Gold very shortly after our sweet quiz victory in overtime. 3 - 2.