Week 7: Experiencing Fab n Fresh

Saturday was definitely the highlight this week. It was my friend's birthday so she planned a musical-themed night out at Fab n Fresh, the weekly Guild event. Basically, Joe's Bar cranks up the volume and dims the lights for a night of dancing and general awesome times. I can not believe that that was the first time I'd been. It's just a walk away from halls so there's no need for saving a tenner for the taxi there and back and entry is only £4 with your student ID card.

In other news, the Northern Society have now planned their events for term one. Wahey! We had to send off a grant application so the Guild can partially fund the transport for two of our events as well as help us out with promotion expenditure. The deadline for that is this coming Friday but for it to be checked, with time for ammendments, Monday was the deadline. Because we'd been so busy over the weekend with personal ventures, we managed to get the email sent to the office at about half past midnight and got a reply thankfully this morning. All is good! We were even commended on how clear our descriptions were.

I'm at home this week, in Doncaster, so whilst I can report on all the goings on they won't be applicable to everyone. Might still be an interesting read.

I'm the lion!

Week 3: Keeping Busy

This week I've managed to do something every day which meant I was out of the flat or not in the mood for revising. I don't recommend that but it does mean I have a fair bit to report back on.

First of all, on Tuesday I decided to treat my boyfriend to a Big John's (Selly Oak's answer to halal KFC - with proper chips) after an exam he was dreading. Thankfully, it was a lovely day so we could eat it outside Joe's Bar (at the Guild) and enjoy the sun. Before coming to Uni, I generally didn't even think about take-away food because I always cooked it myself or my Mum would cook. My association with take-aways was (and still is, mostly) grease and fat and horrible stuff. I found Big John's, though, and treat myself to a dinner from there every few weeks. Ah and the milkshakes are gorgeous. Proper value for money!

Wednesday was insanely busy. I had to call for a committee meeting in the morning, for the Northern Society, because we needed to expand our committee and talk about a few more important things. That was really productive and we had a good discussion, coming up with many ideas both for now and for the next academic year. Then I went off to the centre to find a dress worthy of wow-ing my boyfriend as he had asked me out to dinner at Strada at the ICC in Brindley Place. I headed straight to New Look because I love their clothes and their prices are student-friendly. After spending about an hour trying on and deciding, I went up to pay and noticed they were running a limited student discount. Whipping out my NUS card, I slashed a £25 dress down to a £20 dress. Good times! On a different note, I'd reserved some dumbbells from Argos (in the Pallisades, the shopping centre attached to New Street and the Bull Ring) so I headed back to pick them up and go back to Tennis Courts to get ready. That was a silly idea. Dumbbells are heavy! I managed to get them back to my flat without any help but weighed the box - I'd been lugging about 20lbs (I weighed my weekly shop last week and that was about 30lbs altogether, too). Dinner was lovely. Strada is always a very good place to eat. The prices are not too bad and there's usually a discount voucher either online or laying around somewhere in a voucher book (about 10 got shoved through my flat door a while back so that's a lot of discounts right there!). For two main meals and a drink (I stuck with water, boyf had a coke - which is served in a posh bottle), we paid around £12. Well, when I say 'we', I mean 'he'.

Quite a few of the people on my course get involved in the Guild's many performance student groups. I've been to see them in Equus (amazing) and on Thursday I went to see Alice in Wonderland. The design of that piece was absolutely fantastic. The costumes were brilliant, the set was awesome and the use of lighting, especially to show Alice growing and shrinking, was really well thought out. Even if you're not naturally into theatre or performing, you should definitely go and see any of the many productions put on by the various performance groups. Even just to appreciate how much effort they put into them - whilst maintaining a good standard of work in their own degrees. Brilliant.

On Friday it was the End of Year Drama night out at the o2 for Propaganda. I don't really go out a lot but because this was the end of year one, I decided to make an effort and join them. I put the message out that I would provide my flat for the meeting point and we'd all go to Propaganda from there. The night was really fun and more people than I imagined turned up, which did wonders for my social esteem. I was able to let off some steam by dancing the night away to really good indie tunes and eventually getting back to my flat at about 3.30am. I'll definitely be joining the drama people for a night out again soon. It was good to see everyone again after finishing the year and not quite realising we had no more classes together until October.

This weekend has been a nice relaxing one, so far, and the only thing left to do is go to Bar One for a few games of pool and see if anyone turns up for the pub quiz. Due to exams, the quiz has been sparse for the past couple of weeks. They'll probably cancel it soon then restart it back in October. One thing I haven't indulged in is a BBQ on the Vale, which I assume is allowed because disposables are being sold in Cost Cutter and I haven't heard of anyone being told off for it, yet. That must be done before term ends completely.

Final Term: Week 1: Election Hosting and the Two Bars

Firstly, the University of Birmingham hosted the political debate this week. One of the things promoted by the Guild was the vote for students campaign. They encouraged everyone to wear either a Vote for Students shirt or just a pink themed outfit. The first thing that sprang to mind, apart from 'I don't own any pink' was 'I can't wear red, then'. I'm all for this particular campaign because it's about tuition fees and such but the first thing I think of when a 'wear -colour-' day comes up is either the lack of that colour in my wardrobe or the clash of colour that I will likely choose instead. I wore blue on Thursday. No pink.

Aside from the colour grumble, having the UK's media on campus was mental! It was a perfect opportunity for me and my friend because we both wanted to get some work experience in the TV industry so rather than shamelessly standing in the background of a shot we went and spoke to a few people and got some contact details. There was definitely a buzz around campus and everyone was excited to see Mandleson roaming free with a camera on him.

In other news, Joe's Bar has been moved and prettied up! Joe's is the bar in the Guild of Students on the main campus, where you can go for a drink or some food any time of the day and where quite a few events are held in the evenings. I love spending time in Joe's - even more so now that it's all done up. The prices are really good, too. For half a four seasons pizza (which, to me, could well have been a full pizza as it was a generous half) it's £3. A huge portion of chips (and I mean HUGE) it's about £2. Absolute bargain. It's all freshly made in the kitchens of Joe's, too, so it's very good quality food. If I wasn't so conscious about calories, I'd have my lunch there most days. There's also the biggest dessert in the world (perhaps not an official claim but it is pretty huge) which is aptly named the 'University Challenge', with the tag line 'do you dare or do you have to share?'. Fantastic! The onion ring tower also looks interesting. ...now I'm hungry.

Last night I met up with one of my friends from back home. He brought his BCU (Birmingham City University) friend along and I brought my boyfriend along so we all sat on Bar One (the bar on the Vale) and had a drink together then played some pool. Our original option was to go to Broad Street but considering it was a Friday night we didn't want to get caught in the mass crowds of people going to Gatecrasher and such like. Bar One always has a good atmosphere and plays good music so it was definitely a better idea. It's £1 for two games of pool (or 60p for one) so we played a good few games, which was a welcome return as I played a lot of pool in the last two terms and was itching to get back there. On Sunday I'll be returning to Bar One for the Pub Quiz again. Not quite sure what our team name should be this time round.

Through the whole of the Easter break I've been doing work and avoiding doing work. Thankfully, I only have one essay left to complete then only one exam on the 19th May then I'm done for first year. I'll still continue blogging after I've finished because I'll still be in Birmingham for the rest of the term. The contract for halls ends on July 4th and my second year house contract starts on July 1st so I'm taking advantage of that convenience and will be moving my stuff over gradually. But, as I said, I still have one essay to complete. That's in for Tuesday so I better get cracking!