Never do a buffet on a Sunday..

Functions... when I agreed to be on this placement I knew this was going to be hard. I don't study functions at university and I sure as hell wasn't being taught it on my Event Management degree.

So now that I'm thinking about it, why on earth I even picked it is beyond me... But Jayne, the be all and end all of Function Managers, made it look so organised and smooth that the thought of me messing up on a regular basis seemed so far-fetched. I'm so organised. I have notepads for just about everything and my training went so well, I wrote everything I possibly could down in those three scattered days. I even trekked to Chislehurst!

However, as the old saying goes: saying something and doing it are completely different things. Because once I actually started to work as a Function Coordinator (I don't say Manager because I'm nowhere near there yet) and as soon as that happened.. it went downhill a bit.

My to-do lists became two pages long and took three weeks to complete, I wasn't spending all my time on Functions. I have done at least six functions in the three months I've been here. But I've also been the barmaid for a month, in the restaurant for a few weeks, a part-time receptionist and run-around for everyone since June. So, you can imagine, when I did have functions it would get put to the back of my mind. 

But although it sounds like I'm complaining or making excuses - I'm not. This is me learning about my place here at The Dukes Head, this is me learning about my placement and how it's COMPLETELY different to my studies. This also shows me that I'm better at events than at functions.

You may be wondering why I have a slightly strange but oddly fitting title but that's because 45 minutes ago I was told that we should never have a buffet on a Sunday because the kitchen has too much prep work for that day. I don't know about you but... I had no idea. Plus, it didn't help that with everything that's been going on lately, I totally forgot to tell my kitchen about this buffet. I'm not in his good books anyway.

So, I've come to this easy conclusion for myself and everyone else: it won't happen again. 
This week alone has been an absolute eye opener for myself and the world of functions. If you get it wrong, you really get it wrong. But cast your eyes back to the first paragraph. I didn't know anything about functions three months ago. Three months ago I was more worried about how I pronounce my words during interviews. And if I would be able to still go out drinking once I started placement (for the record: you don't.).

In conclusion, and in a way to finally feel better about myself so I don't go home crying at how crap this week has been, if I've only messed up a couple of times three months in then I'm doing okay. I'm not bad at this job and I know I can get better and learn more as the months fly by - the damage was small enough that it could be rectified quickly and noone died. I'm doing okay. As long as it's now and not on Christmas Day - we're all good!!!

So never do a buffet on a Sunday folks. Apparently in the World of Functions - that's a huge no-no.


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Placement so far..

I haven't blogged in what feels like years.

I miss blogging.

I have literally had no time for blogging. It sucks.

I'm sure you'll want to know what I've been up to! It's going to take a long read and a couple of posts but I will fill you in. Hopefully, you will learn from my silly mistakes and mishaps on everything I've done and been through.

I'm writing this because my 40 weeks of placement are over. I started, I tried, I conquered (somewhat) and now I can put up my boots and bow to the crowds.

But... I didn't sign up for a 40 weeks placement, I signed up for a year. But I feel like it's pretty amazing that I've survived 40 weeks being in a work environment without really knowing what to do, how to start and being pushed into the deep end of being in the Events/ Hospitality Industry.

Fellow Placement students will know how hard it is, you sit in the lectures when they tell you about the trials and tribulations but you roll your eyes and say "of course it's going to be hard."
But you really don't get it. You can only live it to realise.

Because it's bloody hard. And I'm exhausted.

So to congratulate myself and show you lot how hard this placement has been; Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be posting blogs I've been trying to start and never finished on all things placements, working and me.

Stay tuned.

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Reading Festival!

If I said this was my first festival experience, I would be lying. I’ve done V Festival and LeeFest (see my post on volunteering). But I’ve done nothing like Reading Festival.

So first off I spent way too much on essentials, tent and clothes – obviously. I’m a girl.

I finally learnt how to pitch my tent like two days before from my mother who came to get me beyond excited as I was sulking that I couldn’t figure out how to pitch a tent, to see said tent standing upright and looking how it actually should look. I haven’t been that surprised in a LONG time.

Deaf Havana

Packed, excited, said all my goodbyes at work, I sat at Clapham Junction for an hour waiting for my little cousin. I love that girl with all my heart – she makes me laugh and she’s bloody great but OMG. I wanted to throttle her. I people watched for a while though (sorry to say all the fit blokes were taken).

We couldn’t really agree on food. I think that’s one of the worst things about festivals. Food. What the hell do you eat – if you even eat (we all know most of the time you’re drinking). I personally think we had a good idea going (apart from the doughnuts and maybe the cereal choice… And of course the sausage and tuna pasta, that wasn’t the best idea).

Alt-J

Getting there was fine. It all went downhill from the moment we started walking from the cab to the festival. Because as girls going to a festival we bought too much. We stopped all the time – no, my cousin stopped all of the time. In my head once I stopped it became clear that I was in serious pain. I had four heavy bags plus two bags filled with food, before I offered to hold more because my cousin was trailing behind. It took near enough and hour and fifteen until we reached the White camp from Red. Now if any of my readers know Reading Festival, they’ll know that that’s a long ass walk. And that was made thrice as long because there were drunks and other people walking just as slow. So you can imagine I was not happy. I got the tent up only to find the vodka had spilled. THE VODKA HAD SPILLED. My night was ruined. My poor cousin having to put up with me and I’m trying to be as nice as possible without being rude but I’d already had a long day and it was like nearly 10pm and now the vodka had spilt all the way down my back and on my clothes.

Our Food

Another little thing… why are tents so small? Why can we not stand up in tents and I am so glad ours was waterproof. If I do another festival with tents I am making sure I can stand up because getting changed and moving around is an absolute chore. Plus, the bigger ones are so much cooler. Yes, heavier but cooler.

FRIDAY

Friday was different. I had to get used to the coldness of being in a tent, the feel of the festival, what we’d do for the day etc. Also, using the disgusting toilets. I walked into a shack like cubicle and for unknown reason looked back (I can vomit just thinking about it. That image will never ever leave my mind). I have a question for all festival-goers and festival organisers… how? And more importantly, WHY??? There must be another way surely!? If you have ever seen the scene in Slumdog Millionaire with the toilets… it was EXACTLY like that.

We saw about 13 different bands from Hadouken!, Friends, Palma Violets, Random Hand (they were the biggest surprise of the festival – so good), Deaf Havana, some Coheed and Cambria, Angels and Airwaves, You Me At Six, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Courteeners, Foster The People (had a mini panic attack no biggie) Paramore and The Maccabees (who were better than expected).

I was involved in a crowd Avalanche where you feel a whole load of force push you to the ground and when you finally realise you’re not watching Paramore anymore but on the floor crushing some girl’s legs. It’s pretty weird instantly helping others around you to get up before you can actually get up yourself. When it happens again though, you do freak out a little especially when everyone else is getting up apart from you. You’re still on the floor as you see others help each other up bar you. Yeah, peed my pants a little at that.

SATURDAY

Saturday I was more in the swing of things. I was used to just casually walking around – I felt that you had to know who were going to see so you didn’t miss anything but that feeling went pretty quickly. I could relax, drink even. But whoever gets used to those horrific toilets? I swear I watched a man walk to the toilet shack, take a deep breath looked at me and crossed his fingers. I laughed for about ten minutes waiting for my cousin to come out of the toilets who herself was trying not to be sick from the stench. God awful things.

At Lower Than Atlantis!

We walked around everywhere. We even sat and watched Green Day make an appearance through sheer luck! We didn’t exactly make it inside the tent but we heard them from outside and watched them on the big screens!

So that day we watched some Modestep, Doc Brown (he’s amazing), Max Raptor (new band, quite good), Jaguar Skills (so so good), OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), Lower Than Atlantis (love!), The Vaccines, At The Drive In, Florence and The Machine (accidently got a guy on my shoulders – don’t ask), Katy B, Metronomy (also better than expected).

During Flo & The Machine

We were meant to watch The Hunger Games and then Chronicle the film when they turned one of the tents into a small film tent but the amount of energy that is taken out of you - when we got into the tent I was out like a light!! I hadn’t even had a proper drink!

SUNDAY

We made it our business to do everything on Sunday. Ate loads, drank more (but not lots because the toilets just ain’t worth that), even made it to the Silent Disco tent which was a hell of a lot better and emptier than anticipated.

We experienced Holly Walsh, Stephen K Amos (in tears crying he was so funny), some of Gaslight Anthem, Bullet for my Valentine, Good Riddance, Kaiser Chiefs, The Black Keys, Foo Fighters.

Another thing I’m not too keen on is being in the middle of a crowd. I’m not technically claustrophobic because I can be in tight spaces but when everyone is pushing everyone for no god damn reason it gets tiring and you get so agitated. Another crowd avalanche happened during Black Keys which meant even though I was near the front of the crowd and I could see Patrick and Dan (so cool!!) it also meant I wasn’t really paying attention because I had idiots around me pushing. And a silly Welsh girl who talked too much and who also liked to fists pump to The Black Keys, nearly punching me in the face. Little bit gutted I couldn’t really enjoy The Black Keys as much as I wanted, but that just means I have to see them again. Also I had a go at some 18year old that was pushing his butt into my side and I meant, really? It’s never that.

But then again, we did push ourselves to the front-ish on purpose so we could see the Foo Fighters up close. Unfortunately only one of us really got to see the Foo Fighters up close because I decided that being in the middle of the crowd being pushed in every direction was just not worth it. So I pushed my way out – to everyone’s dismay. Until finally I found a good enough spot by the huge screen and speakers that I could sing loudly and dance around a bit.

Damm Foo Fighters were amazing.

I’d just like to say an apology to Daniel also for being kind off-ish but you caught my attention as I was coming out of the toilets. I was in such a shock from the toilets (I will never forget the sound *shudders*) and from seeing you at 11am in the morning when I have make up all the way down my face that I didn’t even consider getting my hand sanitiser out of my bag. Which is wrong. So wrong. So yeah… Next time I might actually hug you back and not tell you not to touch me…

I had a drunken cousin Sunday night which was funny and I completely rinsed out my phone battery life through playing music shuffle, which I’m delighted I won, then using the Flashlight on my phone to have a rave in the tent. Good idea at the time…

No idea who he is..

Silent disco dancing

We talked to some of the others around us but we mostly kept to ourselves. My cousin is so much better at talking to strangers than me as I sort of go into defence mode and can be rude (because you know, they’re strangers… Stranger Danger and all that… it’s what they teach you in Primary School) so I left talking to people to her but we did have small talk with everyone and of course smiled at funny little things that happened around us. And there was always funny things happening from the costumes to people shouting to “FENTON!! JESUS CHRIST FENTONNNN!!” or the usual favourites, “ALAN?? STEVEE??!! ALAAAANNNN”

So just to say I had an amazing time. I saw bands that surprised me, that I loved and that I didn’t ever think I would ever see live.

However, if I do that again, bigger tent or V.I.P (not kidding), prepare for the coldness at night and I always forget a pillow. Plus, I will invent something feasible as a toilet situation other than a she-pee and human cat litter called the Travel John Disposable Toilet so it’s got to be better than that (honestly have a research, it’s a brilliant idea).

Food for thought...

Everyone goes on about what to eat when your revising such as lots of vegetables, smoothies, lots of water and all that..

Why can't be reward ourselves with chocolate? With coffee?

Does anyone REALLY and I mean really, stick to just eating vegetables and salads when your revising? Do you really only touch water in the weeks up to the exams and don't touch some sort of energy drink, coffee or tea?

If you are one of those people who are super healthy when revising then I applaud you but... you're crazy!

If I'm revising, my head hurts, I'm people watching and I've eaten all my snacks in my bag - where am I going to go? The vending machine and the cafe for a cafe latte or maybe I'll journey for a Starbucks.

Let's be honest here;
A) it's a break and a walk around - plus, it's a sneaky little chance to look at the fitties at the library - please don't pretend like you don't do it, we all know you do
B) it's a little reward to ourselves because we're actually in the library, we are honestly trying to revise and we need a lil pick-me-up.

So you know what?, I'm sitting here with a lovely medium Costa Mocha in my hands, practicing a past paper exam (I should be writing because I'm supposed to be timing myself but this just popped into my mind), I've done my little walk around and rewarded myself so I feel better instead of crunching on boring ol' carrots telling myself that I will feel less stressed if I eat them.. because I feel real good with my Mocha right now.

Plus, if we're going on a money thing - it's costs just as much for a bag of carrots as it does for a Mocha. I know which one I'd rather pay money for and I'm broke.

Right, back to revision.

Go treat yourselves to something nice guys, you're revising and revision sucks.

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Budgeting Sucks...

No one really likes to budget, especially me. But as students we have a limit on how much we can do with our money. Savings from over the summer plus, grant/ loan money and maybe the part-time job is all we have to keep us going for a year.

Personally, I’m going to start of budgeting for each week even if budgeting each month will save me more money; I’m one to spend, not save.

I had been thinking of doing a budgeting blog post for a while (but it seemed too hard), so when SaveTheStudent.org asked me to one - I had more motivation to actually do it.

Second Year

As a second year I:

• Can’t control my rent and my utility bills will vary month to month – which throws a spanner in the work.
• Have to cut back on my nights out due to my very hectic schedule this year. (A lovely looking fourth year told me to go out as much as I can at the start of the year because second year gets hard and gets hard fast. A hint for all you first years’.)
• Save money on travelling into university as I can now walk it in.
• Will be doing all my food shopping online to resist the temptation of getting snacks.
• Must only buy things that I can justify on; my best examples of this is when I go out shopping and come across something I want (i.e. a dress), I think of all the possible reasons for buying it and how much I will use it. If I have up to 5 good, proper reasons: Dress = bought. 
• Made myself a money jar to save up for my placement year in 2012. All those coins must add up over time… 
• Am trying to find myself a job…

Breakdown

Money coming in: My loan comes in every term, money saved from working over the summer and a lovely overdraft.

Money going out: clubbing (incl. taxi’s to and from, entry fees, drinks), food (incl. alcohol), rent, bills, travelling home, getting snacks on campus.

Goals

I’ve also decided to have goals this year. It just means that I know for myself what I’ll try to cut back on.

1. Trying not to spend much while on campus. A very limited budget of £4/ a meal deal a day – or rather, just under £10 a week. 

2. Food. I personally, cannot get my food shopping bill right. I try but I always fail. So I want a limit of £30 for two weeks’ worth of food, and that will include alcohol.

3. To spend a maximum of £20 on a night out. But before you gasp on whether you think that’s high or low, this covers my taxi’s (to and from), pre-drinks, entrance fees, and for that very drunken night, a cheeky subway.

4. To allow myself 4 takeaways a month (gasp!). Yes, this does mean the cheeky drunken subway too. 

5. Beauty/ clothes: to spend under £30 a month on all things beauty and clothes.

So, I plan ahead.

Budget for week commencing (10/10/11 – 16/10/11):

Monday – Campus – 70p

Tuesday – Campus – £0-4

Wednesday – Beauty – £5, clubbing – £20

Thursday – Campus – £0-4

Friday – Campus – £0-4/ travelling back home – £5/ Meal out – £30

Saturday – Clubbing – £40 (including pre-drinks, drinks out, entry fee)/ Travel – £10

Sunday – £0

= +/- £100

Real Budget:

Monday – Campus: 70p

Tuesday – University supplies: £3/ Drinks out: £5

Wednesday – Travel, beauty, food, clubbing: £30/ TV license: £24

Thursday – Campus: £0

Friday – Meal/ Travel: £30

Saturday – Travel: £5.30

Sunday – Meal: £10

=  £106… (oops)

Analysis

Looking back on the week, I spend most of my money on nights out but I already knew that.

I shouldn’t have spent that £5 on Wednesday on food (chocolate, tissues, fish fingers, milk) and I won’t have to think about the TV license again

Saturday was my most expensive night out because it was a birthday so I won’t be doing that again for a while which also means that I can justify it.

You know, this budgeting thing might just work out after all….

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My Event (part. 2)

Our event is over and done with, now a couple of weeks ago I gave you a low down on my 90’s themed event and here is my newest post telling everything that it’s over!

The 90’s night was, thankfully, a huge success – even though we were up against Bedlam – and now here is my chance to actually give you in full detail how this night came about.

According to my group mate, this idea came about by watching the Spice Girls on a laptop and from getting very excited about our childhood and what we remembered from it, Voila! The 90’s night was born – under the original name of “Death of Pop!” It was meant to celebrate the year that Pop died… but as time went on and the confusion of others, the name changed to “I <3 Pop”. Unfortunately, this had to change again to the final “Saturday Night – born in the 90’s.” Expressing the Whigfield classic (don’t act as though you don’t know the dance…) as well as giving the obvious information about the event, it was going to be held on a Saturday and of course, born in the 90’s the main theme.

Promotion and marketing went hand in hand together and for our event our main aim was to bring back nostalgia to students. We bought rainbow dust, ultra violets and lollipop sweets as a giveaway when handing out leaflets.

We held a promotion day with a gazebo in the middle of our university campus blasting out very cheesy tunes from the gym next to us and with hand-made t-shirts (made by our very own marketing manager and her boyfriend) spent most of the day handing out flyers and dancing along to tunes (see pictures). I’m not going to lie to you, I would like to say everyone got involved but it was just me handing out flyers… everyone else was cold and it was freeeeezing!!

We had 8.45am starts handing out flyers at the gate to university, promotion flyerring on the various club nights held at our venue and every night selling tickets at the university halls.

Then, came getting people to come. Now, as we all know, Saturday is a day of doing nothing for the fellow student and we are rarely seen out on a Saturday, unless it’s a house party or there is something ‘Student special’ going on, or, you have money and like a Saturday night out. So, when the news that it was a ‘Reading week’ for a lot of students (which means a week of students all going home) did frustrated us, especially when our whole group trekked around all of halls to sell tickets (myself and a group member getting escorted out because it was deemed as “business” – don’t worry we talked to the warden the next day and she let us come back in).

We had 300 tickets available at the Student Union shop, 100 online and then another 100 or so with us at all times. We hardly sold any tickets with a week and a bit to go. We were stressing, plus, it didn’t help that our lecturers were starting to worry too.

But not to fear, we knew that like a Friday night out most students only ever bought tickets a day or two before the event and most of them would probably get them on the door. However, for our event we had hardly sold 300 in the student union shop two days before our event. Everyone would pop into the shop to ask how many were left or constantly refresh the online ticket page just in case it ever went down.

As luck and life would have it, Thursday saw us go down to 50 tickets online and we put another 100 up by 1pm that day – it did annoy us at first because, naturally we wanted it to go down to a lot less before we put more up, but by that evening it had gone down to under 100 which resulted in us having to put more up on Friday when we realised we had sold just about 400 tickets.

By 8pm on Saturday, our group could only put just under 100 tickets online. Can you believe our luck – I couldn’t explain how it all happened from selling just over 200 on a Wednesday to the Saturday being able to say that throughout the day our total had risen to 700!?

We had spent Saturday dragging our friends/ boyfriends who had come down for the day, redecorating the whole of the club in bright neon cut-out words, CDs, 90’s CD cases and bright coloured cassettes. V.I.P sections decorated with sweets, our brilliant posters and pictures of the 90’s.

Leaving the venue at 5.30pm and coming back for 8.30pm we waited anxiously for our first lecturer to assess us and that was even before everyone else turned up! Thankfully, she was overly impressed with our group – I have to admit, truthfully, we do get on together really well, because we all wanted the same thing - for the event to be a success. If there were ever anything we weren’t happy about, we could always talk about it.

So imagine, 800 of your peers once hearing the song that was a big hit, everyone knew the words to because it was a guy and a girl speaking about a popular girls toy (huge hint)… would you say that everyone erupted with joy and screams and shouts or that everyone turned their head in disgust?

Because if you wanted to go for the latter; you wouldn’t have come to our event. Every so often a classic song would come on and everyone would erupt with excitement! It was crazy!!

Unfortunately again for our group, we couldn’t drink and though we enjoyed the night we couldn't exactly go out on the dance-floor and boogie on down like we desperately wanted to.

By the time our second and final lecturer came to us, it was 1.30am – yes! I’m being serious – I was the one in charge of showing him around the venue and keeping him entertained until he left. There was no way I could not dance to Take That – Never Forget and out-right told my lecturer that I simply loved this song there was no way I could'’t put my hands up when the chorus came on. My lecturer however did not mind at all claiming that the 1990’s were his Master years and he would go out clubbing to the 1990’s music. Result! He even volunteered to come to our event.

He left at 2.15am. Champagne hit our table at 2.19am.

The night ended to us hugging, chanting in joy and congratulating ourselves. We had pulled off a sell-out event!

I’m not going to say that I went to bed that night exhausted but happy but tired and I collapsed in bed with a smile on my face. OH NO! I came back to my house – everyone asleep from already been and gone to my event – shouting at how great my event was. I walked into my bedroom my best friend who had come down just for me in my bed sleeping – I woke her up screaming at how well my event had been, how my lecturers had said to me congratulations to me and was very happy with his stay!!

I WANTED TO SCREAM ABOUT IT! I WANTED TO JUMP ABOUT AND TALK AND TALK AND TALK!!

I had even driven my cab driver crazy talking to him about what he had done, how it had gone and the wreck the venue was after everyone had left.

It was surreal over the next couple of days where our peers are still organising and stressing about their events yet to be put on and ours was over and done with!

The next meeting with our client was the most anticipated… he loved what we did, he came down to see our event and was astonished at the outcome, and more than that, he wanted us to do it again!

Us, second year events students, and a real client wanting us to recreate our event again so more people can come, more profit, more 90’s!

Our client had said to us that he was already going to make profit with his bar sales so the ticket sale profit could go to us. We were almost at the point of fainting we were so happy!

And that’s where our story gets a little confusing because, most of the second year events are for charity and the profit made would go straight to them. But this was different and even though our client said we could keep the money – University laughed at the idea; of course we couldn’t keep the money it’s the clients!

So we’ve been pushing to have the profit of the ticket sales invested into the next event – which is what our client suggested.

Its' not our fault and it's not exactly my university's fault either. According to our client, any of the events that have been put on at this particular venue has never made enough profit to cover its budget. So, this has never happened before - which we all need to take on board as a huge compliment - however, we're all still buzzing off this amazing news and this amazing night that we organised and ran as successfully as we could. We've had heated discussions with administrators who is completely clueless and because we are too - we're all going around in circles because they are leaning towards giving all of our profit away to charity – which is all well and good but not when we can half that money to invest and the other half to a chosen charity of ours.

We've got to wait until Monday so she can figure out what is best. From the talk I had with her, the profit that was made is wholly the clients and so what they do with it is completely up to them. Which then makes us say – then why can’t we have it, because he said he could have it!? But as a university, again, they’re saying “oh my! Oh no! Of course you can’t have it for yourselves…” but then they get stumped… to which we want the rest of that sentence and they can’t give it to us. Legal stuff, contracts, permission etc., it’s all in the way.

So we wait until Monday.

If you wanted to ask me what I learnt from this, it would be that I really think I can do this as my profession. Which sometimes as students I think that’s hard to say. We study a degree in something we like and are good at, something we are interested in but really it’s not what we see ourselves doing in fifteen years’ time. But as an event management course, it’s not something you can just say that you didn’t want to do for the rest of your life because it’s not that kind of course; it’s like a marriage or I guess, more permanently, a tattoo. As well, it’s your personality as I think event managers as much as they can be taught – it’s a hard profession to get into and the person has to be willing to do it.

So what I’ve learnt is that, I cannot wait to do this event again with some great people and hopefully with some money to help us. I’ve learnt to overcome my fear of being in charge of finance  and even though, I’m very slow with numbers and it takes a while to get my head around calculations etc., etc., I think, personally, I’ve done really well in keeping it all together and working out everything in a way that everyone can understand and not lose any money!

I’m overwhelmed at how well we have actually done, I had given up hope of a sell-out event (even though I made a £5 bet that it would), I was happy with about 350 people so we could break even. And I guess as well, for university to know what to do if this sort of situation ever happens again.

That, all our effort, our good team work and just the hard work and thought process we put into every single detail of the event, paid off in such a exploded way that has seemed to dumbfounded everyone; us, the client, our university and now it’s all about how we can all go about this in the correct way that we all win.

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My Event

As you may or may not have known for my second year Event Management course, our assignment is to put on and run an event. This event will be about 40% of my grade and on the night I'm being assessed by my fellow lecturers too so with the help of five others (who are great!), it will all run smoothly.

Get ready for: SATURDAY NIGHT - BORN IN THE 90'S!!!

Yes, that's right, a 90's night. Forget Calvin Harris' Born in the 80's - it's always been about the 90's!

So it got me thinking about the 1990's in general. And so, I've come up with a whole bunch on things fantastic and not so good about the 1990's:
Now, we all remember getting up early on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons, reading Goosebumps, playing either Playstation Sega or Super Nintendo. We loved CD players, danced the Macarena in our school discos, we would spend hours on the stairs with slinky's, Space Jam was the coolest movie you'd ever seen and then Cool Runnings came out and now you're torn forever.
You probably owned a Furby, a Beanie Baby and a Tamagotchi whilst drinking Sunny D and putting the alien thing in the fridge so it would have a baby - it never did.
You remember your parents owning a brick of a mobile phone or, the grey huge boxes we called computers playing solitaire.
Pokemon cards were not allowed to be played at school anymore, but we did it anyway because Pokemon was cool!
You may or may not have kicked your younger sibling in the head trying to imitate Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles but you'd run behind the sofa when 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' came on.
Before a time where we would just press the record button, we owned a hell of a lot of VHS tapes (Lion King being one of them), you literally had to jump on the bus and it cost you 20p to get somewhere.

Going on a bit ain't it?

Anyway, here is the low down to the 1990's:

News:
Nelson Mandela was freed and Apartheid in South Africa ended
The case of O.J Simpson
The Channel Tunnel opens
Prince Charles & Diana divorced
Princess Diana died - okay, that was horribly sad and the whole nation mourned
Michael Jordan ditches Baseball for Basketball - but then retires from basketball
Aryton Senna is F1 champion twice - later to die in the San Marino Grand Prix with Rolan Ratzenberge
Michael Schumacher take home the first F1 title twice
Gulf War starts
EuroDisney opens in France
The World Wide Web (or the internet) goes public
George Foreman is still winning titles at 45
Deep Blue is a computer that won chess match against a human
Dolly the Sheep - who can forget the first ever clone!!
We kinda went mad on Mad Cow Disease
Mike Tyson bites off his opponent's ear
Bill Clinton's sex scandal
Google!
Hurricane's Andrew and Mitch rear their heads
Napster is created and uploaded
oh! in 1999, the 6th billionth person is born
Tiger Woods goes from strength to strength

Movies:
Pretty Woman was released along with Ghost, Kindergarten Cop and Home Alone. Clueless, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Father of the Bride, Addams Family, Hook, Boyz N the Hood, Thelma and Louise (introducing Brad Pitt to ladies around the world).
Sister Act, Wayne's World, Unforgiven, Basic Instinct, The Bodyguard, Aladdin, Batman returns (Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman).
White Man Can't Jump, Schindler's List, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sleepless in Seattle, Indecent Proposal, Cool Runnings, Jurassic Park, Lion King. Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Four Weddings & a Funeral, Natural Born Killers, Shawshank Redemption, Santa Clause, Toy Story 1 & 2, Pierce Brosnan as 007, Jumanji, Pocahontas, Se7en, Casper, 101 Dalmations, Independence Day, Jerry Magure (you had me at hello), Scream and Trainspotting.
Edward Scissorhands, Austin Powers, Men in Black, The Matrix, Titanic, The Full Monty, The Fifth Element,  I know what you did last summer, Good Will Hunting, My Best Friend's Wedding, Armageddon, Mulan, Dr. Doolittle, A Bug's Life, Godzilla, Blade, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Rush Hour, Truman Show and The Wedding Singer.
Blair Witch Project, Sixth Sense, Notting Hill, Tarzan, Star Wars (the one with Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor) and Cruel Intentions.

Music:
We had music like Madonna's Vogue, New Kids on the Block, B-52's, Vanilla Ice and Kriss Kross.
Deee-Lite, Mc Hammer, Snap!, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Massive Attack, Salt-N-Pepa, Nirvana, Bryan Adams, TLC, En Vogue, Genesis (goodness..).
U2, Beastie Boys, House of Pain, The Cure, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Annie Lennox, UB40, Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Rage Against The Machine, Toni Braxton, Tori Amos, Beck, Green Day, Soundgarden, Rednex, Mariah Carey.
Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Shaggy, Coolio, Seal, Spice Girls, Oasis, Tupac, Chemical Brothers, Backstreet Boys, Take That, Fugees, Jamiroquai, The Prodigy and the original Puff Daddy.
Blur, Erykah Badu, Smash Mouth, The Verve, Hanson, Aqua, Fatboy Slim, Placebo, Foo Fighters, Brandy, Monica, Lenny Kravitz, Areosmith (I know which song you started to sing), Celine Dion (again, do the actions with the singing), Lauryn Hill.
Limp Bizkit, Sixpence None The Richer, Britney Spears, NSync, Korn, Sugar Ray, Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, Bloodhound Gang, Lou Bega, Ricky Martin and Destiny's Child, and Blink 182.

Television:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Rugrats, Live and Kicking, Dinosaurs, Baywatch, Jerry Springer, Home Improvement. Pokemon, Fresh Prince, Barney, The Real World (when reality TV was new and people didn't really watch).
Diagnosis Murder, ER, Friends, Ren & Stimpy (I still don't know what animals they were: red body, blue nose big eyes. long ears/ small body, pink out-y eyes.), Ricki Lake, Blossom (so good).
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Moesha, Saved by the Bell (top 5 TV shows ever), X-Files, Doogie Howser - M.D, Ally McBeal, Simpsons, Boy Meets World (my ultimate favourite).
Buffy, Will & Grace, That 70's Show, Dawson's Creek, Charmed, the Powerpuff Girls (!!), Dexter's Laboratory, Spongebob Squarepants, Family Guy, Futurama and The Sopranos.

Fashion:
Grunge is born (think baggy), Boob jobs were acceptable, the 'Rachel' haircut, Floppy curtain hair, Doc Martens, sheer clothing, fluffy cuffs, pointy kitten heels, pigtails, lots of plaits.
Goth came alive, Fanny packs, tank tops, really baggy trousers, jean cutouffs, a load more tattoos (around the bicep and around the belly button), short skirts, the supermodel was born (Naomi, Helena, Christie, Kate, Cindy).
The short crop for girls, coiffed hair for boys, glorious hand through your hair look, Nike ticks in the hair, the 'Caesar' (think pre-grey George Clooney in ER), the goatee (Kurt Cobain), beach blonde hair, showing off the midriffs, belly button piercings, lots of black and lots of flowers.


How long was the 1990's?! - you'd probably answer well, ten years long.. (oh. ha. ha. very funny) but seriously, maybe one day someone will do a blog on the 2000's or the 2010's - but let's face it, let's get real... 1990's was an alright ten years to have entered the world in (especially that 6th billionth kid).
So if someone decides to disagree, just start singing the Spice Girls, put a hand in their face (you know, 'talk to the hand') and say you obviously weren't a kid growing up in the 1990's (but just in case they were, give them a slap and redirect them to this blog).

Oh! the whole reason for this blog was to try to get people to come to my event! So the 11th Feburary 2012 at the Old Fire Station, Bournemouth. There's no other place to be on that night. No excuses.

I'll blog about it all when it's over. :)

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It's a new term!

Right now, Jezza Kyle is playing in the background, living room is an absolute mess, I'm wearing lots of layers with a hot chocolate by my side. Tuesday already.

I've been staring at my laptop screen for the past hour and a bit trying to write more covering letters! It's highly frustrating.

January is a weird period for students - Students have to get back into the routine again, you've been away from university for a whole month - back to your parents cooking for you, washing done, saving every penny possible, all your mates back again, its great! You miss university life but you can do with the relaxation and the liver could do with it too!

The new term is greeted to you by assignments deadlines, assignment marks handed back, exams, deadlines approaching sooner than you think and hopefully, your timetable has gotten very very better or a lot worse!!
For me I have three/four deadlines around the same time but my timetable is great which means more time to do work and more team meetings.

I have a 'enjoyment window' where I can go out and enjoy myself for two weeks (I'm not happy) before the hard work really kicks in and I have to actually do some work - not saying I haven't been doing any work now, I'm just easing myself into it. If this has been written down on this blog, it means that I have to keep to my word (huge sigh).

So to the first years who read this blog, I thoroughly wish I was you and I want to stress to you how much jealously I hold for you.
For the second years, go out and enjoy yourself for however long you can before every weekend and every spare time you have is spent in the library or locked away in your bedroom furiously typing. I salute you.
Oh, and for the third years/fourth years, what can I say... how do you do it?!! Tips?


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Placements

Universities try to help you get placements - which is great, however, when you try and get your own... what the hell do you do?

Yes, talking about placements now is a little late (but only a tinsy teeny bit late) but I'm just one of hundreds of thousands who are applying around this time (so don't judge me).

Again, yes, I am a twenty year old, second year student maybe I should have a handle on this kind of stuff, but that doesn't mean I know most of the answers.. it just means I'm asking more questions.
You know what's going to happen, don't you? I'm going to know what exactly to do AFTER my placement. Brilliant.

So what I'm doing is writing a email to Whatsonstage.com (apparently they're brilliant, my friend loves them) and Twickenham, Wembley, and maybe other festivals, oh! maybe restaurants/ hotels.
But I don't really have the courage to do it and if I have no courage on email, how can I do it face to face? (See how my previous post about Networking is slowly going down the drain).

Wish me luck.
I'll be maybe, hopefully, planning draft emails to send off tomorrow to companies.

Oh goodness.


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LinkedIn, You joined yet?

So  LinkedIn  is the newest social media to be on. It's the world's largest professional networking site with over a 135 million members from over 200 countries, and it started in a living room in 2002.
You won't see any of these guys on Facebook posting their pictures of them bring sick inside a taxi.  LinkedIn  is for professionals; directors, managers, people looking for jobs wanting to get to know more people like them to network with.

What is up with this word network?
University drums it into you, lecturers are definitely drumming it into me and lord knows, I do need to know how to network. But, it's a silly word and my class mates and I shiver at the word now.
Net working. NET  WORKING.  N E T  W O R K I N G !!!
However, it works. If you know the term: 'It's not what you know, it's who you know.' Then networking sums that quote into a perfect symmetrical circle. And if we took it one step further and put it onto the internet, then  LinkedIn  is that and 135 million members cannot be wrong.

According to Belbin apparently, I'm good at networking. I have the personality for it. That definitely took me by surprise, yet I do have my glorious moments of being quite sociable. I like knowing what's going on and where. But we get shy in front of new people and I struggle to ask questions so instead I smile and try not to create an awkward silence.

So, anyway, back to  LinkedIn , I've joined it - to help with my networking. I'm doing well on my contacts (thought I've been told it's not a competition); I've joined all the groups I should, following the companies I should and started rambling on to my friends about going on it too. The problem is, I haven't got the courage to post anything into any of the groups.
I have a really good idea too, that if I put a sentence about trying to get companies to encourage more placement students that maybe, just maybe, someone will take me on. Because quite frankly, I have NO idea what I want to do as a placement yet.
I need something unique, interesting and since the last company I applied to rejected me I'm a little stumped.

LinkedIn with their 2 million Company Pages and people signing up faster than two members of staff joining a company every two seconds. It's got to lead somewhere hasn't it?
If you haven't joined yet, why not? There are 14+ million graduates and students joining and if that's on the 'About Us' page on LinkedIn then that's got to mean people are taking into account that students actually have a purpose and we're not always getting drunk somewhere (even when we are).

So LinkedIn, network with people we know, post something, network with people we don't know on the group discussions, get a placement.. Deal. Deal??

Any ideas? Maybe I should just keep blogging about this type of stuff and then I might get a placement.. Well, I can dream, can't I?


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1st December!

I know right? that time already!? It's my 20th birthday on Saturday and I still have no idea what I'm doing fully on that day... and that's because; I HAVE DEADLINES.

So many DEADLINES!

People and Performance
Financial Appraisal
Consumer Behaviour
Event Management;
include into this, CV, cover letters, placement search, job search, birthday plans, Xmas plans, tattoo plans, money saving... all in TWO WEEKS! 

It's 1.13am on Thursday the 1st December. I have a lecture at 11am. And I'll let you into a secret: I haven't even started my People and Performance essay and it's due in Friday 2nd December at midday.
It doesn't look like I'm going to go to bed anytime soon, does it? and I was thinking about getting into University at 10am...?

I haven't actually got anything useful to say. Except when your talking to 2nd year students rolling your eyes when they stress to you how hard 2nd year is because you were out the night before and you thought year two was a whole year away yet.. I knew they weren't kidding but I just thought that I would have cracked the whole 'time-management' thing (like my lecturer always stresses to us about.. blah blah). Turns out I'm really not a time-management person...

This post is just to say, I'm trying my best not to panic. or stress. or cry. or get too excited about my 20th (!) birthday and forget my bloody deadlines!

And with my time-management out the window, it's back to waffling on this damn essay.

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How to stage an all-nighter

So this is probably my fourth time staging the study all-nighter. First year I was notorious for them; a assignment due the next day but you'd been too scared to complete it? pull an all-nighter. Been out way too much and you finally realise that you have to do some reading before the lecture tomorrow? pull an all-nighter. Way too much on for you to handle; you just started working and before you know it it's midnight but you can't prepare yourself to stop? pull an all-nighter. Simple.

So it's not good for you to not sleep for a day but this is university, you're not supposed to drink excessively but we do it anyway. Everything in moderation, I say.

At the moment, it's 7.46am on Wednesday morning and I've been up since 10.30am Tuesday morning. I have a 500 word literature review on economic impacts and a 2000 word essay on Entrepreneurial Development. I've finished the ED essay (however it's 3000 words) but I'm struggling very muchly on the literature review.

My all-nighter has consisted of 40minute study time and the occasional 10minute spider solitaire break. I've watched both the brand new Glee's and have been trolling through YouTube looking for anything to keep me up. As well as eating a hell of a load of chocolate bourbons; I'm surprisingly, on my second cup of coffee, stolen some Sugar Puff cereal in a mug and gone through three packets of tissues. Oh, plus the odd posts on Facebook - about absolutely nothing at 3am in the morning, then again 40minutes later thinking it's been about an hour since I last posted.

However (this is the good part), I've been to university, had a thorough talk about placements, emailed people about placements, looked at placements and part time jobs, emailed people about the fundraiser I'm organising, seen my friend do a open-mic set and do most of my review and essay.
See! Useful! All in a actual full days work.

So here are the tips I've stuck with on pulling an study all-nighter:
1. Do work. Your supposed to be studying, don't end up downloading movies and watching crap TV (even if I watched two new Glee's - I had been working really hard before that)
2. Comfy? Make sure you're comfortable. Nothing's worse than being up all night, done all that work and you've been in the most uncomfortable position that you can hardly stand... Talk about nightmare.
3. Coffee. Caffeine. Sugar. You're gonna need it. I've heard a disgusting recipe today for Red-Bull and Berrocca, can you imagine..? Pro Plus can help, so can coffee, Red Bull, Monster, Relentless.. and water helps too!
4. Time yourself. Saying you're going to study consistently for the whole night is unlikely and stupid. Give yourself a break.
5. Again, Sugar. I always think something sweet (like chocolate) gets me through the night..
6. Stretch. Stiff neck, stretch; aching back, stretch; cramping fingers, stretch.
7. Tiredness. There will be a bit where you think "Forget this, I can't stand it anymore, I need sleep." Push through, get up and walk about for a bit, drink some more coffee. Remember that this is all about getting the work done, you can sleep when you've finished it.
8. Water. Definitely have water by your side.
9. MUSIC! click through YouTube like never before, find music on your computer that you completely forgot about so you can head-bang/ mime/ sing along. Anything to keep you upbeat and lively.
10. Mood swings. You've been up all night what did you expect?
11. Reward yourself. By what else? sleep.

Really, you even considering or completing an study all-nighter means you're not very good with your time management so in actual fact, you should be ignoring this post... because you've already completed all your work right?.. RIGHT?!


Don't worry, I won't tell if you won't.

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My first day in my new house... and this is what happens.

 Before:

To this:

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