This is so true....

For all the kids who were born in the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's & 70's

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on Sky, no video tape movies or DVDs, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

New Start...

Thought it was time to start updating this a little more often than I used to.

Today I'm mostly trying to revise for an exam on Tuesday, whilst mildly panicking about the fact I haven't even started revising for my exam on Wednesday yet. The Tuesday one I think is the hardest exam I have, and the Wednesday one is a great lecturer who usually gives great marks even if you don't know what you're talking about - he's a sympathetic chap like that really.

I then have Thursday, Friday and Saturday to revise for the four I have next week... after that the panic should be over and I can start really working on my dissertation - which has been put so far down the bottom of my list of things to do that I think its starting to go mouldy.

I am desperate to start being much more adventurous with my cooking, so I'm going to Tesco in a bit to get the stuff I need to make Chunky Mediterranean Soup, Banana Butterscotch pudding and Cheese Fondue - all recipes I saw on a cookery programme yesterday.

I will try to take some pics of my creations and post them up here.

I've started going to the gym again so will probably use this as a kind of record of what I get up to there....

SODA

I have just got back from a 4 hour constitutional review meeting with SODA.

It is all quite exciting, firstly, that a society actually has a constitution, secondly that they want to review it (they do it annually apparently) and finally that I was allowed to come and stick my ore in.

It is one of the longest constitutions that I’ve seen for a society (check out photo socs - its not even a page) but its quite good, they have a huge committee with detailed job descriptions. I made them change quite a few things (mainly the bits that broke our equal opps policy and stuff about property) but they actively took onboard my comments about other stuff. One of the guys (I think he played a God of Water in their last but one production) commented on this was the first time ever that a member of the SU had graced one of their meetings with their presence, I think he was a bit stunned.

This is all part of my mission to go to every societies AGM - I think it’s important to know what is going on in each society, and get a heads up on who will be running it next year. Lots of them are talking about my AGM pack (most are finding it useful - yippee! Someone from an AU club requested it today!) and my Societies Awards Party - which I am having nightmares about it being a complete flop!

This week has been so exhausting - I have done 2 14 hour days, my house is a tip, my rabbits need mucking out, I have piles of laundry to do, but really I just want to go to the beach, lie in the sand and stop caring so much about everything I need to do. This job plays havoc with your diet, you miss lots of meals and end up eating crap because it’s quick and easy.

I need to start following the trend of 'sabbaticals only work from 11am to 4pm on weekdays with a 2 hour lunch break, between the months of September and March, with 2 weeks off at Christmas and paid 4 weeks holiday'

On a positive note, I am so looking forward to chairing the SU AGM! I have taken lots of inspiration from Kat Fletcher at National Conference. It will be funny, well explained and interesting for all who come I promise (no tricky procedural motions Sam or I might have to shoot you).

Council should be interesting on Tuesday too. We have quite a few policy motions so I might do a priority ballot form for the councillors (they haven’t done that before, it may excite them a bit)

I am also going to buy extra chocolately biscuits seeing as its the last one of the year.

Your thoughts please?

Why do we need a Union?

Because we are over-privileged students and will easily walk into well paid jobs and we enjoy living in slums and can walk miles to university and live on almost nothing and pay for our own education and have parents who give us lots of money and we don’t eat and we shouldn’t drink or waste money on nights out in discos, at concerts or in the theatre and we never need new clothes and shouldn’t get married and don’t have children and should be under 25 and if we are heterosexual we are easy and if we are gay men or lesbians we are queers and if we ask too many questions we are agitators and if we don’t we are not putting in enough effort and we shouldn’t get involved in politics and if we pass exams we should be grateful and if we don’t we should quietly go away and we shouldn’t make our own decisions about our education or our own lives and if we are black or Asian we have no right to be here and if we are women we should be at home and as students we are a burden on the state and we should shut up and take it….for these and many other reasons….we are active members of UWB Students’ Union.

UWBSU – your active campaigning union…be a part of it.

Should we put this in the handbook to new students? Can anyone see anyway to improve it?

This is not me at all....

Your Birthdate: March 16

You're incredibly introverted and introspective. You live inside your head.You spend a lot of alone time meditating and thinking.People see you as withdrawn, and at times they are right.You are caring and deep, but it may be difficult for you to show this side of yourself. Your strength: Your original approach to thinking Your weakness: You tend to shy away from others Your power color: Pale blue Your power symbol: Wavy line Your power month: July

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Getting things moving...

Well, from reading the blogs of next years lot, it seems that sending out masses of inspirational ideas (maybe a bit wasted on Sam, as he seems to have his lots of his own) was kinda worth it. I just wish someone had sent that to me before I started, I may have actually known what it was that I was supposed to be doing when I started!

I’m hoping it will give the voluntary exec lots to think about also, as they will be an important part of next year’s team.

Anyway, apologies about not blogging in ages, things have been a bit heated and very busy recently, so everything that I've wanted to blog about has been far to personal and controversial (sorry guys)

I’ve finally found some time off, so I’ve bought tones of Union stuff home to do and have every intention of going to the gym every day (that’s 6 days in a row!)

I felt a bit left out as everyone is going home to see their family and I don’t really have a family (other than Chris and the bunnies and fishes) so I will spend the time doing 'me' things. I kinda spent a day sleeping and at the gym yesterday, and this morning I went to RMB to get my hair cut (looks lovely now, but then it always does when you come out of the hairdressers, and never seems to look nice again until the next time you have it cut) I also did some shopping (Bangor is crap for shopping though, so that didn’t last long)

I working for Carl tonight and I’m a bit scared coz I haven’t done any door work in ages. It’s a sore point between me and Chris as well, because he hates me doing it. Something about me voluntarily putting myself in danger. I wish he’d realise that he can’t wrap me in cotton wool all the time. I'm pretty confident that I’m more likely to get hurt in a car accident 9or getting hit by a bus etc etc), however, now I’ve said that, I’ll probably get punched tonight...

Anyway, need to go clean my bunnies ready for Easter.

Virgin of the blog

wow, this is a bit scary. I thought i would join this bizarre trend, everyone else seems to do it.

i wonder how long until bouncy finds this? might try to keep it a bit of a secret.

right, well, its been an interesting day. i started work at 9am, managed to escape to M&S to get a sarnie for 10 mins at lunchtime, then finished at 4pm, came back at 8pm and im still here.

when you date an academic. however early you try to get them out of bed (as a species they are generally adverse to mornings) they still want to work through the night.

so, my house is a pigsty, and im totally knackered, but the union still benefits. im starting to think that i need to do at least another 3 years in this place to sort it out. its just such a mess. its going to be sad to leave my office in july. i just need to make sure i get enough done by then so that whoever is doing my job next year doesnt recieve a to-do list as long as my arm.

anyway, i should probably get back to writing my 'running an AGM: an idiots guide'..........