Election Stuff
I had hoped to be able to write here this morning that all the questions I had in my head for if I didn't win would not need to be answered for another year, but that's not the case. The position went to one of my opponents. But hey, someone had to lose. And I'll admit, I know it's all my own fault that I didn't get it. If I'd been more enthusiastic about campaigning there's a good chance I'd have surpassed my opponents....but I'm thinking maybe deep down I didn't want to win. The experience was one I won't forget, but I don't think doing the job would have made me totally happy. All I need to do now is figure out what it is that will make me happy.
In regards to the other positions, I'm delighted for quite a few of the results. People I hope will do an amazing job, and definately the best candidates won - in most cases. In the case of President of HUU however, the only thing I have to say is I am absolutely delighted that I am now a member of her team for next year. I could not - and would not - put up with her for an entire year as my co-worker. And I pity the VP's who have to work with her.
Lastly, big big big congrats to Mr. Hamilton. He was up against a very tough opponent and I know he was terribly nervous throughout the week, but it all came to fruition. Good luck in the job Alex.
Other Stuff
There's not a lot of other stuff to talk about right now, elections kinda took over my life. Guess I can have it back now. I am open to suggestions as to what to do in the future if anyone wants to pass ideas on. I am kinda looking forward to going home for easter. It'll do me good to get away from Hull and think clearly about my future, and about what I want to do. Part of me wants to go home, work and earn some money. Pay back loans and parents and that. But then part of me wants to stay in England, maybe Hull, maybe not. Do the same thing, get a job and start paying back all the money I owe.
I heard yesterday that a girl I went to school with got the keys of her new house. It rocked me slightly. As did getting a wedding invitation from a girl I knew in school. It's a bit strange to think the people I grew up with are, well, growing up. Getting married, buying houses....it's all a bit much. I guess it's something I've got to start thinking about.
Friday 29 February 2008
Thursday 28 February 2008
Nerves
For the duration of the lead up to the elections I've been totally calm, quite relaxed and blaizé about it all to be quite honest. Now, hours from the results, I'm getting terribly nervous. Like ridiculously. It's occured to me now that if things don't go as I would like them to this evening then I have to create a whole new game plan. Like entirely new! What do I do if this goes wrong? I'll have to start again. Do I go home? Do I stay in Hull? Do I stay in England but move? I mean, I just don't know. I guess I'll know whether I need to make a decision or not in the next few hours. Wish me luck!!
The List Grows
I never knew I was such a threat to girls. I always thought of myself as a bit of a tomboy, and the kinda girl that both guys and girls just saw as a mate. But apparently not. I can now add another one to the list of girls that dislike me because they think I want their boyfriend!! A close friend's ex came up to me last night, pulled me aside and apologised for being nasty to me for the first six months that her and my friend were going out. He and I had dated in our first year for a few weeks, decided we were better as friends and have stayed close friends since. I always thought she knew about it and that that was why she had been cold towards me. Apparently that's not the case. She never knew about it but could tell there was something between him and I, so she assumed either he liked me or vice versa. When she eventually found out - he didn't tell her about it for about six or seven months - she felt justified and continued to be not the nicest person towards me until they broke up recently. What is it? What do I do that makes girlfriends uncomfortable?
Today is the last day of voting in the elections, and the results will be announced tonight. I'm a little nervous but not at the same time. All I can do it wait and see I guess. Fingers crossed!
Today is the last day of voting in the elections, and the results will be announced tonight. I'm a little nervous but not at the same time. All I can do it wait and see I guess. Fingers crossed!
Wednesday 27 February 2008
Paris & Others
Election Update
Voting started at midnight, Tuesday 26th and runs until 7:30pm Thursday 28th. So we're over a third of the way through. I've already cast my vote and am just hoping that hundreds of students do the same. I'd adore it if thousands voted, but who am I kidding? It won't happen. Not with student apathy the way it is. As for campaigning, I'm talking to people, telling them who I am, what I stand for and what the election is all about. It's amazing how many people - even second and third years - don't know what it is, or what the positions do or are for. I hope to educate people on these things. But enough election crap....
....Paris was beautiful. Isn't it always? It was sunny and warm - in the sunshine! It was full of tourists. It was full of english people because of the rugby but we ignored them as best we could. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to get our hands on some match tickets, but we enjoyed the rugby none the less. We found a pokey little scottish bar, called The Highlander down some little alley way off the banks of the Seine, and sat there for most of saturday watching the rugby. We even made some friends with a bunch of lads from Coventry. I say lads, two of them were about 18, the other two were their fathers. But they made the day entertaining.
I'm proud of myself. I didn't do much of the traditional tourist thing. I figured I've done that before, I can go a weekend without it. Went to the Rodin museum and the Picasso museum, but aside from that we didn't do too many tourist things. We walked a lot. A LOT!! We wandered around St Germaine quite a lot, just looking. Not looking for anything in particular but just looking. We spent some time wandering around St Paul also, and found the most gorgeous little chocolate shop. The chocolate is made in sheets, and they weigh out how much you want in little slabs of it. And some of the flavours just looked gorgeous!! My only problem though is the french prefer plain chocolate to milk, and plain chocolate just doesn't do it for me. But they had one which was Caramel Chocolate, and that was mostly milk chocolate, with little chunks of hard caramel throughout it....had to go back and buy more on Sunday morning before leaving. It's all gone now unfortunately! And we ate a lot of ice-cream. My theory being you should eat a lot of it while you're on the continent cause Ireland and England just don't have good ice cream. You don't get real ice-cream here, you get that useless whipped stuff out of a machine. I had lots of sorbet, lemon and rasperry and rose - that last one was really good - and then cookies and cream ice cream. Mmmm.
Highlight of the trip for me would have to be the Friday evening. We wandered around the city a little, ending up in front of Sacre Coeur. I love that area, you can see almost the entire city, and at night it just looks amazing. It's so wide, so vast and so full!! But when we arrived there was two guys stood on the steps playing some music and singing, so we sat and listened for a while, looking out over the glittering city. I'd have happily sat there all weekend. We saw some brilliant street performers actually, besides these two guys. We saw some jugglers - well, it was contact ball technically - we saw rollerbladers doing tricks, we heard some brilliant music around Notre Dame. The rollerbladers were possibly my favourites though, they were fantastic. It was really hard to draw ourselves away from the crowd surrounding them. I'd say we stood and watched them for over half an hour.
Voting started at midnight, Tuesday 26th and runs until 7:30pm Thursday 28th. So we're over a third of the way through. I've already cast my vote and am just hoping that hundreds of students do the same. I'd adore it if thousands voted, but who am I kidding? It won't happen. Not with student apathy the way it is. As for campaigning, I'm talking to people, telling them who I am, what I stand for and what the election is all about. It's amazing how many people - even second and third years - don't know what it is, or what the positions do or are for. I hope to educate people on these things. But enough election crap....
....Paris was beautiful. Isn't it always? It was sunny and warm - in the sunshine! It was full of tourists. It was full of english people because of the rugby but we ignored them as best we could. Unfortunately we were not lucky enough to get our hands on some match tickets, but we enjoyed the rugby none the less. We found a pokey little scottish bar, called The Highlander down some little alley way off the banks of the Seine, and sat there for most of saturday watching the rugby. We even made some friends with a bunch of lads from Coventry. I say lads, two of them were about 18, the other two were their fathers. But they made the day entertaining.
I'm proud of myself. I didn't do much of the traditional tourist thing. I figured I've done that before, I can go a weekend without it. Went to the Rodin museum and the Picasso museum, but aside from that we didn't do too many tourist things. We walked a lot. A LOT!! We wandered around St Germaine quite a lot, just looking. Not looking for anything in particular but just looking. We spent some time wandering around St Paul also, and found the most gorgeous little chocolate shop. The chocolate is made in sheets, and they weigh out how much you want in little slabs of it. And some of the flavours just looked gorgeous!! My only problem though is the french prefer plain chocolate to milk, and plain chocolate just doesn't do it for me. But they had one which was Caramel Chocolate, and that was mostly milk chocolate, with little chunks of hard caramel throughout it....had to go back and buy more on Sunday morning before leaving. It's all gone now unfortunately! And we ate a lot of ice-cream. My theory being you should eat a lot of it while you're on the continent cause Ireland and England just don't have good ice cream. You don't get real ice-cream here, you get that useless whipped stuff out of a machine. I had lots of sorbet, lemon and rasperry and rose - that last one was really good - and then cookies and cream ice cream. Mmmm.
Highlight of the trip for me would have to be the Friday evening. We wandered around the city a little, ending up in front of Sacre Coeur. I love that area, you can see almost the entire city, and at night it just looks amazing. It's so wide, so vast and so full!! But when we arrived there was two guys stood on the steps playing some music and singing, so we sat and listened for a while, looking out over the glittering city. I'd have happily sat there all weekend. We saw some brilliant street performers actually, besides these two guys. We saw some jugglers - well, it was contact ball technically - we saw rollerbladers doing tricks, we heard some brilliant music around Notre Dame. The rollerbladers were possibly my favourites though, they were fantastic. It was really hard to draw ourselves away from the crowd surrounding them. I'd say we stood and watched them for over half an hour.
Thursday 21 February 2008
Busy Busy Busy
Election Update!
This week has been kind of crazy. Monday at about 12:30, Harri - the current VPAR - reminded me of a meeting I was supposed to attend in Scarborough with him that night along with the other VPAR candidates, to get a feel for the job, get a chance to meet some Scarborough student reps and have a mini q&a. So We left Hull at about 4:30 and got back at about 10! It was a long evening. Well worth it, but a long day. I was out of the house from 10:30am til about 11pm!!
Tuesday - was that only yesterday? Oh man, it's been a long week - saw the beginning of the madness that is election fever. 10am - by the union clock settings - saw dozens of students in the union foyer putting posters up on any available space. It was madness! There was hands, paper, blutack and elbows everywhere. I have to say, I'm being a bit too relaxed about it all. I just wasn't all that motivated about the posters. Yes I know they can make a difference in people voting for you, but it's such a waste. The union looks ridiculous covered in sheets of green, yellow, pink and white with slogans and photos splashed across them. And then today half of them were underfoot, instead of infront of face! And that doesn't include the ones pulled down by angry students. There is some controversy regarding one of the candidates, but since it's all ongoing at the moment, I can't actually say anything specific about it.
Tuesday night - We had what is called Hustings. It's an opportunity for all candidates for all positions to get up, give a speech and answer some questions. The idea was that each candidate would get two minutes to give a speech, then once all had given their two cents, there would be two rounds of three questions put to the candidates, who would then take it turn to answer, with only a minute on the clock. When you think the number of candidates running for Pres is 6, for AU is 5, and the average for the rest is about 3, you can see how it stretched into a long night. We got out of there at about 10:45. But it was good, did me a lot of good to get up in front of a - small - crowd and tell them my opinions and positions for the job.
Today, thankfully, was not quite as busy. Had a radio interview about the election, which was a lot easier than I expected it to be, and that was it election wise!
Wow, when I put it into words I realise just how much I've been doing. I'm still wondering why, I mean do I honestly really want to do this? I think I do....I just want something to convince me.
Life Update
So outside of Election Fever I've not been up to much to be honest. Sleeping, remembering to eat, and not just junk food. Those are kinda my main two priorities outside of elections. But, tomorrow, at 6pm, I will be clambering onto a bus, driving down to Dover, across the sea to Calais and then on to Paris. Three day, the most beautiful city in the world and me!! I cannot wait. But at the same time, part of me doesn't want to go anymore. I'm getting a cold, my back is in agony most of the time - another story - and its bloody cold out! I've been wearing a hat, scarf and gloves every day the last week! We had snow all day yesterday! It's just mental! But it should be fun. Not so sure I wanna do the touristy thing again though. There's a couple of places I want to go back to, but I'm more interested in maybe finding a quirky pub and brushing up on my french with some randomers. That could be fun.
This week has been kind of crazy. Monday at about 12:30, Harri - the current VPAR - reminded me of a meeting I was supposed to attend in Scarborough with him that night along with the other VPAR candidates, to get a feel for the job, get a chance to meet some Scarborough student reps and have a mini q&a. So We left Hull at about 4:30 and got back at about 10! It was a long evening. Well worth it, but a long day. I was out of the house from 10:30am til about 11pm!!
Tuesday - was that only yesterday? Oh man, it's been a long week - saw the beginning of the madness that is election fever. 10am - by the union clock settings - saw dozens of students in the union foyer putting posters up on any available space. It was madness! There was hands, paper, blutack and elbows everywhere. I have to say, I'm being a bit too relaxed about it all. I just wasn't all that motivated about the posters. Yes I know they can make a difference in people voting for you, but it's such a waste. The union looks ridiculous covered in sheets of green, yellow, pink and white with slogans and photos splashed across them. And then today half of them were underfoot, instead of infront of face! And that doesn't include the ones pulled down by angry students. There is some controversy regarding one of the candidates, but since it's all ongoing at the moment, I can't actually say anything specific about it.
Tuesday night - We had what is called Hustings. It's an opportunity for all candidates for all positions to get up, give a speech and answer some questions. The idea was that each candidate would get two minutes to give a speech, then once all had given their two cents, there would be two rounds of three questions put to the candidates, who would then take it turn to answer, with only a minute on the clock. When you think the number of candidates running for Pres is 6, for AU is 5, and the average for the rest is about 3, you can see how it stretched into a long night. We got out of there at about 10:45. But it was good, did me a lot of good to get up in front of a - small - crowd and tell them my opinions and positions for the job.
Today, thankfully, was not quite as busy. Had a radio interview about the election, which was a lot easier than I expected it to be, and that was it election wise!
Wow, when I put it into words I realise just how much I've been doing. I'm still wondering why, I mean do I honestly really want to do this? I think I do....I just want something to convince me.
Life Update
So outside of Election Fever I've not been up to much to be honest. Sleeping, remembering to eat, and not just junk food. Those are kinda my main two priorities outside of elections. But, tomorrow, at 6pm, I will be clambering onto a bus, driving down to Dover, across the sea to Calais and then on to Paris. Three day, the most beautiful city in the world and me!! I cannot wait. But at the same time, part of me doesn't want to go anymore. I'm getting a cold, my back is in agony most of the time - another story - and its bloody cold out! I've been wearing a hat, scarf and gloves every day the last week! We had snow all day yesterday! It's just mental! But it should be fun. Not so sure I wanna do the touristy thing again though. There's a couple of places I want to go back to, but I'm more interested in maybe finding a quirky pub and brushing up on my french with some randomers. That could be fun.
Friday 15 February 2008
V-Day
That dreaded day has come and gone. I've never been a fan of the day in the past. It's a commercial money making machine for card companies and chocolatiers and florists. I don't like couples who use the day as an excuse to show how much they care for each other. Yes I understand some people have trouble expressing themselves and days like this are a great help to those kind, but for me...if the man I'm with needs valentines day to express how he cares for me, then I'm with the wrong guy. I should know it by the things he does throughout the year, not just on that one day. Yes, I am an old fashioned romantic in some ways, and this is one.
Speaking of romance, Nick and I called it quits. Two days short of four months {though he thought it had been six - boys!} We talked things through and agreed we were not working and were too different so we split. And it was a good call. He's a nice guy, but not for me.
The sabbatical elections are in two weeks *bites nails*. I'm more nervous than I thought I'd be, and yet not very motivated. It's a bit weird. Fingers crossed it all goes well. I still don't even know if this is something I really want to do, but sure hey! If it's not I'll know later won't I?
Speaking of romance, Nick and I called it quits. Two days short of four months {though he thought it had been six - boys!} We talked things through and agreed we were not working and were too different so we split. And it was a good call. He's a nice guy, but not for me.
The sabbatical elections are in two weeks *bites nails*. I'm more nervous than I thought I'd be, and yet not very motivated. It's a bit weird. Fingers crossed it all goes well. I still don't even know if this is something I really want to do, but sure hey! If it's not I'll know later won't I?
Friday 8 February 2008
Question Time
I have a question. Am I the only one that suffers from feeling like you're still a child and have no idea about what's going on around you? That things are passing you by in some "adult world" and you're just a bystander? If I'm not the only one, does it ever go away? I've been feeling like that a lot lately. Like somehow I went through a secret door and ended up in an adult land with no clue whats going on and no idea how to navigate my way around it. How do people do it? How do they carry on a normal seeming existence when there is so much crap going on around them? At the moment I am trying to juggle several different things - committees, uni work, elections, seeing people - and still having to be my normal cheery self. It's not easy. A close friend of mine keeps asking if I'm okay, and up until today I would just reply yeah fine! Today she phrased it differently, she asked "I know it's a question you don't like hearing, but are you okay?" My response was "Then do us a favour and stop asking it!" She laughed. I was serious. It really annoys me when it's obvious that I'm not and don't want to talk about it. She should know me well enough to know that.
Anyway! Think I'm done with that tangent - for the time being.
Elections are coming up fast. Three weeks. January 26th the polls open. I'm scared! I went to see the guy who is currently in the position I'm running for yesterday and he showed me some bits and pieces so I can get an idea of what he does. I took some of the material away with me and had a better look at it today, and I can honestly say I don't think I understood even a quarter of what was written on it. Yes I know that I would get full training for the position if I won the place, but the question is do I really want to have to go through learning all of that stuff? It all read like gobbledegook to me. I'm going to go and talk to him again on Monday and discuss it with him. The nomination forms have to be in by midday Tuesday so I'll have it filled in and in my bag, and if talking to him about it convinces me then I'll go and hand it in. No turning back once thats done!
Anyway! Think I'm done with that tangent - for the time being.
Elections are coming up fast. Three weeks. January 26th the polls open. I'm scared! I went to see the guy who is currently in the position I'm running for yesterday and he showed me some bits and pieces so I can get an idea of what he does. I took some of the material away with me and had a better look at it today, and I can honestly say I don't think I understood even a quarter of what was written on it. Yes I know that I would get full training for the position if I won the place, but the question is do I really want to have to go through learning all of that stuff? It all read like gobbledegook to me. I'm going to go and talk to him again on Monday and discuss it with him. The nomination forms have to be in by midday Tuesday so I'll have it filled in and in my bag, and if talking to him about it convinces me then I'll go and hand it in. No turning back once thats done!
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Tom Waits
I've never really listened to a lot of Tom Waits and paid attention. The only song of his I know inside out is my namesake. And it is the only song I have ever found that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. Doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing or who I'm with, there will be tears. I was making a mix cd for a friend last night, and we had been talking before about my name, so I said I would put it on the cd. I did and cried. I only got back from being at home and it made me want to go again. So this morning I booked my flights for Easter! Two whole weeks at home. Will I survive? Hope so.
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Weekend at Home
Well I needn't have worried. The weekend was a great success. Mike and I both had a great time. My friends liked him, my family loved him and it was a chance for he and I to both just relax and chill out away from Hull. We walked for hours on Sunday, which was really nice. We walked the Doneraile, down to the cove, around the cliff towards the Guillamene and Newtown cove, up through Newtown forest, back by the Pitch and Putt and back in by the golf course. Mike debated going surfing but it was just a bit too stormy, so I took pictures instead!
Seeing the two boys when they were both in good form was brilliant. Since they were both sick over Christmas it wasn't the best time for them, neither of them were entirely themselves. But this weekend was a different matter. Conor was racing around the house on his big boys bike and Eoin was following as quickly as he could in his walker. They're gonna be trouble in a couple of years!
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