It's Halloween!

When I was younger, I used to resent Halloween. I remember cowering behind the sofa when trick or treaters knocked on our door, absolutely terrified. I'm a big fan of horror films and always have been, but I really couldn't bring myself to open the door, and used to think that Halloween was a big waste of time and effort.

But now I'm a student, my opinion of Halloween has changed. Mainly because it's just another excuse to get drunk and party, and tonight my intentions are- to get drunk and party! Right now, I'm awaiting my face to get painted and be all zombied up once more, and I'm really excited for the night ahead, because we're having a party at my house!

We've already made the punch for the party, and my housemates have cob webbed literally everywhere, making the place look extra spooky and amazing. Now, I await the guests to arrive, and the drinks to start flowing! 

Home comforts.

University life is so busy/hectic that in a way, I kind of forget about going home. I think it's been around six weeks since I've been back properly, even though it feels much shorter when I think about it. I know there's people who don't go home at all during the semester, but I only live a fifty minute train ride from home, so I don't really have an excuse.

Today, I went back to my hometown of Tamworth in the purpose of seeing family who I haven't seen in quite a while. The train ride home went really fast, and I managed to get a seat, which is pretty unusual. Then, finally I got to 'glorious' Tamworth station, where my family were waiting.

After being home for a few hours, it makes me realise the home comforts that I miss, even though I don't appreciate them as much when I'm away, living the high life in Stoke. This includes having my dinner cooked for me, being able to watch Sky+ HD and being in a really clean environment. They are little things, but it makes a huge lot of difference when I'm back.

But even though it's great seeing the family and living a life of luxury (compared to how it is in Stoke anyway!), I do really miss my house in Stoke already, and my great housemates. Which actually worries me; if I'm like this when I'm spending one night away from university life, how am I going to be when I graduate!?

Finding a Halloween costume.

I always leave things to the last minute nowadays, and this is exactly what happened today when I went out searching for a Halloween costume. Despite having the last few weeks to find a costume, and even travelling to Manchester and failing to find a costume, I thought that there would at least be something left in fancy dress shops for me to go as.

I'm sure my outfit won't be this great, but I'll give it a shot.

How wrong was I...

Today, after venturing into Hanley for what must have been the fiftieth time this week with Sam, we went to a small fancy dress shop on the outskirts of the city centre. It was rammed, and all the good costumes had already been rented out days ago. Not only that, but the ones left were about £25 to rent, and £50 to buy, which is ridiculous in the eyes of a poor penniless student like myself.

So instead we decided to take the unoriginal approach of going as zombies to tonight's Super Friday Halloween special at the LRV, our on-campus nightclub. And I tell you what- this option has to be the cheapest and most creative decision for a costume! Primark was a saviour for this- their cheap shirts and trousers cost us about £8 each, and then we went to a bookshop (of all places) where we found fake blood and face paints.

It's already been really fun rubbing our t-shirts in dirt and smattering them with fake blood, and now I really can't wait to get dressed as a zombie. I'm sure that by the end of the night though, the fake blood will have been washed off with spilt drink, and the T-shirt I wear will be ripped to shreds, but at least I made a bit of an effort.

Cinema times.

Even though I think going to the cinema is ridiculously over priced (£7 for a drink and popcorn, what the-), my love of films makes it always worth going. Today I took up the offer of going and went to watch Red, despite being tempted by loads of great looking films at the minute (i.e. Saw 3D, Paranormal Activity 2...the list goes on).

If you haven't heard what Red is, it's an action film starring the likes of Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. I wasn't really sure what to make of it at first, but it turned out to be a brilliant film starring some equally brilliant actors. Bruce Willis still has it, and Helen Mirren looked better than ever. I was actually surprised at the role she was given (an ass kicking agent), but she played it well. John Malkovich, playing as eccentric Marvin Boggs, was also a welcome role to the film, and really supplied the humour.

Basically, and not to sound like an alcoholic, it was good to have a night out without drinking, where I could sit back and enjoy a really good film. Because the next few nights are going to be manic, and with Halloween coming around...watch this space.

Quote of the Day

Mhari (talking about Harry from McFly): "I'd pull out the Rohypnol for him."

Manchester.

Today has been an eventful day based on last minute plans and decisions. But being busy and sociable has really made me smile today...and the day isn't even over yet!

(c) Pimlico Badger

So talking about last minute plans, today my housemate Sam and I decided to go to Manchester. There wasn't really much reason, just for the fact that we saw an amazing fancy dress shop there and we both need a Halloween costume for Sunday night. Why we didn't just go to Hanley, don't ask. But with the afternoon off lectures, I needed to fill my time up somehow.

We ended up spending eight pounds on a train ticket, forty minutes on the train there...then when we finally got there, we realised it was half term and rammed full of kids. And worst of all, the fancy dress shop was rammed, and there was a queue almost a mile long (exaggeration, but you get the jist) to enter the shop. And I really don't do queues.

But despite not being able to get a fancy dress costume, I did enjoy going to Manchester. It's an amazing place, no matter what people say, and I like how lively and buzzing it is. The shopping centre there is huge too, and full of shops that almost tempted me to blow my student loan on their products, and the architecture of the place is amazing, with no buildings being the same.

So despite not getting what I wanted from Manchester, I'm pretty pleased that I got to see all the sights, even it was for just a few hours.

Quote of the Day
I'm considering doing this quite often...but after promising someone today that they would appear in this blog, this might be a one off. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway to set the scene, I was sitting in my Public Affairs lecture today and this particular quote made me chuckle: 

Alan (Public Affairs lecturer): "What do you think of Stoke-on-Trent?"
Vicky Wilkins: "...it needs bombing!"

Only Vicky could come out with something like that. 

Getting my work published.

Being a journalism student, there's not just a need to go out and get a story- there's also a need for an audience to read the story. However, it's harder than you might think. Not many newspapers or websites will publish what you write, and it takes time for things like that to usually happen.

Click here to read the full story on Staffs Live!

Today, however, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that one of my assignments had been published on StaffsLive. If you don't know what that is, it's a site where Staffs Uni journalists send in their news stories/features in the hope that they will appear on the website. Being as though the site is reportedly being followed by the likes of Sky News and the BBC, it's really impressive.

The story I had done was for an assignment which had to be handed in a few weeks ago, and was about plans for new housing on a car park in Chesterton. I know it sounds a bit of a bland topic but I had loads of fun ringing people up and interviewing them, and finding fresh angles for the story. Even though I do admit I left a lot of this interviewing to the day before my deadline, I can look back and think I worked well under pressure and managed to get a decent story out of it.

I know that StaffsLive might not sound like something HUGE, but to me it is. Seeing my story on the website makes doing that assignment so much more rewarding. Hopefully more of my work will be seen on there as the year goes by!

This YouTube channel.

When it comes to viral videos, I just can't get enough. I've watched all the best, including The World's Best Cry, Vicious Dog Man, countless episodes of =3 and even watched Jeremy Kyle get smacked in the head with an envelope. On repeat. Numerous times. The best thing about them is that they always make me laugh, even when they're not meant to be as funny as I make them out to be.

But the other day, I happened to stumble across a channel called schmoyoho, who cleverly autotune the news. I didn't really watch or appreciate the videos on that channel at first, because I didn't have time. But today, I got distracted from doing my Broadcast Journalism module work to watch about four of the videos on that channel.

I'm gonna be honest, I was in tears laughing at what they came up with. My personal favourite is this video:



It's basically autotuned President Obama, and it's genius in my eyes! I personally enjoy 1:05-1:42 of the video.

I know it's a bit sad that I got entertained by this whilst sitting in my house by myself, but I really did find it funny and kept watching it over and over. Maybe I need to get a life...

Pubbing it.

Okay, just to warn you, I am slightly tipsy writing this. But here goes...

So today has been Sunday, which in my eyes is officially the most boring day of the week. It's true- barely any shops are open, there's nothing good on TV and it's the end of the week, so it means effort to do anything.

However, after spending the whole day literally just sitting on my bed, trying (but failing) to do work, I got invited down to the Ember Lounge, our student union bar here at Staffs. So, I took up that invitation and a few hours later, there I was.

So, yeah, I had fun. And also got a little bit drunk off two pints of Strongbow...lightweight! And I even managed to find time to get a takeaway after, result.

But my night has been ruined by the fact I have to be up for 9am tomorrow. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!

Full cupboards.

Woo more food!

If you know me well, you'll know that I love food. Cooking it, eating it, smelling it, whatever, if there's food involved then I'm happy. However, when it comes to food shopping, this isn't so fun. I really don't like spending ages deciding on what to get, and I always end up spending a lot of money on it.

However, after waking up today quite hungover from last night's activities, I realised that the only thing I had lots of were eggs. Everything else had been eaten over the past week or so, and after putting food shopping off, today was the day where shopping had to be done.

So this afternoon, my housemates and I make the journey to Hanley, armed with our backpacks as we walk up to Tesco. I'm not even going to go into what I brought/ how much I spent, but walking back was a nightmare, as my bag was so heavy!

But the good thing out of this is that my cupboard is full. Despite nearly being crippled on the way home, I now have lots of food to feast upon. This makes me happy...but I can guarantee in a weeks time, all this food will be eaten and I'll be facing the same dilemma again. So I may as well enjoy it whilst I can!

Being cheered up.

You know them days you have where everything just seems to go wrong? You know, the days when one thing goes wrong, then another thing, then another? And no matter how hard you want things to go right, they just don’t? Well today, unfortunately, has been one of those days.

No Escape!

To be quite honest, it’s been hard to actually smile today because of all the crap that’s gone on. I won’t go into them in great detail, because I’ve found out today that writing things online can get you in big trouble, so I’m not even going to bother. Apart from that, I managed to spill coffee on my floor and realised that the council have put a massive steel gate up at each ends of our alleyway. Being as though the only key I have is for the side door, this means that I am locked in my house. Fun times for me...

However, even though today was hideously bad, something good came out of it. Knowing that people were there for me was one of the things that I learnt today. I didn’t realise that so many people would care when I was upset, but they did.

After talking to a few people and sorting a few things out, today got much better and things brightened up. Which is good, because right now, I’m in the process of getting ready for a much deserved night out!

Old Couples.

I'm not usually a massive fan of the elderly. I don't mean to be harsh, but I get fed up of how they moan all the time, stand in my way and push in front of queue's, acting like they don't know what they're doing when they're doing it. Meh.

However, I think all my negative feelings towards them changed today. With my journalism assignment due in the next day, and me taking the great decision of covering a story in Chesterton (which involved two buses and forty minutes of travel), I was set for a boring journey.

But after spending most of the journey scribbling stuff down in my notepad and receiving phone calls, I had a moment to relax. Then, in the corner of my eye, I spotted something quite...how do I put it?...cute.

There was an elderly couple seated next to me, not speaking to each other or anything, sharing a large packet of Dolly Mixtures between them.

I don't know why, but seeing them made me smile. It was just really nice to see a couple still in love, and literally, they were like your stereotypical nan and grandad.

A few minutes later, my bus came to it's stop and they were put to the back of my mind as I proceeded to take photos and carry out interviews to get my work done by it's deadline. But in a very stressful day full of doom and gloom, it was refreshing to see something happy, no matter how simple it sounds.

McDonalds.

Me with thousands of calories left to eat. Heaven.

So here's the story. Today was a freezing cold day, I had to get up for 8am in prep for four hours of lectures (it's a hard life being a student after all), and to be honest, I wasn't in the mood. But after my lectures had finished, I decided to go to Hanley with my housemate Sam.

Because I'd been up early, I completely skipped breakfast, so my stomach had been growling at me through those long hours, especially when listening to my public affairs lecturer discuss politics and pressure groups. So when I got into Hanley, the first decision was what to have for lunch, and it was agreed that McDonalds was where we would go.

Now I know it's morally wrong, I know it's been proven bad for you and I know that being the poor student as I am, maybe I should just stick to making my own food in my own house. But shoving a greasy burger down your throat is pleasure which cannot be equalled (and I seriously mean that). So for that, I decided to opt for a medium McChicken sandwich meal and even made room for a cheeseburger on the side.

I know that eating all this rubbish will probably affect me sooner rather than later, but ah well. You only live once!