Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

I went down to Leeds’ Cafe Scientifique last night to check out what it was all about as it comes highly recommended by Paul. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a monthly event where you can go for a coffee/beer/etc and there is a talk and discussion on some kind of scientific topic.

It’s all very laid back, the topic of yesterday’s meeting was “psychotherapy – science or religion?” which involved a 25 minute talk, an interval so we could get another round of drinks in and then a general discussion session where people could ask queations.

The talk wasn’t bad though I wasn’t overly impressed. While most people there seemed to have a fair grounding in psychotherapy, I felt a bit lost not knowing a whole lot about it. Having said that, it was fairly glossy, which is to be expected in a 25 minute talk but I thought there could have been a lot more complex detail for some of us to try and get our head round if we so wished to try.

It was all very middle class though the age range wasn’t too bad, there were plenty of “young” people there (people aged below 40 shall we say). It is hosted by 7Arts in Chapel Allerton which is a lovely new building that, I noted, would make an excellent venue for a fledgling Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster that needed to hire a venue until his noodliness blessed us with huge amounts of finances.

Camping having been cancelled, it was down to Chris the wonder kid to throw together some kind of A-Soc event to ensure we did something over the weekend. So, us now having a dining room and all we throw together a dinner party for those of us that were still around over summer.

In the end it turned out rather well – we managed a full seven courses as well as offering people a choice with several courses and best of all, nobody died. Nobody at all. There was a turn up for the books indeed. So given I haven’t really cooked for like a year or two now, I’m going to chalk it down as a victory.

It also presented some interesting experiences. I gave the port a try, which I didn’t find very drinkable but there you go, it wasn’t particuarly good port anyway, and some of Norm’s fancy Brazilian coffee which I did manage to stomach. I think that is a sign of me getting old. But should be good for all nighters I guess. Not that anyone is going to be pulling out a cafetiere during such times.

Can it really be? Has it really been three years since I arrived at university as a young fresh-faced student who had a good idea of what awaited him due to the amount of TV he had watched?

Apparently so. Last Friday was the last day of term of my third and final year at university and despite the cheeseyness where else could it really end except for Fruity? Especially given it was the last Fruity of the year and cheap entry.

We started the night at Danny’s house party which involved lots of burning things which was fun. Then just before 1am we headed off to hit Fruity. It was an excellent night as it was fairly empty with many students having gone home; you could comfortably dance and get straight to the bar yet there was enough people in there to give it some atmosphere – the perfect level.

We ended up getting home about 4am and retired for a well earned night’s sleep. Except Liz who was up being “just friends” with George till 8am :P.

This year the union are running a “Skint” fortnight which means that instead of offering free entry to the last two Fruitys like they normally do, they are charging £2 entry. It still proved a tempting enough offer last Friday however.

I seem to be even more of a light weight within the past few weeks. We got to the pub about 5 past 10 and by 11 I was struggling to finish my 6th drink. It’s clearly been far too long since we were doing regular Bondi Beach Bar trips, that was like the first 15 minutes “back in the day.”

I recon we did it the right way though – hit The Old Bar first, then head up to Terrace when The Old Bar kicks out and finally head into Fruity when Terrace kicks out, that way Fruity is already warmed up and playing ultra-cheese by the time you arrive.

On saying that maybe it was a bad idea to get there in time for B*Witched. We seemed to scare Rosie’s housemates off by bursting into song. I mean, it’s not that strage a couple of mid-twenties males screaming their hearts out C’est La Vie. Right?

Friday night saw the long awaited Summer Ball. 9,000 students, 7 massive arenas and 12 hours of madness promised to be good night and it being my final year I figured it was something I should definitely do before I graduate.

The entertainment lineup wasn’t looking particuarly good before the event but once there it actually turned out to be rather good. We spend most of the night in the Fruity arena where a band called Huge really kicked things off at midnight, I found that I actually recognised some of the songs by headline act as Mutya Buena and as predicted, Booty Luv put on a good performance at which we were able to get really close to.

I was amazed at how many people I ran into that I haven’t seen since my first year or similar timescales which was really nice as well as plenty of people from computing which was good as it is the closest thing we’re going to get to a computing ball. Nicola ended up coming to find us as well so we spend some time chatting to her and much to Michelle’s delight she also bought a round of donuts :D.

All in all, a really good night and one I’m glad I went to before I graduate.

After months and months of waiting, the time had finally arrived – myself, Norm, Michelle and George boarded a train bound for Manchester. Once there we quickly located a McDonald’s and several bars for a variety of taste before moving on to the M.E.N. Arena in anticipation for the main events. The weeklys of training, learning lyrics and drunkenly singing along all came down to this :D.

Avril came on stage around 8:30 and was actually on till gone 10 o’clock going through almost all her singles. There was a lack of non-mainstream stuff but that was really to be expected and makes it easier to sing along anyway. Her encore was a bit unspontaneous with the dancers coming out first but never the less a classic finish on Sk8er Boi rounded the evening off nicely.

Plus, as to be expected, I bagged myself a tour t-shirt which is always a good way to finish a night. Avril accidentally forgot to seek me out and confess her love for me but I’m sure she’ll realise her mistake by the next door. Which we’re already planning a visit to :D.

The Computing Ball having been cancelled due to lack of ticket sales and general apathy on the part of the organisers it was down to Atheist Society to provide an end of year ball in some form or another. While we didn’t have the grandeur of some of the larger events we never the less enjoyed all the basic trappings of a good ball – dining, drinking, dancing and good company.

The food was excellent as always (and half price too!) and it being Tiger Tiger’s student night we decided to stay to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap double vodka and mixer offers.

While some of new committee bailed like the old age pensioners they are rather early (jokes on them as they were kept up all night by Sarann having sex rather loudly in the room above) myself, Nicola, Danny and Rosie danced the night away until it ended at 3.

All in all it was actually the best night I’ve had in quite a while and a fantastic credit to all those involved at A-Soc in organising it. It just goes to show that atheists really do have it larger :D.

Friday was our long awaited house party. Despite an array of individuals being determined to bring the spirit down we never the less partied hard until the early hours even if there was only myself, Liz and George left up at 4am. It seemed to go down a storming success anyway so I’m counting this one as a victory.

I had work on Saturday so we were looking to get out nice and early so I could head over to Nicola’s party. Then just before 11pm Elland Road kicked out from the Kaiser Chiefs gig. So then £15 predicted hour we were supposed to do with our 3 members of staff left on shift ended up as a £160 hour.

Not getting out until 2:30 I headed straight off to find that half the roads between here and Clarence Dock were closed. So having to go on detour after detour and eventually ended up on the far side of where I wanted to be I eventually managed to get there. At which point Nicola didn’t have her phone on her so 4 missed calls and 15 minutes later I headed home.

Sunday I was at work again before Kieran and Matt’s house party. However by the time I got out of work everyone had gone home so I missed out on that as well.

Saturday night was Wendy House’s 10th birthday so having enjoyed some rather nice steak at Maths Chris’s BBQ we did some drinking at Circle Party Central then headed down for some old fashioned Wendy-based fun.

With it being 10 years of Wendy and all they had laid on a special extra room for it. So like the old people we are, we just went to Stylus and spend the entire night there like normal :D. Never the less it was an excellent night – we got there fairly early, as in, before 11 which is fairly unusual for Circle trips to Wendy and didn’t leave till the end (except for a few rubbish losers and Norm).

It was good to hang out with people who aren’t particuarly new faces but people who haven’t really been out at Circle clubbing events before. Indeed, it almost felt like an A-Soc committee meeting in parts with myself, Norm, Nicola, Rosie and Liz as well as ex-social secretary Sarann all in attendance.

Unfortunately because Nicola didn’t make it to the pre-party she wasn’t able to bring my princess costume so I wasn’t able to join in with that one – what a shame huh? :p.

Because I don’t really feel I have linked it enough, I’ve posted a calendar of all the graduation and end of year events connected with The Circle so that everyone knows what is going on. Which is something almost every night and when there isn’t something on that will probably mean we’re just in The Old Bar. Anyway, you can find the calendar here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The calendar, and link, have now been removed.