What a tiring, yet awesome, weekend!

The last two events held by the ever successful VIP (Volunteering in Portsmouth) went smoothly this weekend and although I enjoyed them as always, a small part of me was very sad indeed. Unfortunately these two events would be my last and I really am gonna miss it for several different reasons. I love all the people who help out at these events, the children from the CP Centre who always seem to have fun and the elderly people who are great to chat to.

I think it really hit me today how much VIP has influenced my life (as cliche as that may seem!). I lost my nan the week before returning to uni this year after a summer of caring for her during her fight against leukemia and it hit me really hard. It took me months to get back to my normal chirpy self and I believe that the VIP OAP Christmas dinner last year was a real turning point. I realised that even though many of my immediate family (esp. on my dad's side) have passed on, there was still ways of interacting with elderly people, it's just case of putting yourself out there. This particular event also suprised me as I believed that I would have got upset during the day due to missing my nan, but I was strong enough and had so much support from those around me that I stuck it out.

Reflecting upon today's final OAP luncheon was quite a sad affair. I got a bit upset shortly after the event after talking to one of the guests who lost someone dear to them in the same way I lost my nan and who was also suffering from the same condition my uncle is at the moment. It's been a year since all the "bad stuff" that has happened in the past year started, and just recently we nearly lost yet another family member who is still quite poorly. I feel I've grown over the past year and am now able to cope much better with such events and even though I am still petrified that everything may go wrong again, I reckon I will be able to cope better. But most importantly, I now know who to turn to and who I can confide in when I'm feeling the strain and ironically all of these people I have met through volunteering in some way at the Union.

So if you're wanting to get that little something extra from your uni career then think about doing some sort of volunteering. It could be anything from helping to run a club or society, helping RAG to raise money for charities, writing or designing for the student media publications or simply getting involved with a VIP project. It's the best thing I've done with my time at uni for so many different reasons, and I just wish my time in Pompey wasn't nearly over... 

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Was my first thought this morning when I inevitably woke up....but that was reference to a rather bizarre dream I had involving a boat, a holiday camp, an octopus, a rucksack and almost drowning - RANDOM!!!

WAHEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! Is more apt for today though as it sees the launch of the biggest Union event so far this year: The Societies Takeover!!! With the event starting at 7pm, myself and the team have just over hours to pop together the final touches!!!

So what's happening?

In Via Lattea there will be an open mic session where you can chillout to the soothing sounds of acoustic music, bongos, poetry readings and some hip-hop rappers too!

Upstairs in CO2 will be a feast of the best DJs Pompey Uni has to offer - hosted by no other than our very own Unsigned Talent Society

LUX will be the main room of the event - it is here you can witness our amazing Big Band, see your fave Sabb Officers and their Execs battle it out, see sets from 3 massive bands and party away to the early hours with our DJ 

If that's not your thing - then try or debating sessions (7-8pm or 9-10pm) in Function Room 1 or head to our games room in Function Room 2 where you can challenge your mates with the giant Jenga!!!

So much time, hard work and energy has been put into this event and my thanks goes out to everyone who has helped put this event together (It'll take far too long to write everyone's name down!) - so everyone pop along tonight and help make it happen!!!

If societies did parties, they'd probably be the best parties in the world!!!! AND THEY ARE!!!!!!

See you tonight party people!!!!

Luv Jen -x-x-x- 

As some of you may be aware, every year there is a national competition to find the nation's Miss Student and this year I decided to enter for a bit of fun! I didn't think too much of it and then after posting my profile on the site I didn't check it for a month or so. Then one of my mate's said she thought I might stand a chance getting to the next round. I didn't know what she was on about so I pondered off and had a gander. I was really suprized to see that I wasn't actually doing too badly - and it's from then on that I decided to try and push for some more votes.

Firstly, I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has very kindly votes for me already as I found out the other day that I had been invited to the regional finals of the competition - Woohoo!!! 3 other lovely girlies from Pompey Uni have also made it to this stage, so congrats to all!!!

Now, obviously I'd love everyone to vote for me (as I would be lying if I said I didn't want you all to vote for me!), but you guys and girls have a choice. So I'm asking you all to support all 4 of us girlies!!! Check out the website: http://www.missstudent.co.uk to check out all of us, and if you're feeling exceptionally generous then maybe pop a vote or two our way! All the details are on the website!

So now for some self-promotion...

Why do I think I could be an awesome Miss Student? Well, I love all aspects of student life, I love to get involved with everything (from helping to publicise RAG to writing for the Union media and presenting on Pure Fm, from volunteering at VIP events to organising the best socials the Polo Club has ever seen!) and I also manage to do fairly well academically and still have the time to party hard! Basically, I love uni life and all it has to offer and I'm dedicated to trying to make it better and more accessible to all the students at Pompey Uni. So if you think a winner of Miss Student should be a strong representative of what your uni has to offer, as well as someone who likes to party like a rockstar, then vote for me!!!

Ok, that's enough ego relief for now...Also, I just wanna say that the Society's Takeover event is steadily growing bigger and I'm getting more and more excited about it now, but it's still not too late to get involved! Either message me or email our lovely SADO Ben at ben.norman@port.ac.uk for more info!!! It will be an amazing event...trust me!!!