tomworman's diary

I'm famous !

Well, that's kind of how it feels. I'm known throughout the land now already! Today (tuesday) i have spent the day doing various activities around the centre of Portsmouth, on my day off from working nights as the Unions photographer. It started at midday with a visit to the Union to see Mr Harries (Media and Publications Officer) to look at his new newspaper which looks great, although never gonna let him forget that he didn't credit the photos in this issue to me !!! 

On to the "being famous" bit, I've walked to and from Tesco's just off commercial road 3 times today (i forgot things so kept going back to the union) and on each trip, i bumped into either someone i recognised as an old student - like cannon - or someone totally unknown who knew who i was and wanted to know when the photos would be online.

THE PHOTOS WILL BE ONLINE SOON I PROMISE - IT IS OUT OF MY HANDS !!! 

Then tonight i have been to Tiger Tiger and met probably 10 to 15 people who all have said "You're Tom, the Unions Photographer aren't you ?" i don't remember ever meeting them before but as one chap commented, "it doesn't matter if you know us, just know that everyone knows YOU!" - i'm not sure whether to be happy or scared. So anyway, in total i think today i've met in excess of 20 new faces who all know who I am but I have no clue who they are.

To you I say... " HELLO, WELCOME TO PORTSMOUTH and MAKE SURE YOU KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ME!"

So, today (sunday) is day 2 of the freshers week events, as DJ Ali (Lux) and DJ Kev (CO2) welcomed in the official start of Freshers at midnight. Tonight was an interesting night, although reaching capacity, 1800 students, it took a while to get there compared to yesturday. I guess everyone was still nursing hangovers from the previous night.

It was good to see more of the old-school union party goers - welcome back Cannon - and well done to the Burrell Halls Massive for representing the halls challenge as you should do. As always staff rolled up at 7pm to start sorting the bars and stuff upstairs, but Lux didn't open until 9pm at which point the Pure FM guys were just finishing off setting up there connections for the live Pure FM broadcast. 10 o'clock saw loads more people arrive and Pure FM go live, which I know is well subscribed too and even resident Orange Fridays DJ was listening too. JA from Pure started the night off followed by Ali, with a mix of club classics and in CO2 Kev kept the RnB going all night.

I think people are now coming to realise i'm not (totally) a creepy perve taking photos of students - but still, the amount of times i've had to say "photos will be on the union website" I lost count after a while.  Think i need a t-shirt or something with it on (that's a hint Pete/Scott/UPEL). The real problem tonight was people took to punching my arm to get my attention and i started to lose feeling in my left arm from carrying the camera high above the crowd - solution - who knows...

oh and i must make a quick apology - i am rendered blind when the lighting bods turn on the strobes, so if i stumble into you, its not my fault, i literally cannot focus on where i am going - weird innit - think i'd be better just to close my eyes and guess.

So anyway, I left the union to get back to get the photos online, which worked out great-timing as i logged on to Pure FM to hear Ali asking the crowd to leave as the fire alarms were going ! Oooops. Its 2:08am and i'm frigging knackered, off to battle with the pillow and get some sleep before the mayhem that will be the BIG ONE tomorrow night - foam, foam, foam !!!