Is it any more than just a game?

Since being at Uni, online dating is something that has become more known in day-to-day life- but is it right?

Match.com, Tinder, Plenty of Fish (POF), eHarmony, we’ve all heard of at least one or two and each day, they are becoming more and more popular amongst students. In particular, Tinder and POF, as they are styled as more of a game than an official dating website. So I guess this raises the question, is it a game? Is finding love a game? For those of you that are less educated on this area of expertise, the art of Tinder is to swipe right if you like what you see, and if they’re a definite no-go, you swipe left and never have to see their sorry little face again. If you’re fortunate enough to get a match, then its your lucky day and you’re all set to live happily ever after. Simple right? For some maybe it is, but a fair few Tinder members have no serious intentions. So to put it bluntly, you’re playing a game with someone before you’re even in a relationship with them – there has to be something wrong here.

Is it just a game?

For some people, online dating is just a “numbers game” – the more matches you can get, the better you are. No, it’s more a case of the more your ego grows and the more single you become, because let’s face it, nobody wants to be with someone who’s overly arrogant and self-confident. What happened to quality over quantity? Have some dignity, you’re not going to get very far in the dating world if all you’re interested in is getting your points up.

Nevertheless, Tinder, along with a few other dating sites/apps are seen as a laugh to some people and argue that if you go in with no intentions, then nobody will get hurt and nothing will ever come of any ‘matches’. For students and other young people, less serious dating sites and apps are seen as a way of meeting new people and making new friends. In this instance, there is no harm in making new friends and wanting to meet people within the area that you live in. Thinking from another perspective, there is only so much that Tinder or Match.com can do, it’s also about your actions away from the screen and whether you are actually able to string a conversation together or whether actually you are the ultimate keyboard warrior of your era. Being aware of your own safety is a given but I won’t go into that (you come to Uni to get away from your parents, not to be constantly reminded to be safe and not talk to strangers!)

It’s free, so why not? Why pay for a site such as Match.com when you can amuse yourself on Tinder for free? Well, this in itself raises another imposing question. Why put a price on love? Why should you pay for some sites and not for others? Among students, being on a budget as it is, paying for online dating is a completely unheard of. Adults, however, are more inclined to pay for online dating as they believe they are ‘too old’ to find love ‘naturally’ (NOT my opinion). It is for this reason that I believe Tinder and POF are more common in the student lifestyle and not so much the others.

So, I know there will be a number of you reading this, shaking your head in disagreement with the underlying negativity that trails through this post, BUT this is definitely not the case. Being someone that, in the scheme of things, can be seen as fairly uneducated when it comes to online dating, I feel that it is a concept that poses many controversial questions that could be impossible to answer, but nevertheless, are interesting to pose in the first place.

There ‘aint no party like an S Club party!

Don’t stop movin’!

There ‘aint no party like an S Club party – and that was certainly the case for Bournemouth last night! Oh goodness, I can already tell that this is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought because all I want to do is stand up, with my best vocal performance and sing “SSSS Cluuuuuuuuub” but nevertheless, I’ll give it my best shot and attempt to retain my excitement.

Partying in the church (this is the nightclub, Halo, previously a church but now home to one of Bournemouth’s busiest student nights) with childhood FAVOURITES S Club 7 is definitely one of my better ways to spend a Thursday night. But before you get as excited as I did, only 3 members actually turned up. Unfortunately, Rachel Stevens is far too ‘big time’ for us students and as for the others, well Hannah’s tied up in some TV programme with dinosaurs (Primeval I believe it’s called) and the rest, I’m not even sure what their excuse was but it certainly was not good enough! With only 3 others remaining, it was a good job Jo, Bradley and Paul were up for showing off their best moves to the funky, funky beat (see what I did there?!).

So as students poured in, it certainly didn’t take long for the club to become crammed filled with excitable 90’s kids. Barely being able to raise your left arm in time to shout “Reach”, a front row spot, for me, beat all the hustle and bustle. You might have expected that over the years, since S Club were at their prime, the vocal ability may have dipped just slightly but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Their ability to work the crowd is still phenomenal as there was not one single person that didn’t have their hips going and their arms raised up in the air – and yes, even the bouncer was reaching for those stars.

S Club partying in the Church!

Reach!

“I’ve never had a dream come true”

Left to right: Paul, Jo, Bradley

Most of us will remember S Club for their party anthems with the catchiest beats. This is clearly the reason why I’ve had the entire set list in my head for the whole day and probably starting to annoy people with my sudden outbursts of “SSSS Cluuuuuuuuuub!” However, sooner than hoped, it came that point in the set where the slow, tear-jerker’s were up. ‘Two in a Million’ and ‘Never had a Dream Come True’ brought the church down a notch as the fist pump quickly transformed into a swaying of both arms. It’s always a guaranteed crowd pleaser and there’s always one that can’t contain their emotions (may I just point out, this was not me!) Whether you sounded like Celine Dion or the strangled cat in your neighbour’s garden, there was no holding back when it came to these power tracks. It’s always the best way to round up the night, belting out some of the ultimate classics from your childhood favourite band surrounded by all your friends (look at me getting all cringe!), but it honestly is the truth.

So after last night, I’m calling for a huge S Club 7 reunion, with all members making an appearance (and yes, Rachel, that does mean you too). Who’s with me?

Regrets over Ron?

SPOILER ALERT! For all those Harry Potter lovers, it’s safe to say this will make you cry a little bit inside. But nevertheless, a perfect opportunity for a new blog post!

It has been revealed in a recent interview with J K Rowling, that the fictional romance of Ron and Hermione was “wrong”. Rowling goes on to explain in her interview how she now sees that Harry would have been a more suited match for Hermione and that she “made a mistake” by plotting a Weasley and Granger marriage at the end of her seven-novel cycle.

Should it have been Potter?

It sounds to me like one of those secondary school moments where the overly nerdy and repelling boy manages to bag himself the most attractive girl in the year. Everyone knows he’s punching way above his weight but it’s one of those things where everyone is intrigued to see how long it will last. Well, in the case of Potter, Hermione and Ron’s flirtatious banter (or ‘flanter’ to those switched on to today’s society’) has been blossoming right from the word go. So I guess we’ll be expecting to see them arriving and leaving together at next year’s BAFTAs won’t we? Oh wait, this is a fictional romance. Look at me getting far too engrossed in the antics of Potter and his crew!

There seems to have been an uproar from fans as to why Ron Weasley was the chosen one, why not Potter? They’ve come back with commentary suggesting that Ron would never be able to make Hermione happy and that she’s far too good for him. I mean, cut the poor guy some slack, he can’t help the colour of his hair (ginger!) And in Ron’s defence, it’s not as if Harry is left to third-wheel, he manages to worm his way in with the Weasley family by marrying Ginny (Ron’s sister) in the final novel.

Rowling briefly explains that her reasons for Ron and Hermione’s match were “personal” and “not for reasons of credibility”. I can understand that to some hardcore Potter fans, this is not the way in which the story, ideally, would have unveiled but I’m sure it’s nothing a bit of ‘wingardium leviosa’ can’t sort out – after all, you can’t pick and choose who you fall in love with. (Oops, there I go again, I need to remember that this is a FICTIONAL STORY and not quite true life… yet!)

10 things you never thought you were capable of before you came to University

So as we rapidly approach the Easter break, it makes you realise how quickly this first year at University is really going. We’ve gone almost 7 months without Mum and Dad and have had to find that independent human from deep within us. So I’ve compiled a Top 10 of the things you never realised you were capable of before you came to Uni.

A present from Mum!

1. Cooking – there’s no way around this – you have to eat. But it’s amazing what adventurous concoctions you can create when only given some chicken and rice. Mum would always save the left overs from dinner and we’d question as to who would ever eat yesterday’s food, but you come to realise that every scraping counts and that you can box up absolutely ANYTHING! Spaghetti Bolognese has never tasted so good and well, let’s face it, there’s always someone who thinks they can cook like Ramsey when really their cooking skills are as useful as a chocolate teapot.
2. Cleaning – to most, Detol spray and a dish cloth were a new life form when they came to Uni. Having to clean up after dinner really makes you appreciate having a dishwasher when you go home! But I guarantee one thing you never realised before Uni, and that’s how well and how quickly you can tidy up your kitchen and lounge after last nights ‘prinks’. To any adults reading this- ‘prinks’ is an abbreviation of ‘pre-drinks’ – something us students do before we go on a night out (you don’t want to know any further details). It’s amazing what things you throw into a bin bag, things you didn’t even know were in your house the night before.
3. Washing – as much as we would like it, Mum doesn’t come and do our washing for us once a week – it’s down to the washing machine (if you can work it) or the laundrette downstairs. So you’d never have thought that you could make those jeans go a day further without washing them, or creating outfits that you’d never worn before because your best top is amongst the pile of washing in your basket. And as you’ve limited yourself to one wash a week (as it’s such a painful operation), jumpers can definitely been worn more than once before needing to be cleaned. Say goodbye to putting things in the wash because hanging them up was too much of an effort!
4. Putting the bins out – sorry boys, but this is a MAN’S job. No woman should have to strain herself by lifting a weeks’ worth of rubbish from the bin, down the corridor and into the outside bin. Just no. So for most girls, this is something that has benefited them since coming to Uni, but as a boy, I bet you’d never have realised how much rubbish you actually consume over one week. And if you miss the waste collection day you are SCREWED because there is just TOO much rubbish that the bin will eventually overflow.

   

   The Art of Procrastination

5. Procrastination – to most students in their first year, procrastination becomes their second name. You know you’re trying to put off work when you opt to wash up or do the hoovering instead of the 3000 word essay that’s due in tomorrow. I bet you never thought you’d take on the tedious task of rearranging documents on your laptop as an alternative to actually doing the coursework that’s right in front of you.
6. Ironing – who would have thought you could go 6 months without ironing a single item of clothing?! Well you can, as I’m sure you have found out. The new alternative to ironing is most definitely using the hair-dryer. Give your top a quick blast before you go to Uni and jobs a gooden’. So when you, along with all your other house mates, turned up on moving in day with an iron and an ironing board, I can tell you’re now regretting the decision to bother with this in the first place. Don’t worry though, there’s always next year to give it a go (never going to happen).
7. Making things last longer – this is more aimed at the girls, but make-up. We all know it’s expensive, even boys realise this, but it has never been clearer that you are a student when you get angry that you’re lecture is cancelled as you’ve wasted a whole face of make-up on a day when you don’t even need to leave the house!
8. Creating games out of day-to-day essentials – I know that for me, personally, I never thought I would get bored during the day as I just assumed I would be tied down with work. But it is clear that you need to take a break from studies and what better way to do so than a game of ping-pong using 2 frying pans! Or a game of football tennis (not even too sure what this is but it definitely happens in my house) played on a court made of string and plastic bin bags in the garden? I don’t think we can ever be blamed for a lack of imagination, after all, it takes a lot of skill to be able to limbo under a piece of string that has been tied between 2 door frames!
9. Catch up TV – TV license? What’s one of those? It’s safe to say it’s a shock to the system when you are able to go home and watch TOWIE on Wednesday rather than a Thursday as you’ve had to readjust your TV guide to the catch up timetable on ITV Player! TVs may as well not exist at Uni as most of us just watch on our laptops anyway. Catch up TV is the best way to spend a hangover day but most of the time you know what is going on anyway as you’re a day late and everyone else has kindly posted the episode over Twitter and Facebook. PLOT SPOILER!
10. Living away from home – So the last one is simple. Moving to Uni is simply moving house, but by yourself. It’s a scary thought at first but it’s something that is fairly easy to adjust too. Living independently gives you the chance to see how bad your cooking really is, and that you really don’t know how to work a washing machine and that ‘cleaning fairies’ don’t actually exist.

So as you’re reading through laughing and nodding because you know this is exactly like you, then it’s safe to say you’re not alone. Everyone gets to a point during the term where they think their entire brain is about to explode or that they are on the verge of a mental break down so, if that’s currently you, just remember that you’re going home in a couple of weeks for the Easter break!

Is it a bare-faced cheek?

“Selfie.” A photograph taken of yourself using a reversible camera, usually accompanied by a ‘kissy’ face or the individual looking in the opposite direction of the camera. To some, pointless. But the increasing popularity of this selfie trend has led to a viral campaign of which women posting a “no-makeup selfie” has raised over £2 million for Cancer Research UK in just 48 hours.

The campaign sparked after a huge cancer awareness vs. narcissism debate and is proven to be one of the most successful viral campaigns of this day and age. Remember planking? Well clearly women plastering bare-faced photos across the social media is a better way of raising awareness and money for cancer. Cancer Research UK announced that they had received an explosive 800,000 donations in the first 24 hours and the most overwhelming element of this whole campaign is that they didn’t even start it in the first place! The trend started off the back of Cancer Research posting the text code for donations over Twitter and Facebook and since then, women have taken to “no-make up selfies” as a more original way of raising money for charity.

So why a selfie? Well as much as this campaign is proving to be a success, it has had some backlash and criticisms as to the relevance of posting photos of yourself across the social media. Obviously, posting a photo isn’t going to raise the money, but it does raise the awareness and encourages more and more people to donate. Twitter and Facebook have even seen the bare faces of Kim Marsh, Michelle Keegan, Imogen Thomas and a number of others that have seen the charitable side to this trend. Most ‘selfies’ are accompanied with a nomination and #cancerawareness to continue the trend among their friends and family. Oh, and in case you’re not quite up with the times a ‘#’ is the way in which us “youngsters” create trends on Twitter when discussing similar topics.

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But besides raising awareness and donations to Cancer Research, women going make-up-free online also has an underlying message: being happy with your own skin, no matter what you look like, what you do or don’t have, what you have suffered from or what you are still fighting. Many of us have lost a family member or friend to cancer, and if you haven’t then you can count yourself incredibly lucky. So, you can protest until you’re blue in the face if you really dispute this “no-makeup selfie” trend but before doing so, make sure you find a better way to raise more than £2 million for Cancer in just 48 hours. Oh, and while you’re at it, text BEAT to 70099.

What makes you so different?

A crime is a crime. If you’re guilty, you’re guilty. Why should the fact that you have a job in the limelight affect the way in which you’re treated in court?

This is something that frustrates me beyond belief. I do not know how courts can justify accepting money in return for being released, on the simple grounds that an individual has a particular ‘celebrity status’. Many icons appear to only receive a slap on the wrist compared to the average citizen who may get several years imprisonment for the same crime. A small fine or community service at a push and it is just not justifiable for some of disgusting incidents that are heard about in the celebrity culture of today.

Chris Brown is a prime example. Assaulting another person is not only outrageous but it is quite clearly a criminal offence. So assaulting his then pop star girlfriend, Rihanna, should have the same outcome as a regular assault case. But, of course, this isn’t the case in the celebrity world. Brown was ordered to serve 180 days in “labour-orientated service”, or to you and me, community service. He was also issued with 5 years probation but lets face it, if it was your neighbour they would definitely be sent down for a considerable period of time.

Get out of jail free card?

Another is Tulisa. involved in an undercover cocaine scandal and already her trial that was due to take place January has been postponed to July. Surely someone that is brokering a Class A drug deal, should be sentenced and punished for this? So far, she has put in a bid to be bailed out all together – if that doesn’t have guilt written all over it then I don’t know what does.

So why does this seem to happen? It seems that this monetary status gives celebrities, supposed idols and inspirations to many young people, the ridiculous idea that they can buy their way out of crime. It happens more often that we even realise and surely someone has to realise this is happening? Why do they have any more rights to a ‘get out of jail free’ card?

A Blast From the Past?

New and improved? Or just a bit ‘edgy’?

So as some of you may already be aware, as of 2017, a new, and supposedly improved, pound coin is being introduced to our British currency. If I’m brutally honest, I don’t really see the issue with the current one but there we go, that’s the government for you these days! I’m sure the intentions for this are all in the right place but clearly the subtext for the new pound coin design is all about cutting corners? Talk about a blast from the past, it looks more like we’ve moved back to the 1800’s and brought back the threepenny bit.

It’s said to help stamp out the issue of forgeries and counterfeit money which is obviously a massive issue in our society today. It reduces the value of our currency and increases the cost of commodities as there is more ‘money’ flowing through the economy. Baring this in mind, clearly action needs to be taken in order to tackle this problem but if the current pound coin has been studied in enough detail, how are you meant to fit a coin like that in your shopping trolley at Asda? The evolution of coin racing is going to come to a halt as the front runner and guaranteed winner is now not even round!

It is still under discussion as to the finalised design to the the back of this new coin. “Sorry” written in capital letters would be a start – I might even suggest this to Osborne. Imagine having loose change like this stacking up in your purse, it would send you over the edge! When the 2014 Budget announced this new arrival, it was as if April Fools had come early – it’s just horrific.

Maybe it’s George Osborne’s way of distracting the public about the changes that have actually been made to the 2014 Budget, by frantically waving around this edgy new coin, but I’ll save that for another day.