NekNomination

I woke up this morning and saw yet another video on Facebook of a Neknomination, this time nominating a friend from uni. The boy who was mixing his concoction included listerine and Reggae Reggae sauce. Needless to say after lots of vodka, milk, crunchy nut and beer were added I couldn't watch him down it. 

There have now been two reported deaths related to Neknomination, the craze that started in Australia (those crazy Aussies!). 

Jonny Byrne (19) was pulled from a river in County Carlow, Ireland after he jumped in as part of his Neknomination stunt. His brother tried to save him but Byrne had taken such a lethal concoction that he pushed his bother away to try to complete his stunt. He was pulled from the river 5 hours later.

His father gave the Irish broadcaster RTE this statement: 

“I'm pleading to every youngster to think of the things they're doing.

“It has cost my son his life. The whole family is devastated and our lives will never be the same again. I hope this message is heeded because for us, life is virtually over,” 

Jonny's brother posted this online later:

“This neck nomination s*** HAS TO STOP RIGHT NOW my young 19 year old brother Jonny Byrne from Carlow died tonight in the middle of his nomination.

“He thought he had to try and beat the competition and after he necked his pint he jumped into the river. After five hours of searching he is still not found. If people have any decency and respect they will refrain from any more of this stupid neck nomination shit.”

Hours before this incident occurred the body of Ross Cummins (22) was found in a house in Dublin, he was rushed to hospital but died as paramedics couldn't revive him. Blood tests found that he had been taking a lethal cocktail of spirits as part of his Neknomination.

Now the craze is all over the internet, I'm not going to share everything I've seen because I don't want anyone getting ideas! But interrupting a lecture was a little disrespectful. 

I think people simply need to be aware of the harms of alcohol, it will kill you in excess. 

Here is a video of a Neknomination taking place in South Africa from - a very different way to complete your nomination, but a highly respected one at that. Brent Lindeque posted this video on his YouTube page with this comment:

"I’ve decided to create something positive out of the random global phenomena of NekNominations.

"Downing a can of Castle Light is easy… imagine if we all harnessed the power of social media to make a real difference in peoples lives. #OnlyGoodThings."

Drink responsibly and thin twice before you accept the challenge (or at least your stunt).

RHS x

Drink Aware

University secrets II

Here we go again... 

Yes, after the very popular University secrets post, it is time for another.

It has been seven months since I posted that one and all in all not much has changed, apart from the fact we are all out of halls and I occasionally wear a yellow top, emblazoned with my nickname "Mary Poppins", giving out kitkats.

Ahh second year...

"this year actually counts doesn't it"
"we got a 2.2 on an assignment - I'm going to fail in life" 
"remind me again why I signed up to this module... actually just this course in general?!"

"is our lecturer speaking in English?"

We have officially moved on from the start of First year, but that just means more to report on... 

Type "University Secrets" into google and you'll get everyuni.ac.uk telling you how to have a successful University career. Bull.

We know how to get our firsts and our two ones, what no one tells you about is University life, the nitty gritty - I'm not talking about secret spilling, I'm talking about those mad things that the people you live with do, where you wonder what planet some people were born on and the strange behaviours of your fellow colleagues at 3am after four too many sambucas. 

The constant, on going blah at Uni is the North South divide - I wrote a post on what the North taught me (I should have called it what Newcastle has taught me) but that was controversial in itself. I am from Derbyshire, you cannot get more central than central. The middle ground, the all round diplomat, I see good things and bad things about the North and the South. However, this isn't the case of Northerners and Southerners (there are a few exceptions - i.e. those that don't care). In the first week at University it was all about the North vs. the South, in fact if you get the wrong people together the debate still goes on. I'm talking accent throwing, job hunting, money, lifestyle... the list goes on. I personally prefer waking up to a field of sheep that end up packed in Sainsburys. But really, the North/South debate is refereed by the Midlanders. 

Cooking - finding out who can cook and who can't is an interesting time. I'm not talking my mother's definition of cooking which means turning on an oven and baking a potato and opening a can of tuna and being able to grate cheese without cutting a finger and working out how a microwave works. Microwaves, they have been my biggest cause for concern over two years. The people will know that I'm talking about them, I won't name drop. But one time (in Barker block), the place was almost set on fire by a young man trying to cook rice in a metal pan, by placing it in the microwave - lets just say I wasn't best pleased and corrected the cooking technique and then suggested he tries boil in a bag. There have been occasions of putting crisp packets in a microwave after too many beers at 4am - sparks were flying. There are poor souls in this world who don't have microwaves, so when faced with one, it can be quite daunting. Especially when a packet says "Cat E 4 mins, Cat D 5 mins, High Power 2 mins" - note, this does not mean you cook your food for 11 minutes - no no. It means you look at your microwave and check its power and then cook at the specified time. Top tip.

Reppin' -Ahh, becoming a rep, a right of passage that everyone should try. I'd think carefully about what type of rep you want to be, or should I say what you don't mind doing in front of people, because when it comes to hustings, there is no dignity, you have just go crazy to get the votes. Or take a more introvert way and become a welfare rep. I've written loads of posts about the first few weeks of my second year running after freshers and having A&E trips - but it is all part of the experience... although not so when they bring through the defib... awks.
Being a welfare rep also means looking after fresher and ticket reps - thats a non verbally expressed term of the contract (wheyy Business Law) - it is just an assumed thing and it needs to be done.
Rep training week consisted of making up hand shakes and presenting them to the rest of the rep team, participating in very drunken pub golf where many people did not play by the rules and a few mornings hungover.
Then the fresh blood arrived, manic hit.
International students may as well have got on a plane and gone to Mars speaking to Aliens because we were not getting through (Well I certainly wasn't)
Bags were lost at airports, we had to ferry around taxis, coaches and mislaid defrosting bacon.
The home students arrived two days later, more madness. The reps were incredible though, everyone was so hands on and the girls just basically admitted they couldn't lift a fly, so it was obviously the boys' job to take the 50kg suitcases up two flights of stairs - there's equality for you
Female reps were warned to stay away from Fresh girls arriving - as I did, gingerly...
The first night was the launch night - we had to go around our block to motivate everyone to go down and get drunk.
I knocked on one boys door (I don't know his name, probably a good thing), he had a girl on his bed - I thought that was rather soon so just stood there frozen, lost all professionalism and was like errr are you two coming to the launch? To which they looked at me like I'd disturbed their wedding night. Then another rep arrived for me to find out that this guy had been training with DU Rugby over the summer and that it was his girlfriend, whom he was dropping off home that night - phewww, I was thinking that hook-up was one for the record books (sorry for disturbing who ever you are!x).



Strange behaviour/ other randomness not previously stated
I'll just list this 

• Buying a bath for your communal kitchen area was controversial (although I'm sure very fun) the porters weren't best pleased mind. ("Mind"?! who am I?! it just sounded right in the sentence)
• Playing musical instruments at 3am was fairly normal, annoying, but normal, specifically around exam times.
• Going on city trips to relive your freshers year, I will be a fresher again!!! - then ending up almost dying from alcohol poisoning
• Entering into your old block pretending like you still live there and have a block party 
• Never have I ever becomes much more difficult to lie as everyone knows what everyone has done by now 
• Nothing is a secret in second year - no sneaking around corridors at 4am!
• Flat/house parties in the first term are purely for checking out the competition
• Secrets don't remain secrets in year 2, well some do, if you're clever in whom you tell, i.e. your rabbit 200 miles away - Thanks Gaga. 
• Did we ever find out who the Gossip Girl Twitter accounts belonged to?

Be good

RHS x

 

Merry little Christmas

  It was one of those Christmases where you say it was a "quiet one" - the close family and watching the King's Speech by 8pm, in bed by 10pm reading one of the books you were brought for Christmas. After an evening of too many Scrabble competitions, teaching Grandma how to play Boggle and still explaining the rules by the last round and teaching mother how to calibrate her new iPad. Obviously all of that was after a lavish meal of, of course, turkey and all the trimmings. The turkey was in the oven by 9:45am - I know. It was huge, we got it from a farmer who lives in the village and we said we wanted one to feed five, so he chose us one that would feed 12 "just in case" - we now have 3/4 of a turkey left and I've had a turkey sandwich every day since Boxing day. Soon we will be having turkey curry, a stir fry and then no doubt the bones will be used to make father's delicacy of turkey gelatine (mm-mmmm) and stock - used for Sunday roast to make the gravy ("jus"). Aside from sounding undoubtedly Southern there, we did partake in the classic hat wearing, joke telling, cracker pulling pre-dinner entertainment. Which, by the time 2pm came around we'd already had three bottles of champagne between five of us and we still had a bottle of white and three bottles of red to get through - it was quite a merry morning. We had my suggested healthy starter of salad. Yes, really, smoked salmon, prawns, avocado, pea shoots washed down with Chablis. We never usually have dessert but this time we took the plunge and opted for Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Christmas Pudding - it was delicious (it said it would feed eight, we scoffed the lot). We turned the lights off and poured over the 40 year old Hennessy XO and lit it, it was a glorious sight that went on for a good minute, blue flames and the smell of burning cognac with the taste of cranberries, pecans and spices, doused in madagascan vanilla cream - it was a great ending. 

 I then retired to the drawing room - HA - the spare bedroom to play Christmas carols on the old Joanna and then it was time to watch the Queen's Speech - which we watched on Demand as 1) we forgot to record it because 2) we forgot it was on because 3) it wasn't the best speech in the world. Something about a man with a cast on - not sure what the wider metaphor was about but lo and behold Kate and Walter were mentioned with their new born Ronald and their first Noel. Yawn, I did actually yawn, who cares if it was Ronald's first Christmas! It was my 21st and Liz didn't mention me, or anyone else for that matter. Ronald stole the show and he's only five months old. 

 I don't know how others start their Christmas morning but we open presents first, after I've woken everyone in the house up with a hot drink - its not the same as being five and running into your parent's room screaming - you have to be a little more mature at 20 (apparently). I was working Christmas Eve and got home at about 12:30. I got myself a night cap (rosé) and heard a "Ruthie!" from the living room (It was dad, he doesn't sleep and he always calls me Ruthie, mum calls me Rufus - please don't call me either unless I really really like you). I went into the living room to find the old man wrapping presents! I thought, well this has blown Santa out the window hasn't it! He asked if I could put ribbons on a few presents because I'm "the best". So I helped him, to find out in the morning I'd actually put a ribbon on MY OWN PRESENT, the cheek! We then watched a bit of TV about some people having their own Christmas lights turn on at their own house - I know, lets kill the polar bears and let our grandchildren deal with climate change whilst we use 10 times the amount of electricity we use in one year in one month. 

 That aside, we went into the living room (everyone with their hot drinks me with my orange juice and a banana - start the day right!) to open our presents. It was a different year this year, my parents had inherited some money, so whereas the last few years it has been satsumas and nail files, this year it was mangos and a full nail set! So mother got her new iPad and dad got one of those electric golf trollies (he's getting on) I got a Nike+Fuelband - get one, you will want to exercise ALL THE TIME. No really, I've been to the gym twice and had a run once since Christmas day! - See. Nike have kind of invented their own metric system of "Fuel" points which in turn leads to steps and calories etc. Everyone needs to asses their food intake after a Roses chocolates, Foxes biscuits and Thorntons excessive indulgence, however it is the season to be merry (and bright - just whack on some more Touche Eclait on those dark circles!) so I'll let you off if you've put on half a stone because I'm right behind you! Lets all just drink a ridiculous amount and eat till we feel extremely ill and cannot move until out stomachs settle and we have another mince pie. 

 I hope you all had a very enjoyable Christmas, I hope you all were on Santa's nice list and I wish you a very happy New Year,

with love

RHS x 

Stevo Rangers

I've been told to keep this short and sweet, I've also been told my blog someone's "guilty pleasure" and they have me on tab (not tap!) - A fast rugby player... but I'm not allowed to say who, I've had four requests to feature in a post and I've heard people are jealous that a picture of others has appeared in a post! - I'm more than flattered. Thanks guys and dolls!

Stevo Rangers - we're a bunch of bear hunters who go and hunt bears to eat them and wear their fur. We also belong to Durham University Stephenson College and last night was the Freshers' week launch. I am a welfare rep (if you didn't know that previously), there are other welfare reps, Fresher reps, ticket reps and the exec and non-exec and it was out job last night to introduce the Freshers into Stephenson college in true Stevo Ranger style - after they caught their first bear they had to complete several challenges set by their block captains - my ideas were very tame and innocent such as "find someone with the same birth place as you" and to tell an exec member that you're interested in mountain climbing and "where is the nearest mountain?" whereas as the night went on I saw Freshers' with several numbers written on their arms, phone numbers? hats were stolen and I mean stolen - naughty, reps were thrown in the air, catwalk walks were done and 'shoe phone' was seen (where did that come from?), Freshers got drunk and Freshers completed their first chant - trying to get 400 Freshers to listen was damn hard mann but oh so worth it. Other challenges included putting a condom on your head (for safe sex obvs) in the fastest time and having a Stemo (VK Cherry, Apple sours shot and Cointreau), the college drink or a Lollipop (yum!, its a non alcoholic drinks to all the t-totallers). It was very interesting (in an abstract psychological, non weird (ok weird) way) to see how the newbies came out of their shells - 6 hours before I had met their parents and their innocent angel faces but oh how things change when the 'rents leave - I'm never having children. 

Bar crawl tonight! - Letting the rabbits, rangers and ravers into a club, after several rounds of drinking games and a formal dinner things could get not messy, but chaotic! - WOOHOO, can't wait. 

//P.S. to all the people I have promised a mention to I will get round to it! I'm just concocting the best post ya see 

Stay safe Fresher! (and reps!) 

RHS x

What happened last night?

2:30am - Scream.

This post is called "What happened last night" because that was the content of the first text received from my friend first thing this morning...

Ah, THE wednesday night. Scream. Derby. 

'Scream Dream' - Unfortunately, its not all a dream. 

"Who do you think we'll see tonight" 

"I don't think many people are out" 

- As we sipped (downed, almost) our cocktails in Vines (JellyBaby - Vodka, raspberry fizz (which is blue!) and orange juice). 

Well weren't we wrong!

Cocktails! Vines. 

Friary (Bar attached to Scream) was swarming with people we all knew, some we wanted to see, some we avoided all eye contact with and scurried past like mice towards mature cheddar - you know how it is. But then loads of "I haven't seen you in AGES"'s and "How are you?!"'s, then the "I'll see you in there!" - never to be seen again, apart from awkward "HEY's" and a quick jive as you pass each other on the way to the toilet - you know how it is. 

It was a long night. I documented it - most of it. I don't really have super power memory! Here is what I documented (I won't tell you what I can remember and what I can't but my notes tell me I wasn't in a perfect state of mind as my English looks like slight Russian-cum-Tanzanian)

I attempted to get my six pack out to 'Mysterious Girl' - the DJ said "get your six pack out!" - I don't have a six pack and thanks to my top tucked into my shorts I struggled to untuck it. No flashing occurred - thank God. Thank you God. 

My famous saying of "on a scale of one to ten" came back, several times, several times too many "On a scale of one to ten how much is a shot of Apple Sours?", "On a scale of one to ten, how many people are in here that you don't want to see?" - see, they don't even make sense. One did: "on a scale of one to ten, what are my chances..." - I'll stop there. 

My friend lost her phone. iPhone 5 to be exact, so no big deal really. There was a fight, a meagre fight at that - still a "fight" (cat fight) and her phone got thrown out of her hand. But she was a little tipsy and couldn't quite understand what to do. Thankfully, (Thank you God) a very nice boy (In a "blazer and white shirt" - as he described) rang my phone (clearly looked on recent calls - clever boy) and came and kindly returned it - That my friends, was lucky (hope he wasn't expecting a drink).

3:15am - Yes, this is a man with this fists to a taxi.

Hmm, the sensitive topic of boyfriends, girlfriends, exs and "friends" - I won't go into that. Not really much to report... The DJ slowed the pace at about 2:15am with 'Angels' and yeah I didn't write this bit down so I'm not so sure... But it was that part of the night where "I love you!" is whispered to your friends and you all hug and dance... "A month and we'll be separated - till Christmas!" - It was emotional at the time - We've all been there. 

Then, I did the unspeakable (after two shots), I had a pizza (ok, it was just two slices - "just"). I had pizza. Pizza. Pizza. It is a fantastic job that I am gracing the gym with my presence later - I used to never go into those places - "takeaways"? - now I'm eating out of them! - Its been great knowing you all. It was however, very pleasing to see other girls tucking into takeaways - who said it was summer anyway?! 

Also I want to say thank you to all the people that said they have read and are enjoying my blog last night! - THANKS! 

Luckily I didn't wake up with a baby or a tiger in my bathroom (did others?), or a hangover! - I know, I'm superwoman (I should be after the amount I drank, I mean very little that I drank!). It was a very good night nevertheless and I bumped into people I haven't seen for years, waved at people very awkwardly, said "swap places in one, two three" many times to avoid eye contact, danced like a mad baboon and had a dream that I was trying to get into St. Andrew's university to study Psychology - I knew the pizza was a bad idea. 

RHS x