Lola Borg lecture

Freelance Journalist, Lola Borg held a lecture for all first year students about her experiences in the industry and what it takes to become a Freelance Journalist and pretty much work on your own terms.

She originally started working as a designer for 'Smash Hits' magazine, she said "I asked if I could start writing for them because the Journalists were having more fun!." She then started writing about Pop music.

Lola now works as a Freelance Journalist for Readers Digest and writes about all sorts of things from Health to Societies.

She showed us some interesting quotes from successful magazine editors in the industry:
"You can get away with having all kinds of things but what you really need is a little charm, that and a fundamental interest in people" - Victoria Harper, Grazia magazine.

Lola's top tips were:
*Plan ahead
*Be persistent
*Research
*Send examples of your work to gain work experience
*Expect to start off doing minimal tasks

It was really interesting to hear about some of her experiences and has really got me interested in magazine writing!

Accommodation

I think it's really awful how some Accommodation places treat students! I live with 17 other people, we have cleaners that come in every day and if we dont wash our pots every day they take them away and destroy them!. They're always moaning at us about something, whether its pots or just mess from the night out before. I don't see the point in having cleaners if they're just going to tell us to tidy up every day. Also someone threw a knife at the cupboard, it made the tiniest scratch and we're all getting £25 pounds taken out of our deposit!.

My flat mate can't afford to live here anymore and her parents phoned up and asked if she could terminate her contract for the end of term, the maintanence team went mad and told her to get her stuff out that day, not caring whether she had anywhere else to live they just removed all of her stuff, cleaned it and we have a new flat mate moving in this weekend!

I can't wait to get into a house next year and hopefully have some more independance.

Woman in Black

I was expecting Daniel Radcliffe to whip out his wand when things got intense! he's not the best of actors in my opinion, I kept thinking 'Harry Potters too young to have a son'.  Apart from trying to keep Harry Potter out of your head it is actually a really good film! I was jumping out of my seat every five minutes. It's one of those films where it's really obvious when something's going to jump out but you scream anyway, along with the rest of the cinema!

I liked it because it wasn't like a typical horror movie, there was nothing cheesy and it felt very real. I can imagine it being really good in the theatre too! I think the fact that the main plot was about children dying made it scarier, things like that really freak me out, and I thought I could see the woman in black in every corner for days!

I would definitely reccomend this film, if you like a good scare and Harry Potter of course!

Olly Murs!!

He's such a cheeky chappy!

I went to see Olly Murs at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham with my friend last week. It was very last minute, one of my friends wasn't well so I got her ticket for free! I really enjoyed it although I felt like we were waiting for Olly to come on forever. There was a support act before hand that seemed to go on far too long, they were good but were a totally different style to the music Olly does so didn't really fit in. I only got to see him for about an hour because we had to get the last train back to Lincoln, very annoying!

He hasn't released that many songs at the moment so he did some really good covers, like Aloe Blac - I need a dollar, he put his own spin on it and it was really good! he also did a lot of stuff from his new album which looks promising! he walked around the arena floor and the crowd went mental, it looked extremely stressful for the security with all the screaming girls trampling on eachother to get closer to him!

I would definitely go and see him again, and actually stay for the full show this time!

Valentines Day

* it's commercial                                                             
* a way for businesses to make mone
* very annoying for those who are single!
*nice presents
*getting a free meal!

although Valentines Day isn't for everyone those who are in a relationship seem to enjoy it. Those who aren't tend to get bitter about it, its no different to any other day of the year and there's always a massive hype about it! I do think it's a good time to do something nice for someone and let them know that you love them. Every restaurant is always jam packed with loved up couples, which is kind of annoying if you're not into that soppy kind of stuff. It's so difficult to buy for men as well! Valentines Day is all about women these days and I think it puts a lot of pressure on men to do the right thing!. I believe it is kind of a pointless day and just another way for businesses to make money from the merchandise, which a lot of the time is extremely tacky and not worth the money! It is really nice getting a nice card with a cute message in, and can't complain about being taken out for dinner and getting spoilt. Even if it is only once a year!

Lincoln ghost walk

I'd heard a lot of stories about 'the hauntings' in Lincoln, so I thought i'd attend the Lincoln Ghost Walk which is held every Wednesday evening around the Castle and Cathedral up Steep Hill. The walk is an independant business run by a women called Margaret Green. There was a large group of students who attended the walk on this particular evening, we were walked around several parts of the Cathedral and the Castle, although we weren't actually allowed inside the Castle which was a bit of a let down. The man shared lots of stories about the history of Lincoln and stories about the ghosts that hang around those parts. A story I found particularly interesting was one about the ghost of 'the black rider', about 10 years ago a man was walking up steep hill he claims he saw a black horse ride past with a shodowy figure on the back, the horse stood infront of the castle and the knight said "open the gates for the king". After this man claimed he'd witnessed this, more people came forward with their stories about 'the black rider'. Although the information about Lincoln and its history was interesting the ghost stories seemed a little far fetched and the tour guide claimed he saw a ghost whilst we were all there. I definitely didn't see anything out of the ordinary!