I am back, as promised, to deliver the rest of ‘the story so far’ to bring y’all up to speed!
Apologies but this is a fairly long-winded post! I've had to sift through and condense a years worth of memories! It may not be too interesting to read but it brought me a GREAT deal of joy writing it. You are about to hear about the best year of my life so far, though not in the greatest detail ever!
Right yes, university and Bristol!
I was scared of moving miles and miles away without knowing anyone. I had seen that a friend of mine had joined a Facebook group for Freshers at her university. What a great idea, I mused! I had a wee search to see if there was anything similar for UWE Freshers and alas there was not. So, I threw caution to the wind and set my own one up. UWE Freshers 07 was born. It started pretty slow, but some of the first few people who joined would become my closest friends in the first year. It grew and grew and grew, and eventually the group maxed out at over 6,000 (SIX THOUSAND!) people; most of who knew my name. I was on the way to becoming a celebrity within the university scene.
Out of UWE Freshers 07 sprung separate groups for various courses, faculties, club nights, events, societies, sports and accommodation. My group became a portal to all those other groups (a lot of them started and maintained by myself anyway!). It became a wealth of information for anyone who wished to attend the university! I provided links about enrolment, registration, Freshers Week and more.
People would post on their relevant accommodation group providing their name, flat and room number and ask if anyone lived with or near them. I noticed this and compiled a list of people and where they were staying - so when people came on to the groups they could locate their flat and get in touch with their flatmates on Facebook before moving in! This was then recreated in the other accommodation groups which other people had taken the initiative to start. It felt good to be easing the ‘big move’ by providing Freshers with a way to shake off their nerves by knowing people before they moved in.
The culmination of all the networking came on my first day down in Bristol. I had moved in to Brecon Court in the Student Village and set myself up. I checked the web. The group had been used to advertise a party happening that night in one of the flats hosted by people I had been speaking to on Facebook and MSN for a few months. I headed straight over and shed-loads of people who I’d spoken to only electronically until now. People recognised and knew me and I would be clueless as to who they were! It was surreal but it was sensational. Drink flowed freely and a good time was had by all (other than a couple of people who couldn’t handle the new university drinking lifestyle and got paralytic... one girl even had a fit!). Music blared, people danced, everyone was introducing everyone to everyone with replies of “ooh yeah, we’ve spoken on Facebook!” In the space of mere hours, friendships had been formed which felt like they were years old. It was this very flat I would spend almost every waking hour in – the wonder and legend that was Brecon 103.
Fresher’s Week came around and I felt like a king! In clubs, bars, on the street or at university people would approach me and say ‘oh my god you’re George!’ or variations on that! People would insist on buying me drinks – many thanks if you were one of them! Complete strangers would invite me out as nonchalantly as if we’d known each other for years. I genuinely felt on several occasions that people felt they knew me before they’d even met me! And in the most bizarre occasions people would ask to have a photo taken with me as if I was Sean-fucking-Connery or something! It was surreal but, of course, I absolutely loved it. It was amazing! I was in my element. I was no longer the shy, unhappy guy with no self confidence I was in Surrey.
Almost daily I would receive messages from clubs, promoters, Student Union staff, University staff and others asking to affiliate with the group or advertise within it. But for the time being, I felt it best if I maintained control of it. However, the ‘contacts’ I made through this and the perks I received would prove to be a bountiful beyond my wildest dreams!
The idea of a group for Freshers had never occurred to the UWE Students’ Union before I created the UWE Freshers 07 group. It was the predecessor to hundreds of new groups and event pages for every aspect of university life. And eventually I teamed up with the Student Union and allowed them access to the page to promote Union events, update users with the latest News and provide them with essential information to help them settle in.
It wasn’t long before I was on the union payroll, doing a couple of hours a week updating the Union website with all the latest news and maintaining and updating the Freshers group. I was being paid for this now as well, could it get any better?
Yes!
I began advertising for a club night at Syndicate called Vodbull, hosted on a Monday night where Vodka Redbull was just £1.50. All this entailed was sending a message out to the group telling them what the night was about, or perhaps inviting the members of the group to the Vodbull event on Facebook. Occasionally I would hand out leaflets or welcome people on the door. Sometimes I would help prepare the venue for the event. Once I even recruited some of my friends and we spent the night painting people with UV paint or spraying them with UV paint from a water pistol. Girls would come up and ask us to hand print or paint their... body parts. Life was good!
As if that couldn’t get any better, for this ‘work’ I was doing, I was also entitled to VIP access for me and 10 of my friends on a weekly basis. Jumping the queues, access to a VIP area to avoid queues at bars – sweet. I was also given free shot and drinks vouchers by the PAD and once me and my friends were sufficiently ‘trollied’, we would use the remainder of the vouchers and the VIP access to chat up women.
Eventually the club night came to an end and moved on, though I had perks elsewhere! Through working at the SU I had made a lot of friends in reasonably high places and a lot of friends who worked behind the bar – meaning no more queuing for me! I was friendly with the SU president who would eventually come to help me win a battle with the crappy Estate Agent we were renting from in our second year too! I was also friendly with the events workers and was part of a team suggesting new nights and new themes and the like. I was also close with the fellow, my good friend Alex, who would become the Freshers Event organiser for 2008.
I had gained over 2 stone, mostly from the sheer volume of alcohol consumed. I spent over £1250 (my entire Student Overdraft) in 3 months on going out, much to my mothers dismay! I was drunk, no word of a lie, almost solidly for 5 months between September and February – with a brief break for exams in January. Seriously, I was out 5-6 times a week almost every week. Even after February it only decreased to 3-4 times a week, though perhaps we drank more at the flats than out in the town due to the ever-increasing lack of funds! I was frequently drunk during the day. Me and Ross would get bored, go to the Sainsbury’s down the road for something completely unexciting like bread or toilet paper and end up leaving with some booze and some chicken wings. We would drink up on the walk back, and show up at 103 in the middle of the day completely off our tits. That was the life.
There is so much more I could tell you about Freshers year (girls and more girls, relationships, break ups, make ups, troubles with the ex, £10 all you can drink, a few scraps, even more parties, drugs, summer BBQ’s, Wii Bowling drinking games, Bastard 8’s, the kebab guys, Christmas dinners, waking up in my own sick, dirty pints, awesome security guards, finding a Masterkey for the accommodation, the leaving party, so many more times I’ll never forget...) but I think I’ve bored you enough, for now! I could write a novel on this!
2007-2008 was the best year of my life to date. I miss it so much that it hurts and would give anything to be back there once again. It changed me in so many ways and for the first time in my life I was comfortable with who I was. I made so, so many friends and though I may have grown distant from them since, I will never forget them.
I’ll bring this to an end here. Sorry it’s long! The next edition will be about my second year and events work, but that will be far shorter than this one has been. After that we’re pretty much up to date with where I am now.
Brecon ‘til I die!
G
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