Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

Damn Firebox. I have no time or money but they've gone and sent me a catalogue full of wonders I just can't resist. Such as this remote control for the cowboy in our house. Or this key buoy so I don't lose my keys overboard (although I also enjoy using Sea Searchers). Or this DIY Duct Tape Wallet (so much cooler when you make it yourself). And for the first time I'm starting to wish Ireland had postcodes so I could get a Postcode Puzzle of Castleconnell. And for Dad, maybe a retro telephone. I hate Firebox.

I'm sooo tired. Went to Manchester yesterday for the Student Radio Association North-West/North Wales Regional Nominations Party (even the acronym is mouthful: SRANWNWRNP), hosted by the lovely Fuse FM. They did such a good job, arranging three speakers for the afternoon, a private room in a restaurant/bar for our meal and nominations announcements and a private area in a really nice pub opposite the BBC afterwards.

The best bit, though, was the fact that Storm got nominated for Best Marketing/Branding and Best Live Event/Outside Broadcast. I'm feeling so proud! Looks like a big gang of us will be heading to London for the Awards Party on November 15th -- should be a fun (if expensive) night out!

We didn't get back til 2am last night and despite sleeping soundly in the car on the way home (thank you Spencer!) I am exhausted this morning.

Tuesday was tiring too: I had my second driving test on Tuesday morning (which, thankfully, I passed this time). It's just so mentally exhausting doing a test like that, particularly with the enormous number of mistakes I was making in my practise hour before my test. I even managed to pull out in front of a bus, which really shook me, but I managed to calm myself down for the test itself. The test was in and around Bangor which was nice, and my reverse-around-a-corner was on the corner opposite Jenna's house I always practise on anyway. So that was good.

Then in the evening we had Council. I quite enjoyed it, except it went on a bit long and I never feel right refusing to discuss something (there was an Undeb Trading matter people were asking questions about, but since Council has absolutely no power over Trading and since it was already 10:15 Sam and I felt there was absolutely nothing to be gained from the discussion) but the tone of the whole event was much more relaxed and friendly than last year. I hate when it becomes Council vs Executive -- we're all working towards the same aims so it seems silly -- and it was refreshing to find that that was not the case on Tuesday.

This week was nicer. On Monday I took the next step in my quest to make the whole world organised by giving each and every one of my societies a nice folder with all the bits and bobs they need in it. They have very kindly been humouring me by bringing them into my office with them when they stop by to say hello. It is lovely.

My brand new database system thingamawhatsit is also up and running (thank you Friday!), so thus far I can tell you that we have 325 people involved in clubs and societies (only a few clubs and socs have registered their members so far but ISN'T IT EXCITING!).

Yesterday I went to London for another NUS Governance Review Steering Committee. It was a really good meeting with lots of discussion and (happily) it even ended early, so I was there and back within twelve hours. A marvel. I'm quite excited about all the proposals, and am working on ways to make everyone else feel excited too. More on this another time, maybe after we've heard whether the NEC like it or not.

I'm also trying my damnedest to stay out of internal politics. It's not fun or pretty and I'd much rather just do my job. Sometimes I wish I was just an administrator, or that I could ignore all the other parts of the Union and just work with my societies (who really are so lovely and friendly and helpful) and standing committees.

Freshers' Week is over and I can't help feeling slightly disappointed. I know it's silly, that probably nobody noticed any of the things I'm worried about, but I'm disappointed nonetheless.

I wanted to do lots of little, easy-to-organise events during the week, but it turned out that even easy-to-organise events become difficult to organise when they're in the same week as Serendipity. It's like a black hole, sucking up all my time and energy, because no matter how organised I have been people still don't read their emails properly so pop in to ask 'just a quick question' or phone up to ask if there are any stalls left and argue with me over whether there really is no space or not ("but what if I bring my own table?").

I shouldn't really be complaining; Serendipity did go pretty well, I just wanted more from the rest of the week. Now term has started properly, and with it comes a new stream of people wanting to start societies (I think I'm on 11 requests so far) or thinking I'm the AU administrator so can answer questions about their grants, their training times and their insurance (is it cos I is female?). I can't wait to have new administrators ...

I did a stint on the minibuses last night. Today I am very tired. I'm staring at my screen but not really managing to do anything about the words written on it. I've just taken a delivery of a popcorn machine and a candyfloss machine with a jaunty pink raffia umbrella but I can't even muster up the energy to tidy it away somewhere so it's just sitting in a trolley in my waiting room. I am such a wimp.

I feel weird: Serendipity is ready to go. I should be running around like a headless chicken, crying, stressing, shutting my door. But I'm not. I'm sitting here with not a lot to do. My Protestant Work Ethic is making me feel guilty, as though I'm not doing my job properly. It's unnerving.

Sam is a corporate whore. Watch out for his blog on the merits of Toshiba laptops any day now (they're sending him one for a week so he can blog about it). This is the problem with having an ego as large as his: once someone feeds it all morals go out the window.

Look at the magical, mythical tree thing:



It's the most famous thing that's happened in Bangor for ages, probably even out-performing Prince Charles. Which is nice, because we like the Botanical Gardens, so the more interest people show in them the better. Radio 2, Radio Wales, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Daily Star ... the meeja have been queuing up to catch a glimpse at our SuperTree. Just a shame we've missed the chance to make Treborth Tequila.

Serendipity is approaching fast and I am having to tell lots of people they can't have stalls. It gets very frustrating how much people demand of you and how often they change their minds. The space we have to work with is definitely not big enough so I can't keep everyone happy and I've had to be horrible and turn away charities because we need the income from commercial stall-holders. But I think the worst thing is that all the preparation I put in doesn't really make a difference to whether the event itself is good or bad; that's down to the stall-holders and the effort they put in. All I'm doing is making their lives slightly easier in the run-up to the event.

In other news, I got my hair cut the other day. I had a good three inches taken off, and fixed the horrendous inch-long roots I had grown, but hardly anyone has noticed. I don't know why I bother.

You probably won't be able to read this properly here but look what I found in the staffroom in the school we were staying in during the Triennial:



It's this excellent spelling guide of words teachers might like to use when writing reports. It includes such gems as 'obnoxious', 'jeapordise', 'calamity', 'fiasco' and 'impertinent'. It's like playing with those poetry fridge magnets: I have an urge to cut them all out and write reports using only those words.