February 3, 2013, by Ollie

What’s on my mind? Well how about I tell you

Here I am again. A week has past. A week of twiddling my thumbs and waiting for inspiration to strike and still no idea for what to write about. In this time of desperation the only idea I have is to combine all the little ideas I’ve had into a generic blog.

I shall call this blog. The Ollie blog.

Most of the time I normally have a theme with first year related content or a significant activity that I have participated in. Well this week I guess was just a normal week. Lectures resumed, lies in were lost.
For me Wednesday was the significant day of the week, if there is such a thing! Football having being called off 2 days prior to Wednesday morning due to expected ‘biblical’ rain was put back on as the ‘biblical’ rain never arrived.

However the ‘biblical’ wind did arrive (see main picture) and made it possibly the most challenging game of football ever. Grove Farm is a fantastic facility. To have a space where many fixtures can be held, allowing a lot of people to be actively involved in sport competing in IMS, BUCS, Societal or Faculty, in different sports ranging from Football and Rugby to Lacrosse but did nobody ever think that such an open space wouldn’t be vulernable to wind. Running into the wind was like running through treacle! This made for a very unhappy me and is a problem I see occuring many times in the future.

I’d also like to take this chance to promote an observation I have made. Students like alcohol and food. Alcohol and food can be bought with money. So students should therefore want money. Well anybody that is referee qualified or has a knowledge of a sport should be getting themselves down to Grove Farm and get some money by officiating! It is something I would love to see organised through the university for IMS or Societal sports. Last term and unfortuanetely this term the matches I have played in have been marred by either lack of officials/potentially biased decisions. It is not an easy job and that is always understood at the end of the day but I know having spoken to several teams that players would happily contribute money to pay a referee and even linesmen in order for their to be more control and authority and make the whole experience more enjoyable – but what can one fresher do hey?

Now I don’t want to be all doom and gloom so to end on a happy but actually sad note. This week saw the new season of ‘Derek’ start. I don’t need to tell you all about it but it’s a Ricky Gervais written show and he stars in it as ‘Derek’ a man that has learning disabilities, it is assumed but never stated. Also starring in the show is Karl Pilkington – Comedy gold always! Derek volunteers in a care home, where he lives his life very happily, due to the fact he feels like he is contributing. Many people were skeptical about the show when it first aired saying that it was offensive to elderly people and people with special needs. I could not disagree more. Never have I ever watched such a clever show. A comedy that is promoting real issues. The first episode sees an eldery people’s care home facing closure due to ‘neccessary cutbacks’. The Home manager at one points says ‘How can people in suits say we’re overspending? We’re didn’t overspend they just underestimated the cost.’ A very poignant statement and one that could be applied to other real life situations, especially to us students in terms of our tuition fees that we pay. Another, to me at least, inspiring moment in the show is when ‘Derek’ is approached by a council worker asking if he would have an autism test, Derek responds in his character’s style, bumbling through his response, seeming a bit confused, but he ends by saying. ‘So if I have this test, and I am autistic, I’ll still be the same person won’t I’. This touches upon the idea of stereotyping and labelling those unfairly. Something we all do without realising and hopefully now won’t! I really recommend giving the show a watch!

Well, I know this blog has been a little different but I hope you’ve enjoyed it all the same – thanks for reading.

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