A while ago saw the end of exams at the University of Essex (I've been busy, leave me alone). If you remember back (as two of the three readers I have will, the third will have heard stories) last year the event (oddly enough also called 'The End') which marks this day went somewhat to pot to put it lightly.

Reasons behind this are still unclear as the previous times we'd done the duty had been just fine with only a couple of ambulances across all duties. However we had to ensure all possible steps were taken to avoid this fluke happening again.

Thus we went to war with the Students Union pushing for certain things (additional space and resources mainly and enough money so the unit didn't go bankrupt at the same time). Resulting in an agreement for 12 first aiders, 2 ambulances and them providing a doctor. We also got given the Lecture Theatre Building foyer to convert as our medical centre. This turned out to be the perfect space being close to the main event but not within it (as the other option was), hard floors making cleaning the vomit off later easy, power/water and plenty of room for storing the many drunks we collected across the night (saving the NHS several trips that we had to call in last year).

Over all the night can be ticked off as a success from our side with around 30 casualties being dealt with and a few off to hospital but no calls to the East of England Ambulance Service being required (which they're reportedly very happy about) and no critical patients from overdoses or other ailments {I take full credit for this success due to the planning I put in and the fact that I was on a lucky streak during that time from winning the volunteer awards and then another prize draw the week after}.

Once again there were a few learning points as you find after every duty, primarily have entire oceans worth of bottled water and never trust the SU when they say they're providing a doctor (although extremely useful the doctor was in fact uninsured to do anything more than we could and had only grabbed a generic handful of supplies from the A&E before coming).

QOTD:

Mr. Incredible: No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!

Plus a picture from last year and a picture from this year.

I suspect that relatively speaking this is nothing but it's a big enough number for me to make a filler blog before I've actually slept so I can write up about The End and the Summer Ball (returning home at 9am this morning and planning to continue until 10pm).

Regardless, some point yesterday (or I think that's when it was) I spotted this and it impressed me.

Wanted to get a blog done on last night and tonight (in fact I tried back on thursday but ran out of time) but I don't have the time. Having woken up 2 hours ago I now have 25 minutes before I have to set off for the second duty.

Will report it all eventually but for now...

(don't ask me why...)

Through out most of the year every week on the term planner is listed as some fancy week or other (health and safety/charity/volunteering). Eventually I just blanked it out and stuck to knowing what week it was by the theme on Friday night and whether I was on duty or not.

However apparently this week it volunteering week (which I didn't realise until I saw this post) which means having the Student Volunteering Awards on campus last night makes a lot of sense (ironically the blog post was posted the same day). As with last year I attended again for the free drink on entry and free food plus this year it was being merged with the society guild awards so we had to be present due to running for Society of the Year (again) and best society in the political and activities federal group (baby society of the year).

Once again we walked away half victorious obtaining the best in federal group award (which again ironically has a sign saying 'best value') but failing to gain society of the year. Third times the charm I'm thinking. Then came the various volunteer of the year awards which I had decided to pester bounce (my new unit leader) to put me forwards for one of the 4 available. Oddly enough he decided against union volunteer of the year but I did manage to get societies and media volunteer of the year. This came with the added bonus of a gold award of 'leadership dedication achievement' from Student Volunteering England and £150 for myself and £350 for the group I volunteer for.

Over all a successful night for LINKS and myself, once again RnB swept the floor with everyone else but we seemed to hold our own at least.

QOTD:

Hayley Smith: My mother stole my boyfriend!
Stanley Smith: And your boyfriend stole my wife! Let's get back at them by dating each other!
[pause]
Stanley Smith: Wait a minute... Daddy didn't think that one through.