This year was supposed to be my year off. I had stood down from most of the taxing commitments of the past few years (president of A-Soc, president of AHS etc) so that I could concentrate on a few other aspects of my life such as my career and my relationship. It seems this has not worked out quite the way I had hoped.
I was eleced back on to the A-Soc committee in April as the AHS rep for the society. Unfortunately, when I left university, I had to stand down from this position as the job has to be undertaken by a current student. This left me in a slightly difficult situation of not being on the committee, but still being involved in a number of projects. To avoid any issues and to ensure that the initiatives I was involved with didn’t fall by the wayside, I began to look for a way to continue serving the society on the committee. Luckily for me, the new society exec were looking to add a permanent equality and diversity co-ordinator to the committee. I had never really seen the need for a seperate role to oversee the development and promotion of a society wide equality and diversity policy, but with the union moving towards making the position compulsory over the next few years and the fact that it afforded me an opportunity to keep my hand in, I jumped at the chance and stood for election.
However, this means that I am now more heavily involved in the society than I had planned to be this year and means that the new society exec have two past presidents still serving alongsde them, which could be an issue moving forwards. Having said that, it does mean that the committee finlly has a balance to it that it previously had lacked. The committee is possibly slightly overloaded with left leaning, liberal hippy types, but then I don’t really expect much different with today’s university student.
Anyway, the best laid plans etc.
I decided to treat myself last weekend and splashed out on my first new games console since I left school in 2003. It took a lot of research and delberation, but I eventually went for the 120Gb PlayStation 3 slimline model.
The sales adviser at Game spent about ten minutes trying to sell me various packages, insurance deals and add-ons. This is usually a good sign as it means they are short on their sales quota for the day and tend to be open to some negotiation. The PS3 retails at around £250, with games and accessories ranging from around £25 – £75.
I walked out the shop ten fruitful minutes later with the PS3, Fifa 10, Little Big Planet, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Guitar Hero: World Tour (with a guitar) for a snip under £330, and they threw in a 2 year extended warranty.