emersugrue.com

Why is this a thing?

Now look, I’ve made my peace with Feminax, it has anti nausea stuff along with very strong painkillers which you can argue has particularly female applications but this is baffling. Woman paracetamol? It has EXACTLY the same ingredients as Panadol Extra. So why did they bother designing and producing special pink Woman paracetamol? So women could accessorize their painkillers? God it’s so annoying when my drugs don’t match my lipstick.

It’s not even more expensive than normal Panadol, nothing about this move makes sense to me.

Going to college can be a daunting experience, but it is particularly tough if you are also leaving home for the first time. After eighteen years of being looked after you are suddenly left to fend for yourself, in a new city, maybe even a new country, sharing a small apartment with complete strangers. New students can often feel isolated during their first weeks away from home but it is also an opportunity to create a new home, a new community with your fellow residents.

Social provisions for a residence community used to be practically non-existent, with students obliged to forge their own way through campus-wide clubs and societies, and their own social initiative to befriend their neighbours. In the last few years however, the culture of UCD residence has expanded with the establishment of Res Life, a program created by the Students’ Union and the residences management with the very aim of promoting community spirit. Students’ Union Welfare officer Rachel Breslin is one of the strongest advocates of the program, her interest in the scheme stemming from her own experiences living on campus.

“I’ve lived on residence for 3 years and I’ve certainly felt, particularly in my first year when I wasn’t really involved in anything else, that the lack of community spirit in residences that I felt existed at the time can make you feel a bit more isolated. The biggest proportion of residences is first years, there’s over 800 of them, and a lot of them come from schools like I did in Donegal, not knowing anybody else in college. If there isn’t a built-in spirit of community in residences then it can actually add to your isolation rather than make you feel better about being in college.”

On the front line of the campus community initiative are the three Residence Representatives, who assist students with campus issues and represent residents in the Students’ Union council meetings. They have become heavily involved in fostering this sense of community and are working to increase awareness of the various programs and events available. Danielle Curtis, a second year Res Rep, explains how they have worked this year to increase their presence on campus.

“It was one of our aims, myself and the two other Res Reps, to get to know people. We have gone around and knocked on doors and introduced ourselves, we’ve lecture addressed in the main buildings where there would be a lot of country people on Res like Ag and Science and told people who we were. Even when we went lecture addressing about the march we introduced ourselves as Res Reps so the people who were sitting in lectures knew who we were. Its kind of us trying to get our name out there, to show people that there is somebody who represents them in council because not many people do know about that.”

One of the big projects planned for this semester is a formal Res Ball especially for the students living on campus, held in the Burlington Hotel later this month. “We have got a market of about 2,600 students to sell to, so hopefully it’ll go off”, Danielle explains. “The hitch is that it’s the first year it’s running in UCD … but hopefully we can start something small that will continue through the years.” Though the first of its kind in UCD, there have been hugely successful Res Balls held by other colleges, for example Trinity College.

The second big initiative planned is the residence magazine – a free monthly magazine put together by students and delivered to each apartment in UCD. The hope is that this will increase the community identity of residences as they become more informed about events and their fellow Res students.

“The magazine is really to make people aware of the events that are being run anyway” explains Breslin, “so L&H events, Ents events, any sort of talks that might be going on, even careers events. So kind of a calendar of events that are going over the month in the college itself to make students aware of some of the offers the campus outlets have got on … ways to save money in residences and then also to do things like, the Res Reps wanted to organise a Come Dine With Me competition. It’s difficult to organise over social media and Facebook but if we get everyone with the same leaflet going through their door and the same offer; like maybe we’re going to do an offer that week in the shop where you can buy tea for less and everyone kind of knows about it, then it will be easier.”

“We were thinking of doing a description of meals that you could cook with suggested recipes but then have house competitions so you might not get everyone knowing about the house if it’s online but if they all get a magazine they can get the house together and also post photos to the website, and then they would be in the next magazine.”

Those currently living in UCD residences have a less optimistic tale to tell of SU initiatives however. Fiona Brown, a first year Arts student living in Belgrove, feels that there is little community spirit in her building, “There’s not really a community feel, everyone just keeps themselves to themselves … I know the ones across the hall though, we can’t get rid of them! They’re over here drinking tea now”, she jokes. “It’s a big change, but I live with nice people.” Although there are parties and nights out among the group, the SU-planned events have sparked little interest. “Well they tried at the start of the year, it didn’t seem to work. There was a sports day organised but no one really went to it.”

Others paint a more positive picture of the resident community, “All my roommates are so nice” Catriona Daly, a first year Roebuck Castle resident affirms, “Half of them are exchange students only here for the semester and half of them are here for their whole course and I just think its really nice that we’re all getting to know each other, we’re all intermingling. I know a lot of people in Roebuck Castle, I’d say I know most of them because we eat together, we all have meals together. I know people from my course as well but not as well as I’d know the people in Roebuck Castle. There’s always parties going on in different apartments and people are free to come and join in so I’d say it’s definitely a community.”

Catriona agrees that there is little participation in organised Res events however, and feels the SU involvement is largely unnecessary. “I think that people are fairly good at organising their own events and stuff a lot of the time. There was an attempt to have a Roebuck Halloween thing but only a few people showed up because most people wanted to go out and stay out.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for the SU to get more involved. If they wanted to I’m sure people would be happy but at the moment we’re happy to organise our own stuff.”

Breslin however, feels that the SU drive for a residence community is very beneficial for students, particularly for those who may not be as quick to connect with classmates and neighbours. “I think that natural community on a residence, it depends on the people in the apartment, so if you have people in a block who know each other already then a community spirit builds up very quickly, but if you have people who are more shy, less confident, who maybe don’t know anybody then they don’t feel part of that community spirit unless there’s an event they can go to or unless someone makes an effort to bring them into the community, which is what I really want to do. I want to make sure that there’s an event for everybody, so that everyone feels comfortable going to at least one event during the year or doing one activity through Res Life.”

Getting to know your neighbours is not an automatic process and Rachel Breslin has found that residents are more self-contained than people realise. ”When I put in my manifesto last year … I was surprised how many students when we went round to the door, even casually when we asked if the person next door was in they’d say, ‘no, I don’t know them’ – within their own house. There’s more of that than even I was aware of.”

The feedback for the upcoming initiative has been very positive so far, with even those who feel support to be unnecessary expressing huge interest in involvement in the projects. “When an event has happened students have been really quick to say that it was really good. So rather than outwardly demanding it, when it has happened they’ve always come back saying that was a really good idea. There were lots of people attending so it shows there is an appetite for it here.”

Living on campus can be invaluable for a new student. It removes many of the pressures of living on your own for the first time; cutting out landlords, transport and depending on where you live, perhaps also cooking, which even final years seemingly struggle to master. Living in the centre of the action with so many people doing the same thing is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and these initiatives should help residents experience what UCD offers to the full.

Reflecting on her experiences as a resident, Danielle Curtis echoes Rachel in her support. “The community feel is there in every sense, I know everyone in my building this year. You just see people walking on the stairs, you introduce yourself and stuff like that. I think there is a community feel in each res and it’s pretty much the same vibe in each res. It made my first year, living on res.”

While not usually a fan of drama on television, the last seven weeks have seen me develop a severe dependency on Downton Abbey. It’s quite hard to explain why. Objectively, the show is slightly ludicrous. The drama is increasingly over the top, the dialogue is quite clunky in places and historical accuracy is but a far flung dream and yet, I’m utterly obsessed with it.

The story features the titular Downton Abbey as the set for an exploration of Edwardian life. There is the family of the house, Lord Grantham, his wife Lady Grantham and three daughters; Mary, Edith and Sybil. There is also Lady Violet, Lord Gratham’s mother, who is played by the wonderful Maggie Smith. The driving plot of the series is inheritance: Only a man can inherit Downton and unless one of the girls manages to don a convincing moustache that means the estate passes to the closest male relative.

The first episode opens in April 1912 with the death of the heir, Patrick on the Titanic. In steps Matthew Crawley, a third cousin lawyer from Manchester who is… dun dun dun…Middle Class. Basically the rest of the plot and the audiences interest thenceforth revolves around whether Mathew is going to marry Mary and learn to use to fork properly. Mary and Mathew were nearly engaged, then weren’t but were still secretly in love each other. Then Matthew went to war, got engaged to someone else, got paralysed, got better but now feels too guilty to break up with his finance for Mary as she stuck by him when he was injured. Phew.

The other family drama comes in the form of Sybil, the youngest daughter who is currently in the process of running away with the socialist Irish chauffeur, and Edith, the classic middle child who nobody, including the plot, pays attention to unless she’s trying to out-bitch Mary. She never will though, Mary is an ice queen when she’s not shagging people to death. Ah Mr. Pamuk. Lord Grantham keeps trying to feel up one of the maids and Lady Grantham has had so much plastic surgery she looks like her face is going to fall off. That last one may not actually be an in-series drama. Finally there’s Lady Violet who doesn’t create much drama herself but gets all the best lines.

Is that enough drama for one house? Oh you silly innocent little thing, we haven’t even got to the servants yet.

Mr Bates is Lord Grantham’s valet, he joined the house in the first episode, and everyone hated him because he has a limp and fell over a few times. In the second series, the writer seemed to forget about the limp in favour of his horrible ex-wife who keeps showing up threatening to go to the press about the “shagging to death” incident from series one. The wife is now dead, apparently by suicide but Mr. Bates is acting awful shifty about it. He is engaged to Anna, a housemaid, who’s job is to stand around moping over Mr. Bates.

There’s the baddies, Mrs O’Brian and Thomas, lady’s maid and ex-footman respectively, who exist purely to do mean things for no real reason. Example: Mrs O’Brian left soap on the floor for Lady Grantham to slip on, causing a miscarriage. She did it because she thought she was going to be fired. Thomas is generally just a bastard to everyone else in the house but in the last episode spent all his money trying to get into the black market. It didn’t work too well.

There are lots of other characters around, the butler Carson, a few maids, Daisy an assistant cook who had a lot going on earlier in the series with a now-dead footman called William, but the only drama-causer left at the moment is Ethel. When the house was being used as a hospital earlier in the series Ethel got knocked up by one of the recovering officers. The guy refused to acknowledge her after, and promptly died. Now Ethel is trying to convince his parents to help her, and us of why she is still in the show.

You should be up to speed now.

This unfortunately doesn’t even begin to cover the glorious madness of Downton Abbey. The plot twists are bonkers. One episode featured a man claiming to be Patrick, the original heir, with a horribly burned face and a Canadian accent, saying he’d had amnesia for the last 6 years. Matthew had been paralysed, yet he leapt out of his wheelchair to save someone from falling and was dancing by the end of the episode. There is murder, marriage, spying, shagging, parties and paralysis. The writing and acting is so over the top it belongs more to Dallas than Downton and I doubt there is one historical fact correct other than there was indeed a first world war. The whole series revolves around world events for no reason at all. Months pass between each episode yet the plot advances not one bit. Mary has been engaged for about 4 years now, and they barely seem to have had a conversation. It’s the silliest show I’ve ever seen, yet come 9pm on a Sunday I am in a lather of excitement. Will Lady Sybil and Bryson elope? Will Mary and Mathew finally get together? What is going on with Mrs O’Brian’s hair?

I’ll be live-blogging the last episode tonight at 9pm at https://twitter.com/#!/emsug

For the first time in weeks, I actually have time to think. I have a couple of essays done, and about 4 more looming but a pleasant distance away (Friday is YEARS away in essay terms). I have nothing that I urgently have to do tonight; no homework, no articles. It’s amazingly peaceful in my brain, I actually don’t have anything to do tonight. I’m not bored exactly, I have a lot of things I could be doing assignment-wise and a busy day tomorrow but I’m starting to remember that boredom is a thing that happens. And I remembered I have this blog. Maybe I should take more time to write things that don’t have to have a point and don’t have to be corrected. It isn’t something I (or any of my teachers) thought would ever happen to me but I have been working quite hard lately. It’s amazing what happens as you get older. I always worried about developing joint pain as I aged but developing a work ethic is far more alarming.

With college work and newspaper work there are a lot of things I’ve been neglecting. My non-newspaper friends tend to fade into the background. It’s a bad state of affairs when merely leaving the library to talk to someone becomes too much effort. My flat has been a bit of a disaster too, I’ve put on 2 loads of washing already today and i need to do a third. When it starts getting tricky to dress yourself it’s probably time for a break. And worst of all, my book and dvd libraries are taunting me with their neglect. I haven’t watched anything apart from Downton Abbey for a month. Really. Now, Downton Abbey is amazing, no question. It’s all you could want in a tv show, where else could you find someone coming back from the dead with amnesia or shagging a diplomat to death presented as highbrow viewing? But the percentage of unwatched and unread items in my collection is approaching 50% and that just wont do. Time to reinstate my new years resolution of old and start watching and reviewing films I think. Where should I start; How to Steal a Million or Coen Brothers boxset?