University of Aberdeen Blog

When I first came to Aberdeen in late 2002 I weighed quite a bit to put it mildly. I was fully aware of the fact, but after some failed diets during my late teen years had sort of given up on dieting (believe me; the banana-soup-milk diet could get anyone to give up for life). Subsequently during my first years at university I didn’t really change anything and kept on getting bigger. I was aware of the fact that the university had a number of sports teams as well as a gym, but was not really interested in either.

Thankfully, all this changed almost two years ago when, thanks to the loving prodding and whip-cracking of my three sisters, I started watching my weight and my diet more closely (and that’s as much of an indication as you’ll get about what method I used). As any successful dieter will tell you, it’s not just about what you eat, but also about getting regular exercise. As such I allowed myself to be dragged to the university gym a little over a year ago.

I have never looked back on that decision since.  While a bit self-conscious and hesitant at first, I have now fully embraced my life as a gym bunny and hit the gym about 3-5 times a week. I get very grumpy if I don’t go for a few days. I try to alternate between cardio and pumping iron and I must say, I am most pleased with the results J I prefer going early in the morning, but the gym is normally open till 10pm, so it allows for a flexible workout schedule.

I highly recommend staying healthy and going to the gym. It doesn’t take too much effort and trust me; you’ll feel much better for it. Plus, there is normally some nice eye candy on display, which helps keeping your motivation up (I would like to give special thanks to Mr Eye Candy, who makes my early morning workouts very enjoyable indeed).

Anyways, I think I’ll head to the gym after work as I didn’t get around to it this morning. Until the next time, be well in all things.

David

Long time no speak.

Once again I am sorry for this. But the life of a student truly is hectic.

Having survived the madness of the Sports Ball last month - with only few dance related injuries - March quickly descended. This could mean only one thing. Student Elections.

Every year our Students Association (the group of people on campus who organise all the cool stuff like Freshers’ Week, sports and societies and the charities events) have their elections to select the team who will run the association for the next year.

We have 6 full time ’sabbatical’ positions that students can run for which involves a year long commitment to the SA (with pay and everything) and 11 non-sabbatical positions for students who wish to pursue a position alongside their studies. All of them are filled by students from the University and everyone can run!

Last year I was lucky to be elected as Welfare Officer, a role I have performed during my final year of studying at Aberdeen University. This year however I decided to run for the sabbatical position of Vice President Welfare and Equal Opportunities. It’s a fun job involving representing all the students in academic appeal and being in charge of welfare and equality campaigns.

Once the nominations closed on the 12th of March I discovered I was up against two, very worthy, opponents.

This last week has seen a hectic barrage of campaigning for the 17 positions, with over 30 candidates postering, flyering, handing out free stuff, writing manifestos and speaking to as many students as they can get their hands on.

I have been up till 3am tying posters to trees, standing outside classrooms in the rain and cold (and yesterday in the snow) for 8 hours collecting those all important votes, painting bed sheets at 2am, stickering lollies until 5pm yesterday, when finally the online voting ended and we could relax.

Well. I say relax. But we only had 3 agonising hours to wait until the elections party commenced.  

I arrived at the Union feeling rather calm and, altogether, unoptimistic about winning. The week had been so hectic that I didn’t really have time to think about what would happen after campaigning ended.

Hours went by and, one by one, the winners were announced. Finally, after what seemed truly like days it was the VP-WEO result. (That’s what I enjoy calling it anyway).

Our lovely current Student President Angela built up the suspense and finally read out the winning candidate. I was sitting amongst a group of friends all standing with bated breath while I sat quite calmly ready to applaud the winner.

All I can say is that the evening resulted in me being covered in Moet and hugged about 876 times.

Have a great Easter everyone and I very much look forward to serving you as your Vice President Welfare and Equal Opportunities next academic year

Nick