Michael (my boyfriend) decided earlier this year that he wanted to try Day Zero, where you undertake 101 tasks over 1001 days. He was originally going to start on New Year’s Day, but due to some procrastination pushed back to the 17th March, his birthday, so he could get a complete list together of things he wanted to achieve. You can read all about it on his website here.

A pleasant side effect of Michael doing Day Zero is that we’re not short of ideas of things to do, so our holiday started out with a 12 hour drive to Heathrow Airport via Oxford Services, to pick my Dad up after his 3 month trip to America. I even made a “Welcome Home Dad” sign! Once we’d picked him & his 4 suitcases up, we dropped him off to catch up on some sleep and spent the rest of the weekend in South London.

Over the course of the weekend we make a great start on the Day Zero list, with Michael letting me pick some new clothes for him as part of his ‘Renew my wardrobe’ challenge. We also tried lots of new food, and some wine which is another item on the list. We left London on Monday to head back to Blackpool in time to see Derren Brown that evening.

I’ve been looking forward to the show for months. Michael bought me the tickets last July for my birthday, and needless to say the wait was worth it. I’d heard good things about the show from a couple of other people who’d seen it a few weeks before in Manchester, but it absolutely exceeded all expectations. Even Michael seemed like he enjoyed it, despite being convinced it’s all set up with stooges!

The next day we set off mid-afternoon to head to Windermere, where we had booked a Living Social deal to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights. The hotel we stayed at was called the Cedar Manor, and it was absolutely lovely. Despite some mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, I have to say we were delighted with our stay. The attention to detail provided by the owners just made it all that more special, not to mention the beautiful rooms, gorgeous views and modern facilities. When we were leaving, we were also told that their interior designer had been honoured with an international award for the work done in the room we stayed in, and their recently renovated Coach House. I’d really recommend anyone headed to the Lakes to stay at this place. Whilst it is a bit pricey, the food & welcome make the prices worth paying and I’m sure Michael and I will be back there in the future.

Whilst we were in Windermere, we managed to tick a couple more things off Michael’s Day Zero list, we bought 2 local varieties of fruit wine in the off license and tried a bottle of white wine with our dinner on the second day, but unfortunately neither of us enjoyed it, and we gave 2/3s of the bottle away to a couple on a neighbouring table who seemed completely baffled by our random act of kindness!

On our last day in Windermere we decided to go to the Lake and take a boat trip. I’m glad we saved it until last as it was a real highlight of the trip. We managed to catch a beautiful warm but wintery day, with clear blue skies which gave us an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Michael and I took about 400 photos, which I’m sure will eventually be deleted before I upload them anywhere!

After spending a couple of days in Windermere (and ticking W off of the A-Z of places challenge on Day Zero) we came back to Fleetwood where we were all set to spend the last couple of days of our holiday chilling out and basically watching TV when I saw a tweet from a friend saying she was watching Cirque Du Soleil!

I’ve wanted to see Cirque Du Soleil for quite some time, and have talked about it once or twice with Michael but it’s always been prohibitively expensive as it’s always on in London! I couldn’t believe it when I saw it was on in Manchester, and after a quick check of the bank balance we decided to go for it and try and get tickets. Much to my surprise we picked up two tickets for the Saturday Matinee, where we also somehow managed to have excellent seats!? Plus we ticked another thing off Michael’s Day Zero list!

After Cirque Du Soleil we went for something to eat in the city and ended up at Rice Bowl, which is a lovely little Chinese restaurant near Victoria bustling with friendly and efficient staff serving some of the tastiest morsels of food I’ve ever eaten!

And that’s about it. I genuinely can’t believe how much we’ve packed into such a short space of time, without feeling like we were busy or rushing all the time. The only down side is that I didn’t take any sensible shoes for walking around the Lakes & Manchester and appear to have hurt something in my foot two days before real life starts again, but C’est La Vie!

Lally.

As some of my readers will know, the setting of the budget is an important event as it dictates what money will be spent in the area, on which services and approximately when. With the council having to find savings at every turn in the current economic climate, this year’s budget is something most of us are going to be affected by one way or another and I was disappointed to realise that we weren’t being kept in the loop regarding it. In fact, the only reason I knew the budget meeting was taking place today was because I saw this tweet;

At this point, it became alarmingly apparent that there was barely a scrap of information available about the meeting even taking place today. I dug a little further and realised that neither the council home page, or the local newspaper found the meeting to be newsworthy. How disappointing!

Having just popped back to the council’s site, I’m pleased to see this post about the budget taking centre stage, but is it really enough? It smacks of ‘too little, too late’ to me.

In this day and age, information availability is key to success and I feel on this occasion the council let themselves down. Not only was there a lack of transparency about this meeting taking place, but also on it’s importance and impact on Blackpool residents. What I’m really trying to say is that for whatever reason, the online coverage of the budget meeting was poor, if not non-existent and I don’t think that’s acceptable.

There are examples all over the show of other councils doing a brilliant job of providing real-time event coverage (here, here and here), and if Blackpool Youth Question Time was anything to go by (being broadcast live on the web with live tweet commentary) it’s not like Blackpool Council lacks the resources to be able to pull off a live broadcast, or updates & tweets live from a meeting, so why didn’t they use what they had at their disposal?

I’d really like to see better coverage of these key events in the future and I know Blackpool Council can do it, because I’ve seen it done! Perhaps this gap in quality, reliable coverage is the perfect opportunity for a hyperlocal news outlet? Here’s hoping.

Lally.

Lally.

The panel was chaired by the head of ‘Employability’ at Blackpool & Fylde College, Chris Thomas and was made up of the following people;
Conservative Councillor Paul Galley (PG)
Liberal Democrat Councillor Douglas Green (DG)
Labour Councillor Chris Maughan (CM)
Member of Youth Parliament for Blackpool Lauren Anderson (LA)
Blackpool Young Persons Council Chair Nicole Burke (NB)

It was great to see the young ladies charged with representing the ‘youth’ of Blackpool, speak so coherently and passionately about the issues affecting young people in the area.
The format of the evening was that there would be two sessions, with a short interval in between. In the first session, questions from young people who were unable to attend were asked, which included questions on tackling racism and youth unemployment. Both serious issues affecting many young people across the Fylde.

In response to the question on youth unemployment;
CM said that cuts made by the previous administration of as much as 50% to youth funding meant that it was difficult to offer the level of support to young people the Labour party would like. However he insisted that support would still be provided and that vulnerable young people would be made the priority.
PG, who runs a private recruitment company said that the key would be to identify a 30 year plan, which would see the Fylde coast linking current education to the skills required in the future. He also said that schemes like the Princes Trust would be a good example to follow and that young people needed to be ‘inspired & nurtured’ to raise their aspirations and help them to start businesses of their own.
NB responded by asking what could be done now to help 16-17 year olds struggling to find work, with services such as Connexions being cut, she felt that young people weren’t getting the careers guidance they needed, and would often leave the town to seek employment elsewhere.
DG said an emphasis needed to be placed on schemes such as apprenticeships, but that would be difficult since many of the companies that used to offer apprenticeships such as BT were no longer public sector companies. He also said that the onus should be placed on young people to try to seek employment, and that the culture of having things handed to you on a plate was to blame.
LA insisted that careers advice was what was lacking, particularly in schools, she agreed with DG that young people should be pushing themselves to create opportunities but more companies in the town were needed, that offer more than just seasonal work.
During this discussion, Paul Maynard Conservative MP for Blackpool North was invited to contribute and said that we need to diversify the economy across the Fylde coast and work across councils to get successful schemes such as apprenticeships set up. He also talked about private sector services, such as BenEast who can offer careers advice and guidance for young people.

The next question was about tackling racism between young people?
DG said that there needs to be better education in schools about the affects of racist behaviour, and that parents should take responsibility for teaching their children about this issue. He also said that peer pressure could be used in a positive way to get the message across that it isn’t acceptable to be racist.
NB said that the message needed to be spread further and that young people of Blackpool needed to work together to do this.
LA said that she thought the punishment for any racist attack should be the same, no matter whether you’re the England football captain or an everyday person. She also said people needed to be made aware of the consequences of being racist.
PG said that the country as a whole needed to work together to embrace multiculturalism.
The Chief Constable for Lancashire Police was brought in on this topic and reiterated that there is no place in society for any form of hate crime and discrimination, and that so far raising awareness of the issue has helped reduce incidents of this type. He also stated that it was important that schools and colleges had good anti-bullying procedures in place and that young people are made aware that the Police will take action on these types of offences.

After these questions, there was a brief interval. In the second half, questions on transport, cuts to youth services and changes to the bus timetables and routes were raised by members of the audience.
The first question was about what specific youth service provisions are there for people with disabilities?
A lady in the audience (I didn’t catch her name or role) responded that new provisions were being made at Mereside called ‘Aim Higher’ which is a facility opening fully in March specifically for young people with disabilities and their siblings and parents. The facility offers the area’s first soft play centre for disabled youths as well as many other fantastic opportunities for disabled young people.
Another audience member added that there are plenty of voluntary youth organisations working in conjunction with local authorities, such as; boys ‘n’ girls club, Tramshed and Tiggers.

The next question was from a colleague of mine on the Students’ Union, Sam Richardson who asked whether there were any plans to support students with the cost of transport in Blackpool, by introducing a student fare or extending the existing Wave Card provision. Sam put this question into context by bringing up the cuts to EMA which meant that many students found it increasingly difficult to afford the cost of getting to college.
CM responded by agreeing that he thought the cuts to EMA were appalling and that in his experience he and his brother would never have been able to get to college without it. He said that at present Blackpool Council, who are the majority stakeholders in Blackpool Transport were in reviews to see if and how changes could be made to make the cost of travel more affordable.
NB said that lots of young people found the cost of travel a huge barrier to accessing services and employment, not just education. She said that the Blackpool Young Persons Council (BYPC) were in talks with Blackpool Transport about trying to extend the Wave Card to 19 year olds.
PG said that the EMA would be replaced by a 16-19 ‘bursary fund’ which would helps those who most needed support and pointed out how lucky he thought we were in comparison to some places were the buses stop running at 5pm.
During this discussion, the audience heard from Trevor Roberts from Blackpool Transport, who agreed to sit down with BYPC and try to extend the Wave Card, he also said that since September 2011, they have been working with Blackpool & Fylde College and Blackpool 6th to offer reduced fares, but that perhaps more information needed to be provided about how these fares can be accessed. He also brought up that Blackpool Transport has only increased its prices once in the last three years, and that was down to the rising cost of fuel, as opposed to increasing profit margins.

The final question of the evening was asked about why youth groups have been cut, and often youth workers moved to other jobs?
DG put the onus on the economic climate, saying that cuts were having to be made and that all areas were bound to suffer.
PG said that in his ward they were allocating more of their budget to youth services than in previous years, and that the 30 year plan he talked about earlier would help support young people.
LA said it was appalling that no consultation had taken place with the young people who were going to be affected by the 50% cuts to youth services.
CM explained that the 50% cuts to youth services were made before Labour took over in May 2011, and that young people were always going to be a target for cuts. He also explained that once the budget had been set, there was nothing they could do to put that money back into youth services, as it was being spent elsewhere, but that it would be reviewed at the next budget.

That was all of the questions that were asked on the night, and my recollection of the answers provided. I thought the panel were excellent and it was great to see so many people in positions of power, who can make changes and decisions to help young people in Blackpool in attendance. As I said earlier, I thought Lauren and Nicole both did an excellent job of representing the young people in Blackpool, who often get a bad press.
It was really enjoyable to see so many people coming together from different sectors and services to try and improve the lives of young people in Blackpool, and I sincerely hope that there will be another ‘youth’ question time soon.

Lally.

Ingredients:
160g butter
115g demerara sugar
1 tsbsp golden syrup
240g porridge oats
115g extras (optional)

So far, I’ve made three batches of these flapjacks. The first ones had 50g milk chocolate chips and 65g of mixed nuts and raisins. I also used a muffin tin to bake this batch, and found the mixture divided quite nicely into 12 portions, albeit quite large ones!
The second and third batch I made at the same time and tray baked, with a piece of foil covered card used to separate the two batches on the same baking tray. To half of the mix I added 40g white chocolate chips, 40g of crushed banana chips and 35g dessicated coconut. To the other half I added 50g dark chocolate and 65g of mixed nuts and seeds.

The first batch I made went down a storm, with a wonderful crunch on the outside and soft chewy insides. The second batch were a bit experimental, and even though they were nice, I think I’d use fresh banana rather than banana chips next time, as the chips give a nice crunchy texture but don’t add as much flavour as fresh bananas do.
The third batch were my favourite. I was worried that the dark chocolate might make them a bit bitter, but actually it had the opposite effect of balancing out the sweetness of the syrup used in the recipe. The nuts & seeds give a lovely texture, however because these were tray baked they stayed soft and didn’t get crunchy on the outside, which would have been nice. Next time I think I’ll try them in a muffin tin. I’m also going to have a go dropping the chocolate from the recipe and topping up with fruits/nuts and dipping the next batch in melted chocolate, as I saw on Nigel Slater’s Christmas programme!

So there we have it, flapjacks three ways or as I call them “everything flapjacks”.

Lally.

So, I’ve opened a Folksy shop. It will hopefully be a place where I can sell a few odds and ends that we already have floating around, but also where Mum and I can start selling the things that we’re making more recently. I for one am thoroughly invested in making hama bead things in an array of geeky 8 bit styles, thanks to Catherine at Barcamp Blackpool!

So anyway. I’ve gone with oo-de-lallyd on Folksy as my seller name. hopefully I’ll get some pictures and stuff up there soon and my selling adventure can begin. So far I’ve just made a few fridge magnets and a couple of badges which I’m hoping to upload by the end of the week.

Eventually the plan is to churn out these badges/magnets and maybe expand and make a few bigger pieces, such as coasters/mousemats. If you’d like to see anything specific, just leave me a comment and I’ll see if I can make something up for you. Next, I want to try and make a Princess Peach & a Link! Geeky, I know.

Lally.

The weekend started for me on Friday night, trying to get myself into town where a few of us were meeting up for a bite to eat and a few beers, which turned into a 3am taxi back to the hotel after 3 pitchers in Revolutions on the prom!
Saturday morning was not a good look for me at 9am. I plastered on a tonne of concealer to hide my vampire eyes, arrived at the venue and the first comment I got was “You look like shit”!
I powered through it. Went to a range of talks, from the future of the web and development techniques (hosted by one of my college tutors) to how to make 8 bit hama bead badges. As well as the awesome content being generated, there was food, drink, cake, swag, rock and much more. However, of all the stuff that was going on at this year’s Barcamp Blackpool, what I enjoyed most, was the conversation.
For me this year, I went to a handful of talks, but I talked to so many more people about everything from how I’m getting on at Uni, to what I want to do in the future, and how I can map my path over the next couple of years to get there. I found so many people inspirational to talk to, and what I took away from the weekend as a whole, is how awesome our community is.

This year I tried to encourage some of my classmates from college to come along and unfortunately I failed. However there was one guy from my class who was working at the venue on the day, and I think he was pretty amazed by the sheer number of people coming and going all day long and the range of topics covered. In lieu of turning them into barcampers, I’m definitely going to get them to come down to Gillespie’s for Geek Up on the 24th October, so they can get a little taste of what a barcamp can be.

A massive thanks to Gemma for organising the event this year, and to Les for being her wing man. Thanks to Joe, Caius, Tim, Steve, Catherine and many more for the great conversations and the learning! But the biggest thanks of all to the sponsors, who enabled the guys to put on a great day for all.

Lally.

and here’s my little widget thing, that facebook generated the code for! It’s all very clever, as I keep trying to tell my Mum.

So anyway, I’d love it if you could bob along and like the page for me, but even better than that if you could actually turn up to one of the gigs and enjoy some free live music, then like the page on facebook and tell all your friends about it.

Next step, twitter!

Lally.

Lalita D’Cruze – Communications Officer Poster

My manifesto:
“My name is Lalita D’Cruze, most people call me Lally. I am standing for the position of H.E. Communications Officer.

I am a second year BSc IT student already involved with some activities happening both in and outside of the college. I believe there are a lot of great things going on around campus that not everyone knows about. There are loads of activities and groups already running at the college, as well as discounts and special offers for students which aren’t being taken advantage of simply because people don’t know they exist.

If elected I will do as much as I can to help any society, student or faculty in promoting their activities or events to the student body. I will do my best to ensure everyone knows about what’s happening at the Student Union and how they are working with the college to constantly improve your time here. I will try to keep the information relevant and easy to understand, whilst continuing the great work already being done by the Student Union, by communicating with students through Facebook, Twitter & around campus.

I would be happy to take on any feedback about the current communication system at the Student Union and will strive to improve it to make sure your voice is heard by the Student Union and college where possible.

I am really passionate about sharing and communicating and I recently completed a level two certificate in British Sign Language, which helped me to understand the challenges some people face with communicating on a daily basis. I have also spent time working with organisations in the local community to promote music nights, conferences and technology events and maintain two blogs and a twitter account covering these topics and more.

I believe the more people are involved in the student community; the better it can grow to be.

Vote for me via Moodle as Communications Officer and you’ll never be out of the loop.

Lally”

Don’t forget to leave a comment!

Thanks,
Lally.